Inside Travel Talk
Explore Your World! The Inside Travel Talk Podcast is filled with destination information and travel, cruise and vacation tips and tricks. Its the Christmas catalogue of Travel! We are here to help you get out there and Explore Your World.
Inside Travel Talk
Exotic Excursions: Thailand Treasures, Maui Retreats, and Cruise Chronicles
Ever wondered why planning your next adventure could be a game-changer? Join us as Mark brings Thailand to life with gripping tales from his travels, uncovering hidden gems and practical tips for making the most of this captivating country. We'll keep you up-to-date on the best travel deals of the week and the latest cruise news, such as Royal Caribbean's public Wi-Fi enhancement in Juneau using Starlink, and reveal insights from Google's data on optimal flight booking times. Plus, learn about Japan's innovative travel authorization program aimed at managing visitor stays.
Ready to pack your bags for paradise? Discover the reopening of Maui's Royal Lahaina Resort, which recently provided refuge to wildfire-displaced residents. We’ll explore the resort’s unique allure, from private bungalows to stunning ocean views, and spotlight significant discounts on Hawaii travel packages from Funjet for 2025. Also, don't miss our budget-friendly travel deal for Maui, offering packages under $1,000 per person, including flights, for travel between mid-November and mid-December.
Lastly, we navigate the latest in cruise news, including docking challenges at Grand Cayman and the implications of the EU's new travel authorization system. Listener Jane's query about cruise dress codes gets answered with a spotlight on Carnival Cruise Line's casual and smart casual attire guidelines. We wrap up discussing the critical role of travel insurance, highlighting Travelex Insurance Services' exceptional customer service. Plus, find out how Turo car rentals are now integrated into the Uber app, enhancing your travel convenience. Tune in for essential travel tips, including safety measures for lithium-ion batteries on planes.
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 time for another episode and edition of the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. Alongside Mark Faldmo, my good friend, my name is Patrick Wiscombe and, if you are just catching this show for the very first time, the entire purpose of this show is to help you plan and book your next vacation. We are live every Saturday and Sunday morning here in Salt Lake City on radio station KKAT 860 AM at 11 o'clock mountain time, and we are presented by blueplanetvacations. com Coming up. On this segment of the show. We will be putting the travel spotlight on Thailand, a place that I personally want to go, but Mark has been. How many times have you been, mark? I've been twice to Thailand.
Patrick Wiscombe:We also have the hot travel deal of the week, regardless of the destination that's coming up in the next segment, and then, of course, we have the cruise deal of the week during the infamous just cruising segment and, of course, throughout the entire show. At the top of every segment we've got the travel news of the week. This is good news. At At least I thought it was Royal Caribbean is helping boost public Wi-Fi in Juneau. Man, some of these tourist spots, it gets Wi-Fi congested, I'll just put it that way.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, it does. And that small area of Juneau, when you have five cruise ships in on a day, it puts a big strain on the cell phone data. So Royal Caribbean is teaming up with a company to install Starlink receivers in local businesses. It's going to act as free public Wi-Fi for cruisers and residents.
Patrick Wiscombe:I love Starlink internet. Have you ever used it? I have on a cruise ship.
Mark Faldmo:I think. So you know, I've never used it knowingly but I've I'm sure I've connected to places that use it.
Patrick Wiscombe:My son Nathan and his wife Mackenzie. They have spent literally the last year traveling the United States in a van, and so they've been working from their car and they have used Starlink for the past year and I've never heard them complain once about it. I've asked Nathan about it and he goes. Dad, it is fantastic.
Mark Faldmo:They're doing it for the remainder of the cruise season and then the entirety of the 2025 cruise season. So this looks like it's only during the cruise season that these receivers are going to be active. The rest of the year, the regular utilities can handle it. This is good for Juno and good for travelers to Juno.
Patrick Wiscombe:This is good news if you are trying to save money when booking a flight using Google's data.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, this is a report from Google Flights and it tells when the best time to book flights are. They put this report out every year, so this was for the last year, but it also compares it to previous years. So if you're looking to book a domestic flight, the best prices are 38 days in advance, anything domestically in the US.
Patrick Wiscombe:You've consistently said that, even without the data, that the best time to book a flight is about five to six weeks before you take off. Us. You've consistently said that, even without the data that the best time to book a flight is about five to six weeks before you take off.
Mark Faldmo:Correct. Yeah, the historical price range has been between 21 and 52 days, but for the past year it was 38 days, according to Google data.
Patrick Wiscombe:Can you imagine people planning their vacation? Ok, we have a countdown to day 38.
Mark Faldmo:planning their vacation. Okay, we have a countdown to day 38. All right, now we can book it. I mean typically, you know again, within that range about 50 days or so prior is usually when I say the best prices for domestic. Now, international is different and it's much further out it's 101 days.
Mark Faldmo:So More than three months out for international flights. Thanksgiving the best time to book Thanksgiving for the price has been 45 days prior to departure and Christmas is 58 days prior. One of the points they analyzed was what is the best day of the week to book on. This isn't travel, this is to book on. They say it really doesn't matter. And then days to fly on and this is something that we've talked about on the show many times Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday are typically 13% cheaper than Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Patrick Wiscombe:That makes sense. You've been saying that literally for the last year since we've been doing the show.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, so anyway, that's good data from Google, just to help out. A lot of it is stuff we've talked about, but it actually breaks it down to the day Japan is set to launch a new travel authorization program.
Patrick Wiscombe:What's that about?
Mark Faldmo:This is basically just a pre-passport check before you travel, so you'll have to submit a form. They'll come back and say, yes, you can travel. No, you can't travel. They're looking for risks of people staying longer than they should. So apparently a lot of people travel to Japan and stay there.
Patrick Wiscombe:So this is on top of a regular passport. So this is passport plus their authorization. Yeah, yeah.
Mark Faldmo:So you have to submit your passport. This is not a full-fledged visa, right? You just have to submit all your information and then they'll bring you back a piece of paper that you'll have to show when you go through passport control upon arrival. And this is for 71 currently visa-exempt countries. So for us from the US, we don't need a visa to go there. They do say if you're rejected through this, then you would need to apply for a regular visa, and you can probably get in that way by applying for a regular visa.
Patrick Wiscombe:It is time for the destination of the week, and we are headed to Thailand. Let's first talk about getting to Thailand. What's the best way to do that?
Mark Faldmo:So from Thailand. Currently there are no direct flights from the US, so you have to take, usually, one of the Asian carriers.
Patrick Wiscombe:Oh, I didn't know that.
Mark Faldmo:EVA Airways, China Airlines, go through Taipei, Taiwan, go through Japan to get there. Eva Airlines is who I've traveled on. I love flying on EVA Airways. They're a very good airline. A lot of those Asian airlines are pretty good.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's talk about the touristy things to do, the main areas to visit.
Mark Faldmo:Chiang Mai is in the north. It's in the mountains. A lot of people like going here because it's cooler, has more pleasant weather, but it's famous for its historical temples. One of the other areas is Phuket. It's known for its beaches. It was one of my favorite spots in Thailand. And then there's Bangkok. That's the capital, known for ornate shrines. It's also known as the Venice of the East. There's a network of canals and it's great for shopping and for street food.
Patrick Wiscombe:So you take gondolas through the city. Well, boats, oh boats, they're long-tail boats. What are some of the best things to do when you're in Thailand?
Mark Faldmo:My favorite things are see the temples and shrines. Bangkok in particular has several that are just right there Down in the Phuket area. You can go out on the Ataman Sea and go to Pnangnag Bay. Some of those islands I think we've talked about this before they're just islands, small islands that are kind of like gumdrops that like shoot straight up from the ocean and you go, and a lot of them are also hollow inside, so you can go in. You go through tunnels and then you come into this middle of the island. It's a pretty neat experience to do that.
Mark Faldmo:One of the things a lot of people like to do go to the markets. In Thailand there's a 24-hour, seven days a week flower market. Thailand is known for its floating markets, where all the vendors are on canoes boats. You go up and you buy from one canoe. It's a pretty interesting concept for the floating markets. There are several of those. Also, right on the main river in Thailand there's a it's kind of like an outdoor shopping mall called Asia Teak. I like that. I probably had some of the best pad thai I ever had at the little food truck that was there ever had at the little food truck that was there. Speaking of that. Thailand is known for street food in the Chinatown. Street food is amazing. There they have whole food tours where you just go and eat street food the whole tour. One of my favorite things I actually did a cooking class in Thailand. We made things from scratch. We made the curry from scratch. It was so good. The first time we met about doing this was in a Thai restaurant.
Patrick Wiscombe:Wasn't it Simply Thai and Sandy? Simply Thai and Sandy? Yeah, they did have some good pad thai.
Mark Faldmo:We talked about Venice Bangkok being the Venice of the East taking a cruise on the Chao Phraya River, which is the river that runs right through Bangkok. There's dinner cruises that do that, or you can take smaller cruises that go up into some of the smaller canals. Bangkok, and Thailand as a whole, is a wonderful destination to go to. I didn't even talk about the elephants. They're elephant rescue because traditionally, elephants have been pretty heavily used working in Thailand, and so there are now places that have elephant rescue. They're all domesticated animals so they can't be released back into the wild and you really get to learn about the elephants in Thailand.
Patrick Wiscombe:Well, that's going to do it for the Destination Spotlight. If you are interested in going to Thailand, call Mark in his office during the break. Obviously you're not going to book something that fast, but just to get the conversation started accommodations et cetera call him 888-718-7717. One more time on the phone number 888-718-7717. Coming up in segment number two, it is the hot travel deal of the week and we cannot talk enough about Hawaii. It seems to be Alaska and Hawaii are probably the things that you book the most. We are going to Maui this time, so if you've always wanted to go to Hawaii, or Maui specifically, stay tuned for this next segment. You are listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. My name is Patrick Wiscombe, alongside Mark Faldmo.
Show Voice:He and I will be right back right back, taking you to destinations around the world. 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. If you would like to go to Hawaii, this is the segment for you. You are listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show alongside Mark Faldmo, the owner of BluePlanetVacations. com. My name is Patrick Wiscombe and, if you can't tell, we are talking about Hawaii. This is the hot travel deal of the week and we're going to be talking about some three, three and a half and five-star hotels on the island of Maui and some of the things to do in Maui. If you've always thought about going to Hawaii, quit thinking about it. We've got a killer deal to get to Maui in this segment. But before we do that, let's get to the travel news of the week, and where should we start here? You know what let's start with. Warner Brothers is creating a new theme park and experiences.
Mark Faldmo:Warner Brothers has actually created a new business unit. It's called Warner Brothers Discovery Global Experiences Warner Brothers.
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Mark Faldmo:Global Experiences, and this is how they're going to work on developing theme parks, developing studio tours, developing more interaction with the brand. Right now they have a partnership with Universal Destinations for Harry Potter, and so they're going to continue to lease that out to Universal, but they are trying to get more people to interact with their brand, similar to what Universal Studios does.
Patrick Wiscombe:That makes a whole lot of sense, because Warner Brothers my perception of Warner Brothers is that it is an enormous company and if they've partnered with Universal Studios, their backlot tour, which, by the way, is fantastic, I love that tour, yeah.
Mark Faldmo:I do too.
Patrick Wiscombe:Jaws, the Psycho House, all of the current TV shows. It's amazing what you get to see on that backlot tour. I'm actually kind of surprised it's taken this long.
Mark Faldmo:Now that's one thing that people are really craving these days are experiences, and this new unit can develop some of those experiences around Warner Brothers characters themes. I think this will be a good thing for travelers. I'd love to visit Universal Studios both in California and Florida, probably even more so than Disney like what Universal has to offer.
Mark Faldmo:I know there are some people out there yelling at the radio right now. It's just a different experience and it connects you although Disney does as well but connects you with the TV shows, the movies and things that you relate to.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yeah, that you see on your screen every week. Yes, I thought this was great and I know that it ties into Maui, which is the whole purpose of this particular segment, the hot travel deal of the week.
Mark Faldmo:But I saw that Royal Lahaina Resort has reopened for business on Maui, so Royal Lahaina was one of the resorts that was used to house displaced residents from the wildfire in Maui. They're winding that down. They've gone through some refurbishments and they are now open for full business on Maui. This is one of my favorite hotels there. As I look through my pictures of Hawaii, I think some of the best ocean shots I've caught have been from one of the balconies, from the rooms of the Royal Lahaina.
Patrick Wiscombe:How close is Royal Lahaina to the burn zone? Is it in that same area or is it a little bit further inland?
Mark Faldmo:It's a few miles down. Okay, so it's a few miles out of the actual town of Lahaina, but it is one of the closer hotels to the town of Lahaina.
Patrick Wiscombe:If memory serves, the fire was on August 8th 2023. That place got torched, not the whole island, just the section of Lahaina Town Front Street. Maui is a huge island. The way that they were portraying it was that the entire island burned down. That's not even close to accurate. It was only a section of the island. When Nikki and I were there in March, you could still see white ash. I can't even imagine how hot that fire was and how quickly it moved.
Mark Faldmo:One of the unique parts about this is it has 127 private bungalows as part of the property. Okay, so it has a hotel section plus it has these private bungalows. See, I would go bungalow probably. This does open up a lot more lodging options for Maui.
Patrick Wiscombe:I wanted to recap the Funjet Hawaii offer that we made. Was that a couple of weeks ago?
Mark Faldmo:I think that was two weeks ago, so we're talking about this because it does end Thursday, the 26th. You have a couple of days to take advantage of this. Up to $550 off and this is for 2025 packages that are paid in full at the time of reservation. They've also added select hotels. That's up to 45% discount. There's resort credits, fifth night free, kids stay free. There's all sorts of other offers at select hotels for this offer and that's for travel January 1st 2025 to July 31st 2025. I did include the Royal Lahaina in this. This is for mid-November to mid-December, so that discount that we just talked about does not apply here. But I chose these dates because, finally, we're seeing good Maui packages under $1,000 per person With flights.
Mark Faldmo:With flights, yeah, so Maui has traditionally been higher, and it's been quite a while since I've seen prices for Maui this low. So mid-November to mid-December, excluding Thanksgiving, is a really good time to go price-wise. Here are some of the hotels the Royal Kahana, which is a three-star hotel, $989 per person.
Mark Faldmo:So that includes flights from Salt Lake City, five nights hotel and it includes all of the required taxes and fees. This was for a November 13th departure date that I looked here. And then the Royal Lahaina, the hotel that we just talked about, which is a three and a half star hotel, and this is in their hotel section, not those private bungalows. We can get prices if you're interested in those. It starts at $1,199 per person, again for the flight and hotel and all the taxes. And then probably one of my favorite hotels on the island is the Sheraton Maui. This is a five-star hotel. Yeah, that's a nice hotel and it's in a good location. It has a nice beach because it's kind of in a little cove. The Sheraton Maui was one of the first hotels in the area. They had their first pick of the good beach, so they're in a great location there. That one starts at $1659 per person from Salt Lake City Five-night package and airfare.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's talk about some of the things to do in Maui. I'm really hoping that Haleakala Volcano is on this list.
Mark Faldmo:It is. That actually is the number one attraction on Maui. I'll turn the tables here on you. Why do you hope it was on the list?
Patrick Wiscombe:It was one of the most spectacular ascents. So Nikki and I took a car up the mountain and it was visually spectacular. It truly was one of the most special experiences I've ever had. Going up a mountain, coming down a mountain, the views were just unbelievable. One of the things that was amazing is that in the morning and I do mean early morning, and you have to get a pass for this where you actually watch the sun go up and you're above the clouds First of all, listen to what I'm saying there You're above the clouds and you're watching the sunrise. And then just the opposite in the evening, you can actually watch the sun go down from above the clouds spectacular.
Patrick Wiscombe:Do it, you will not regret it. We did not do this part because it was raining that day. Uh, you can ride a bike down from the top. I hope they have good brakes, because I didn't do it, but uh, anyway, you can ride the bike all the way down to the base of the mountain. While I didn't do it, I saw people doing it in the rain. I'm like, well, okay, maybe I won't do that in the rain, I will do it for sure, but just not in the rain. It just looked amazing.
Mark Faldmo:And I agree with you. You get up there and the views. The thing that intrigues me when you're up there is you can look around and see the other Hawaiian islands yeah.
Patrick Wiscombe:You can see Oahu.
Mark Faldmo:Yep, you can see Molokai, you can see the big island. You just see them poking up out of the ocean or through the clouds. So it's pretty interesting to be up there and see that spectacular view.
Patrick Wiscombe:When people think of Hawaii, they just think of beachfront properties, and that's true, absolutely it is. But when you go inland and you go up, you don't think of elevation on Hawaii.
Mark Faldmo:And it is truly spectacular. You will not regret doing it. Haleakala is just above 10,000 feet above sea level, which is about the size of our mountains here in Salt Lake, but it starts at sea level, so you've got an extra 4,000 feet above that, so it's a pretty big mountain and it's quick.
Mark Faldmo:It goes up quick. Yes, my other favorite thing to do in Maui is the Road to Hana, just a very scenic road. You kind of have to be able to drive with white knuckles if you drive this, because it's a narrow road. A lot of sections of the road are one way, so you have to wait for vehicles and there are service trucks that are on it too to get back to Hana to deliver the goods that the town needs. It's a spectacular drive. A little bit past the town of Hana you have the seven sacred pools, which is actually part of the national Haleakala National Park, and then, of course, in the winter, whale watching. Some of the best whale watching you'll ever have is in Maui January, February and March.
Patrick Wiscombe:Do yourself a favor, go to Hawaii. Go to Maui, since that's what we're talking about. But if you just can just get to Hawaii, go. Experience just how special this place is. It is just different, it hits different. It's just a different experience and you will not be disappointed. Call Mark in his office as we go to break here 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. When we come back, it is the infamous just cruising segment. We're going to talk about a couple of deals on Carnival. Cruise Line Princess has an 11-night cruise starting from Galveston. We'll give those details and we've got the cruise news of the week. That is next when the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show continues. My name is Patrick Wiscombe, he is Mark Faldmo. He and I will be right back.
Show Voice:You're listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show with Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo, presented by BluePlanetVacations. com America's best travel advisors. Call or text the show now 801-649-3700. That's 801-649-3700. And check out the podcast at InsideTravelTalk. com. We'll be right back.
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Patrick Wiscombe:Contact Blue Planet Vacations at 888-718-7717 or blueplanetvacations. com. 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:This is 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:All aboard for segment number three of the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. This is the infamous Just Cruising segment, where we only talk about cruises. We've got the cruise news of the week and, of course, we've got the cruise deal of the week and I think we're going to I think we're going to Grand Cayman. Well, I don't know when are we going.
Mark Faldmo:We're going to the Caribbean. Okay, and the cruises do include Grand Cayman, since it's one of our news stories.
Patrick Wiscombe:Ah, very good. So that is coming up. If you've always wanted to go to the Caribbean which Nikki and I were just there, literally three months ago it is definitely worth going. Let me just visually paint a picture for listeners. I have never seen so many shades of the color blue in my life. I thought these places were just fake and made up, and then I saw it and I went oh okay, all right, now I get it Anyway. So we'll talk about the Caribbean coming up here in just a second, but let's start with the cruise news of the week, and I thought that this was kind of an interesting news story, since we're talking about Grand Cayman. Cruise ship visits are at risk going to Grand Cayman, and that's where I'll let you pick up the story.
Mark Faldmo:Last week we talked about ship size big ship versus small ship. This whole story is about larger cruise ships can't necessarily make it to Grand Cayman, and so a lot of cruise lines are opting not to go to Grand Cayman as the ships grow bigger. Grand Cayman does not have docking facilities, so all the guests have to be tendered ashore. Tendering 7,000 passengers back and forth just won't work. They need a pier to do that. The cruise ships that do go to Grand Cayman are the medium or smaller sized ships. They are thinking about building a pier in Grand Cayman that will accommodate the larger ships, Although for the time being, Grand Cayman is one of my favorite stops in the Caribbean, mainly for this problem that we're talking about. There still may be four or five ships there, but they're smaller ships and the tendering process creates a different guest flow passenger flow ashore. Grand Cayman just doesn't feel as busy as some of the other ports to me, where everyone gets off the ship at the same time.
Patrick Wiscombe:That really does create some logistical issues.
Mark Faldmo:It feels less crowded when you're there on a cruise. And also, I don't mind tendering. I know a lot of people say, oh, I want to avoid tender ports. To me, I like getting on that tender and going. It kind of makes me feel like I'm an explorer. You know, going to a new place, especially if it's a place I haven't visited. I like that process of tendering. I think it's a great part of the cruise vacation. But obviously, you know a lot of people want to just get to their activities, get to their shopping, you know, get to whatever they're doing. So tendering can put a delay in that. I think it's a great part of the cruise experience.
Patrick Wiscombe:I think Lewis and Clark have nothing on you. The great Faldino yeah, there was a story that France's Normandy ports director is warning of longer queue times. What are the details on that story?
Mark Faldmo:The story mainly relates to ferry service, but also can relate to cruise passengers when they come in. When the EU institutes their new electronic authorization travel system and this is mainly from the UK we'll need to fill this out and have this done. And they say the system hasn't even been tested. And yet it's going to launch in a few months. And so they're just saying be ready for longer lines, because if you don't have your forms properly filled out, it's going to delay your time to get into the country when arriving by ship.
Patrick Wiscombe:What could possibly go wrong? If you're headed to Normandy, pack your patience.
Mark Faldmo:If you're taking a cruise actually to probably anywhere in France or the European Union, there'll probably be some issues around this, you know, although in most cases you'll fly in which that system is okay. It's the system for the shipping that is a little bit delayed and that they're particularly worried about here.
Patrick Wiscombe:I'm glad that we made that clarification, because if anyone was flying, they were like I don't know. Maybe we should rethink this.
Mark Faldmo:This is just for boats, ships, this is just for boats, and they haven't announced the start date for flying in, but that one has been a lot more extensively tested already.
Patrick Wiscombe:So okay, as soon as that's announced, we'll announce it on this show one of the things that I want to emphasize, obviously, because you're listening to us or you're podcasting this later if you have travel specific questions, we have an office number that we give at the end of every segment. But if you have travel related questions or you just want to plan your own vacation, you can text us while we're on the air. Just send your text or you can call 801-649-3700, 801-649-3700. And during the break we got a text. Yeah, this is from Jane. Jane wants to know if there is a dress code when going on cruises. The dress code that I've seen mostly is swimsuits, shorts, but they do have dress-up night. What details does Jay need to know about this?
Mark Faldmo:That's a question a lot of people ask because a lot of cruise lines do have formal nights and some people don't like to get dressed up. So I found some information, cruise line by cruise line, as far as what their overall dress code is and their evening dress code. I'll just pick out a few of the main cruise lines to talk about, but every cruise line does have some sort of a dress code. Carnival Cruise Line is casual by day and smart casual after 530.
Patrick Wiscombe:Do they really enforce that? I don't know that. I've ever seen it enforced.
Mark Faldmo:Some cruise lines do enforce that on the dress-up nights. They'll at least ask men to have a tie-on for the formal nights or go to the buffet in the main restaurant. So a lot of cruise lines do kind of enforce their dress code or highly suggest but in the evening time no shorts in the dining room, no hats, things like that. I wear hats a lot and I often forget and I'm asked quite a bit to take my hat off.
Patrick Wiscombe:Really.
Mark Faldmo:Okay. And then Celebrity Cruise Line, which is a little bit higher end, is smart casual the whole time. They do have dress-up nights. In the main dining room they have sports jackets as optional. You will see a lot of men that wear sports jackets in the evening. On Celebrity Cunard resort casual by day, smart attire in the evening. Some of the restaurants do require a jacket in the evening and on gala evenings you have to at least have a jacket to go into the restaurants.
Patrick Wiscombe:Every time I hear the word smart, I always think of hey, siri, get me dressed, I need to be smart. Yeah, I don't want to trigger someone's speaker, so that's why I said kind of separated that Disney cruise line.
Mark Faldmo:cruise casual is what they call that. I've not heard of cruise casual, so hopefully that's a little bit more relaxed. And then they do have dress-up nights are optional but it's recommended that people dress up on Disney for their dress-up nights. Holland America and Princess both have the same. They're smart casual, except for the dress-up night. They have semi-formal nights and formal nights on board Holland America and Princess.
Mark Faldmo:And then we'll just quickly go over one last cruise line which is Royal Caribbean Casual by day, smart casual in the evening. They do have a chef's table experience. Which is Royal Caribbean Casual by day, smart casual in the evening. They do have a chef's table experience which is formal dress if you do the chef's table, and the dress code does apply in that situation to all ages. So even the children would have to be dressed up for the chef's table. I say in the afternoon, mornings and afternoons you're fine in most places. Just no swimwear in the main restaurants In the evening. Men a golf shirt at least, and then women can wear something a little bit nicer in the evening time. But for the most part cruise lines are going more and more on the casual side than the formal dress-up side.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yeah, that's what I've seen too. It's kind of fun to see people dressed up. In fact, when you see someone in a tux or a suit, I'm like man, I feel underdressed here. Am I doing something wrong?
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, I don't necessarily like to dress up, I don't mind doing that. The thing I have a problem with is packing that takes up too much of the suitcases. I like to travel light and I have to pack a suit. That makes it a lot harder.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's talk about the cruise deal of the week. These are the Caribbean cruises that visit Grand Cayman, the story that we talked about at the very beginning of this segment. Let's start with Carnival Cruise.
Mark Faldmo:Line. I found two deals. The first one is Carnival Cruise Line. This is a six-night cruise, departing January 26th. It visits Ocho Rios, which is in Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel, with two days at sea. That starts at $489 per person for an inside cabin or $849 per person for a balcony. Those include all of the government taxes and fees, so that's the end price after all of the taxes and fees are added, and actually all three ports on this Ocho Rios, Jamaica, one of the most beautiful islands I've visited in the Caribbean Grand Cayman we talked about that.
Mark Faldmo:You know, one thing we didn't talk about is going to the fun spot in Grand Cayman. There's a town called Hell, so you can go to Hell. You can mail a postcard home from Hell. So Grand Cayman also has Stingray City, which is a fun thing to do. You go out and swim with the stingrays Then. Cozumel is a nice port. I've been there so many times. Sometimes I don't even get off the ship or I just go down into the main town square and have chips and salsa. There are also seven-day cruises for about the same cost, but I chose the six-day because they have the same ports. So seven days, just add an extra day at sea.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's wrap it up with the Princess. I think it's an 11-night cruise from Galveston.
Mark Faldmo:I chose a longer cruise on this. It's January 27th and Galveston which the nearest big city is Houston, about 40 minutes away. Galveston is becoming an emerging cruise market. A lot of cruise lines are there. There's been a new pier announced.
Mark Faldmo:Galveston is a great access, especially for us in the West, to the Caribbean. So this 11-day cruise visits Montego Bay in Jamaica, grand Cayman, visits Roatan, which is an island off of Honduras. You know I've talked about Roatan before. It reminds me a lot of Tahiti. It was just so lush and tropical. I really enjoyed Roatan.
Mark Faldmo:It goes to Costa Maya and then Belize City, which has probably one of my favorite shore excursions of all time. You go to a Mayan ruin but it's only accessible by boat. So you take a boat for like an hour and a half up a river. They'll stop and you'll see wildlife alligators, birds, monkeys, different things and then you go to this ruin one of my top shore excursions in Bully City. And then it also visits Cozumel before heading back to Galveston. The price on that for an inside cabin starts at $1,049 and a balcony at $1,402. We're right in for an inside less than $100 per person per day, which is usually the sweet spot for cruises, and that balcony cabin is an amazing price as well. For an 11-day cruise you would expect that to be well above $2,000, usually for a balcony cabin. Two great cruise deals. We kind of targeted that one port of Grand Cayman, but the Caribbean is a great cruise option.
Patrick Wiscombe:You can't go wrong. All right, we're going to take a break here to book the cruise deal of the week, either the six night or the 11 night cruise. Six night cruise from Miami or the 11 night cruise from Galveston. Call Mark in his office, just get the conversation rolling. You're not committing to anything. 888-718-7717. One more time 888-718-7717. Once you've done it, you probably will never want to stop because it's such a great way to get out and explore the world. When we come back, segment number four, the final segment. Already We've got Mark's travel tips. We've also got some additional travel news of the week and we're going to talk about consumers visiting 277 websites before booking travel. We're not encouraging you to do that because Mark is basically the 277 websites. That is next. The Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show continues. I'm Patrick Wiscombe, he's Mark Faldmo. We'll be right back.
Show Voice:Explore your world. 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. We'll be right back.
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Show Voice:This is the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show with Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo, presented by blueplanetvacations. com America's best travel advisors. Call the show right now 801-649-3700, 801-649-3700. And now your hosts, Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.
Patrick Wiscombe:Serving travelers around the world. Serving travelers around the world. You are listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. We are here to help you plan and book your next vacation. Whether it's one of the vacations that we talk about, or if you have your own agenda and you just want to create something custom just for you, you can call Mark in his office 888-718-7717, 888-718-7717. We are literally on the air every week to help you plan and book your next vacation. So let us help you. Mark has been on over 150 cruises. He's literally been traveling the world for the last 25 plus years Actually longer than that, but I mean in a professional capacity. He's been doing it for a very, very long time. He's helped me multiple times. Just this year Went to Hawaii. Last year went to Alaska. We've gone to the Caribbean. The guy knows his stuff. So call him in his office if you would. 888-718-7717. We are here to help you.
Patrick Wiscombe:Coming up on this, the final segment of the show, we've got the travel news of the week and we're going to talk about a 20% offer from Ama Waterways that is going to expire soon. We'll give you the details, and I saw this news story that consumers will visit 277 websites before booking their travel. Before booking their travel, I'm telling you, mark is the 277 websites. Just call him, really. Just call him. He knows his stuff. I saw this news story that Uber and Turo. Now, if you don't know what Turo is, turo is a rent-a-car type company where you rent people's private cars, but they're going to integrate car rentals into the Uber app. I think that's a good move on Turo's part, because no one knows who Turo is, generally speaking, and everyone knows who Uber is.
Mark Faldmo:I think that's a great move. I'm a regular user of Uber. I have used Turo a time or two. Have you used Turo?
Patrick Wiscombe:I was going to try it once, but the car wasn't available when I needed it or it got rented out from underneath me, and so I ended up not doing it.
Mark Faldmo:I have used Turo twice, had a really good experience with that. It is kind of strange to drive someone's private car like a rental car for me. I also thought Uber and Lyft were strange getting a ride from some random stranger, and now I use them all the time. So these are two companies that kind of innovated in the travel area and good to see that they're combining forces to hopefully make some of these travel aspects a little bit less expensive for travelers.
Patrick Wiscombe:Here's a story that I just went. Oh boy, battery powered devices are overheating more often on planes. That is not something I want to see when I'm flying 35,000 feet in the air. Really, I just don't even want to be off the ground if a device is overheating.
Mark Faldmo:Anyone that's flown. When they're checking your bags at the gate, they ask you to make sure you have no laptops, no batteries. All of that has to go in the cabin and cannot go under the plane in the cargo hold, and the reason is because smoke or fire from one of these devices is a lot easier to spot and take care of in the cabin. In the cargo hold. They can't see it. From 2019 to the 2023, incidence of batteries overheating or smoking are up 28%. Wow, that's a lot. Airlines reported that 70% of the lithium-ion batteries incidences in airplanes were from e-cigarettes people not turning them off like they're supposed to, and overheating. And before this I was doing some research as to why these overheat. And it's just temperature change can do that. Pressure changes, damaged batteries can all do that, and I did learn something. I've heard an announcement and I've not understood why until just a few minutes ago in the safety briefing of when you're on.
Patrick Wiscombe:Oh yeah, we talked about that last week.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, One of the things they say if you lose your electronic device in your seat, don't adjust your seat. Let a flight attendant know. And the reason is because people were trying to adjust their seat, crushing their phone and starting the fire or starting a reaction with their battery, and so that's why they ask you if you lose your phone in the seat, don't adjust your seat to call a flight attendant.
Patrick Wiscombe:I saw this story that consumers visit 277 websites before booking travel. People are doing their research, but I want to emphasize and you would expect us to say this because we do this show you, my friend have helped me enormously in the last year with all the travel that Nikki and I have done and you said don't do this, do this. You've really kind of made the whole travel experience really great for she and I.
Mark Faldmo:Thank you, and that's you know. My goal at Blue Planet Vacations and that's our goal is to really help in that trip planning. This segment is kind of why use a travel agent? I mean, the internet is a good tool, yeah, but if you're visiting almost 300 websites and spending eight hours just to research a trip, that's a lot. A good travel agent can probably find just as good or, in most cases, a much better trip.
Patrick Wiscombe:Well and can speak from experience too.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, our goal price is important, so we're mainly looking for the overall value of the trip.
Patrick Wiscombe:And is it a good way to spend money?
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, there's a lot of ways that added values can be added to trips that don't cost a lot more. Your private transfer for the cruise that wasn't a whole lot more than if you were to take the bus transfer and you had a private driver take you there, private driver take you there. So you know there are a lot of things that a travel agent can do to add value while still finding the best price.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's recap the hot travel deal of the week. Where we went to Maui, we had the five-night package. Let's go over that quickly and then let's do the cruise deal of the week for listeners.
Mark Faldmo:So the five-night package to Maui included airfare from Salt Lake City Again, we can do from other cities if you want and Five Nights Hotel started at $989 per person for a three-star Royal Kahana or $1199 per person for three-and-a-half-star Royal Lahaina Just reopened up and is a beautiful hotel, and the Sheraton Maui $1,659. One of the best hotel locations on Maui.
Patrick Wiscombe:Maui is spectacular. Let's talk about the cruise deal of the week.
Mark Faldmo:Cruise deal of the week. We had two cruise deals Both that included Grand Cayman because that was in one of our news stories a January 26th departure on Carnival Cruise Line. It was six days, starting at $489 per person including all of the taxes and fees or a balcony at $849 per person. And then we had an 11-day cruise from Galveston on Princess. This one started at $1049 per person for an inside and $1402 per person for a January 29 departure from Galveston on Princess.
Patrick Wiscombe:I cannot believe how fast this hour went Unbelievable. If you want to take advantage of these offers that we've made during this edition of the show, call Mark in his office. No obligation, just get the conversation started. His office number is 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. And you can also visit him online at blueplanetvacations. com. You can pick up the podcast at insidetraveltalk. com. We're on all of the major podcast platforms. Get out, explore the world while you can, because you never know what curveball's life is going to throw at you. Live your life deliberately, live your life intentionally, and just remember today is a good day for a good day. Have a great week. We'll talk to you next Saturday that's it.
Show Voice: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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