The Costa Pacifica – the ship of music – is being shown to travel agents and press from all over the world as Costa Crociere gears up for its two ship christenings in Genoa on June 5. The Pacifica and the Luminosa – the ship of light – will be christened by Israeli singing star Noa and Valentina Vezzali, fencing champion of three Olympic Games and 1 world championships, respectively. The Luminosa was delivered at the end of April. Both ships were built by Fincantieri.

The international contingent of agents and press traveling on a preview voyage on the Pacifica represented Costa’s international sourcing of passengers and deployment, including the Nordic countries were Costa expects to play much bigger role, including embarking passengers directly, and China and the Far East, as well as year-round deployment in North America.

Costa is the most international cruise line, commented company President Gianni Onorato, with 550 different cruises in 2009 on 100 different itineraries and 250 different destinations from 50 embarkation ports.

In 2008, Costa carried 1.2 million passengers and has already exceeded the one million passenger mark in 2009, according to Oronato. Three more ships are under construction for deliveries in 2010, 2011 and 2012, bringing Costa’s fleet to 17 ships.

The Pacifica is designed around the theme of music which has inspired the interior design and works of art. Each deck and each stateroom corridor will feature different music themes “so passengers will know where they are from the music,” Onorato said. In addition to a cruise director, the Pacifica also has an Italian maestro onboard who will give music lessons on a variety of instruments. The ship also has a professional recording studio. There are 308 original art pieces onboard and 5,292 multiples – all centered around music as a theme.

Live music onboard include 22 musicians, playing in orchestras, trios, dos and in the piano bar, plus 10 singers performing in the lounges, nine pianos, 12 dancers, as well as two more singers and four international artists starring in the shows in the grand Teatro Stardust, which is on three levels with state-of-the-art technology and Dolby surround sound.

The Pacifica also has Green Star notation from RINA and is the first Costa ship equipped for cold ironing.

In addition, the Pacifica will feature the five C-Wonders, said Onorato: a high tech golf simulator, a 4-D cinema, roller skating track, Grand Prix simulator and Playstation World.

The Pacifica will sail seven-day cruises to the Eastern and Western Mediterranean during the summer and will sail 10- and 11-day cruises to the Eastern Mediterranean during the winter.