Costa Pacifica ("Ship of Music") is the latest ship introduced in the Costa line. We took a 10 day cruise that included Greece, Cyprus, Italy and Egypt.

Pluses of the cruise: - Great interiors with plush look and feel: provides an overall relaxed atmosphere. - Excellent staff: courteous and polite staff - from the waiters to the room service; definitely a high-point of the trip. We did not like the meals in the evening (in "My Way" restaurant) and the staff ensured we got a customized menu based on what we desired to eat on a daily basis. - Child-friendly: Costa's Squok club ensured that our child was constantly engaged and we had a lot of time to ourselves for both excursions and casino activities. Our waiter in the evening took special care catering to our four year old daughter and she was always delighted to join us.

Negatives of the cruise: - Expensive excursions: Rip-off and not worth the money spent; we only took an excursion in Cyprus. We talked to a few who took excursions at other locations and felt that they were way too expensive - Missing key ports: Due to bad weather (as mentioned by the captain), we did not disembark at Alexandria and skipped the port. Instead the ship was diverted to Palermo. This resulted in a lot of upset people as most of us were looking forward to the Pyramids. There was very little explanation provided and Palermo (Sicily) was a big disappointment to all cruisers (mostly Italian who ran a signature campaign demanding a refund). Overall, it was disappointing that Costa did such a poor job in communicating to its customers that they were cancelling such a key port and replacing it was an incomparable alternate. Read more