We are finally on our way. We had a good and uneventful drive to the airport and were quickly through the check-in and security. Our flight got away on time and I had a window seat which gave me a good view over the clouds and there is beautiful clear blue sky above, much more preferable to the cloudy, rainy Heathrow we left behind a few hours ago.
Looking out over the clouds
Posted from my Torch 9810 using WordPress for BlackBerry.
Now that we are well into the new year my thoughts are turning towards our cruise in April on the Costa Pacifica. The balance having been paid in early December which incidentally is the earliest we have ever been asked to settle the balance, a staggering 136 days in advance! Consequently I am now finding myself thinking about the ship and looking into potential things to do when we are in port.
Perhaps I should just say a little bit about the ship, Costa Pacifica was handed over to Costa Crociere in 29 May 2009. She has or had until last year 4 sister ships, the Costa Serena launched in 2007, Costa Favolosa launched in 2011, Costa Fascinosa in 2012 and finally the ill fated Costa Concordia launched in 2006.
Tonnage:
114,500 GT
87,300 NT
Length:
290.2 m (952 ft)
Beam:
36 m (118 ft)
Draught:
8.2 m (27 ft)
Depth:
19.77 m (64.9 ft)
Decks:
14 passenger decks
Fortunately for us, we have already been on one of the sister ships, the Costa Serena back in 2010 so will be very familiar with the layout of the decks and this will hopefully make finding our way around much easier. In total the Costa Pacifica has 1,504 staterooms; 521 with private balconies and 91 spa staterooms; 58 suites with private balconies and 12 spa suites.
We have cabins on deck 6 (Tropical) in the BC grade (Classic Outside with Balcony) right next door to each other which have 219.5 sq ft of space and will look something like the photo below.
Our first cruise for 2013 will be on the Costa Pacifica and will be a 7 day cruise out of Civitavecchia. We have used a new TA (http://www.jetlinecruise.com/) for this cruise and so far so good. After this cruise we will have elevated up the Costa Club rankings to Pearl level which is the third tier and if we sail Costa again will enable a few little added benefits.
