This is a great example of why we cruise! Cruising is a great way to see places that we’d not normally visit, to see if we would like to return for a longer stay. In this case, NO.
In all fairness, I’ll try to paint an unbiased picture of our day. But you must know that organized group tours are not “our thing”.
We arrived in Morocco the morning after Alabama played Florida for the SEC championship (Roll Tide). We woke up at 4:30 a.m. to turn the TV on, hoping for results of the game (9:30 pm central time). ESPN quickly reported that the Tide had throttled Florida! Not beat….but throttled! With that, we were unable to go back to sleep, and seeing how the alarm (yes, I said alarm) was set for 5 a.m., we went ahead and got out of bed. We headed to the Lido deck for our morning infusion of caffeine, only to find out that there was no staff awake yet to make our espressos! Knowing that we had a 3-1/2 hour bus trip ahead of us, and not knowing what comfort stops were available, we decided to forego the 3 cups of coffee we normally would have to replace the espresso rush we so needed.
Our excursion was to leave the ship at 6:30 a.m., and we were supposed to report to the Princess Theatre promptly at 6 a.m. like sheep being led to their slaughter. We were herded out of the ship, on to awaiting buses sitting there in the dark. Like in every large group, there are always those that you would not choose to sit next to because they talk non-stop. And as our luck goes, they sat right behind us on the bus. They were completely unaware of the double danger they encountered (1, we were up much earlier than we liked, and 2) we had not been infused with caffeine).
We arrived in Marrakesh around 10 a.m. There was an excellent 4-lane, controlled access highway that took us there. We picked up a local guide as we pulled into town. He seemed more interested in supporting his own agenda rather than serving as our tour guide. He seemed to know everyone in town and herded all 30 of us into 3 or 4 expensive shops for high pressured sales pitches.
The market place, although quite intimidating, was very interesting. Women in burkas approached us wanting to sell us silver jewelry or just begging for money. Their English, however, was excellent.
At lunch, we were herded into a restaurant with another 100 or so people from other groups. The food was not bad (vegetables, chicken, fresh tangerines, and a cookie). Loud music was played by a couple of local musicians and a belly dancer tried their best to entertain us, as we ate. Everyone wanted money, the photographer that took our picture as we entered the restaurant, the musicians, the belly dancer, as well as the snake charmer we encountered in the square outside the market.
After a full day of excitement, we returned to our bus for the long ride back to Casablanca, and to our home away from home, the Grand Princess.
After a day of rest and relaxation at sea today (by the way, the weather was 70+ degrees), we look forward to arriving in Tenerife (Canary Islands) tomorrow morning. And no, we don’t have a group tour planned!
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