Inside Travel Talk
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Inside Travel Talk
Tropical Getaways: Costa Rica's Best and Panama Canal Cruise Adventures
What would you do if you found out your personal information could be at risk next time you fly? Get the latest scoop as we tackle the ongoing TSA liquid rule, a new TSA scam alert from the Federal Trade Commission, and United Airlines' innovative seat preference feature that has already improved travel for 40% of its users. Plus, discover our top honeymoon destinations in Costa Rica, with insider tips on where to find the best all-inclusive resorts and breathtaking volcano views.
Ready to set sail? Join us in the "Just Cruising" segment for exciting updates on luxury cruise deals and destinations, including Regent's 2025 Alaska cruises with an exclusive Canadian Rockies tour, Norwegian Cruise Line's new Explore Oahu tour, and Disney Cruise Lines' fleet expansion. We wrap things up with the cruise deal of the week featuring Panama Canal cruises and a special spotlight on Star Clippers' unique tall ship adventures in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, and Central America, brought to you by Blue Planet Vacations. Don't miss out on these captivating travel opportunities!
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:It is official the toilet bowl is gone at Lake Powell. No pun intended, it just plopped right into the water. Yeah, that was wild because someone had it on video, not the actual come down but the splash from it coming down, and it was a big splash. I'm just glad no one was hurt. That would have killed somebody. Yes, very popular place. I've never jumped off there. Have you ever gone? Cliff diving there?
Mark Faldmo:Not there, but in Lake Powell. I have. Yes, okay, yeah, when I was much younger.
Patrick Wiscombe:Cliff jumping at Lake Powell is a lot of fun. Gravity doesn't have a heart, and when you hit the water, you know it. Yeah, you are listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. Alongside Mark Faldmo, my name is Patrick Wiscombe it is Saturday, august 17th Coming up on this edition of the show and in this segment specifically, we've got the hot travel deal of the week, regardless of the destination, and I think we're going to Costa Rica.
Mark Faldmo:Going to go to Costa Rica this week.
Patrick Wiscombe:Before we get to the hot travel deal of the week, let's get to some of the travel news of the week. If you've ever wondered if TSA enforces three ounces or more where you're going through security and you have some kind of a liquid, and will they take stuff away from you? Yes, they will. They are not going to drop the liquid rule anytime soon.
Mark Faldmo:There were some reports that they may do it because there's new scanners that can scan for everything they need to do. The UK has started installing these in their airport checkpoints so that at certain airports you now don't need to take your liquids out in the UK. But the TSA here in the US has said it'll be at least until 2040 just because of the volume of scanners they need to replace. Oh wow, they need to replace them in over 430 US airports replace them in over 430 US airports.
Patrick Wiscombe:The Federal Trade Commission warns of a TSA scam that its intent is to steal travelers' information.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, so this is something to look out for if you're traveling. And this came from the meltdown that the airlines had when everything went haywire a few weeks ago. Yeah, the FTC noticed an uptick in people calling saying we know you're traveling, we want to help you get through the TSA lines, and so they were saying they're going to sign people up for a free pre-check account and they were just stealing their information. They were getting all over the phone and stealing people's information.
Patrick Wiscombe:That's impressive. Actually, they were getting all over the phone and stealing people's information.
Mark Faldmo:That's impressive, actually. So this is just a good reminder to watch out for scams and don't give your personal information to people unless you know who they are.
Patrick Wiscombe:Don't give it to someone random that calls you.
Mark Faldmo:United Airlines has an automatic seat preference options, which has benefited about 40% of users. This is something that I wish all airlines would do. We've talked several times about some of the technology and things that airlines are doing, but I think this is great If there's only a middle seat available. When you book your flight. In the app you can request to be moved if a window or aisle seat or exit row or bulkhead seat opens up. You can put your preferences in and say automatically move me if one opens up. This is something they put in. Last month, Over 18,000 people were moved into their seat of choice, so about 40% of people that requested that were able to move out of that middle seat. 40%, that's a lot. I'm surprised at how much seat assignments change Whenever I book. I go in every two weeks or so just to check all my seats and see if something better has opened up. I'm surprised at how fluid those seat assignments actually are on an airplane.
Patrick Wiscombe:Always in segment one. It's the hot travel deal of the week and this was a question that we got from one of our listeners. This was Carson's question. Right, it was yeah, Carson wants to go to Costa Rica for a honeymoon in November. So that is coming up in what? September, about three months from now. There are too many areas and options. He says when would you recommend to go when my wife and I are in Costa Rica?
Mark Faldmo:There are kind of three areas that are the main tourist areas of Costa Rica. One is Guanacaste is the name of it. This area has a lot of all-inclusive areas. This is probably my least favorite part of Costa Rica. You know, if you want that all-inclusive, you can go there To Guanacaste, right To Guanacaste area. But I would say really, if you want an all-inclusive, stick to Mexico, because while Guanacaste is nice and it is unique, it's more like Mexico and you'll save more money and probably get a better hotel in Mexico than you would going to this area.
Mark Faldmo:Oh, interesting, okay, the two other areas that I like are Arenal, which is a volcano, and we've talked about this before. Yeah, you know, a lot of the resorts just have big picture windows that look out to the volcano, and we've talked about this before. Yeah, you know, a lot of the resorts just have big picture windows that look out to the volcano. It has been active over the last few years. So I remember the first time I went to Costa Rica, you could just lay in bed and watch the volcano erupt.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, which was pretty cool because you could see that.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yeah, I remember that story. You were literally lying in bed. Was it at night, or was it kind of late evening At night? Okay, yeah at nighttime you could hear some of the booms going off.
Mark Faldmo:Yes, you could hear the booms and see the. Now it's not like a lava like you see in Hawaii. It just puts out red hot rocks, big boulders that roll down, so you can see the streaks of rolling red boulders. Wow, the last few times I've gone I've heard the volcano burp and some steam, but haven't really seen it erupting. Like I did that first time on that and then the other area I think is probably one of the better beach areas in Costa Rica and it's Manuel Antonio. I would say a combination or one of those either go just to Arenal or just Manuel Antonio. There are other places, there's the whole Caribbean side of Costa Rica. It's a little bit harder to get to, but I think these are fairly easily accessible and would be good for any vacation and particularly a honeymoon.
Mark Faldmo:So, is this all-inclusive Guanacaste? So in Guanacaste there are all-inclusives, but the other areas there are not all-inclusive hotels. Okay, so Arenal and Manuel Antonio they are not all-inclusive, but there's some really good restaurants in that area, especially in Manuel Antonio. I've had some really good meals there. There was a chef that opened up a restaurant there from France that had a really good restaurant. There was one from Thailand that opened up a good restaurant. So there's lots of good food in that area. And there are some unique restaurants too in the Manuel Antonio. We've talked about this. It's El Avion
Mark Faldmo:They took one of the abandoned CIA planes from the Iran-Contra scandal moved it down there, moved it to the top of a mountain, great sunsets, the airplane is the bar and they've built the restaurant around it. So it's pretty unique. That's Manuel Antonio, manuel Antonio.
Patrick Wiscombe:Okay, is that the hot travel deal of the week then?
Mark Faldmo:That is. So right now at Blue Planet Vacations, we're offering $100 per person discount on the land portion of any Costa Rica trip of six nights or longer. Costa Rica is one of the places that we have a passion to travel to. I love Costa Rica. I'll just give pricing on a seven night package, and this is with that discount, with seven night package in November, and this is one night in San Jose, which is the capital, because the flights don't arrive till 11 PM, and then the next morning it goes down for six nights in Manuel Antonio and the price is $1,400 per person.
Mark Faldmo:And that is plus airfare. So that does not include airfare, but that includes all of your transportation. And it also includes three activities. It includes a zip line, it includes a Manuel Antonio tour, which is a national park down there, and you do want to go in with a guide. They take you on paths and show you the monkeys, talk about the ecosystem and then leave you some time on the wonderful beach that's there, and then it also includes a waterfall hike. So it includes three activities seven nights hotel and your transfers. Manuel Antonio is about three hour drive from the airport or from San Jose.
Mark Faldmo:Okay, so it's long, and it's one of the things that makes this unique is everything is so spread out that you don't really run into a lot of tourists, because there are people in Guanacaste, people in Arenal, people in the Caribbean area, people in Manuel Antonio, so it's not like Cancun, where you have everyone in a small, maybe 20 mile stretch. In Cancun, costa Rica is pretty spread out and a good part of the country is national parks. They've really done a good job preserving their lands, and so you can go to some really unique things.
Patrick Wiscombe:And so this is any time in November.
Mark Faldmo:This is any time in November. This is any time in November. Another thing I like about Costa Rica is the wildlife. In these hotels you could be sitting in your room, look out on the balcony. There'll be monkeys out on your balcony. You know there's lots of monkeys in Costa Rica sloths, macaws. I've seen several toucans. Lots of fun wildlife sighting. In Costa Rica, Manuel Antonio. There's lots of monkeys. People go on the beach but you always have to leave. I call them a designated sitter back because they have to go back and watch all your stuff. If you leave your stuff unattended, the monkeys will steal it.
Patrick Wiscombe:They'll just steal everything, not just food. They'll just steal everything.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, they just come down and they take bags and towels and sunglasses. It's kind of fun to watch that.
Patrick Wiscombe:That'd be fun to towel whip a monkey, get the end of the towel wet and crack. Hey, get away from my stuff. Congratulations, carson, on you getting married. On you getting married. If you want to go to Costa Rica maybe not on Carson and his wife's honeymoon, but if you just want to go at some point call Mark in his office to get this deal Save up $100 per person on the land portion of the Costa Rica trip of six nights and longer. Call Mark in his office, 888-718-7717, 888-718-7717. When we come back, it is the infamous Just Cruising segment where we talk about the cruise news of the week and we also have the cruise deal of the week, and this time we are going to the Panama Canal. We're going to talk about the old canal and the new canal. Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your Saturday morning, mark, and I will be right back taking you to destinations around the world.
Show Voice:the the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show is presented by BluePlanetVacations. com, America's best travel advisors. Call or text the show now 801-649-3700, 801-649-3700. Thanks for listening. We'll be right back.
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Show Voice:Now 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 check out the podcast at InsideTravelTalk. com. Here's Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.
Patrick Wiscombe:Your attention, please, your attention, please. You are listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast, a radio show. All aboard, all aboard, please. We're about ready to embark on the Just Cruising segment here on the show. You know you really can't listen to that too long. Yeah, that's kind of rough to listen to. Yeah, I think I mentioned that once before. It was like, yeah, I, I do want fries with that. Yes, coming up in this segment of the inside travel talk podcast and radio show, it's the just cruising segment. Got the cruise news of the week and we've also got the cruise deal of the week. We're headed to the pan Canal. Mark has been through the old canal and the new canal. We'll give you prices on that coming up in this segment. But let's first get to the cruise news of the week, which I thought was kind of interesting. I have not sailed on Regent. Regent is a cruise line, kind of an ultra luxury cruise line.
Mark Faldmo:Is that fair to say that is, they're a very nice cruise line. I've had the opportunity to sail on them and it was one of the best cruise experiences I've had.
Patrick Wiscombe:They're announcing their 2025 Alaska cruises. That's just good enough right there, but they're throwing in a Rocky Mountaineer Land tour, which, if memory serves, I think that's the train stuff that goes around Alaska.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, that's actually the train that goes in the Western Rockies of Canada. It's the train that goes between Vancouver and Bamph area.
Patrick Wiscombe:That's going to be amazing. Just visually that's going to be incredible. Yeah, so what?
Mark Faldmo:they've added in is a six-night land add-on to its Alaska cruises, and that six-night land add-on will go between Banff and Vancouver and then, when you're done with that luxury train, you'll get on the luxury cruise ship. Oh my goodness, six days through the Canadian Rockies and then seven days in Alaska. Oh, wow, a great vacation. And I was kind of excited about this story. I have not been on Rocky Mountaineer, but here in about 10 days I'll be boarding Rocky Mountaineer, taking their Rockies to Red Rocks which goes between Denver and Moab, and so I'm excited to get that experience.
Mark Faldmo:On Rocky Mountaineer, those Canadian Rockies, is something I've always wanted to do.
Patrick Wiscombe:How many days is the Denver to Moab?
Mark Faldmo:It's two days on the train, which that's the only part I'm doing. But when you buy that through Rocky Mountaineer, you have other parts of the tour that you can purchase that spend a little bit more time in Denver or go to Las Vegas or go to the national parks in Southern Utah. So they have other components of that. I've been invited as a travel agent and so they're just letting us do the two-day train segment to experience that.
Patrick Wiscombe:Norwegian Cruise Line's new Explore Oahu cruise tour. Are they booking it now? They?
Mark Faldmo:are. I think this is a really good thing to do. A lot of cruise lines might offer a one-night pre, two-night pre or post, and these Oahu Explorers actually have four full days that include a whole bunch of tours on Oahu before you catch your cruise around the islands. Is that on Pride of America? Then that is so. That's Pride of America on the seven-day cruise. And then it has a four-night tour staying at the Hyatt Waikiki, which is in a great place. It's just across the street from Duke's yeah, we talk about Duke's a lot, so it's just across the street from Duke's. We talk about Duke's a lot, so it's just across the street there.
Mark Faldmo:And then it has a tour that does the dull pineapple plantation and the Polynesian Cultural Center, does Pearl Harbor and a downtown tour, and then it does a scenic South Shore and Kualoa Ranch experience. Kualoa Ranch is where there's been over 200 movies filmed there from Jurassic Park, some of the new Jumanji over 200 movies filmed there. Yeah, from Jurassic Park. Some of the new Jumanji movies were filmed there. For the tropical scenes Lost, the television series. Koloa Ranch is one of those fun places for everyone to visit and then everything else that's included on that tour, just as a reference. Those 11-night cruise and tour started about $3,000 a person plus airfare.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yep, that's a good deal. Actually, that's a good price for a cruise and a land some land stuff. Yeah, Disney Cruise Lines has placed an order for four new cruise ships.
Mark Faldmo:Disney has typically been a smaller cruise line. Their main port has been that, port Canaveral, because they have everything connected to Disney World there. These new four ships that they announced will bring their total fleet to 13 ships, and then these new four ships will come in between 2027 and 2031.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's get to the cruise deal of the week. We're talking about the Panama Canal. One of Mark's favorite things to do truly is sail the Panama Canal, so we'll give you pricing here. In just a few minutes, I think, we're going from Miami to Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale to San Diego. Let's talk about the old canal versus the new canal and why they should consider one or the other.
Mark Faldmo:This is one of the questions I get. A lot of people you know that's on your bucket list to do the Panama Canal and a lot of people say well, I want to go through the old canal. How do I do that? There's not a lot of difference. I think the old canal is probably a little bit more scenic because of the route you take.
Mark Faldmo:On the first part of it You're going kind of right by Panama City. You go through a set of two locks and then you sail up a little bit further and go through another lock. The new canal just has big locks and it goes kind of on the other side of a mountain so it's not quite as scenic. But both routes you do take the Gatun Cut, which is what most people want to do. That is the actual canal part of it. You say the Gatun Gatun, oh, Gatun Gatun Cut, which then leads into Gatun Lake and then the Atlantic Locks.
Mark Faldmo:I don't think there's anything special so it doesn't matter if you go through the old or new in that, but the Pacific Side Locks. I think the old locks are better and more scenic. But both ways again, you still get to see the main part of the canal that everyone wants to see how it's determined if you go through is if the ship is small enough to go through the old locks, it has to go through the old locks. The new locks are only reserved for the big ship. If we're talking kind of the tonnage of ships, probably below 100,000 gross tons would be able to go through the old locks. Anything larger than that would have to go through the new locks.
Patrick Wiscombe:These ships are pretty huge, the MSC shore. I don't know what the gross tonnage is, but they would have to go through a new lock for sure they would have to go through the new locks.
Mark Faldmo:That one is about 180,000 gross tons. I believe so. It is on the larger side of ships.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's talk about the actual cruise deal of the week. When are the dates for this first one?
Mark Faldmo:So, the first one I chose was November 30th of this year. It's on the Norwegian Joy. It's a large ship, new canal, new locks. It's Miami to Los Angeles. Two reasons why I chose this cruise is the main cruise deal of the week. One is its price and the next thing is it overnights in Panama City. So after you get through the canal you pull in and then you have a full day, full two days well, a full day and a half, I guess in Panama City, which, from Panama City there's a train you can take that goes across the canal. You can do some fun things actually in Gatun Lake. So there's lots of great things to do in Panama City. So I think this is a great choice. But the price is where it's at. This cruise, again November 20th, and inside cabin starts at 13 45, but the balcony cabin starts at 18 45 for a balcony. Wow, that is so worth it oh yeah, for a balcony absolutely
Mark Faldmo:I couldn't agree more. The next cruise I wanted to find a cruise it's a smaller ship that would go through the old locks, and so this is April 12th of 2025. It's on the Holland America, on the Euro Dam, and it's a 14-day goes Fort Lauderdale to San Diego. It starts at $19.29 for an inside and $32.99 for a balcony. I think the Norwegian Joy was the last minute where they need to get the ship somewhere, so they have not had a lot of time to sell that, and so they're really working on that. So that's about three months from now. That's about three months from now. Yep, they all have great ports. They usually include a port in Costa Rica, a port in Nicaragua. They might include Acapulco, Mazatlán, Puerto Vallarta. Both of these do include Cartagena, which I thought was a fantastic stop when I did that. Oh yeah, but again, that Norwegian Joy in November, the overnight in Panama City, I think, is well worth it.
Patrick Wiscombe:The overnight in Panama City. I think is well worth it. If you are interested in booking the Norwegian Joy the 15-day Miami to Los Angeles with the overnight in Panama City, call Mark. As soon as we get off the air, write this number down 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. And that's for any of the deals the hot travel deal of the week and also the cruise deal of the week. Just call Mark one more time on the phone number 888-718-7717. If you would do me a favor as we start to wrap up the show, go to InsideTravelTalk. com. That's where you'll find all of our shows. It's also where you will find all of the shows on every single podcast platform. If you would go, subscribe to the show. That way you're guaranteed to get the show as soon as it is available and also leave us a five star for review. Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your Saturday morning. You've been listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. My name is Patrick Wiscombe. He is Mark Faldmo. We will talk to you again next Saturday morning.
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. That's 888-718-7717. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.
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