The Costa Pacifica is a beautiful ship - clean, nicely decorated, big and well appointed staterooms and suites. When we cruised, the ship had just gotten out of dry-dock a few weeks before and the hull was stark white and really amazingly beautiful to look at. The layout is quite typical of other Fincantieri ships of the same class - a design that works well for cruise ships.

I have cruised many times, and have always enjoyed reading reviews here are Cruise Critic. I have been on several cruises on ships that have gotten just average reviews, and can tell a lot just from reading them. Based on reviews of the Costa Pacifica, I was a bit skeptical of taking this cruise, but had never been on Costa and thought I would give it a try.

The experience was very disappointing. The dining room service was horrible. The waiter basically did his best to ignore us. The first night, we were not asked if we wanted anything to drink. I called the waiter over and said that we would like to order a bottle of still water. His response was "You will have to pay for that" - which I knew we would. He had us sign for it before they would bring it to us. Crazy - It was upsetting that they automatically add 15% service when there was really no "service" involved at all. We dined in the cabin most nights - we booked a Grand Suite, so we were able to order off the restaurant menu. The food was good, but not great. Service in the other restaurants and bars was less than average as well. I felt like we were on a ferry, not a proper cruise. Read more