Costa Victoria Review 24th Nov. Part 5.

[seabourndt]

SAT 27TH NOV.

we arrived in the port of GABES in TUNISIA today. a strange looking port at first sight. went to concorde plaza for excursion, what a mess! people were everwhere. i finally found the english group, got my sticker number. rejoined the long queue to get passport stamped. then we were off to disembark the ship. this time we had a larger bus, but had to share it with the french speaking group. when i saw the excursions i wanted to see matmata where STAR WARS was filmed. i tried to ask the tour desk which one was going to spend the longest there, but she was no help at all. so i thought as this was 9 hours long, the longest and matmata was at the end we would at least spend some time there. we left at 09.15am first went to a hotel where we had a look around and use the toilets. then off we went to a berber house which was very interesting. then as we were in matmata at this point we would stop at matmata next. especially when the guide mentioned about STAR WARS being filmed there. if we were not going there, they might have mentioned it. then off we went and realised we were going to DOUZ. which was about 90km distance. it certainly a long way to go to go on a camel. i heard that the other shorter tour did the camel in matmata, why did we not do it? after all the reason of taking the excursion in the 1st place. when we got to DOUZ i mentioned this but all he aid was it was too far of our route! at the start of the tour we were given a bag with different food in it. nobody mentioned when we were going to eat it. after a very uncomfortable camel ride! i kept feeling i was going to fall off! we then went to this hotel for lunch, when i read this i thought this meant we were going to have a proper lunch in the hotel. nobody mentioned anything when we got off the bus, then when we got in the hotel i noticed everybody opening their packed lunches. well mine was still on the bus! i then had to look around to find where my bus was as there was no sign of it. i finally found it, and had my lunch. after lunch i had a look at the shops in the hotel, i got some postcards there of matmata at least and a picture of me on the camel. after a short stop at a cafe, we made our way back to the ship. my friend john invited me to join him on 2nd sitting so we could sit together. so i went to get a pizza as dinner was not until 9pm. at 8pm i saw the show, a magician not bad but not as good as other shows. i found john and went into dinner with him. i sat down with the other travel agents, but john went and sat somewhere else, which i thought was strange. not even saying anything to me, i found out later the other had ignored him so he went to another table. i found them all to be friendly and pleasant to me. had a lovely meal with swordfish, pumpkin soup,beef and tiramisu.

[DoctorFeelgood]

I think that's a bit excessive. Weren't you sore all over the next day? Sounds like Costa Cruises is a still a bit "rough" around the edges.

[seabourndt]

it came out wrong,90km on the bus. just 30mins on the camel. but all that way to go on as camel, when tjhe other tour did camel ride close to matmata where i wanted to go to