The Queen Victoria, the largest cruise ship ever to visit Tonga arrived in the Nuku'alofa harbour this morning.

The massive 90,000 tons cruise ship with about 2,000 passengers on board, mostly British and American tourists, and 900 crew, could not berth at Queen Salote Wharf and anchored offshore. Passengers were ferried to land by speed boats.

The Queen Victoria, the second largest of the Cunard Line's fleet is larger than Queen Elizabeth 2, which visited Tonga before it retired from service.

The new luxury cruise liner has top of the line facilities, including seven restaurants, thirteen bars, three swimming pools, a ballroom, and a theatre.

A spokesperson from Tonga's Ministry of Tourism said this afternoon that the Queen Victoria arrived this morning from Samoa and would depart later today for New Zealand.

She said that the Queen Victoria is in her second year of service and on this cruise is visiting 18 ports in Western Samoa, Jordan, Mexico, Cairns, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Mexico, Pusan, South Korea, Papua New Guinea and others.

The cruise began in the United Kingdom and is scheduled to conclude at Southampton, its port of registry, in April 2009.