La Coruna, Casablanca And A Sad Day Aboard Oceana

Posted on November 7, 2013 by CruiseMiss — 2 Comments

Today we found ourselves in Casablanca, Morocco. A place full of hustle and bustle, but it was enjoyable and a place I would definitely like to visit again. We had a walk through the old Medina then jumped in a ‘petite taxi’ to the Hassan II Mosque. What a stunning Mosque it was, absolutely beautiful, never have I seen such beautiful architecture.

Although our call to Morocco had been highly anticipated it sadly came with the news that early this morning a crew member passed away. A crew member who was a dear and treasured individual to my friend and I. He accepted us like members of his own family, nothing was ever too much trouble and we had the pleasure of his company for 5-weeks in January. I am sincerely heartbroken that he is no longer with us and the rest of this cruise won’t be the same without his smile. The sad faces of other crew members that also knew him really told you how loved he was.

In La Coruna it was raining and pretty miserable all day so we didn’t stay ashore too long, just long enough to stretch our legs and take advantage of dry land. We were told before leaving that there would be a pretty rough swell for several hours once we departed and there was! Visibility was rather poor too, a real thick sea mist engulfed us and the swell we were pre-warned about certainly made itself known not long after we left port. The Captain was unable to attend the first ‘Welcome Aboard Cocktail Reception’ because of the poor conditions so our Deputy Captain took over. He was quite funny actually, told everyone that ‘cruises were a chance to meet new people, enjoy new places and sleep with new people’ – Hang on there one minute, repeat that last bit! 😉 He obviously was joking, but my friend and I were eating at the time and the prawn I had just put in my mouth almost choked me. The roar of laughter from everyone in the atrium I am sure could have been heard a mile away!

We decided to dine in Café Jardin on Monday night which was, as usual, was NOT a disappointment, in fact I am going to have a rather unique blog for you about that soon so watch this space! I’ll leave my Café Jardin experience at that for now, sorry to keep you all in suspense but it will be worth the wait I promise!

We also ‘moved house’ on Tuesday morning. Our original cabin was a little hot box, the air conditioning unit refusing to do much other than keep the room at a constant and uncomfortable warm temperature. Maintenance looked at it several times, even took the unit apart twice and still there was barely anything coming out of it. It was like sleeping in a toaster, well tossing and turning in a toaster as neither of us could sleep. The Deck Supervisor asked me to look at another cabin as the ship is not quite full and see if it was any better. You could feel the difference the second you walked through the door and he too said ‘in comparison your other cabin is incredibly warm’. We slept in cabin number 2 that same evening, yes SLEPT! We both slept really well actually and the following morning packed up our things and moved permanently from cabin number 1.

The food thus far has been very nice. On our second evening we dined in the main restaurant and I ordered the beef which was very tender, I really enjoyed it along with the orange and Ricotta mouse flavoured with Bacardi that I tried for desert. The mouse was actually created by a crew member on Azura named Joe Xavier, he was the semi-finalist winner of the desert category in the sixth Bacardi Cruise Competition. My lunchtime steak Panini with caramelised onions yesterday was also very tasty. For someone who rarely eats red meat I made up for it in those 24-hours!

We have several ports in a row from today so my next blog may be a few days away, there’s only so much one can fit into one day especially when there are foreign lands to be explored.

Until next time……………..I dedicate today’s blog to the memory of a wonderful man who was sadly taken from us long before his time! xxx

Author: Danielle