DOVER Harbour welcomed its biggest ever visiting ship in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The 90,000-ton, luxury cruise liner GTS Constellation - owned by Celebrity Cruises - has a capacity of 2,500 passengers and is less than a month old.

The ship features a theatre, nightclub and casino.

Cllr Dianne Smallwood, Mayor of Dover, stepped on board to welcome Captain Ioannis Papanikolau and his crew to the town and offered them a commemorative plaque.

At almost 300m long, the ship dwarfed naval frigate, HMS Kent, in a neighbouring berth.

Before leaving for France and then Scandinavia, thousands of passengers, mainly Americans, boarded the ship at Dover's Cruise Terminal.