What was not so thrilling was the process of buying the plane tickets. The airline we purchased them from has a nice website, but no matter how many times (and how many browsers) I tried, the transaction would not go through. So I reverted to the old-fashioned way of buying things, namely picking up the phone and calling the airline.
I got almost all the way through the process of breaking down the language barrier enough to convey the specifics of our itinerary and the spellings of our names, and then found out that while booking online is free, booking over the phone costs 20 dhs per passenger (about $5). I half-jokingly asked the airline employee who was assisting me if the website "wasn't working" because then the airline can rake in the telephone fees. He just laughed. Hmm.
However, then that purchase wouldn't go through for bizarre credit-card related reasons. The airline employee insisted it was my credit card, not the airline system, but I don't know about that since I tried multiple cards and none of them worked. Weird.
In any case, here's what I ended up doing: going to an ATM, withdrawing good old-fashioned cash, driving to the actual airport, walking up to the actual, physical office of the airline, and purchasing airplane tickets, in cash, in person. It was so bizarre to be buying a ticket that would allow me to sit in a chair and be propelled through the sky at high speed inside of a futuristic mode of travel...using the most outdated form of commerce imaginable. And they charged me $10 for the privilege.
Anyway, the tickets are purchased and our vacation awaits us this weekend. Old-fashioned buying methods aside, I'll take it.