As a combination 65th birthday present and the fact that my husband wrote "Political Science comes to Rick's" I decided that we should go to Casablanca and the Canary Islands. What really prompted me was an email I got with this itinerary at a great price for a balcony. Our air fare was actually almost as much as the cruise.

Anyway, we had been on NCL before, sailing to the Baltics, Egypt, and the Mediterranean. Morocco seemed exotic and I was told the Canary Islands were amazing. We knew how to take a ship from Barcelona and knew the lay of the land on NCL ships having been on the Jade and the Jewel. The Spirit, however, is smaller.

Before the trip I went on roll call and chatted with cruise critic members. We all decided to "Meet and Greet' at Champaign Charlie's the second night at Sea. When we arrived in our cabin we found our excursion tickets along with an invitation to a cocktail party for Latitude members with the crew at the Star Galaxy bar. It was also the second night at sea. We settled in to our usual routine of sleeping to catch up from the jet lag and the second day at sea we began our adventures on the Spirit. Read more