Has anyone done the Morocco/Canary Islands sailing?

[FriendOfDorothy012]

We have been on this cruise 3 times on the Spirit and have booked again for New Year This year and Xmas 2017.

 

Morocco is a lovely country we have done a weeks land tour there and loved it. Unfortunately Casablanca does not do it justice, its just difficult to navigate your own. The city tour and Mosque is a good tour from the ship, we are thinking next time we will take a tour a bit further maybe Rabat or Marrakesh. Funchal there are plenty of taxis at the port and I think we payed 80 euros for a Two hour tour there, a good price if there's 3 or 4 of you alternatively you can take the shuttle into town and the cable car up the mountain and ride down in a wicker sledge. Tenerife is a very diverse island with 2 very different landscapes the full day island tour which takes in Mount Teide is a good option.

 

Hi there,

We are thinking about taking this cruise on Dec 23, 2017 too. Since you have taken this cruise 3 times, do you know how bad is the weather in Spain and Morocco in Dec? I hope it is not too cold for a heavy jacket. Thanks for any information.

[old nutter]

The North Africa/Southern Spain and the Canaries plus Madeira are a superb European winter choice. As far as the weather is concerned around this time it can be varied but as long as you have several light layers you will be OK. Big overcoats are very unlikely to be necessary. As long as you have a light waterproof/windproof top in your bag for when it rains you will normally only need tee/polo shirt and a light jumper at the most.

 

As far as the sea is concerned, we have had worse seas crossing the Caribbean than ever on this route. Probably the worst bit can be around the entrance to the Med where the various currents between the Atlantic and Med can be a bit messy. The Canaries and Madeira are not far very from the African coast so they tend to have less issues because the ocean is more about swells than waves.

 

Canaries are very picturesque destinations with Teneriffe having the highest Spanish volcanic mountain. The area around the top of Mount Teide is fascinating because of the strange volcanic terrain. I gather the Apollo astronauts did some of their training driving the moon buggy around the area.

 

Madeira is absolutely beautiful. The Botanic Gardens up near the top of the cable car in Funchal has a wonderful variety of trees and flowers because of the stable climate created by the ocean. We took a taxi from the dock into the town that I think cost around 5 euros but the younger fitter of you can easily walk round in about 10-15 minutes. We actually met a taxi driver near the bottom of the cable car and after chatting to him about the island for a while (in English) he offered to take the three of us round the island. We ended up with him for most of the day and he took us pretty well all round and showed us all of the sights and stopped at a number of viewpoints. We learned a great deal from him about the island and it's people. If memory serves me right it cost us 90 euros for the day. We stopped in the botanical gardens for about 45 minutes and he dropped us off at the top gate and met us at the lower gate so we just walked down inside the gardens and saw it all.

 

The taxi driver offered to let us ride down in one of the wooden sledges and meet us at the bottom, but we declined after watching them a while. He finally dropped us off at the ship well in time for departure, unlike this shopper when we went last year!!! http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?p=49627930#post49627930

Edited January 7, 2017 by old nutter
spulling mastike

[4774Papa]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm thinking about booking the 10-day Morocco/Canary Islands sailing in November/December 2017, and I'm just wondering what you thought of it. The stops in Casablanca, Las Palmas, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and Funchal all look really interesting. Been to Malaga before, but not Alicante.

 

All new to me and my DH except for Barcelona and Malaga. And at $599 for an inside guarantee with no perks sounds great to me (plus DH can use miles to get us to Barcelona). Might also wait until we're on our Adriatic cruise to buy a FCC and help with the costs on that cruise. Also, Spirit will be new to us.

 

General thoughts?

 

--Michael

 

Michael,

We did the NCL Jade cruise to Malaga, the Canary Island, Funchal and Morocco in 2011. Great cruise.

 

Recommend going to Grenada to see the Alhambra from Malaga.

 

For Funchal, we loved the tour that took us up a mountain. The scenery is fabulous. The plant life in Madeira and the Canaries is very different and interesting.

As for Morocco, I advise you not to just stay in Casablanca. We took a tour to Rabat, which was very good.

Some people went to Marakesh.

 

If you stop in Agadir, do the tour to the desert fort and see the goats in the trees.

 

Here is my review

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=80907

[hawkeyetlse]

Hi there,

We are thinking about taking this cruise on Dec 23, 2017 too. Since you have taken this cruise 3 times, do you know how bad is the weather in Spain and Morocco in Dec? I hope it is not too cold for a heavy jacket. Thanks for any information.

You will likely need a heavy jacket for Barcelona, but by the time you get to the Canary Islands/Madeira, temperatures should be like 60s-70s. But it can be very windy on certain islands. And if you go up into the mountains (like Teide on Tenerife), it will be much colder up there.

[bostonfred]

Wife and I did this itinerary last April and loved it....Epic was better than expected too.....highly recommend ir:rolleyes:

[Ilovedogs13]

Thanks so much for all the info......we leave on Feb. 20th!

[FriendOfDorothy012]

You will likely need a heavy jacket for Barcelona, but by the time you get to the Canary Islands/Madeira, temperatures should be like 60s-70s. But it can be very windy on certain islands. And if you go up into the mountains (like Teide on Tenerife), it will be much colder up there.

 

Thank you very much for your reply.