Inside Travel Talk

Seamless Journeys: Kauai Offers, Unique Island Hopper Flight, and Cruise Insights with Royal Caribbean

• Mark Faldmo & Patrick Wiscombe • Season 2 • Episode 24

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Ready to unlock the secrets of seamless travel and exclusive deals? Join us as we explore the latest buzz in the travel world on the Inside Travel Talk podcast. Including a not-to-be-missed travel offer to Kauai, Hawaii, this episode is packed with valuable insights. Learn about the newest states rolling out mobile IDs, such as Louisiana, and discover how Delta's cutting-edge biometric mobile ID service can enhance your travel experience. We also tackle the big question—will Southwest Airlines' shift to reserved seating change the game for travelers, or should they stick to their traditional boarding process?

Our cruise segment is all about giving you the edge on the high seas. We unveil Royal Caribbean's exciting new status match program. Beware of dubious travel hacks, especially a debunked Carnival Cruise Line scam, and understand why trusted travel agents are your best allies. Lastly, embark on a journey with Star Clippers and feel the timeless allure of tall ship sailing. Picture yourself navigating the Mediterranean, Caribbean, and Central America, discovering hidden coves and harnessing the power of the wind. This episode promises to elevate your travel game with expert tips, news, and unbeatable deals!

Patrick Wiscombe:

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.

Show Voice:

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:

Welcome to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. Mark Faldmo is in his studio up in the great city of. I forgot what city you're in Farmington, Farmington. I cannot believe that you and I have been doing this show for nine months. This is episode 40 of the radio show and podcast. Just incredible how far this show has come in the nine months that we have been doing it.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah, we've got a lot further to go too. We're just getting started.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Just getting started on it. Yeah which, by the way, unrelated to the podcast. I've been reaching out to some luggage companies. This is going to be news to you To be sponsors of the show. Uh-huh, just thought I'd share that with you on the air, that's pretty cool.

Mark Faldmo:

I'm excited for that. We'll see if they come through.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Coming up on this edition of the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show we are going to go to. Are we going to Kauai, Hawaii?

Mark Faldmo:

We're going to go to Kauai, Hawaii, for our hot deal. Update our travel update.

Patrick Wiscombe:

And then in segment number two you're coming up here in about 15 minutes. We've got the Just Cruising segment where Royal Caribbean is. Are they matching statuses with other ships? I don't think I've ever seen them do that.

Mark Faldmo:

No, they are within their own brand. Oh okay, Not other crews. So we'll talk about that and explain that.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Yeah, we'll get to that in the Just Cruising segment. But segment number one of the show is always the hot travel deal of the week, and we've got some killer deals to go to Kauai. But before we get there, let's get to the travel news of the week. There is another state that is issuing mobile IDs. Let's just review what mobile IDs are and what are the states that are issuing the mobile IDs.

Mark Faldmo:

Yep. So a mobile ID would be your driver's license, on your phone, basically, which will get you through TSA Pre-Check, so you don't have to pull out your driver's license and you can just tap to scan through most of those checkpoints. So there are 27 airports that have this capability, and then now Louisiana just made their mobile IDs available and that joins Arizona, Colorado, California, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland and Utah that have these mobile IDs.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Mobile IDs. I thought that in Apple Wallet you can't put a Utah driver's license in there yet no, it's an app through the state. Okay, that's what had me confused.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah, I don't know exactly how it works. I'm going to have to look into it. Since we're in Utah, we're eligible for that, but you do have to have a real ID compliant license, which we talked about a few weeks ago.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Which is basically the yellow stamp on a driver's license.

Mark Faldmo:

now, the star.

Mark Faldmo:

I'm sorry, yeah, the gold star, yeah, on a driver's license. Now the star I'm sorry, yeah, the gold star, yeah, gold star in one of the corners of your driver's license. And then you know, also on a related issue, when I was coming home from JFK, when I was checking in for my flight with Delta, it said do you want to use our mobile ID, which is different from this? They called it mobile ID too, but it's different from this and I opted yes. They had a whole separate line and I basically just walked through. It was kind of like going through global entry, oh wow, where I walked up to the guy and they did biometric scanning as I was walking up and the guy said you're good to go, so I didn't have to pull anything out. So you know, there's some pretty cool technology. I did have to consent that they'll use my passport biometric data to use that service. I even skipped the TSA pre-check line.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Oh wow, which was nice. So pre-check is good enough. So what you're saying is that this mobile ID is actually better.

Mark Faldmo:

Better, yeah, now to use that. At Delta, you did have to be pre-check compliant because you were still going through the pre-check line. Okay, but it was just a way to basically skip to the front of the line of the pre-check line.

Patrick Wiscombe:

I saw this story that Southwest is changing or evaluating seat changes to increase revenue. I'm going to assume that that's reserve seating rather than boarding like Noah's Ark I have mixed emotions about this one, because I think that's what makes a Southwest.

Mark Faldmo:

If they start going in to charging for seats like everyone else, it's not really that experience and I don't mind checking in early to make sure you get a good boarding. Some people don't like that, but that nickel and diming. I don't want to pay $25 or $30 for a seat assignment. I do pay whatever Southwest has to get their early bird check-in, which basically puts you in the A group of boarding. But I don't want to go in and change seats and they've even hinted to maybe having a first-class cabin. Having a first-class cabin. A lot of this comes from some of the Wall Street banks that are putting pressure on them to find a way to monetize their cabin better like other airlines.

Patrick Wiscombe:

I don't have a problem with it, like you do. If they start charging for baggage, that's when it probably crosses the line for me.

Mark Faldmo:

Yes, I wonder if they'd go with the hybrid, where you can choose seats, you can pay for seats and then anyone who doesn't want to pay for seats just in a different boarding group. So they board everyone with a seat assignment and then everyone without a seat assignment just comes on and gets what's left over.

Patrick Wiscombe:

United Airlines is introducing what they call the Island Hopper. My first initial thought before I saw the story was that Island Hopper was Hawaii and just the islands of Hawaii. That's not what this is, or at least according to what I'm reading. What is that Island Hopper?

Mark Faldmo:

idea. This actually is something that's been around for a while. Continental actually had it. It was Continental, Micronesia was the name of the airline, and this actually goes back to the very first call I received as a travel agent. Oh, really. The person wanted to go to Majuro. Do you know where Majuro?

Patrick Wiscombe:

is no, I was just going to ask. I don't think I've even heard of it.

Mark Faldmo:

I had never heard of it, so I was in a panic. Eventually I found information on this. What was then Continental Micronesia, now United Airlines Island Operative Service. So what it is is it's a flight from Honolulu to Guam. It operates four days a week and here's the route. So it goes Honolulu to Majuro, which is in the Marshall Islands, and then it goes to Buckholtz Army Airfield, which is on the small atoll in the Marshall Islands. You can only get off if you're military or have military papers on that, because that's a stop purely operated for military people. And then it goes to Orsay Island, which is in the Federated States of Micronesia, goes to Pompeii Not Pompeii in Rome, but it's P-O-H-N-P-E-I which is also in Micronesia. Then it goes to the island of Chuck and then ends in Guam.

Patrick Wiscombe:

So this is the bus equivalent of a plane. Basically, correct, yeah All right, yep.

Mark Faldmo:

So Honolulu to Guam with five stops along the way.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Do we know pricing on that? If it's the fastest way to get there, I guess you don't really have a choice.

Mark Faldmo:

Some of these. This is the only air service they get and I do believe it starts at a. For the round trip it's about $1,400. But there are some ways. Continental Micronesia used to sell an air pass. You'd buy an air pass and you could use it in any direction and stay on the islands. United doesn't offer anything like that, but I think they do allow some free stopovers on islands. But anyway, I thought that was kind of a unique thing which we're always looking for unique things to throw out to people. If you have some small islands in the Pacific, this is a great way to get to some rarely visited islands.

Patrick Wiscombe:

And it kind of makes for a fun adventure. Just to take off and land, what'd you say Five times.

Mark Faldmo:

Six times Six times.

Patrick Wiscombe:

That's the perfect lead in to the hot travel deal of the week, since it starts in Honolulu. But we'll just talk Kauai. That's the hot travel deal of the week. What do we have for listeners this week?

Mark Faldmo:

Kauai is one of my favorite islands. Jurassic Park was filmed on Kauai waterfalls, the Waimea Canyon, the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, which is awesome. It's worth going there just to see that. And then my favorite hot dog place in the world is Puka Dog on Puka Beach. There you won't have a better hot dog. Trust me, go to Puka Dog. What are the dates on this? This is October 17th for five nights. This is from Salt Lake City. Again, if you're flying from somewhere else we can get you prices on that, but since most of our audience is in Salt Lake City, that's what we're going. This is also in basic economy, which is no changes, no seat assignments until day of, but that's the absolute best price to get. So, starting off at the three and a half star ISO hotel, that price is $1299 per person, which, for Kauai, that's a pretty good price for Kauai. The four-star Outrigger Kauai Beach starts at $1499 per person, which is an awesome hotel.

Mark Faldmo:

It is a step up from that ISO. Yes, has a great beach. That's actually one of my favorite hotels. And then Five Star Hotel, which is the Koa Ki Resort and Hotel, starts at $2399 per person. Now that's a pretty big jump, also a pretty big jump in the quality of hotel. Koa Ki Hotel is just an amazing. I, personally, I would stay at any of these three hotels. Right is just an amazing. I, personally, I would stay at any of these three hotels. You know, depending on the purpose of my trip, there were a couple of lower rated hotels that were slightly less than that ISO, but I've always had good success with that hotel and it is rated at a three and a half star.

Patrick Wiscombe:

These are hotels that you and I would stay at. That we would stay at, yes, and you and I are luxury to luxury light travelers, you know typically Hawaii and Mexico.

Mark Faldmo:

I recommend four star or higher Right, but there are a few exceptions like this ISO. It is a pretty good hotel for what you're getting.

Patrick Wiscombe:

So they can just contact you to book it then in the office 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717, 888-718-7717. One more time, 888-718-7717. Or you can just visit mark at blueplanetvacationscom. When we come back segment number two, the infamous Just Cruising segment We'll have the cruise news of the week. And what are we talking about? Are we going? Oh, I just saw the rundown. Are we doing star clippers?

Mark Faldmo:

Doing star clippers in the Mediterranean.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Oh, you will not want to miss this. Just Cruising segment is next. Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your Saturday morning. We will be right back.

Show Voice:

If you have travel questions, they have the answers. You're listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show with Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo, presented by blueplanetvacations. com. Call or text the show right now 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. We'll be right back.

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Show Voice:

Helping you plan your next vacation. This is the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show presented by BluePlanetVacations. com, America's best travel advisors. Call us now 801-649-3700, 801-649-3700, and check out the podcast at InsideTravelTalk. com. Here's Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your Saturday morning. You are listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show alongside myside my very good friend, mark Faldmo. My name is Patrick Wiscombe, and when I say that we are grateful to be part of your Saturday morning, I do mean it, because we really don't have a company and we don't have a show without you. So thank you for trusting us with your business. We've been in business way longer than the nine months mark's been doing this. For what? 20, is it 25 years?

Mark Faldmo:

somewhere right there I've actually been doing it almost 50 years. I'm third. I'm third generation in the business oh, okay, but you personally but personally I've been working about 25 years okay, that's what I thought so a little bit longer than 25 years we love taking your phone calls throughout the week, which, by the way, you can text the show show 801-649-3700.

Patrick Wiscombe:

801-649-3700. If you have any questions that you would like to text us during the show, that's how you get ahold of us. Let's get to the Just Cruising segment. We're talking Star Clippers. Star Clippers is such a remarkable experience. You'll want to go do this for yourself anyway. Yes, but first let's get to the cruising news Royal Caribbean status match. You told me at the top of the show that that was within the Royal Caribbean brands. Let's review what those brands are quickly.

Mark Faldmo:

So the Royal Caribbean brands are Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, celebrity Cruises and Silversea. Within those brands, whatever your highest level is with either of those three brands will be the level you're at with all of the brands. Okay, that does make a big difference. Royal Caribbean is trying to get people to experience some of these other brands. A few months ago we talked about MSC and their status map, where they're trying to get cruisers to experience their brand. Royal Caribbean is just trying to get you experience brands within their company.

Patrick Wiscombe:

I saw this story that there was some kind of a scam warning coming from Carnival Cruise Line.

Mark Faldmo:

There's a lot of so-called travel hacks out there, and Carnival Cruise Lines investigated this one and found that it was a complete fabrication. They were just saying be really careful about a lot of the travel hacks that you see out there, because most of them won't work. And in this they went on to point out that a good travel agent can get you an onboard credit, get you upgrades, different things like that, but a lot of these travel hacks are just scams and won't work. This particular one was someone said book an inside cabin and then when you get on board, tell them that you're scared, claustrophobic and you get sick in an inside cabin.

Patrick Wiscombe:

So why'd you book?

Mark Faldmo:

one. That's exactly what I say and that had like 2 million likes that post, so it was getting out there. So that's why Carnival felt they had to get on top of this and what you said is exactly what I thought. So why did you book an inside cabin? This person said they've been on four cruises. They tried it and got upgraded on three of on four cruises. They tried it and got upgraded on three of the four cruises and this was in a Carnival group, so it was on Carnival Cruise Lines. They looked into it and they found it was complete fabrication. That person they couldn't find that person in their records or something like that. So just be really careful about some of those things you see on the Facebook.

Patrick Wiscombe:

We should assemble that for a future show the travel hacks that work. It'd be fun to talk about some of the scams.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah, I will start researching that.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Why would you choose a cruise based on the ship size?

Mark Faldmo:

Well, for one thing, there are different experiences. What I've found is the big ships. You're choosing a big ship for the experience of the ship, not necessarily the ports Now, the ports are nice, but those big ships that have all of the bells and whistles stuff to do. You would choose a big ship or the ship, not necessarily the itinerary or the ports so you're going to go see the ship and be entertained on board, basically on board and then and then get some, you know, short excursions, see, see those ports.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah, okay, a medium ship, you know, even though they're still nice, like we were talking about the Norwegian Spirit last week doing those Asia cruises which is a medium ship.

Patrick Wiscombe:

So somewhere between 1,000 to 3,000 people To 3,000.

Mark Faldmo:

Okay, now you would choose an itinerary here based on the itinerary, not the ship. You know a lot of these medium-sized ships can get to ports that big ships can't get to. A lot of them have longer stays, some even overnights. So you're looking for a little bit more unique of a cruise experience on a medium ship.

Patrick Wiscombe:

And that's what NCL's Pride of America was. When we went island to island, that was about. I want to say it was a little under 2,000 people, something like that.

Mark Faldmo:

Yes, All right Right in there.

Patrick Wiscombe:

So, and then the yeah, the small ship, and I think the small ship leads into the cruise deal of the week. It does yeah.

Mark Faldmo:

So you know the small ship is where you want to immerse yourself more in the destinations that you're traveling. The small ships kind of come in two categories there's the expedition adventure ships and there's the luxury ships that are small but you spend a lot more time in port really getting to know the local cultures on the smaller ships.

Mark Faldmo:

So that would be like river cruising then potentially River, yeah, River cruising would be like that and this deal that we're talking about here on Star Clippers. When you hear the itinerary, you'll see why it's a more immersive experience than the medium or the big ships. But first let's talk about their offer. Star Clippers is offering up to 65% off and a $400 airfare credit plus a Wi-Fi package. Holy cow.

Patrick Wiscombe:

So this is a.

Mark Faldmo:

Clipper ship. Clipper ship, which is a tall sailing ship, their ships in the Mediterranean one, I think, is a six-masted ship and one is a three-masted ship and so they go out and will sail. They do have engines, but they will sail on wind power as much as they can In the Mediterranean. They offer seven to 16 day voyages. I chose a seven day here just because I think this is a really unique itinerary. Starts at $2,069 per person and is round-trip Venice and visits Croatia and Montenegro. And this is a small enough ship that I think they are able to sail out of Venice Harbor, so sail right past St Mark's Square. The bigger ships can't do that anymore. They have to use a different port in Venice, and I don't know that for sure on this, but I do know they're a small enough ship that they can do that.

Patrick Wiscombe:

So that's really unique, that sure is.

Mark Faldmo:

Right down past that. And then the unique thing about these small clipper ships and these smaller cruise ships is they go to ports that are not visited by the big cruise ships.

Mark Faldmo:

You know, for instance, the first port on this is Zadar in Croatia, and it's on the Dalmatian coast. It's just known by yachters and so you know a lot of yachters go there. You know. So the smaller kind of more upscale things. I thought you said otters, Otters, Yachters there might be otters there, no, Yachters yeah. And then you go to an island of Hvar in Croatia and then there are two days in Dubrovnik.

Mark Faldmo:

Dubrovnik is always a favorite port for people. George Bernard Shaw said those who seek paradise on earth should come to Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik is always a favorite port for people. George Bernard Shaw said those who seek paradise on earth should come to Dubrovnik. I love Dubrovnik Small walled town, just a central Dubrovnik. Walk around the town square. I also like Christmas shops. There's two good Christmas shops in Dubrovnik that I like to go to, but it is so beautiful. There are a lot of movies that are filmed there. You know Game of Thrones was filmed there, along with a lot of other movies, because it's kind of the perfect, kind of medieval type city. So you're there for two days and then I hate to rate ports, but Couture Montenegro, I think probably is my favorite port that I've ever sailed to.

Patrick Wiscombe:

You've been to a lot of ports.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah, I love the Kotor. You sail up what is known as the Europe's Southern Fjord and it's actually a sunken riverbed to get up to Kotor, but it feels like you're kind of sailing through fjords of Norway. We've talked about Kotor before. That's where the Our Lady of the Rocks church is, where they threw rocks in for every ship that sunk and eventually it built an island and they built a church on it.

Patrick Wiscombe:

It's a cool ending to a terrible story.

Mark Faldmo:

Yes. After that you go to Viz, which is in the Adriatic Islands of Croatia and it's kind of been left untouched by tourism for many years. That's one reason why these Star Clipper small ship cruises you get to go to places like this Viz. Even air travel does not get a whole lot of tourists to it. I remember I went up to a local farm and they cooked us a dinner or a lunch up there, and just driving through that countryside is amazing in Montenegro and in Croatia. Croatia is a country I think should be on everyone's bucket list.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Yeah, you've said that for months since we've been doing the show. What are we looking at for the seven day package? Is that the Venice to Croatia, to Montenegro?

Mark Faldmo:

Yep Seven day. That's the itinerary that we just talked about and that starts at $2,069 per person for the cruise portion of that. That price I gave includes the 65% off discount already.

Patrick Wiscombe:

That's phenomenal. All right, if you want to book that vacation Wow, that is phenomenal. Seven days, $2,069 per person. Venice to Croatia, to Montenegro. Call Mark as soon as we wrap up. Just write down the number 888-718-7717, 888-718-7717, or just go to his his website, blueplanetvacations. com. Mark, it's good to talk to you. This was a very, very fast show. It was. Have a terrific week, everybody. If you have not subscribed to the podcast, may I ask you to go to insidetraveltalk. com, subscribe to the show. You can listen to the show there, but you can also subscribe on all the major podcast platforms. We just direct you to each one of them. Have a terrific week. We will talk to you next Saturday.

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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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.