Good list, reminded me of our travels before my wife got sick. Like you, we got to be master's of the game.

Worst experience story.

Coming into Manaus in Brazil on a delayed flight at 1 AM. Only 2 people working Customs and all luggage was searched. It took 3 hours to get through that line.

Which was horrific given that they lost our luggage (it went to Sao Paulo) and we had to stand in another line for that. We didn't get to the hotel until 6 AM.

Try checking in at 6 AM. Hotels can be problematic at that hour. Even with reservations.

In the end everything worked out. We got our luggage after 5 days. The day before our Amazon cruise started.

My wife got to go on a shopping trip the day before we got the luggage back. Because there was no way in hell she was going on a cruise with just the stuff she had in our carry-ons.

So, she wound up pretty happy. 🙂