One week today and I set off for Southampton. As I’m not sending any cases down with the Baggage Handling Company this time, I’ve not got any clothes out yet. Well that’s a bit of a fib, there are some hankies and four bow ties sat on the spare bed. I will probably start putting out more stuff this afternoon. I have actually done cruise stuff this morning. Janet gave me some Brazilian reis for Christmas and until I knew how many, I couldn’t buy a...

Four weeks today and we set sail. Things are moving on. Barbara came up last week and we booked a few more trips. Everything has now been booked, any ports we haven’t got anything organised in, we’ll either stroll around or look and see what’s on offer at the dock. Usually there are hordes of people offering tours. Today I picked up Chilean, Colombian and US currencies. I’ve ordered Uruguayan which, hopefully, I can collect tomorrow. That only ...

I've already had two yellow fever jabs, but the last was over 20 years ago. WHO has just decided that one jab and you're covered for life. I'm making sure I can board the ship, as P&O have been saying 'no certificate, no embarkation'. So today I had another jab. When I was researching clnics the one I chose charged £55. The next day, when I booked the appointment online, the price had risen to £62! So I'm covered and so far, touch wood, no side effec...

Well I have to go now, I've just paid Thomas Cook the final invoice. We've booked a few more excursions. Rio, Montevideo, Callao, Barbados and St Maarten have all been booked and in some cases completely paid for. Now I'm just waiting for P&O to issue their excursions. Barbara is coming up for lunch the day after tomorrow and we'll have a good old chat about this cruise and another we're taking in April next year. Things are slowly coming together.

Well, eight months before we arrive we've sorted out some excursions! Twelve of us have booked a private catamaran charter in Barbados (see picture). Eight of us have arranged a private guide in Callao, Peru. She's going to take us to Lima. I found out about her from a couple (Pete and Marissa) that Javon and I met on our Asian cruise on board Celebrity Constellation. Finally, Barbara and I have booked a resort for the day in St Maarten. It's actually by th...