CRUISE ship Arcadia paid another return to south Devon waters while she waited to get back into service.

The P&O adults-only ship had to cancell its itineraries due to a shortage of staff across the whole fleet.

Crew members were taken off and moved to other ships until more staff could be recruited.

The 84,000 tonne vessel is due to be back in service next month starting with an itinerary to Iceland followed by a cruise around the British Isles, taking in ports in Ireland and Scotland.

Both its first cruises back in service are sold out.

The ship, which left for Portland yesterday afternoon, has been a familiar sight off the coast at Teignmouth since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Having finally welcomed passengers back on board earlier this year, staff shortages led to it being left with a skeleton crew as staff were redeployed to other ships.

With 11 decks, the ship can carry 2,300 passengers at capacity with 900 crew.

A P&O spokesman said the ‘current and extraordinary’ impact of COVID-19 in the UK, in the wider hospitality, service and airline industry as a whole has resulted in a temporary disruption to crew members available to join the ships.

P&O told passengers: ‘The impact of Covid upon airlines and general disruption has necessitated the cancellations as we need to move crew from Arcadia to other ships in the fleet.’

Arcadia officially entered service with the company in April 2005.

It was a familiar sight off the south Devon coast for most of the pandemic.