2025 - Spring Cruise from Canaries to Lisbon

The second day were docked in Casablanca, I took an independent tour I'd booked through Viator called Casablanca Cruise Break Tour including Guided Mosque Ticket .  There were only 5 of us.  Our guide was Redwan (no idea of the spelling but he said it was like “red wine” but with an “a”)  who was charming, knowledgeable, and very good.  The driver was Hussein and I sure didn’t envy him.  The traffic was chaotic and that is an understatement! Our first stop was the Hassan II Casablanca Mosque which is unquestionably the main attraction in Casablanca.   Not only is it the largest mosque in Morocco, it is also the largest mosque in the whole of Africa.   In fact, it is the third largest in the entire world with only the mosques of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia being larger.   The idea to build the Hassan II Mosque was first conceived in 1984.   They began building in 1989 and incredibly it was finished just 6 years later in 1993.   It ...

Back on the ship from our tour to Rabat, I changed into green – jacket, sandals, purse and a plastic shamrock necklace I’d brought with me and I headed to the bar as there was going to be a St. Patrick's Day celebration as it was March 17th.    Azamara is very good about recognizing various holidays or special celebrations.  For example, I was on the Pursuit, one of the other ships, when the coronation of King Charles III took place.  The Cabaret Lounge was decorated with red, white and blue balloons, British appetizers (sausage rolls and such) plus scones and cream were served, and the coronation was live-streamed.  I also know they celebrate AnZac day in April.   So, the Den bar had been decorated with orange and green balloons, Guinness and grasshopper cocktails (green) were served – I wasn’t interested in trying either of those! – and little shamrock-shaped cookies were passed around.   There was Irish-themed entertainment with everyone singin...

One of the reasons I booked this cruise was because it was going to make two stops in Morocco - Agadir and Casablanca.  I was looking forward to seeing a country I had never visited before even though it would be a short visit to only two places.  When we returned to the ship on March 15th, the captain announced that, because of weather conditions, we would not be going to Agadir and, instead, we'd be spending two nights docked in Casablanca.  I immediately started researching something to do that first day we'd be there.  It was a bit frustrating as a lot of the tours that interested me required at least two people to book it.  So, I decided to talk to a few people I'd met on the ship to see if anyone would be interested in joining me.  Luckily, I found three (all Aussies) and we booked a tour to Rabat, Morocco's capital. Youssef, our guide, was waiting for us with a lovely small van when got off the ship on March 17th.  We got on the road and the tra...