Costa Pacifica

Could be better: The dining arrangements were very rigid.

Could be better: A more accurate, unexaggerated description of the excursions. The "city centre" wasn't always true.

Could be better: Nobody told us in advance, but they only give passengers a limited amount of water. With the My Drinks package they gave us just one drink several times and we had to queue again for the next one!!!!

Could be better: Communication was patchy and often awkward compared with other cruise lines, which made planning harder and took away from the travel experience. A few examples: 1. We were given no information about the next day's programme or details, nothing was ever left in the cabin, which is part of why we never booked an organised excursion. 2. We weren't told which deck to disembark from on a given day, which made coordinating our group of eight harder (deck 0 vs deck 3) and cost us time. 3. We weren't told that under the MyDrinks package each passenger can collect only one 0.5 l bottle of mineral water per day; we couldn't prepare for that, and in that heat it isn't enough. 4. We also weren't told that the shuttle ship/boat to shore isn't covered by the pre-paid fare in a given port (with another line it was), and when we asked about it specifically before boarding, the COSTA staff member only said to show the card, that's all you need. Since we didn't know it was a separate charge, we didn't pay it until the following evening, and it only became clear when several people in our group had their cards blocked and we asked for an explanation that the MyDrinks package could only be used again once it was paid.