Al - As we have posted here and on CC, we were very happy with our corner aft cabin 877 on Voyager for the Norwegian fjords cruise a couple of years ago. However, it was on the starboard side and less likely to be plagued by the infamous vibration as the cabins on the port side were. Most of the discussions on this board and CC suggest that vibration problems on either side are not an issue forward of the laundrette. (Hmm, maybe those odd little washing machines somehow counter the vibrations because of their own wacky spinning motion - calling all physicists for an opinion...)

Denise - Pat & I always buy travel insurance for our cruises. Once we have plunked down all that dough for the final payment, we don't want to find ourselves penaltied (is that a word??) out of it if one of us becomes ill (or breaks an ankle on our daily 3-mile trail walk in the state park with our pooches) shortly before the trip. For our Hanseatic cruise (POP, aka PENGUINS) to Antarctica this past Jan/Feb, we bought the CSA policy because it had the highest medical evacuation coverage of anything available. When you're in Antarctica, evacuation could be very expensive (ie. 100's of 1000's of $$$).

We will look at CSA and the other offerings in addition to RSSC's offering. Ngaire has a very good analysis of insurance somewhere on LCT, although I can't find it at the moment. CSA seems to be a good choice if there are not any pre-existing conditions, such as my tendency to prattle on and on (fortunately, that is just a social condition, rather than a medical one...).

After reading about the medical evacuation on FJORDS, we have also decided to subscribe to MedJetAssist. It is not expensive and would allow us to be sent back to a hospital close to home, rather than one in some distant place. After all, no matter how modern and excellent a hospital might be in Dubai, Oslo, or Paris, we'd want to be back in a hospital in Seattle, closer to home.

JoAnn - Like you, we just booked the South Lanzarote tour. We think it will be great fun to ride the camels for 45 minutes or so. Other than that, we haven't decided what to do. We may take the Flamenco tour in Barcelona, but will likely just book the flamenco club on our own (both of the main flamenco clubs in the city can be booked on-line) and skip the bus trip. The biggest ??? is Valencia, as we are there such a short time. Despite our generally avid aversion for bus tours, we may take one there because there are not good alternatives considering the short time in port.

As Kathy noted, in Casablanca and Agadir, we have engaged a private guide (the same one that Andi used on TAP). I'll be happy to post the contact info for his agency if anyone wants to use his agency's services. Andi's little group of six or eight managed their own schedule on the trip from Adadir to Taroudant, while the Regent bus tour didn't get to stop and photograph the famous tree-climbing goats. We intend to do the same thing and will include a long Moroccan lunch at one of the excellent restaurants in Taroudant. (Yikes, I'm getting hungry just thinking about that lovely food - b'stilla, lamb tagine, fricassee of camel hump - okay, I made up that last one...)

Cheers, Fred