This post will be a short one and is more for the digital memory bank than anything else.
It will hopefully serve as a back up in case my physical memory fails me - part of the aging process so just want to ensure that I don't book two excursions in the same city for the same time.
So here to date are the port stops that I have private tours committed to so far.
1. Fortaleza, Brazil
2. Ushuaia, Argentina
3. Valpo/Santiago, Chile
4. Manta, Ecuador
5. Lima - two tours - Tour of Lima on Day 1 and Pachacamac ruins on Day 2
For many of the other ports of call I will likely wait for the ship's excursions to be posted in the coming months - this is particularly the case with Rio and Buenes Aires - two cities that I will feel more secure in on a ship tours than a private one.
Still to come - My love affair with Amtrak.
Cheers
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Paying for this cruise
Well it is a wet day here in Vancouver so perhaps now would be a good time to post about how I might pay for this once in a lifetime cruise.
I retired at the end of 2006 - well it was a severance as the building was closing for a re-build but with 35 pensionable years and approaching my 60th birthday and a fairly healthy pension entitlement I was set.
Well no need to dwell to much on what has happened to my pension - it has been hurt by the market turmoil and while the income from it and my Canada Pension Plan - similar to Social Security in the US provides enough for the daily pleasures of life - it also has forced me to draw down my reserve funds to pay for my travels the last five years and those have now been depleted.
I still do have funds available in my RRSP - Canadian equivalent to IRA`s but that income is taxable starting at 10% off the top.
I do have a financial planner and will be consulting with him next week as I try to draw up a 3 -5 year plan to include trips, condo assessments for improvement to the building and updating my own condo which has seen nothing since I moved in 6 years ago.
Like Americans we have reverse mortgages and equity line of credits and this is likely where my future finances will come from.
I am fortunate that I am mortgage free and own a small studio apartment in downtown Vancouver - while there has been some softening in the market prices here - it is less than 5% and because of tighter ownership rules and banking regulation we have not been faced with the ugliness of the American housing markets.
Vancouver is also a desired place to live and values are likely to continue to increase into the foreseeable future.
So my apartment is the source of future lending possibilities - being single and no heirs it is easier for me to draw on the value of that asset and it is tax free as well.
The real choice is between taking a reverse mortgage and a higher interest rate and make no payments until the property is sold or a bank home equity line of credit which is currently offered at Prime - 3% in Canada + 0.50% and you make interest payments each month but can also repay the principle if you wish.
This is likely the route I will go - I am only charged interest on the amount actually used not the amount authorized.
Depending on how much I want to use this will allow me to cruise a couple of times a year and will also allow me to start thinking about that next big one EUROPE in 2015.
Next up - how my fear of flying led to a love affair with Amtrak
Cheers
D
I retired at the end of 2006 - well it was a severance as the building was closing for a re-build but with 35 pensionable years and approaching my 60th birthday and a fairly healthy pension entitlement I was set.
Well no need to dwell to much on what has happened to my pension - it has been hurt by the market turmoil and while the income from it and my Canada Pension Plan - similar to Social Security in the US provides enough for the daily pleasures of life - it also has forced me to draw down my reserve funds to pay for my travels the last five years and those have now been depleted.
I still do have funds available in my RRSP - Canadian equivalent to IRA`s but that income is taxable starting at 10% off the top.
I do have a financial planner and will be consulting with him next week as I try to draw up a 3 -5 year plan to include trips, condo assessments for improvement to the building and updating my own condo which has seen nothing since I moved in 6 years ago.
Like Americans we have reverse mortgages and equity line of credits and this is likely where my future finances will come from.
I am fortunate that I am mortgage free and own a small studio apartment in downtown Vancouver - while there has been some softening in the market prices here - it is less than 5% and because of tighter ownership rules and banking regulation we have not been faced with the ugliness of the American housing markets.
Vancouver is also a desired place to live and values are likely to continue to increase into the foreseeable future.
So my apartment is the source of future lending possibilities - being single and no heirs it is easier for me to draw on the value of that asset and it is tax free as well.
The real choice is between taking a reverse mortgage and a higher interest rate and make no payments until the property is sold or a bank home equity line of credit which is currently offered at Prime - 3% in Canada + 0.50% and you make interest payments each month but can also repay the principle if you wish.
This is likely the route I will go - I am only charged interest on the amount actually used not the amount authorized.
Depending on how much I want to use this will allow me to cruise a couple of times a year and will also allow me to start thinking about that next big one EUROPE in 2015.
Next up - how my fear of flying led to a love affair with Amtrak
Cheers
D
Saturday, May 26, 2012
A map of our trip
One of the persons on the trip has designed a map of our journey showing our various port stops and has also set up some merchandise options using the services of Cafepress. Closer to sail date I might buy one perhaps as a Christmas present to myself.
Just a short note today as I have been meaning to post this for all to see.
Cheers!
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Fort Lauderdale for the first time planning
Since eight months from today I will be getting off an Amtrak train at Fort Lauderdale I thought it would be a good opportunity to review my plans to visit this embarkation city.
While I have set foot in Fort Lauderdale on train stops to and from Miami I have never stayed there so I needed to do some planning and this is where both the internet and Cruise critic members helped immensely to decide where to stay.
First I had to decide how many days and nights I could afford to spend pre-cruise and given the costs of the cruise that would be an issue. Travelling in the middle of winter across the north tier states from Seattle to Chicago and onto to Washington DC before turning south for warmer weather also had to be factored in. In the end I choose to come in two days early which really gives me and evening, one full day and embarkation morning to see some of the sites.
I know the Amtrak station isn't located near many of the better hotels and attractions and I don't want to be hauling around three pieces of heavy luggage all over the place.
So after checking Hotwire - Hotels.com etc. and advice from Cruise Critics members on the Florida board I opted to take the Marriott Renaissance Cruise Port hotel - it gets good reviews - is next door to the port entrance and depending on which terminal we sail out of perhaps walkable from the hotel.
I have an on-line cruising buddy who is from the Vancouver area who has stayed there and recommends it and he has fairly high expectations when it comes to accomodations.
The only problem was that I was outside of the Hotwire booking period and for budget reasons wanted to get that expense out of the way but I happened to hear that there was an online special being offered both by Marriott and the usual travel discounters - the problem with the Marriott was that the special price - about $100.00 cheaper per night was only good the first night as the second night was part of the weekends which are there busier days.
So I started checking on-line sources - most were showing the discounted price for both nights so I opted to got that route but in my price comparsion I noticed for instance that Expedia had a higher service fee than Hotels. com - I ended up taking it through Hotels.com - while higher than I like to pay - having work for the YMCa for over 40 years - staying in there lower price accomodations was never an issue - at about $135.00 a night it is a considerable saving and if I can walk to the port I will save some money there as well.
After I booked this hotel I posted to our roll call and it appears a number of others are staying there as well - so many in fact there has been a suggestion that perhaps we have a land based meet and greet the night before with one person even offering to contact the hotel and see if a room could be reserved for such a gathering - will keep you updated on that.
Well with the hotel taken care off I realized that I knew little about the city so I search and found there tourist info site. www.sunny.org which I bookmarked - but being a little of the old school also sent away for a hard copy - also visited my local Auto Association office and picked up more info there.
Haven't given a lot of thought of how to spent my time in Fort Lauderdale because after four + days on the train I don't know how tired I might be.
I like to walk and take in the sights that way - am a photography junkie or addict - generally like to do a HOHO type of touring especially the first time in the city so will likely utilize the Sun Coast Trolley - get a day pass and go from there - as mentioned I am not a big beach fan so will likely just walk over and talk a look but the Intercoastal Waterway has always intrigued me.
Hope you enjoy - feel free to comment.
Next up - Amtraking it across America.
While I have set foot in Fort Lauderdale on train stops to and from Miami I have never stayed there so I needed to do some planning and this is where both the internet and Cruise critic members helped immensely to decide where to stay.
First I had to decide how many days and nights I could afford to spend pre-cruise and given the costs of the cruise that would be an issue. Travelling in the middle of winter across the north tier states from Seattle to Chicago and onto to Washington DC before turning south for warmer weather also had to be factored in. In the end I choose to come in two days early which really gives me and evening, one full day and embarkation morning to see some of the sites.
I know the Amtrak station isn't located near many of the better hotels and attractions and I don't want to be hauling around three pieces of heavy luggage all over the place.
So after checking Hotwire - Hotels.com etc. and advice from Cruise Critics members on the Florida board I opted to take the Marriott Renaissance Cruise Port hotel - it gets good reviews - is next door to the port entrance and depending on which terminal we sail out of perhaps walkable from the hotel.
I have an on-line cruising buddy who is from the Vancouver area who has stayed there and recommends it and he has fairly high expectations when it comes to accomodations.
The only problem was that I was outside of the Hotwire booking period and for budget reasons wanted to get that expense out of the way but I happened to hear that there was an online special being offered both by Marriott and the usual travel discounters - the problem with the Marriott was that the special price - about $100.00 cheaper per night was only good the first night as the second night was part of the weekends which are there busier days.
So I started checking on-line sources - most were showing the discounted price for both nights so I opted to got that route but in my price comparsion I noticed for instance that Expedia had a higher service fee than Hotels. com - I ended up taking it through Hotels.com - while higher than I like to pay - having work for the YMCa for over 40 years - staying in there lower price accomodations was never an issue - at about $135.00 a night it is a considerable saving and if I can walk to the port I will save some money there as well.
After I booked this hotel I posted to our roll call and it appears a number of others are staying there as well - so many in fact there has been a suggestion that perhaps we have a land based meet and greet the night before with one person even offering to contact the hotel and see if a room could be reserved for such a gathering - will keep you updated on that.
Well with the hotel taken care off I realized that I knew little about the city so I search and found there tourist info site. www.sunny.org which I bookmarked - but being a little of the old school also sent away for a hard copy - also visited my local Auto Association office and picked up more info there.
Haven't given a lot of thought of how to spent my time in Fort Lauderdale because after four + days on the train I don't know how tired I might be.
I like to walk and take in the sights that way - am a photography junkie or addict - generally like to do a HOHO type of touring especially the first time in the city so will likely utilize the Sun Coast Trolley - get a day pass and go from there - as mentioned I am not a big beach fan so will likely just walk over and talk a look but the Intercoastal Waterway has always intrigued me.
Hope you enjoy - feel free to comment.
Next up - Amtraking it across America.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
The information highway
After I booked the cruise and before I went much further along the planning path and being a somewhat stickler for details I decided to start a cruise binder - while much of the info could be kept digitally I am enough of the old guard that I like to have a paper trail.
So I found an old large 4" binder and started to put it together - I basically put a divider in for each day of the cruise - yes all 49 days - then put in an info sheet with the day, date, port or sea day and if it is a tender port, time in port etc. I even colored coded them - green for port days and pink for sea days so if I am doing a quick search I know whether it is a sea or port day. I also an writing info I get from other sources and if I booked a private tour that info as well - once I get closer to actual date I will update those sheets and print them out.
I even got more inventive when it came to excursions - printing them out on yellow sheets and putting general info articles on your standard white. It seems to be working so now when I open a particular port it is easy for me to find what I am looking for.
Just a short entry for now.
Next up - finding out about my embarkation port of Fort Lauderdale and booking of the hotel and train.
Future articles - paying for the trip and one on sourcing of info and excursions.
Cheers
So I found an old large 4" binder and started to put it together - I basically put a divider in for each day of the cruise - yes all 49 days - then put in an info sheet with the day, date, port or sea day and if it is a tender port, time in port etc. I even colored coded them - green for port days and pink for sea days so if I am doing a quick search I know whether it is a sea or port day. I also an writing info I get from other sources and if I booked a private tour that info as well - once I get closer to actual date I will update those sheets and print them out.
I even got more inventive when it came to excursions - printing them out on yellow sheets and putting general info articles on your standard white. It seems to be working so now when I open a particular port it is easy for me to find what I am looking for.
Just a short entry for now.
Next up - finding out about my embarkation port of Fort Lauderdale and booking of the hotel and train.
Future articles - paying for the trip and one on sourcing of info and excursions.
Cheers
Monday, May 21, 2012
Introducing the ship - The Grand Princess
This is the Grand Princess - I copied it from the ships page on the Princess web site and will be my home for the full 49 days - it has been updated in the past year or two - it will also be the largest ship that I have sailed on - the previous biggest one would be the Norwegian Pearl when I took it to Alaska a couple of years ago with some cruising friends that I met on a repo cruise in the Caribbean - her mother had never been to Alaska and promised her a cruise there for her 80th birthday - while I am diverging from this cruise it was interesting to note on that cruise that the daughter - not exactly a party pooper had trouble keeping up with the exploits of her mother.
I have an inside cabin mid - ship on Baja Deck 11 - considering the challenge of booking this cruise and taking the first one available it appears to be in not too bad of a location - it is only two cabins from an elevator and while I generally walk the steps on cruises - helps with the weight control - it is nice to know that if I enjoy one or two or three or whatever number too many of adult beverages either on the ship or in port I won't have far to get to my room. I generally don't spend much time in my cabin so an inside makes sense and I usually leave the bathroom lite on and door slightly ajar to make it seems more human.
Picture of an inside cabin on the Grand.
http://delivery.vrxstudios.com/princess/vrxviewer.asp?id=676 Click on the link to get a virtual view of an inside cabin.
I notice that some people cruising on the Carnival Splendour at about the same time have linked to this blog - hope you enjoy my posts which will become more frequent as the various items on my bucket list get taken care of.
The next item that I will be doing is contacting my financial advisor who was a long time client at my former place of work and believes strongly if you don't spend it when you are alive you are probably missing a lot of fun things in your life. My saying these days is "if I don't spend it now with the way the markets are going - and here in Canada our overall economy and debt levels aren't a big concern - it is going to be gone anyways.
As I have no siblings left and no off-spring I am basically free to do as I please with my investments.
I also outlined my cruising bucket list for the next 3 - 4 years - interesting to see what he comes up with as a strategy.
I chose anytime dining - as a NCL regular eating when I like and in most cases it is earlier rather than later - the thought of set times doesn't appeal to me.
Having not been on this ship before and having limited exposure to Princess' ships will need to spend times figuring out which speciality restaurants I might try - also need to see if I can get a listing of the machines in the gym so that I can get a personal trainer at the Y to design a routine for me.
On my other cruises I generally do a lot of walking in the ports and cities that we visit but I am a little more leery of that in some of the ports stops we will be making on this journey - Rio worries me the most as it is the height of Carnaval time and things are likely to be chaotic with all the revellers - I will probably stick with tours there.
I cut this short in the original post because a friend called and wanted to know if I wanted to join him while he had dinner - I had eaten but always enjoy going to the White Spot - www.whitespot.ca - being only two blocks from home and located inside the Best Western downtown hotel- it is like a second home to both of us. I just had a couple of glasses of 7-UP - free refills and because it is a holiday here in Canada - Victoria Day - in honor of the former British Monarch the restaurant closed an hour earlier.
Cheers
Sunday, May 13, 2012
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
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
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