Casablanca, Morocco Cruises

I had visited Morocco six times prior to this port stop in Casablanca. I sailed with Costa and chose one of their tours of the city because I knew it would be hot. Choosing a tour is your best option if you're unfair with Morocco. Tourists often get scared away but aggressive sellers and taxi drivers. My advice would be not to engage with them. Say 'no', laugh it off and keep walking. You don't owe them an excuse. The port itself is a bit far from the city centre. I wouldn't walk it in the heat. If you didn't want to take a tour, you could always negotiate with a local taxi driver to give you a tour of the city. I've done this many times in other Moroccan cities but not Casablanca. I've paid drivers between $40 USD and $60 USD for five hours. Pay in local currency or euros.

Although it was a great experience to say we visited Africa, I would never willingly visit Morocco again. The city poor and scary.

Visited: Feb 03, 2018

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I read several reviews prior to going on this trip. They mentioned that the port was filthy and oil covered - totally untrue. Yes it was an industrial port and not near as pretty as most ports but I took an old pair of shoes to throw away after getting them all dirty - totally unnecessary. Of course I chose this port with a romantic picture of the movie in my mind and it was definitely not like that. Rick’s Cafe was great though - the food was delicious and extremely reasonable. We did not buy an excursion, we simply walked around. Easy to find the Mosque and Cafe and the Medina. We did hear about others having a bad/scary shopping experience. We did not we stayed in the center of things. Not as romantic as I pictured lol but I enjoyed myself very much.

Highlights Tour- we had an exceptional guide. Great contrasts.

Visited: Sep 20, 2016

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I had feeling like we came with starship Enterprise to some crappy planet. All local excursion guides are ferengi. They don't have any useful information and their only goal is to get you to a few stores to another ferengis who has deal with them to share money you spend there. We had Casablanca, our friends had a Marrakesh excursion. We paid 65eur per person and they paid 150eur/person. The best expiriance had two couples who avoid the ship excursions and arange local taxi to be with them all day for 80eur total so it was 20eur per person. No ferengi crap.