We were supposed to stop in Casablanca, Morocco today but several weeks ago the cruise line indicated that this port was closed to cruise ships so this is a nearby alternative port that is open, so here we are.

I had to look up this city as I had never knew of its existence. It is one of several Spanish territories like the Canary Islands and Melilla, so I guess I can count it as a new visit on my “countries & territories” list. It has a population of about 84,000 people and is located at the tip of North Africa in a strategic position between the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. We can see the Rock of Gibraltar from here. Because of its prominent  position it was settled by the Phoenicians in the 1st century BC. It was later ruled by the Moors, then Portugal and eventually deeded to Spain in 1668.

Regent was able to generate a couple of escorted tours in Ceuta, even though it was a last minute scramble. Of the four tours offered the one that read:  “The Past & the Pastries” caught my eye.  Walking from the ship’s dock it was a short (2.5 hours) and offered a narrated tour of nearby sites, ending with a Moroccan breakfast. Sounded like a winner.

We did walk past the old fort (built from 962-18th century) with its tricky path of entry that slowed down any boats trying to invade the city, a pleasant (and very clean) plaza that contained two old churches, learned a bit about the history of the area and the problems they were having with immigrants trying to use Ceuta as a means of getting into Europe (sound familiar?), and finally ending up in a little restaurant for our “Moroccan Breakfast”, which we were looking forward to seeing what it would entail.  The problem is that all we received was a plate with two small cookies and a glass of very sweet hot tea!  Turns out the written description of the tour did not match the title of the tour. We had a good laugh, ate our cookies and returned to the ship for a more substantial lunch.

Dinner tonight was at another of the specialty restaurants:  Prime 7, their signature steak house.  I might point out how Regent manages eating at their specialty restaurants.  Prior to boarding you are allowed to reserve, in advance, one reservation at each of the 3 specialty restaurants on board. They are traditionally much smaller in capacity so some management is needed. Once on board you can attempt to make more reservations for additional meals. Because we have 6 people it is more difficult to find additional time slots as I only saw two tables for 6 -8 people in each locale. It would probably be easier to make additional reservations if you were only a party of 2-4. As it turned out we were able to eat twice in two of the three specialty restaurants during our cruise. Back to our dinner at Prime 7. As I said the specialty is steak, steak and more steak. They did offer other non-steak options but most of our party ordered the filet mignon with a lobster on the side! Because I knew there would be other opportunities for a filet I went with the prime rib for my entree. It seems that the real highlight of the meal was the dessert menu when virtually everyone ordered the sinful popcorn sundae! It is two scoops of ice cream, chocolate sauce, and topped with caramel corn/peanuts!

The entertainment tonight was another show by the hilarious magician/comedian who continued to baffle us with both his wit and slight of hand tricks.

Tonight we sail back to the mainland of Spain with a stop at Cadiz, Spain.

Total steps for the day:  9,433. Not bad.