Costa Pacifica: the summer sizzle cruising the islands

The story on board of a cruise on the Costa Pacifica, with all the details, the review and the information of the trip!

Cruise number 58

Costa Cruises – Costa Pacifica
23rd July to 29th July 2022

Cabin number: 7260 – Mid ship , Deck  -7 :  Suite
Total pax: 3780, Crew: 1100, Decks: 17

Cruise for 7 nights.

Ports of Call: Bari / Catania / Valletta / at sea / Mykonos / Santorini / at sea / Bari

Mid-summer and at last no masks but pre testing to board all made for a very swift seamless check in and boarding at the Costa Terminal in Bari (Italy). The ship had only been operational for 4 weeks prior due to the covid lockdown. So, I had expected a few issues, but none occurred.

Our suite was ready from 1pm and luggage all arrived by 2pm. Our butler Angelo on hand to introduce himself and throughout our stay keeping our drinks fridge full of what we wanted and the sparkling and still water always cold and always plentiful. His attention to detail along with charming personality made for wonderful hospitality.

Having our meals in the Elite restaurant was again a pleasure with amazing service levels by Matre D Gabriel and servers Dessie, Christell and our wonderful wine steward Reza whose knowledge of wines and pairing will take him a long way in the future. However, the menus could vary and be more destination specific as majority of the guests eating in the Elite restaurant would have had the same on the other ships in the fleet in the same restaurant. But still the standard of presentation and overall taste and flavours was superb.

Sadly, the entertainment team did not meet up to expectations and standards expected. A very full cruise ship and a very lack lustre entertainment team is not a good fit. The cruise director would give very long intros and explanations pre and post show in Italian, but the English translation would leave you still guessing as it was not more than one sentence. The standard of two of the productions on board in the theatre namely “Sport” and “Music” where well set and staged, the dancers totally outperformed the other shows which where more like tribute acts on Italy’s got talent but in some cases not got talent. The lounge acts of which there is many all around the ship where fantastic and in most cases given the chance to perform on or be staged in theatre would probably do a better show.

All excursions where well-handled and on time, with many being full days and plenty of options to choose from, however the pre boking of excursions in English seemed to be a problem in both Catania and Valletta as our excursions where cancelled and we were placed on an Italian only bus. This practice is outdated and should be looked at by Costa. Once we had discussed this with the tour desk and found this rather strange practice in 2022 especially with many people having the same issue, they decided to send one of the Tour staff with who was fluent in Italian and English. Solution is to just employ companies who speak both Italian and English.

With regards the highlights full day tour of Santorini, unless you travel out of school holidays and are prepared to stand in 40 C in up to 3 km lines just to get a cable car (which is made up of 6 gondolas with only 6 people in each, every 5 minutes total Greek Chaos) back to the dock to get the tender to your ship which is one of 5 on the day.   Don’t bother don’t take the tour it’s a nightmare. There clearly should be a restriction on the number of ships allowed per day.

It was a wonderful very hot summer sizzle in the islands. The ship has a good few problems to sort out before it gets back to the standard expected pre covid.

Overall, an improving product after extended lockdown which will deliver with the right people in the right positions.

Ship rating 2022 – 3 + Star