There was more than one unusual visitor to a coastal town on Christmas Day.
While Santa had visited homes in Lowestoft, a 900ft cruise liner made an unscheduled stop in the town.
The P&O Arcadia dropped anchor off the South Beach at 7.30am on Sunday morning and remained there all day leaving again at 6pm.
The vessel had been on a nine nights and 10 days, round-trip Baltic Cruise, which had left Southampton on Monday, December 19 and was due to visit Gothenburg, Copenhagen, Oslo, Amsterdam, Zeebrugge before returning to Southampton tomorrow (Wednesday, December 28).
The crew of the RNLI Lowestoft Lifeboat, Patsy Knight, after completing their usual role assisting with safety at the Christmas Day swim visited the Arcadia and reported a warm welcome from the 1,900 passengers and 880 crew on board.
Lifeboat coxswain John Fox said: 'We decided to make a courtesy visit to the cruiser as it is unusual for such a large vessel to come so close inshore and also to stay for the whole day.
'I had spoken to the captain by radio and advised him of our intentions, and he had announced our arrival to the passengers many of whom came out on deck to greet us.
'One of the crew had dressed in a Santa suit and he was given an especially warm welcome from the ship with passengers returning his cheery waves.'
Mr Fox added: 'The captain told us that they had spent a couple of days in rough weather off Norway when 'Storm Barbara' was at its worst so they decided to spend Christmas Day in calmer waters off Lowestoft before continuing the cruise.
'They invited one of the crew on board Arcadia and he was made to feel really welcome as he brought seasons greetings from Lowestoft to the passengers.
'It certainly was a Christmas Day trip that the crew will remember for a long while.'
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