Pacifica to Baltic and Fjords

Costa Pacifica is one of several large, floating resorts operated by the Italian company during the summer months. The ship was deigned on that same platform as many of the larger Carnival vessels operating out of the USA- even the cabin layout is exactly the same. She is a huge, resort style ship, created to offer fun for all age groups, but principally designed to appeal to large family groups.

Like all Costa ships, her passenger lists are multi national, and that inevitably means that any announcement made on board (and there are plenty) has to be repeated for at least five different nationalities. This can sometimes be wearing.

Costa Pacifica offers a range of day and night dining options, from formal, five course dinners  served in two multi level dining rooms, to all day buffet dining (dinner included) in a two level, upper deck Lido Buffet. Overall, the quality of food can vary from mediocre (think fish) to magnificent (think pasta), with everything in between. For an Italian ship, there was not a lot of recourse to actual Italian cuisine- possibly a consequence of all the different nationalities on board- but a bit surprising, none the less.

Inside, Costa Pacifica is bold, lavish and dramatic. Glass elevators course up and down a central, ten storey Atrium Lobby, complete with its own bar, while an entire boulevard of bars, cafes and dance clubs run along one side of the ship, flanked by table and chairs groupings and large, floor to ceiling windows. It's a buzzing, over lit hugger mugger, and the atmosphere is totally electric.

Interestingly, the casino is nothing like as large as on the American versions of these same ships. Italians (the majority passenger group on any given cruise) would rather dance than gamble, it seems.

Cabins run across many ranges, from comfortable inside and sea view rooms- many of which can accommodate up to four people- to really nice, quite expansive balcony rooms, right through to a series of spacious suites that come complete with their own whirlpool bath tubs en suite as standard.