A MAN disguised himself as a waiter and snuck onboard to a cruise ship to propose to his childhood sweetheart.

Richard Peach made the surprise proposal to Joanna Hicks, who was enjoying a six-night cruise to Guernsey, France and Spain with her parents and son

The 46-year-old from Chichester secretly boarded the P&O ship Ventura during its last port of call, Bilbao.

He then dressed as a waiter to surprise personal assistant Joanna with a marriage proposal during a black tie gala evening dinner.

The engineer said: “I emailed P&O with this crazy idea in July, and fortunately they were really helpful and they made it happen.”

Joanna had earlier called Richard, who she thought was at work back in the UK.

He was in fact in Bilbao preparing for the big surprise.

Staff even kitted Richard out with a waiter’s uniform and gave him his own name tag.

Joanna, who was enjoying dinner with her parents Terry and Barbara and son Danny, didn’t notice Richard in disguise until he got beside her and got down on one knee.

He said: “I managed to get right up close to the table without being noticed and her face was an absolute picture of shock and surprise. She couldn’t believe it was me.

“That’s when I got down on knee and proposed.

“And she said yes. It was an amazing experience. We got a lovely round of applause from the other people at the dinner and they wished us the best of luck for our future life together.”

The childhood sweethearts met in the summer of 1987 in the village of Pagham.

Joanna and her parents, from Bognor, were in the village on holiday at a caravan park.

The couple were together a few months before parting ways and re-uniting almost three decades later in 2014, after a chance meeting a supermarket in Bognor.

They now plan to wed next summer and are considering another romantic cruise for their honeymoon.