Okay, so AAC could not justify why they charged $4,000 more than most other companies. They did not move on their price at all. So, I went with the exact same itinerary & lodgings with Africa Serendipity, for $11,550.
Yes, the Sandi that posts with great advise is the same Sandi from Serendipity. However, since she never once promoted her business, I did not hesitate to use her. In fact, in our discussions it came out that once I had contacted her directly for a quote on the trip, she stopped posting on my thread immediately.
She was very, very nice. We met here in NYC for brunch. She had a packet of information and all the necessary forms. Things could not have gone any smoother. All of our questions were answered and I am confident that the trip will turn out great.

We discussed the pros and cons of Manyara vs Tarangire, and settled on 2 nights in Tarangire, with a drive through Manyara on our way to Serengeti. We also mulled over Swala vs Treetops in Tarangire, and agreed on Treetops in the end. My only regret in all the plans is that we are staying at Ngorongoro North or South camp and not the Tree Camp, but I guess you can't have everything.
So, final itinerary departing March 14 is:
NY to Zurich, Zurich to Nairobi
Overnight at Norfolk
AM flight to Kilimanjaro & drive to Tarangire
2 Nights Treetops
2 Nights Crater Lodge
4 Nights Olakira Mobile Tent Camp
Serengeti flight to Arusha. Arusha to Zanzibar.
3 Nights Bluebay Beach Resort
Dar Es Salaam/Nairobi/Zurich/NY
Thank you everyone for your very valuable input. I will do a full report in April.

Great to hear! Hope you have a wonderful trip and looking forward to your report in April

Thanks for letting us know the outcome. I'm sure you'll have a really wonderful trip!

Thanks for letting us know. I am still working on mine.

Leann

Cheers
Sounds a great trip. Certainly a couple of steps up the luxury ladder from ours. (My blue are turning green) & you will have a cool $4,000 to splurge or save for the next rip. Enjoy!

oops - that's blue eyes

Splurging because I have not been away since spring of 2004, unless you count Vegas and long weekends. Had the job from hell. So, normally we would take 2 trips for that price, one in 2004 and one in 2005. Worth the wait though!

Are air fares from/to New York included in this price?

bugswife1:
Sounds like a wonderful trip and didn't you say the difference would buy you jewelry? Large piece of Tanzanite on your horizon?

If it is any consolation about Tree Camp, the rooms at North and South camp are supposed to be larger, and the shared spaces more opulent. When I was researching it I found a split of opinion about which camps were better. (ATR, CCAfrica, and ADS all recommended N/S camps for example--unless you were with a party that could book the entire camp.) Eben's website has a video of a N/S camp room, N/S lounge, and Tree camp lounge--[www.go-safari.com/NCA/Craterlodge.htm]

The detail about your contact with a booking with Sandi is very helpful and adds to what people would expect based on her postings--but I believe you are the first to report an actual booking so that is particularly useful.

Thanks for letting us know what happened and congrats on your excellent outcome.

No, airfare was not included. We found 2 business class seats available for miles. Normally, we buy upgradable economy and then use miles to upgrade. However, due to the increasing difficuly when trying to redeem miles, we really just wanted to dump the AA miles and stick with our AMEX points. So, 150K miles each for business class. We had to buy miles because we did not have enough. Total cost for the 2 of us and all of our miles was $2660. I think that is a bargain for business class NY to Zurich, Zurich to Nairobi, and return.

Other fees are $200 for the 2 of us for the visas (Kenya/Tanzania), $250 for the dive package in Zanzibar, and trip insurance.

Sounds like this turned out very well for you, and hopefully your posts will indicate to others that there are alternatives to Africa Adventure and other larger, more expensice, operators -- it just takes a bit of legwork, and in your case, you were very lucky to connect with a local operator. A $4,000 savings on a $15,500 trip (the quote from AAC) is more than 25%.

Glad it worked out bugswife1. Sounds like you're more than ready for an amazing vacation.

Oh, and Sandi's nice? Who knew?

Not only is Sandi really nice, but she is very well travelled in Africa and so appreciative of the people and environment. And she tipped me off to some info about the larger outfits that I promised not to devulge but made me even more confident in going with her and Roy's.

Oh sure, tease us

As my money (and my hopes) are all tied up right now, I don't want to know anything until I get back!

Yes, no surprise that Sandi's absolutely wonderful. And, on this board, she has consistently advocated using in-country operators.

My other dream was to have my sister and her husband go climb Kili with climbhigh's operation; they are the mountaineering types. But they are having a baby instead.

Leely:
My partner's dream is to climb Kili with climhigh's company but he ruptured his achilles tendon so we could not do it on our forthcoming trip. Since he planned on dragging me along it saved me from having to get into shape for this trip.

Yes, it's a nice dream--for other people.

Bugswife1 - I just saw your itinerary and would love to do the exact same thing practically on our honeymoon. If you can, please e-mail me at [email protected] so I could hear all about it and also find out about the tour company you used.

bugswife disappeared after this unfortunately.... I don't think we ever got a report back from her. She used www.africaserendipity.com based in the US.

bugswife,
How was your trip? Please give us an update if you're still around.