SOUTHAMPTON'S latest luxury superliner, the £200m Arcadia, is due to make a dramatic entrance into her home port on Wednesday.

After a week-long voyage from the builders' yard in Italy, Arcadia will make her way up Southampton Water to give the city a spectacular grandstand view of her arrival.

Arcadia, the largest cruise ship ever to be built exclusively for British passengers, will be named next week by Athens Olympics double gold medal athlete Dame Kelly Holmes and the ship's operators P&O Cruises is inviting everyone to join in the celebrations which will feature a huge firework finale.

The 83,000-ton vessel is a further addition to P&O Cruises' growing fleet of ships based in the docks which also includes Oriana, Aurora, Oceana and later this year Artemis.

For more on this story and other Southampton shipping news click the 'Shipping' link at the top of this page.