We've booked a private van and driver for the day in Malaga with Gerry Kerkhoff of spanish-fiestas. gerry.kerkhof@spanish-fiestas.com
Website: http://www.spanish-fiestas.com

We'll be going to Granada and the Alhambra, of course, but with the far greater flexibility provided by the private tour compared to the ship's tour. Gerry is also obtaining our Alhambra tickets and entry reservations for us. Gerry comes highly recommended both by Anne & Gary and Claudia. So far, their recommendation appears to be a good one - he has been very responsive to my emails. The tour for the six of us, including the entry tickets (but not lunch) is about 750 euros, which comes to about 125 euros per person (about US$ 150). Thus, it is in the same ballpark as the ship's tour, which LeeAnn said was $176. when she took it last year.

There is some good info on the area on the spanish-fiestas website. Gerry also does private car tours if it is only for two or three people, rather than the larger van.

Happy hunting.... Cheers, Fred

FWIW - We have often found that as soon as you are a "group" or more than two or three people, private tours of 3-6 people are quite similar in price (and sometimes even lower!!) than the bus tours.