Category: 2013 – Costa Pacifica, Western Med, 12 – 19 Apr

Just spotted this old Celebrity ship passing us in port. She looks like she has just come out of a dry dock. Even though she is sporting Croisieres De France on the side she is still painted in Celebrity colours and registered in Valleta. You can also see the X on the funnel too.
In the one next to where she came from is the old Carnival ship, Grand Holiday.

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Its a beautiful sunny morning and we have arrived at Marseille on time. Having looked at the tours and concluded there is nothing to temp us and combined with the fact there is a shuttle service to the centre of town costing €9 each we think today will be spent on board the ship. We also have the MSC Splendida in with us today for company.

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The Costa Pacifica is a very typical Costa ship and the atrium is no exception. Lots of lights and shiny metals everywhere. Not everyone’s cup of tea but it does look quite spectacular when its all lit up at night.

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There are just two sockets in the cabin. One a euro style and the other a US version. Unfortunately if you use the adapter in one of them there isn’t room to get the adapter in the other. So in effect we only have one socket!

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Well the day started off nice and sunny but as soon as we got off the ship it all clouded over. With nothing specific planned we took a walk round the town and did some exploring. Its a nice little town with plenty of character and we spent a couple of hours just browsing and getting a little lost.
Our stroll was finished off with a little lunch snack at the Santa Lucia Cafe in the marina washed down a Peroni and sparkling water. Not bad for €21 and the sun came back out too.

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Savona is Costa’s home port and when we left here in 2011 there were 3 Costa ships in port. Today we are the only one and judging by the amount of suitcases being left out last night then there will be a lot getting off and presumably lots more getting on. For this reason we are not going out for breakfast just yet as I would imagine that it will be very busy at all the eateries.

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Today we are in Savona and the ship is just easing in backwards to the terminal. The sun is shining and fingers crossed it will be a nice day. The daily programme forecasts rain!
It was very windy last night but the seas were quite calm despite of the strong gusts.
I am having problems with the ships WiFi at the moment which isn’t as good as the service I got on the Costa Atlantica.

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I have just been party to the strangest muster drill ever. As you would imagine, after the Concordia accident Costa are keen to show that they are better prepared in the event of an emergency. Well because this sort of itinerary allows passengers to embark and disembark at several stops, not everyone does the drill at the same time. Today we had around 20 or so English speaking passengers watching a 15 minute film in one of the lounges which was actually very good along with about 60 Japanese passengers of which none appeared to understand what was being said. No re run in their own language either. After the film we given a demonstration on how to put on a life jacket, again only in English, then with jackets on we were shown the position of the actual muster station. End of drill! Just very odd!

We are now underway and have just watched the pilot get off.

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Finally on board. Costa do a very different system when it comes to embarkation. All the security is done exactly the same as the other lines but you do not register your credit card or get your seapass as you get on. When you get on your cabin is ready so you need to go to your cabin to get your seapass. When you get to your cabin the door is ajar and your seapass is on the bed. Your photo is taken while coming aboard and is linked to a bar code which is on your seapass and the embarkation form. During the cruise you can register your credit card at various places throughout the ship on special card reading machines. Another thing that you will find on the bed is your Muster Drill Card which is surrendered at the drill and proves you have attended.

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Transfer to the port of Civitavecchia was by car and driver. It took about 45 minutes and we have arrived an hour ahead of schedule because the embarkation doesn’t start until 1.00pm. So for the time being its just a case of sitting it out and waiting.

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