It was our honeymoon, yes, we got married in March. But we wanted to take the time to find somewhere great. We tossed up the idea of building our own holiday or to just pay a tour operator and have a lazy holiday. Of course, we decided for the later.
Morocco is somewhere neither of us had ever been, so when it came up as one of the more affordable places to visit it was a no brainer really. 1 wonderful 7-night all-inclusive stay. We had read on TripAdvisor though a lot of mixed reviews. But reviews are simply that… reviews. Without any real substance behind them other than there own opinions.
Below you will read a completely unbiased personal view of our stay here. We will talk about a number of areas, these are:
- Accommodation,
- Food and drink,
- Entertainment (including the staff), and
- Everything else (so other holidaymakers, swimming pools, and wasps).
Accommodation
This place is huge. I mean. Seriously huge. You have 4 accommodation blocks, all with I would say around 100 rooms in each. We were placed in block 2 which was the closest to the swimming pool, evening entertainment, and the food.
We had previously asked for a ground floor due to my various ailments. But this was not honoured and we were on the second floor. Thankfully, the single lift for the block was working the whole time we were. Had it not, it would have made for some very interesting bum shuffling up the stairs.
The rooms are quite standard really, you have your two singles joined together to make one ma-hussive bed. The lone single bed, as well as the bathroom, balcony, and separate toilet.
We did, however, have a couple of problems. The first was with the air conditioning not work properly. Although not hot, it was not cold either. This was not fixed after 2 attempts in asking for it to be looked at. The second issue we had was the fact the balcony door did not lock. Again, we had to visit reception twice but this one was looked into pretty quickly.
All in all, the rooms are nice. Baring in mind you only sleep in there.
Food and Drink
This was the first all-inclusive place I had stayed at so had very little previous experience to go on.
We arrived as lunch time was in full swing. My word, it was slightly overwhelming. You had the main area where all the hot food was, along with the food that was cooked in front of you. The smells were just terrific as we just walked around taking it all in.
You then have 2 side rooms, one of which houses the cold bits. So the salads, cheeses, etc. The other had all the sweetie treats. My lord above, you had hundreds of these tiny little morsels. Which was the perfect size to try and sample a little bit of everything without wasting lots of those you were not to keen on.
You saw so many people piling their plates so high. It left me thinking “You can go back and get some more if you are still hungry”.
Entertainment
You have a whole host of staff members involved with the entertainment at various parts throughout the day.
You have the aqua-aerobics, darts, archery, football, and so much more.
Come the evening, the place lights up. The noise is just incredible, the volume is deafening and I have hard of hearing in both ears. You had a different themed show every evening. We decided to hang around until about 10ish most nights before retiring to bed.
In that time you had the kiddies mini disco and most of the main show. The only things we missed was the disco. Which you could here like you were on the dance floor from our room in block number 2.
Everything Else
You will read on TripAdvisor about the favouritism towards the French guests (of which there are a few of them). However, we did not experience that one bit. We found there to be a large number of British which could be heard around the pool area.
We did experience one guy wanting to thump a French chap. It was all over the French chap going to the toilet in the female toilets and the English chap was quite drunk from what it seemed.
You will find 2 main swimming pools. One being the main family pool, and the second adult only pool. I was quite pissed off as this pool was closed the day after we got there, meaning we had to sit around the rowdy family pool. Which is a shame as a nice relaxing week around an adult only pool would have been good.
No matter where you are on the complex, you will encounter wasps. Even more so around the pool areas where idiots have left uncovered soft drinks. This sugary haven is rife for these flying needles. I have a huge phobia of these critters and found it very challenging around the pool areas.
You will find on TripAdvisor that the Wi-Fi is chargeable. However, this was removed and the Wi-Fi was free to all when we were there in October. We found getting Wi-Fi was great by the pool, entertainment area, and in the rooms. It was impossible in the food hall, and difficult in all other areas. It wasn’t a bad speed either if I remember right where one evening we got speeds of 25mb/s.
All in all, we had a great time here at the Aqua Mirage just outside of Marrakech. Would we come back though… maybe not, but we can certainly tick Africa off our continent list of places to visit.
