Inside Travel Talk
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Inside Travel Talk
Enchanting Escapes: Safari Spectacles and Unique Southern Caribbean Cruises
Set sail on a narrative journey where I recount the splendors of an MSC cruise, which includes an exclusive tease of the alluring Ocean Cay, MSC's private island paradise. Fasten your seatbelts as we also explore the thrilling possibilities of Las Vegas' future spaceport and dissect the extended Real ID deadline's impact on travel—ideal for those who've yet to update their IDs. Throughout the episode, we interlace personal anecdotes with enticing industry updates, ensuring you're equipped with the latest travel insights.
Imagine the raw beauty of Africa on a safari adventure, hearing firsthand my encounters with majestic wildlife and the vibrant local communities. From the Great Migration's awe-inspiring spectacle to the hypnotic nocturnes of hippos, this episode paints a vivid picture of the African wilderness. Plus, if your heart beats for the call of the wild, don't miss our essential travel tips tailored for those ready to chart their own African journey.
Finally, we examine the evolving landscape of cruise dining, where tradition meets innovation, and I share a cautionary tale that highlights the importance of meticulous packing. We then whisk you away to the unique Islands of the Southern Caribbean.
The Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show presented by BluePlanetVacations. com contains travel deals, promotions and offers that may be time-sensitive. All offers and information were accurate when the show aired. Travel deals and offers change constantly and are capacity-controlled and subject to change without notice explore your world.
Show Voice:it's the inside travel talk podcast and radio show presented by blue planet vacations. com. Call or text the show now 801-649-3700, 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. And check out the podcast at InsideTravelTalk. com. And now here are your hosts, Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.
Patrick Wiscombe:Oh, my goodness, coming to you live, at least. I am from Salt Lake. Mark Faldmo is in the middle of the sailing Atlantic Ocean, sailing New York city, Brooklyn specifically. You are listening to the inside travel talk podcast and radio show. My name is Patrick Wiscombe. Mark Faldmo.
Mark Faldmo:Ahoy, matey, how you doing hello doing good, having a great day, just finishing up this seven-day cruise on MSC Cruise Lines. Next week we'll do a full report on this. I want to put some thoughts together. We'll have a full report on the itinerary. Specifically, ocean Cay MSC Reserve, their private island in Fascinating Island Bahamas . I want to talk a little bit more about that, but we'll do that next week.
Patrick Wiscombe:Nikki and I will be on the island in June, somewhere between June 20th and June 30th, I think.
Mark Faldmo:You're going to love it.
Patrick Wiscombe:So that's something to look forward to. The MSC Maravilla from everything that I've seen, all the research that you've shown me is that it's a beautiful ship, big ship, kind of a over what about 50, 300 passengers?
Mark Faldmo:So a big ship, it's a big ship and a wonderful experience, Good dining everything you'd want in a cruise. You'll find it with MSC.
Patrick Wiscombe:Our thanks to Laura Okunowski. I know she couldn't make the cruise this time because she's in Phoenix right now. Our thanks to her for putting this together for Mark and I Coming up on this edition of the show. We're going to be talking about the spaceport, so as soon as I say the word space, I always think of Florida. We're going to be talking about Las Vegas and we're also going to be talking about the real ID, and the first segment of the show is always the hot travel deal of the week, and I'm just going to say African Safari. How many times have you been to Africa, mark?
Mark Faldmo:I've done a safari one time and I hope to do it many, many more times. It's quite amazing.
Patrick Wiscombe:This story was so interesting, you sent it to me that Las Vegas, Clark County specifically, has given the green light for the what they're calling the first stages of a spaceport in the desert outside of Las Vegas.
Mark Faldmo:The first phase is going to be an executive airport. They've chosen a 240 acre site near Pahrump, Nevada. Is that?
Patrick Wiscombe:the oh hold on. Is that where Whiskey Pete's is and Buffalo Bill's? Oh wait, no, Pahrump is the other direction, it's north.
Mark Faldmo:Pahrump is the other direction, north, I believe. Okay, closer to Area 51 makes the spaceport a little more interesting.
Patrick Wiscombe:I smell a conspiracy theory coming.
Mark Faldmo:It's a quite ambitious project. They're first going to start with an executive airport. Then they plan to have some air races, some different events there, and then eventually they're going to grow that into more of an executive airport where they're going to get some partners with some private jet things. They can use this for overflow. If you remember, back during the Super Bowl, the Las Vegas airport ran out of parking spaces for all the private jets that came in, so that's right.
Mark Faldmo:So they had to fly. You know they were parking them in Saint George and mesquite and everywhere that they could, so they can use this airport, which is closer, for some overflow, and they intend to develop this into a full-blown project with a hotel, a casino, a rooftop restaurant and then eventually a spaceport. They seem to think that private space travel by private space. I guess airplanes is about five years away. They did mention space planes, so I think it's going to be more like a space plane.
Mark Faldmo:Space tourism perhaps Space tourism? Well, there's space tourism now, but it's millions of millions of dollars per ride. So I think this is they're going to try and bring the space tourism a little bit closer to the average person. It'll probably still be pretty pricey, but leave it to Las Vegas to think of something like this.
Patrick Wiscombe:This is right up Vegas's alley. If you had the chance to go to space, would you? I would, I would, yes, okay, Nikki said absolutely not, I'm not doing that. I saw this other story about Real ID. The implementation is one year out. Let me just ask what is Real ID and what's putting it on hold for another year?
Mark Faldmo:Real ID actually has been in the works since just after September 11th. It's something that they've been working on. Leave it to the government to make something last 25 years to implement. Real ID is basically making driver's license machine readable and compliant with certain things, standardizing them a little bit more. Here in Utah, pretty much anyone who gets an ID, a new driver's license it's real ID compliant. It should have a gold star.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yeah, I just got one renewed.
Mark Faldmo:Yep in the upper right-hand corner, and this was actually set to go into effect in 2022. And then COVID pushed it back and it's been pushed back and they say now May 7th of 2025 is the deadline for real ID.
Mark Faldmo:Again, for most states, ids are already compliant, and so if you don't have a compliant ID, you'll need to either travel with a passport Well, you'll need to travel with a passport if you don't have a Real ID compliant driver's license, although there still are a few states that are having issues with this. New Jersey, for instance, only one in seven drivers have opted in for a Real ID. I guess there they have to opt in for it. I guess there they have to opt in for it. Illinois only has about 25% of people with a real ID, Maine is about 20% and New York it's less than half. If you're in one of those states, make sure you get an ID that has a gold star in one of the corners, or you're not going to be able to get through the airport.
Patrick Wiscombe:That's true, we're joking about it, but if you don't have the right papers, man, I feel like I'm in, you know, 1930s.
Mark Faldmo:Germany yeah 1940s Germany.
Patrick Wiscombe:By the way, if you have an iPhone, I'm showing Mark on this because we're making this connection while he's in the middle of the Atlantic. Right now they have this thing in Apple Wallet called Driver's License State ID, and there's only four states in here Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland and Utah was going to put their driver's license in here years ago and it's still not here. I get annoyed just carrying around my license. I'd like to just have it on my phone.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah.
Patrick Wiscombe:I had to take away my Justice League of America card to make way for my driver's license. Yeah, this is the hot travel deal of the week. We're talking about the African Safari. I'm going to assume that there's no room in 2024, that this is probably for next year, 2025.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, African Safaris sell out pretty far in advance. In fact, we're even selling 2026 safaris Right now with one of the vendors I work with. We are offering, say, $400 per person on any 2025 or 2026 safari that's booked. So that is the travel deal of the week. But we should really talk about what a safari is all about.
Patrick Wiscombe:Now let's start with kind of the basics. How long are you gone? Is this a two, three week thing?
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, I would say, with your flights, probably about 12 days is the minimum you would want to do. You can do shorter ones, but when you do a safari you move around to different game parks. So you want to make sure you have time to see all of the different parks and they're so unique in what they offer and what they do they're all totally different in my experience. You do want to make sure that you can fully experience a safari. Now you do see a lot of the same animals in the parks, but they're totally different experiences.
Patrick Wiscombe:So you're not talking, going to the zoo, I mean you're out in the middle of this stuff, you're not looking from behind plexiglass. I mean that's something we could do at the Hogle Zoo. Or you're literally in the middle of the bush you are.
Mark Faldmo:Most safaris are done in a open air kind of Jeep-like thing. It usually holds six to eight passengers. Really good. Safari companies will only put four people in there so that you can have plenty of room to look out and see and not fight. They have kind of a pop-up top where you can stand up and just watch as you drive around, watch the animals take pictures. Just an amazing experience.
Patrick Wiscombe:Here's the lion park. How's it sectioned off?
Mark Faldmo:when you talk about parks, it's just sectioned off, like national parks in the US. It's just different parks or game reserves, where the animals are protected in the reserves.
Patrick Wiscombe:So you really get to see their day-to-day life.
Mark Faldmo:You do, yeah, and there actually is a lot of opportunity to interact with the local people there, which is quite fascinating. That's one of the best parts about traveling around the world is interacting with different cultures and getting to experience that. You can also kind of personalize the safaris as well. Everyone wants to go during the Great Migration, which is fascinating. It's also the most expensive time to go because that's when everyone wants to go. You can go at different times of the year and save a little bit of money. You will see all of the same animals. You just might not see them in the same large concentration. You see lions and cheetahs.
Patrick Wiscombe:Do you get to watch them hunt? I mean, obviously it's not right next to the car they're not going to. I don't know, maybe they do come. If you're lucky, you can.
Mark Faldmo:I didn't get to see any of that, but we got to see a cheetah that had just made fresh dinner and I know sometimes in some of the other vehicles and of the safari party we're in they did get to see the hunting aspect of that. So you can see it if you're really lucky.
Patrick Wiscombe:When you talk about the great migration, we're talking many animal species.
Mark Faldmo:You see, just the herds and herds, thousands, maybe millions, I don't know, of water buffalo that are migrating to different areas, and the safaris like to go sit at the rivers and watch the river crossings, because that's when you get some real action, that's when you get to see the crocodiles doing their hunting as the animals cross the river.
Mark Faldmo:Just talking about the different parks, the three that I went to, one was Samburu is the name of it, and it's a little bit more desert-y, you know, than what you see a lot of the safaris on, but that's where we saw lots of lions and lots of elephants. And then we went down to Ol Pajeta is the name of it, and that's kind of more grasslands, a little bit more green, but that's where the rhinoceroses are. You can see a rare white rhino there. There's, I don't think, very many of the white rhinos left, so you can see them there in that park. And there's also a sanctuary where you can go see some that are in captivity. Wow. And then my favorite part of this trip is we went to this field in Old Pageta and a big prop airplane landed. We got on the airplane and took off and then we flew Dirt runway, dirt runway, flew down to the Masai Mara in the Serengeti.
Patrick Wiscombe:I'm surprised you haven't talked about this more.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, we should talk about it more because it is just fascinating. The Masai Mara is where the Great Migration takes place and again, but you don't have to go during the Great Migration takes place and you know, again, but you don't have to go during the Great Migration Probably the most fascinating thing that I saw there was the hippos.
Ad Voice:Oh, wow.
Mark Faldmo:The resort we stayed at was right near a river and you can just hear the hippos all night howling. The wildlife is amazing there.
Patrick Wiscombe:I was thinking how quiet it was, but I guess if you're right in the middle of it, it's going to get pretty loud at night.
Mark Faldmo:Yes.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yeah, what are the accommodations like? I mean, obviously you're not putting a sleeping bag in the field hoping that nothing bad happens to you while you sleep. What, generally speaking, are the accommodations? They're resorts.
Mark Faldmo:Some of them were resorts with regular hotel walls and windows and doors. Some of them were kind of they were tents, like the canvas tents, yeah, but they had bathrooms and everything in them. They just had a door in the tent fabric and you walked in. Very interesting accommodations in all of these places.
Patrick Wiscombe:So these are nice places? This isn't, you know. Hey, you're sleeping on a cot in the all of these places. So these are nice places? This isn't, you know. Hey, you're sleeping on a cot in the middle of the field.
Mark Faldmo:Yep. So you know it's like they're not necessarily movable tents, although there are safari companies that do that and they do set up pretty nice tents. But you know these are regular set resorts. But you know these are regular set resorts and then when you're on safari, your home base is the hotel resort that you're staying at, and then you have three game drives a day, so you'll have a morning game drive, come back for lunch, have an afternoon game drive, come back for dinner and then go on an evening game drive. In most cases, when it starts getting dark, you head back. One of the interesting places that I visited and this didn't involve animals, but it was in, I think, old Pageta is where the equator runs through and so you can go stand in the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere at the same time. What time of the year was this? We went during the Great Migration, which is August and September basically, so it is the peak times for that.
Patrick Wiscombe:How do people get in touch with you about this? Is this just the standard stuff?
Mark Faldmo:Yep, just the standard stuff. They go to blueplanetvacations. com. Okay, more information, call Mark.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let me give the number again 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. And he's already mentioned the website blueplanetvacations. com. We're going to take a break here. We got to refresh our connection with the Atlantic Ocean at blueplanetvacations. com. We're going to take a break here. We got to refresh our connection with the Atlantic Ocean. You're starting to fade just a little bit. Yeah, during the break I'll disconnect and call you back on Zoom, otherwise I guess I'll be doing the show alone. Yeah, I need you, so you got to come back. All right, when we come back, segment two the just cruising segment always the hottest cruising deal of the week we're going to be talking about Princesses changing Princess Cruises, that is, is changing their dining program, and we're going to go explore some of the islands. That is next the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. Alongside Mark Faldmo, I am Patrick Wiscombe. Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your Saturday morning.
Show Voice:We'll be right back Explore your world. It's the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show presented by BluePlanetVacations. com. Call or text the show now 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. And check out the podcast at InsideTravelTalk. com. And now here are your hosts, Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.
Patrick Wiscombe:I can't believe I just did that. That was the wrong outro.
Show Voice:Let's try that again. You're listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show with Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo. Call or text the show now 801-649-3700. That's 801-649-3700. And check out the podcast at InsideTravelTalk. com.
Ad Voice:We'll be right back. This segment of Inside Travel Talk is sponsored by Star Clippers. Imagine yourself on the deck of a timelessly elegant clipper ship a warm breeze blowing softly, as the captain and his crew unfurl the sails above you. You begin to tingle from head to toe as you sail into the sunset to tomorrow's next hidden cove. For over 30 years, Star Clippers has offered unique, authentic tall ship sailing experiences, featuring creative itineraries throughout the Mediterranean, Caribbean and Central America. Itineraries are handcrafted based on wind patterns to enable these majestic ships to take advantage of the power of the wind. To book your unique Star Clipper sailing adventure, contact Blue Planet Vacations at 888-718-7717 or blueplanetvacations. com.
Show Voice:Back to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show presented by blueplanetvacations. com, America's best travel advisors. Call or text the show right now 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. And now here are your hosts Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.
Patrick Wiscombe:I just barely got Mark back on. We're connecting via Zoom. He is cruising back from the Caribbean. He was in the Bahamas. Today is a cruise day for him, which is why we can do the show. I guess we already have Wi-Fi. You did get the Wi-Fi package right, Yep.
Mark Faldmo:Yep, the miracles of Wi-Fi. Now, with everything hooked up to Starlink, it's just like you're at home.
Patrick Wiscombe:It really is pretty amazing that we can do this show on the road. Yes, if I'm being honest, I didn't know who I was going to get as a backup co-host today, but I'm like you know what, don't worry about it If you have to do the show alone. Patrick, to do the show alone. Patrick, do the show alone. Yeah, because you had to do it a couple of weeks while I was out of the office. Yeah, uh, taking care of some stuff. It's uh be the uh, the broadcasting duo again coming up in this segment of the inside travel talk podcast, a radio show for uh, Saturday, may 25th 2024, the Just Cruising segment, and we're going to talk about the South Caribbean. The Southern Caribbean, which is kind of where Mark was, kind of. Is that fair or is that kind of a generous stretch?
Mark Faldmo:That's pretty generous, I would say. I almost wasn't even in the Caribbean. I made it as far as the Bahamas, okay yeah, that's not close enough.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's get to the travel news of the. And even in the Caribbean, I made it as far as the Bahamas. Okay, yeah, it's not close enough. Yeah, let's get to the travel news of the week. Princess Cruise Lines is changing its dining program.
Mark Faldmo:First, a little bit of background on cruise dining Way back when you had either first dining or second dining, so you'd eat at 5.30 or 8 o'clock, so the whole ship was assigned to that. And then in the early 2000s Norwegian Cruise Line came along and introduced freestyle dining which was completely just come when you want to go.
Patrick Wiscombe:Wait, is that? Who started that the?
Mark Faldmo:freestyle, oh okay. Yeah, it's funny because back then all the cruise lines said that'll never work, everyone wants this traditional stuff. And then, slowly, every cruise line said that'll never work, everyone wants this traditional stuff. And then slowly, every cruise line started adding in an anytime option to their offerings I don't want to have a set time, I'll just go eat when I'm hungry I actually like both ways.
Mark Faldmo:I kind of like the set dining, because you're at the same table with the same waiter all the time and they get to know you. So by the second night in your case you wouldn't have to order the Diet Coke, it would just be there on the table waiting for you. Yeah, in my case it's a glass of chocolate milk and that's a tradition from when I was a child. I did chocolate milk on a cruise ship.
Patrick Wiscombe:Wait, did you get it on the Margaritaville at sea? Because you and I were sitting at different tables, Different tables. I did oh, you did oh. I wish I would have seen that.
Mark Faldmo:That's kind of my tradition, kind of relating to this story about Princess. A few years back Princess went to all kind of the anytime dining but it wasn't even anytime dining. You just had to choose it in your app so you could choose I want to eat at 5 o'clock, I want to eat at 6 o'clock. You'd have to go in and choose day by day what you wanted to when you wanted to dine, and I think some of their more traditional cruisers had a hard time with that. I know I've had some people that say, well, no, I want the 530. Well then, just go on the app and reserve 530.
Patrick Wiscombe:What's an?
Mark Faldmo:app. That's what some of the people ask.
Ad Voice:Wow.
Mark Faldmo:Okay, so princesses, now with their ships. They all have three main dining rooms, and so now they're going to play all three worlds. One dining room is going to be first and second dining their traditional dining and the other one of the dining rooms is going to be anytime dining, and then their third dining room is going to be where you choose your times through the app. So they're going to give people a choice as to how they want to dine, which I think is good. Now, sometimes I am in the mood for that set anytime dining and actually, as we've talked about before with Heather's food allergies, we want to have the same waiter every night so that they can take care of that and, you know, make sure that that works I hadn't thought about that angle with her allergies.
Patrick Wiscombe:You wouldn't want to explain that to someone every single night every single night oh, that's a great point it gets hard.
Mark Faldmo:and then you also order your meal the day before, so they bring you out tomorrow night's menu when you're eating, so you get to choose on the ship, come prepare if needed for anything. So I am a huge fan of Norwegian's freestyle dining. I love that, but I also like traditional dining, although, as you know, Patrick, I love to cruise.
Patrick Wiscombe:So you're literally there. Yes, I can't hear a lot of ambient noise around you. Are you in your room or are you out kind of in a public area where you've got mics and you're kind of set up?
Mark Faldmo:I'm in my room so it's quieter. I would like to have the balcony door open, but it's pretty windy so that would not do well with the mic.
Patrick Wiscombe:That'd be a tough listen. I'd tell you to shut the door. Then, yes, do well with the mic. That'd be a tough listen. I'd tell you to shut the door. Then, yes, let's talk about some of the rules for cruising to the Caribbean, since that's kind of where you're coming from.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, but it also relates to our cruise deal that we're going to talk about. This is kind of a side note. The end of April, first part of May, there was a news article about a couple that was arrested in the Turks and Caicos. They were there to enjoy a 40th birthday party and this gentleman was a police officer. I believe this is carry-on. He brought what was his old gun range bag and it had a bullet in it. Oh no, and in a lot of countries that is frowned upon. Just for that mistake, even you know they might have X-rayed it and it might have been fallen down in a place where you couldn't even see it. It's punishable up to five years in prison.
Patrick Wiscombe:Oh boy.
Mark Faldmo:If you do shooting target practice whatever, don't even take any bag that you've ever done that with, just in case. I know I have a friend who is a ex-police officer and just going through the airport they found a bullet in one of his bags and it was underneath. I knew I'd have never found it unless you x-rayed the bag. So just be careful with that.
Patrick Wiscombe:He probably had all of the ID, or at least you know. Former police officer. Hey, sir, I really didn't know it was there. Thank you for finding it, but they're still going to give you the colonoscopy to make sure you're not going to do something weird and from what I've read, they're still there in jail.
Mark Faldmo:Oh, you know, they've got the. They're going to have to go on a full trial. Oh, I know the. The State Department is helping them out and there's a GoFundMe page to help them out. Even though it's a mistake, they take that quite seriously. Just watch out for that.
Patrick Wiscombe:So what I'm hearing you say is that what you don't know can hurt you.
Mark Faldmo:Can hurt you.
Patrick Wiscombe:yes, what are some of the other rules that need to be followed when you're headed to the Caribbean?
Mark Faldmo:So one that I think a lot of people might not even recognize or even think about. But in many of the Caribbean countries camouflage is illegal. So in Trinidad, Barbados and Jamaica, if you show up to the airport in that they'll turn you away, and then I assume on cruise excursions they won't let you out of the cruise port. Leave the camel oh wow.
Mark Faldmo:Prince at home. When you're cruising, the next rule or kind of tip is explore the island. These islands have rich and vibrant culture and history. In the Caribbean you have Dutch influence, you have British influence, you have French influence, so there's lots of different cultures, along with the native language or the native people. The next tip would be be friendly. If you've ever met anyone from the Caribbean, they're really outgoing. Make sure you greet them and say hello. And then also a common mistake a lot of tourists make is they just take pictures of people. Make sure and ask before you take pictures of someone. There are a lot of the local outfits and people. I don't know why, but some people like to take pictures of the children in school uniforms, maybe because we don't have that. But just make sure you get permission before taking a picture of someone, even if they're in a tourist area dressed up in a local costume.
Patrick Wiscombe:Especially with children. That can't end well.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, and then the last thing as you know, a lot of comes back to food to me make sure and get out and experience the local cuisine. As we talked about last week. Jerk chicken in Jamaica is amazing, and there are lots of other fun things Like, for instance, in Curacao. One of their famous dishes is iguana soup. I can see you like that. It tastes like chicken.
Patrick Wiscombe:I'll just have the jerk chicken then.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, but there are lots of interesting foods out there, lots of different cuisines out there in the Caribbean to try. So when you're off the cruise ship, go try a local restaurant.
Patrick Wiscombe:While we're on the topic of, princess is returning to a port after a 10-year absence. What happened?
Mark Faldmo:They are returning to the port of San Juan, to home port, from the port of San Juan. I think this is a great move on their part. The Southern Caribbean is what you'd leave to from San Juan, and a lot of those are a lot of the islands we just talked about, different cultures. When we think of cruises here that leave from Miami, port Canaveral, you're getting into Western Caribbean, which is Grand Cayman, Cozumel, costa Maya, Roatan, or you can get into Eastern Caribbean, which is St Martin, St Thomas, private islands, sometimes down in the Turks and Caicos, but you don't get much variety there. So now that Princess is headed back there, that adds one more option for Southern Caribbean cruises. Royal Caribbean and Celebrity have been there for a long time. Norwegian Cruise Line has dabbled in and out of it. I don't know that they currently have a ship in the Southern Caribbean. Princess is returning in the fall of 2025. That also leads us into our cruise deal of the week, which is a Southern Caribbean cruise.
Patrick Wiscombe:What are the ports and what are the dates? What are the prices?
Mark Faldmo:I'll start out with the price. So this again leaves from San Juan, Puerto Rico, which, on a side note, San Juan is a great place to go before the cruise. It has lots of culture, lots of history, old Town, San Juan is just fascinating to walk around. I think that's probably one of the better cruise ports to leave from. And again, last week you asked me what my favorite cruise ports to cruise out of, San Juan would be. Up there, it would be in the top six or seven probably.
Mark Faldmo:I just like San Juan. You sail out right past the old colonial fort that's there, and San Juan also has a rainforest you can go to and they have bioluminescent bay in the evening that you can go to, which is always a bucket list thing for people to go to. So this cruise, seven day round trip San Juan cruise this is November. This is later in November, not over Thanksgiving, but late November dates. An inside cabin starts at $600 per person, plus taxes and fees, and the balcony cabin which I think this is a great deal for a balcony cabin starts at $947.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yeah, that's good. And how many?
Mark Faldmo:days. It's a seven night cruise. You go to Phillipsburg and St Martin. St Martin is an interesting island because it's half owned by France and half owned by the Netherlands, so you can drive around and be in France and Netherlands at the same time. Lots of good beaches, actually. There I like, just across from the cruise port. I like to take a water taxi across and just get a beach chair. You can get a beach chair. It's like $20. Get a beach chair and a lunch and they bring you the lunch on the beach. It's a pretty fun thing to do.
Mark Faldmo:And also my favorite thing to do is go to Sunset Beach. You've probably seen the pictures of people standing when the airplane flies over. Oh, yeah. People trying standing along the fence as an airplane is taking off and they all get blown into the ocean. Yes, that's on St Martin.
Patrick Wiscombe:That looks terrifying. Have you tried that?
Mark Faldmo:No, I would never get behind an airplane.
Mark Faldmo:Oh my goodness, there's a little beach bar there where you can sit and just watch the airplanes land and you're really close to it. I love to do that. And then another port is St Lucia. A lot of people see the pictures of the pointed mountain of St Lucia. It almost looks like the island of Tahiti on there because it's such an interesting, unique landscape there in St Lucia. Then it goes to Barbados. Barbados, it's a former British colony. There's a Jewish museum. There's a lot of Jewish history in Barbados and then, if you're a diver, on one side of the island there are six shipwrecks that you can dive and see.
Patrick Wiscombe:Will you recap the prices on that? This is the seven-day southern Caribbean cruise out of San Juan, inside cabin is how much again?
Mark Faldmo:is six hundred dollars per person plus taxes and fees, and a balcony cabin is 947 per person plus taxes and fees and then people can uh obviously book the, the, the flight uh with you as well, generally speaking, do you know how much flights are?
Patrick Wiscombe:I know I'm kind of putting you on the spot as we actually wrap up you remember, Salt Lake from to San Juan, probably in the 600 650 range.
Mark Faldmo:Okay, but it depends on the date as well. So you know, I've seen them as low as 400 and as high as 900.
Patrick Wiscombe:Okay call Mark in his office, 888-718-7717. Let me give you the number again 888-718-7717. You can also visit him online at blueplanetvacations. com. And next time we see, let's get the MSC Maravilla boat update. I want to hear about the ship. I'm going on the MSC seashore that will be in June, and I also want the report on the private island. I'm blanking on the name all of a sudden. Yeah, Ocean Key Ocean.
Mark Faldmo:Key Ocean. Key MSC Reserve.
Patrick Wiscombe:Okay, thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your Saturday morning. If you have not subscribed to the podcast, may we ask you to do so? Just go to wherever you get your podcasts, or you can just go to insidetraveltalk. com and you can just stream the show there if you want, and then you can subscribe if you want. Have a terrific week, everyone. Mark, I'll see you in the studio next week. Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your Saturday morning. Have a great week.
Show Voice:That's it. That's the end of the show You've been listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show with Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo, presented by BluePlanetVacations. com. Book your adventure right now. Call 888-718-7717. That's 888-718-7717. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.
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