Travel Arrangements are done

Greetings blog watchers & friends…

We are almost another month closer to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, and plans are moving forward.  I have organised all the flights for myself & Fiona, and have sorted out & paid for the internal flights around Brazil. Other than taxi’s and maybe some ad-hoc car hire, all our transportation arrangements are complete….

I have also scoped out the times and budget for the Chilean portion of our pre-trip, and passed them on to Fiona so that she can start her planning process. I think the current plan is to spend some time in Santiago with Fiona’s cousin before heading north to San Pedro de Atacama, as part of our now customary ‘Desert’ visit. We are expecting that Fiona’s cousins that live in Chile may join us for a portion of our time in Brazil, in Salvador hopefully.

So that’s about it for this month’s update….. We have the core components for our trip booked, just need to wait and see how lucky we are with the ticketing process…..

Starting to get real....

Since my last blog entry, I made the changes to the Itinerary that I proposed last month and have successfully progressed all the bookings for our accommodation in Brazil accordingly. 

So the  schedule now looks like this: -

• 6th June – Arrive Sao Paulo – Oscar Freire Suítes  - BOOKED
• 13th June – Arrive Fortaleza – Beach Apartment – BOOKED
• 30th June – Arrive Salvador – HouseGuest Penthouse  - BOOKED 
• 16th July – Arrive Rio de Janeiro – Atlantis Copacabana – BOOKED
• 20th July – Arrive Manaus – Caesar Business Manaus – BOOKED
• 26th July – Fly to Sao Paulo for return international flights

 

Yates has booked his international flights and will be arriving 1 day early in to Sao Paulo on the 5^th June, and Fiona & I are planning to meet him on the following day. I am still progressing my international flight bookings, but I am hoping to have that all squared away by the end of this month, or early October.

 

Once we have the international portion of our flights booked, we will both need to sort out our internal Brazil Airpass flights soon too..!

 

Yates & I have also submitted our initial request for 4 sets of tickets each in the first sales phase ballot of the World Cup ticket process, (specific matches identified in my previous blog post). Now we just need to keep our fingers crossed that we do better in the first sales phase than we did for the previous World Cup in South Africa, where we were allocated only 1 set of tickets out for the 14 we requested…!

The first sales window closes on the 10^th October and we will know what we have been allocated soon after that. Yates & I will then be ready and waiting with our credit cards in our hands to purchase any tickets we miss out on in the initial phase, when the "First Come First Served" phase starts of 5th of November. Exciting huh...?

Here is an overview of the remaing ticket sales phases:

With only 276 days to go now, it is starting to get real.... :-)

 

 

Latest Changes to the Itinerary

Okay, I have taken an executive decision in regards to the proposed itinerary for Brazil 2014

So far I have not been able to find suitable accommodation in either Manaus, (in the Amazon), or in Rio de Janeiro over the World Cup Finals weekend. The majority of Manaus hotels/lodges are almost fully booked up during WC2014, and those that are available are charging a premium that I was not interested in paying.

The Rio situation is a bit different because there are plenty of hotels in the city but nearly everything in the good area’s is either already booked or too expensive, and I don’t want to take the risk of staying somewhere less savoury, given the city’s reputation for violence & street crime.

Therefore I am proposing to take those two destinations out of the itinerary and extend our stays in Fortaleza & Salvador, (see exact dates below). I will however be looking to book visits to both Manaus & Rio, but after the end of the World Cup, where unsurprisingly availability & price are both plentiful and reasonable.

I have not ruled out making a side trip to Rio if we can manage to score some tickets for the World Cup Final on the 13th July, where we could fly to Rio for the day and then straight back to Salvador.

So the new proposed itinerary is as follows:

• 22 May 2024 – Arrive in Santiago, Chile
• 6th June 2014 – Arrive Sao Paulo – Hotel booked for 7 nights
• 13th June 2014 – Arrive Fortaleza – Apartment booking pending for 17 nights
• 30th June 2014 – Arrive Salvador – Penthouse booked for 16 nights
• 16th July 2014 – Arrive Rio de Janeiro – Hotel to be confirmed
• 20th July 2014 – Arrive Manaus, Amazonia – Hotel to be confirmed
• 26th July 2014 – Fly to Sao Paulo for return international flights

I have also taken my first pass on our ticket requirements for the World Cup based upon the revised schedule above : -

• M1 - 12th June - A1 v A2
• M7 - 14th June - D1 v D2 
• M17 - 18th June - A1 v A3 
• M29 - 21 June - G1 v G3
• M38 - 23rd June - C2 v C3
• M51 - 29th June - 1B v 2B
• M56 - 1st July - 1H v 2G
• M59 - 5th July - W51 v W5

The 1st Ticket Sales Phase starts on 20th of this month and is open until October, so there is no rush to make a ticket request. Therefore I will take another look at the schedule to re-confirm the ticket schedule before starting the application process.

Next.... Flights....!

Brazil World Cup 2014: Planning Update

It’s been a while since I last posted to the Blog, but now that we are within a year of the World Cup, preparations are beginning  to start in earnest and our plan starts to come together.

We are still planning to travel to Chile in our pre-World Cup Trip, leaving New Zealand around the 21^st / 22^nd of May. We are aiming to start off in Santiago, where Fiona has some family, before heading north to San Pedro de Atacama, where we will hang out for a relaxing week or so, taking in the sites and de-stressing from our hectic lives in New Zealand.  

From Chile we head to Brazil on the 6^th June to  spend 7 days in Sao Paulo. As it’s only a short period of time I have booked 2 apartments in the Oscar Freire Suítes hotel near the Consolacao & Paulista  districts, and close to the Clínicas Metro stations to allow us to travel about the city easily. The opening match of the 2014 World Cup is being played during our time in Sao Paulo, and tickets allowing, we aim to be there.

Sao Paulo Accommodation: http://www.booking.com/hotel/br/oscar-freire-plaza-imovel-total.en-us.html?sid=dc147fc41fe2bc2a7b4fb9dfb07dcd7c;hotel_id=373020;lang=en-us 

Our original plan then had us jetting north to the Amazon to a city called Manaus for another week, where we could see 2 of the group round matches. Manaus is quite a small city and does not have the scale of accommodation available that we could find in Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro. For this reason it has been difficult to find somewhere to stay, a lot of the bigger hotels & resorts have already been booked early by the traveling international media and the organising committee. I am continuing to investigate options, but this stop on our itinerary may be the first casualty, as our plan gives way to reality.

 

Next step of the tour takes us to Fortaleza on the North Eastern coast of Brazil for an 11 night stay in this historic city. I am currently working with some contacts in Fortaleza to secure a high rise sea-front apartment, and am just waiting for the last few details to come through before making the booking. While we are in Fortaleza there are 3 World Cup games being played at the newly renovated Estadio Castelo stadium.

 

Staying in the North Eastern corner of Brazil, I have booked an apartment in Salavador, where we will be staying for just slightly less than 2 weeks. The main criteria for selecting this property, apart from the fact that it is pretty cool is that it is in a great part of town, not too far from the Stadium, and close to where things will be happening. A brand new stadium has been built for the World Cup, and we are planning to attend 2 of the later stage World Cup matches at the Arena Fonte Nova stadium.

 

Salvador Accommodation: http://www.houseguestbrazil.com/

 

Finally we are planning to head to Rio de Janerio for the World Cup Final weekend if we can find suitable accommodation and blag some tickets to the Final. Right now it’s pretty hard to find accommodation for that particular weekend with so many people from around the world all thinking of doing the same thing, but I am continuing to keep my eyes peeled over the coming weeks.

 

The timeframe and pricing has been released for the World Cup tickets, and Yates & I are planning our strategy to get the tickets we want, for the cities we are staying in. The first round of ticket sales starts on 20^th August and is open until 10^th October, after which there will be a lottery draw to see who gets tickets. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we have better luck that we did in the last World Cup where we got 1 set of tickets out of 14…!

 

With the above in mind, our itinerary needs to be pretty firm before we commit to buying tickets, but we do have up until 10^th of October to get the plan fully sorted. There are 4 further sales phases before the tournament kicks-off, so we have plenty of opportunities to pick up the tickets we don’t get in the lottery.

 

Tickets Sales Phases: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/organisation/ticketing/ticket-information/sale-phases/index.html

Ticketing information: http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/tournament/ticketing/02/12/19/77/fwc2014-ticket-media-info-en_neutral.pdf

Preparations pick up in Brazil

Preparations pick up in Brazil as they get ready for the Confederations Cup this summer.

A preview of the 2014 World Cup ticketing process...?

It's been a while since I last posted here, mainly because 2 years out from the World Cup, there is very little going on...... But now that we are less than a year & a half away I have started my early planning process and started checking all my usual sources of information, and came across the ticketing information for the this years Confederations Cup.

The Confederations Cup is the pre-competition that is held in the country of the World Cup the year before and is generally used as a test run for all the processes and systems that they will use for the World Cup a year later. With that in mind, please find below details of the ticketing sales phases for the 2013 Confederations Cup to be held in Brazil in June 2013:

It is my expectation that the ticketing for the 2014 World Cup will be released in exactly the same format as that for the Confederations Cup, especially as the format is almost identical to the sales phase breakdown from the 2010 South African World Cup.
 

If the above is correct, then we will be preparing ourselves for the first sales phase, (Visa Pre-Sales), around the last few weeks of November, with the second phase (Advanced Sales), between December 2013 & April 2014, with the final phase (Last Minute), from April 2014 until the competition starts.
 

Can you feel the excitement yet...?

Starting to get Ideas

My excitement for the World Cup in Brazil in 2014 was only heightened by the recent Euro's from Poland & Ukraine. Whist the thrill of watching an international tournament on TV is one thing, actually travelling to a World Cup is so much more exciting, and I am now looking forward to Brazil even more. Anyway, congratulations to Spain who have now completed a memorable treble of wins at the highest level and have proven that they really are a dominant force in World Soccer.

Anyway back to Brazil 2014 and the planning continues, but only very slowly. I have further refined my planning process using the principle that we will need to travel round Brazil during the World Cup, staying in specific cities when games are being played there.  With a goal of seeing between 8-10 games, but not be travelling every couple of days, I have come up with the following tentative schedule:  -

• 06/6 - 12/6 - Sao Paulo - 7 days - Opening Game
• 13/6 - 18/6 - Manaus - 6 days - 2 Group Games
• 19/6 - 29/6 - Fortaleza - 11 days - 2 Group Games / 1 Round of 16 Game
• 30/6 - 11/7 - Salvador - 12 days - 1 Round of 16 Game / 1 Quarterfinal
• 12/7 - 15/7 - Rio de Janeiro  - 4 days - World Cup Final

The above tentative schedule allows us to see 9 games in total, (including the Opening Game & the Final), and also see a fair amount of Brazil. We would start of in the South in Sao Paulo for a week to take in the site & sounds of this bustling city. Next we head North to Manaus, the gateway to the Amazon. It would seem to be a bit of a shame to travel all the way to Brazil and not see at least a little of the famous Amazonian basin. I am sure we can waste some time taking a couple of day tours into the Amazon Rainforest, and fit in a couple of matches.

From the Amazon we would then head to the North Eastern coastal city of Fortaleza, famous for it's beautiful beaches, sunny weather and ancient Portuguese architecture. Spending 11 days in Fortaleza should give us a good feel for this old city with plenty of time for relaxing in the sun. Next we start to head South to Salvador, again on the coast, with deep influence of the Afro-descendents and indigenous peoples in this culturally rich city. With 12 days there, we have plenty more time to see the sights, relax and see a couple of matches.

From Salvador we finally head to Rio de Janeiro where we will in town long enough to see the sights and hopefully the World Cup final. I have deliberately left Rio to last, and given the problems associated with this sprawling mega-city, I have allowed just enough time to do the touristy things and be in the same city as the Final. I am currently planning on heading back to Sao Paulo after this, as I am expecting that Sao Paulo will be our international flight hub, but this may change to Rio depending of flights and availability.

I think that the above schedule gives us the best of everything we are heading to Brazil to achieve: 9 World Cup Games; 5 different cities; diverse locations that will show off the best that Brazil has to offer. As with all plans, things can change, but I have to start somewhere with an idea, and this is it.

Thoughts...?