Buying a (Semi-)DSLR Camera and Stocking Memory Cards

[CenSin]

So I'm going on vacation in a few months, and for the first time I'm going to be away from civilization for 7 days straight (on a cruise, in case you were thinking of the jungle). There will be no reliable internet connection, and cellphones will pretty much stop working (or be very expensive to use). I'm suppose to arrange the "tech" we're bringing along to keep all of us entertained during the night. For the day, I'm going to need a good camera. I've been asking around for recommendations, and most have settled on Nikon or Canon with Sony being strongly discouraged. I'm not sure why, because I found this great one (SLT-A77) from Sony on snapsort.com. I'm primarily drawn to the camera's GPS tagging, automatic HDR, 1080p video recording with stereo audio, and the (questionable) 3-D photo feature. Getting this thing is going to set me back about $1200 right now, so I'm going to solicit some more advice on cameras before I sink any money into it.
 
Samsung memory cards, by the way, are quite cheap right now if anyone wants to snag a few of these. The Samsung MB-SGCGB/AM SDXC cards are 64 GB, UHS-I class, and have a maximum read speed of 80 MB/s and write speed of 40 MB/s. They are only $49.99 on Fry's. I'm stocking up on about 6~8 of these as I'm likely to abuse all the storage space I can get my hands on. For comparison…

Company  Code             Capacity  Class    Read     Write    Features             Cheapest  LinkSanDisk  SDSDXPA-064G-A75 64 GB     UHS-I    95 MB/s           Water-resistant      $115.75   http://zerbertdirect.store.rakuten.com/p/sandisk-extreme-pro-64gb-sdxc-flash-memory-card/224915880.html?listingId=294509995Lexar    LSD64GCTBNA400   64 GB     UHS-I    60 MB/s  20 MB/s                       $72.35    http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/841483-REG/Lexar_LSD64GCTBNA400_64GB_SDXC_Professional_400x.htmlSanDisk  SDSDRX3-064G-A21 64 GB     UHS-I    45 MB/s  45 MB/s  Water-resistant      $64.66    http://zerbertdirect.store.rakuten.com/p/sandisk-extreme-64gb-class-10-sdxc-flash-memory-card-45mb-s/228241676.html?listingId=294508584Samsung  MB-SGCGB/AM      64 GB     UHS-I    80 MB/s  40 MB/s  Everything-resistant $49.99    http://www.frys.com/product/7348364Lexar    LSD128CTBNA400   128 GB    UHS-I    60 MB/s  10 MB/s                       $149.00   http://beach-camera.store.rakuten.com/p/lexar-professional-128-gb-secure-digital-extended-capacity-sdxc-1-card/229164484.html?listingId=214431041SanDisk  SDSDRX3-128G-A21 128 GB    UHS-I    45 MB/s  45 MB/s  Water-resistant      $136.99   http://3cexpert.store.rakuten.com/p/sandisk-extreme-128gb-secure-digital-extreme-card-sdxc/228241677.html?listingId=235163405Kingston SDX10V/128GB     128 GB    Class 10 10 MB/s                                $97.73    http://3cexpert.store.rakuten.com/p/kingston-128gb-sdxc-class-10-flash-memory-card/238765295.html?listingId=242014795Lexar    LSD256CTBNA600   256 GB    UHS-I    90 MB/s                                $494.99   http://www.rakuten.com/prod/lexar-media-professional-256-gb-secure-digital-extended-capacity-sdxc/248372272.html?listingId=279621440