THE first cruise ship of the 2022 season has arrived in south Dorset.

At around 6am this morning, April 21, Hanseatic Inspiration docked up in Portland Harbour having departed Funchal on Madeira in Portugal on April 14, according to the boat tracking website Vessel Finder.

Prior to its trip to Madeira, the passenger cruise ship previously called at the port of Porto Santo Island, also in Portugal.

Hanseatic Inspiration, which sails under the Malta flag and is part of Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, also docked at Santa Cruz de La Palma on April 11 and San Sebastian on April 10 - both in Spain.

The ship is only three-years-old having been built in 2019 and has an overall length of 139 metres.

The vessel, christened in Hamburg in October 2019 by round-the-world sailor Laura Dekker, holds 230 passengers (limited to 199 in Antarctica and Spitsbergen) and is targeted at German and English speakers.

Its top speed is 16 knots and it offers retractable glass balconies on each side of the hull to give passengers ‘the feeling they're floating on the water’.