2024-25 Morocco

Background

Bit of a pre-amble to this trip. It all started with preparing for Thea finishing her Disneyland work experience. She is finishing her 12 month stint there start of January 2025 and with Ann also getting invited to meet her mum & her partner in Malaga in Spain, we figured we would do a post Christmas trip to Morocco before arriving into Malaga in Spain on the same day Thea arrives from Orlando via Frankfurt; e.g. Januaray 5th. So the plan ended up being doing a Northern Morocco Intrepid tour from Casablanca to Marrakech via Tangier, Fes and a few other places. Then we are going to stay in Malaga for January but Jorgen have to nick off to Las Vegas for his ServiceNow sales kickoff after which we reconvene in Malaga and Jorgen heads back to Australia for work and Thea & Ann head to Norway….

Departure Day & Melbourne Airport

Flying economy these days is less than glamorous and in fact want to avoid it as much as possible. Though at least lounge access makes the lead in and preparations a bit more bearable. No longer Platinum on Qantas so have to make due with Gold status and Qantas Club which is more than enough for domestic travel these days. Though when the occasional trip overseas is required, unless there’s a massive penalty cost wise of going with a Oneworld airline, then that’s what we do. So this time around got to use the Emirates lounge in Melbourne. Been a while since been there last so thumbs up for that experience.

Of course, a good mix of drinking is required… so some good old Aussie beer with some Moet sets things in good stead.

And eventually we got to board the plane only to have to be stuck on the tarmac for 2 hours before the plane could finally depart. With a 14 hour flight to Dubai ahead of us… yeah nah, not the best way to start that trip. Do not like these longer flights unless you can get an upgrade or fly business.

Anyways, this is what we were left staring at for two hours and of course with little to nothing in terms of information as well.

On the tail end nearing Dubai, it was time for an obligatory selfie… smiles here but there were not many during the segment… tiredness, but we were glad to see the tail end of that nearing Dubai.

A sunrise… would have been sooo nice out in the desert… but even on the small screen it made for good viewing. ;-)

Dubai Delay

Arriving into Dubai we were late and the flight to Casablanca had already departed. Emirates arranged a night at the Copthorne hotel by the airport which was great. Not exactly luxury but very practical, so thank you Emirates for arranging that. In the end was not really a bad thing as we spent the chilling, relaxing and sleeping. After a 16 our trip sleeping a bit in a proper bed was great. No doubt about that.