Marrakech or Casablanca/Rabat?

[GloriaF]

We're considering the NCL overnight excursion to Marrakech from Casablanca but the cost seems prohibitive considering we've already paid for meals and bed on the ship.

 

For our window steerage passage this represents one third of the full cost of a nine day cruise.

 

I gather Marrakech is more interesting than Casablanca. Is it worth this cost per person?

 

Is this rate typical of lower priced cruise lines?

 

Thanks in advance for any advice from you experts.

 

Princess offered an all-day (10 hours) bus tour to Marrakesch for $119pp which included a nice lunch. I don't think I'd care to stay overnight, but am very glad that we were able to visit M briefly.

[Been There, Planning That]

Gloria, I guess we chose the wrong line if we were to get a relatively inexpensive visit to Marrakech.

 

While we plan well for a trip, serious planning usually begins after we've booked a cruise or such. I hadn't realized until reading a couple of threads that Casablanca doesn't have much to offer.

[Parrot Mom]

newfarmers:

 

I want to thank you so much for the link to your comments and pictures from your Rotterdam cruise, last fall. Besides Marrakech , and I hope our tour is better, :eek: , we have just a few other ports in common - Messina, Barcelona, and Lisbon. Our transatlantic segment takes us to the USA, Ft. Lauderdale. Your slideshows of our common ports were wonderful to see - such beautiful photos! :) :) :)

 

Are you on the T/A trip of the Consteallation in September. There is somebody doing private tours of Lisbon.. one each day

[Parrot Mom]

Your comment certainly confirms my research.

 

Since I first posted we've be offered leads on visiting Taroudant instead with an independent operator. Apparently it's known as 'little' Marrakech. The price is sure right on this alternative.

 

Thanks for offering your first hand experience.

 

HOPE you have a better guide than we did on the Galaxy in December.. we complained so bitterly we received a rebate.. He rushed us through the souk to a shop that sold creams.. and then to a rug and souvenier shop for the best prices... You can just imagine.. Touradant is not near Casablanca...

[lambs2]

HOPE you have a better guide than we did on the Galaxy in December.. we complained so bitterly we received a rebate.. He rushed us through the souk to a shop that sold creams.. and then to a rug and souvenier shop for the best prices... You can just imagine.. Touradant is not near Casablanca...

 

Did you take a tour of Taroudant through the cruise ship or with an independent tour guide? If the latter, which one?

[Parrot Mom]

Did you take a tour of Taroudant through the cruise ship or with an independent tour guide? If the latter, which one?

 

Sadly, it was with the Celebrity..The guide spent the time on the bus telling us how their women just love the religion of Islam and they just have to take care of the house and the children and about his Islamic religion. The souk in Touradant would have been great just to walk through more slowly than at the rapid pace. Parrot Pop was at the back of the group with his cane taking pictures and had somebody in back of us ...a guides assistant.. When he took us to a special creme factory/shop..it was obvious.. but then the SPECIAL rug store and gift shop... At the gift shop the salesperson tried to sell Parrot Pop a cane for well over $100.00....it had a bit of camel bone....HARD SELL, HARD SELL..but Parrot Mom had already learned the ways...walked out almost to the bus where the salesperson agreed to accept what I was offering for handmade silver earrings..lol. Now, Im reading how to fight them off in the rug stores..lol

[lambs2]

Parrot Mom - Glad Celebrity gave you some rebate for a tour like that involving high pressure salesmanship! Hopefully they changed tour operators after that as there is no excuse for making folks who are paying for a tour be subjected to high pressure sales tactics. I sure would not want to be subjected to that, and we flat out ask all our private tour operators to please not allow that to happen. (Of course we pay most of them AFTER the tours!) Ship tours should definitely be responsive to our desire NOT to be harrassed!

[Parrot Mom]

It seems that even the guide that took cruisers around the city played the same game...If you had seen the lines AFTER the tours at the tour desk they knew they had a problem. When we go to Marrakesh I will warn the guide (and alert the tour desk)....to go through the area SLOWLY. It appears that the Marrakesh excursion is the most popular one for this cruise...and because of the distance from Casa almost all have decided to use the excursion set up by the cruise ship. To me.. this excursion is going to be a highight of our trip and possibly years of cruising...snake charmers, Barbary apes, rug dealers, mint tea, camel saddle, and all sorts of exotic spices...this is what memories and traveling is about.. only wish we could stay there longer

[Parrot Mom]

It seems that even the guide that took cruisers around the city played the same game...If you had seen the lines AFTER the tours at the tour desk they knew they had a problem. When we go to Marrakesh I will warn the guide (and alert the tour desk)....to go through the area SLOWLY. It appears that the Marrakesh excursion is the most popular one for this cruise...and because of the distance from Casa almost all have decided to use the excursion set up by the cruise ship. To me.. this excursion is going to be a highight of our trip and possibly years of cruising...snake charmers, Barbary apes, rug dealers, mint tea, camel saddle, and all sorts of exotic spices...this is what memories and traveling is about.. only wish we could stay there longer

[DrTee]

I'm reading this with great interest as I'll be there in November. HAL lists the trip to Marrakesh as "strenuous activity." I wonder what that could be--maybe the ride itself is strenous? If ParrotPop was using a cane (I also use a cane), it couldn't be that strenuous, could it?

[DrTee]

I really enjoyed your blog. It made me wish I'd chosen that cruise (Princess is doing it this year) instead of the one I chose. Dakar sounds really interesting to me.

 

I want to assure you that not all Americans are like the ones you encountered, but I know some are. And I'm a Texan, and although I know what you're talking about there too, we're not all like that person either.

 

The ironic thing is that the only thing that will change those people--and the provincial attitudes is the very thing they're doing--travel. Let's be optimistic that their travel will enlighten them. The people who are staying at home, who won't even give it a try, are less likely to have a more inclusive view of things. I like to think that that old s.o.b., when he got home, started to think fondly of the Senegalese, and maybe he grew just a little bit.

[Parrot Mom]

It seems that even the guide that took cruisers around the city played the same game...If you had seen the lines AFTER the tours at the tour desk they knew they had a problem. When we go to Marrakesh I will warn the guide (and alert the tour desk)....to go through the area SLOWLY. It appears that the Marrakesh excursion is the most popular one for this cruise...and because of the distance from Casa almost all have decided to use the excursion set up by the cruise ship. To me.. this excursion is going to be a highight of our trip and possibly years of cruising...snake charmers, Barbary apes, rug dealers, mint tea, camel saddle, and all sorts of exotic spices...this is what memories and traveling is about.. only wish we could stay there longer

 

drtee..YOU CAN always change your mind cant you???? The ride should be no problem to Marrakesh ..this is what Ive picked up on CC.. DO NOT sit on the same side as the driver..its too hot, bring toilet paper and plenty of liquids. As to being strenuous..the bus ride is I think 90 minutes...new roads..and after being rushed through Touradant..with Parrot Pop at the end of the group taking pictures..I have no doubt that he will be again..Fez as we have read would be equally as interesting, but for the pungent smell of the leather factories. We will be back after the 23rd of September...write again and Ill tell you how we make out..Cane or not.. its attitude..lol

[sailingkiwi]

Marrakech/Marrkesh is one of my favourite cities that I have visited anywhere in the World. The people are friendly, the food is superb, the history interesting and it is just such a really fun place.

 

We spent 5 nights in Marrkech over New Years 2006/2007 and I would not hesitate to go back to Morocco again. I would love to go to Fez and into the Atlas Mountains and along the coast.

 

It is actually really easy to find your way around the souk, we didn't need a guide at any time. Compared to Fez, where it is huge the souk in Marrakech is actually quite small. We thought the prices were good and that we bargined really well. We got a better price when I bargined in French rather than English, when we used a few words or Arabic and when we did the whole walking away tactics! We bought a leather satchel for DH, two scarves for me, some moroccan tea glasses, some pottery and some hand carved wooden camels.

 

Food wise, make sure you try a lemon chicken tangine, that was probably the best thing I had and also lots of mint tea!