One really important question:

 

For those who have dealt with this before, where do you start on a retopology? The torso and work from there? The feet? Head? I don't have the bandwidth to search for any good videos, so I will need to just get a few pointers. As I said, I will have 3 weeks on the open ocean to figure it out... 

If I had a nickle for ever time a woman told me to get lost, I could buy Manhattan.