Arcadia J219

This was our first cruise since pre pandemic Oct 2019 and mixed feelings as long term P&O cruisers. Apart from the Headliners Company who were excellent the rest of the entertainment was pretty poor & we actually walked out of two singing acts which were dire.
Unless you frequented the Rising Sun you would have no idea who the Entertainment team were as never seen around the ship. Only knew who the Entertainment Manager, Giovanni was after he came on stage following one of the shows.
Crew were first class & service in bars & restaurants excellent. Only the Ocean Grill open & managed to book that once & food was very good also in the MDR club dining. There are no ‘themed nights’ in the Buffet & selection very limited in the evening not even tables set for dinner as they used to be. As for ‘afternoon tea’ the offering is abysmal with most of the counters having the same food that was at lunch. Of course there is no formal tea in the dining room now either.
The ‘app’ rarely worked & people who were on freedom dining gave up trying to virtual book & went for buzzers and were waiting up to an hour for tables.
The quality of guest speakers was again very poor. As you rarely saw Senior Officers around the ship we felt dress code standards were being allowed to slip with casual dress being allowed in the Crows Nest for instance on a formal night. One night a guy was in there in shorts!! You can’t blame the waiters for not challenging them to be abused.
Cleanliness of the ship was good with constant wiping down going on & apart from the usual problem of blocked toilets on most decks no complaints. It would appear very little Covid on board as we were never asked to wear masks.
All in all we enjoyed the cruise but feel that things are being dumbed down on the small adult only ships with all attention being placed on the bigger family ships. We are on Aurora in May and if no better will be looking at Fred Olsen and Saga in future