We had never cruised with Costa before and when my husband discovered he had 2 weeks holiday and Costa had some good deals we booked. My initial reservations were regarding the weather ie the Med in February but my husband thought that after the Concordia incident that Costa would be trying so hard to rebuild their reputation the weather wouldn't matter. How wrong was he! Our previous cruises were with Ocean Village and a Nile River Cruise and we thoroughly enjoyed all 3. Costa Pacifica was basically Butlins on Sea. Where all the children came from I don't know. I have never seen so many children in the one place out with a school playground. Toddlers still running around at midnight means selfish parents to me. The crew were either chatty and friendly or sullen, there was no in between. We pre booked the All Inclusive drinks package which was really worth it, you only needed to have 3 alcoholic drinks a day to make it worthwhile. What I didn't like was that the bottle of water left out in the cabin was not included and was classed as a mini bar purchase. Wine and water could only be by the glass in the package. We were charged over €2 plus 15% service charge for a kit kat from the mini bar because there wasn't one in the fridge and the cabin boy assumed we had taken it so added it to the bill after I had signed for the water. The 15% service charge was mandatory although some people said on other cruises you can have this waived if you say you would prefer to tip those who have given you good service. There was one night when the entertainment staff were dressed like characters from 'Thriller' and one of the ladies we met lost an earring due to one of them jumping on her from behind and, she assumes, getting said earring stuck in his wig. When she reported loss to customer services there was no apology and the member of staff said 'but you've still got one'. These earrings had cost over £100 and it took until the last night of the cruise for someone to give her a form authorising her to claim from Costa. One night after the show in the theatre it was announced that there was a suspected outbreak of measles amongst the crew and it took 48 hours, despite there being a visit from the health authority the next day, to remove these crew members and others they were in contact with from the ship. We were never told how much contact they may have had with the guests and if you weren't at the show at night you wouldn't have known about it. The prices charged for shuttle buses in port were ridiculous, especially in some instances whereby a few yards from where we docked you could get local transport for a fraction of the price if not free. Thank goodness we had nice people at our dinner table and who we ended up spending the evenings with or I don't think there would have been many positives at all. We've had better entertainment at the local bowling club. What were the positives? The cabin was a fine size but I did need the hangers I had taken with me, laundry charge was cheaper than I had worked out from the price list, all inclusive drinks package and although meal portions weren't big you could have 5 courses and were ample for me. We will never cruise with Costa again.