Couple marry after falling in love when cruise ship got stranded in UK city

Stranded in a UK city for over four months, a couple found love in each other as they turned their friendship into a marriage. Shipmates Angela Harsanyi and Gian Perroni met while commuting daily from their hotel accommodation to the ship, where they were permitted to work remotely during the day while repairs took place.

Their ship, the Villa Vie Odyssey cruise ship, was supposed to depart from Northern Ireland last May; however, due to some issues with its rudder, its guests were marooned in the city for more than four months, reports the BBC. As the maintenance work on the ship continued, Angela and Gian fell in love and got engaged by the River Lagan.

Gian said they “started to become friends, then best friends, and then romance bloomed”. In April, the couple got married on the coast of Costa Rica. While this was Angela’s first marriage, Gian has three children from a previous marriage.

They told BBC News NI the wedding ceremony on board was “incredible”. Angela said: “It’s been magical, it’s beyond my wildest dreams. We’re on a perpetual honeymoon now, for real.

“After we got engaged, he looked at me so sincerely and said, ‘you know honey, I’m going to take you on a world cruise for our honeymoon’.

“I just cracked up laughing of course, because that’s what any woman would want to hear, but it’s our life, so it’s pretty wonderful. He was a man of his word.”

Gian said the couple will return to Belfast as soon as they can. He said: “We can’t wait to visit again to retrace our steps. I’m half-Irish myself, but I truly understand the luck of the Irish now. It’s pretty cool.”

The couple’s families had already met before the wedding, but it was an opportunity for them to meet each other’s friends for the first time.

The couple first held an intimate ceremony onboard with family and friends, followed by a larger ship-wide celebration the next day, attended by 300 guests, including around 100 of their original Belfast shipmates.

Loved ones travelled from all over the world to join them for their wedding off the coast of Costa Rica, before they set sail north toward Central America.