A cruise of this length or magnitude will require a lot of planning and since I am retired and have time on my hands I will certainly be doing lots of that.

After booking the cruise I would normally then do Amtrak but I have held off on that until I made a decision on the two cruises I had planned for this fall - now both cancelled.

I am also having major dental surgery this week - all of the remaining uppers removed and to be replaced with a full upper plate - want to get that expense out of the way first and then the train will be booked.

The hotel in Fort Lauderdale is booked - the Marriott Renaissance Cruise Port for two nights - got a good buy on Hotels.com - haven't been to Ft Lauderdale so will spend some time exploring the area..

I have currently about 20 items on my planning list to check into - including renewing my passport and getting a visa for Brazil - fortunately there is a Canadian passport office close by as well as a Brazilian consulate.

Others items include:

Checking for vaccinations - the only possible one at the moment is yellow fever and because I am over 60 they don't recommend that you have that - if required you get a note from your doctor stating that it is too risky to have the shot.

I need to get my financial advisor to move some money to pay for the cruise and other expenses related to the trip.

I have created a budget to help me and my FA expense the trip.

Need to check with my bank and credit card companies about being out of the country for an extended time. I don't intend to take all of my cards with me - probably the two with the highest limits.

Need to purchase both medical and trip insurance - usually my provincial and extended benefit package provides enough coverage for medical but only for the first 30 days so will get that a little later in the year.

Need to check with my phone company for options for my smart phone and tablet.

As a photographer I love to take pictures - so I need to decide how to handle all the photos and videos that I will be taking - while I can load them onto my netbook that will clog up the available space. Will likely use a combo of media cards and flash drives - could consider a portable hard drive but unlikely to use again so not sure that would be a good expenditure.

Also need to continue researching the various ports of call and start planning the excursions.

Packing will be a real challenge because of the varying weather conditions - there are coin-op laundries on the ship so I will be able to travel a little lighter than normal.

Getting late so that's all for now.

Cheers

D