Overall experience of recent cruise

Booking in process greatly improved. Usual great service from cabin boy. Great difficulty in contacting anybody of significance to raise problems-everything,clearly by design has to go through reception where nuances of the English language sometime prove difficult.Freedom dining ,recently introduced on this vessel improved in alacrity as the cruise went on. We have a feeling that they have reduced the number of waiters in relation to table numbers and it clearly shows. Plated service,also now introduced,wastes a great deal of food by plating vegetables not wanted by diners.Food quality still good and well varied Alcohol prices much too high if duty free. On shore excursions O.K. but above similar ones booked on arrival.One exception was at Quebec,where was utter chaos in the ship’s organisation of one four hour trip as ‘ordinary’passengers were allowed to block gangways by departing before a four hour scenic tour,of which the last hour and a half was in the pitch dark.(a little compensation was given,in all fairness,but no admission that the fault lay with the ship’s organisation of passenger departure was made.)Shops redesigned to open plan;no real bargains we felt.Despite a Force 12 hurricane for a couple of days all activities,except of course on deck,carried on,including the excellent Headliners singers and dancers. Really excellently organised departure to end a generally very happy experience.