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
Global Exploration: Oslo Norway, Mexican Riviera and South Pacific Cruise
What if your next vacation could redefine luxury and exploration? Get ready to uncover the latest buzz in the travel world, starting with the ritzy makeover of Turtle Bay Resort in Hawaii, reborn as the Ritz-Carlton Oahu, promising unparalleled opulence on Oahu's North Shore. Discover United Airlines' exciting global expansion plan for summer 2025, with thrilling new routes from Newark to Greenland and Sicily, and Delta's fresh offering of flights from Los Angeles to Brisbane, Australia. Plus, hear about Spirit Airlines' financial turbulence and what it could mean for your future travel plans.
Experience more convenience and adventure as we navigate through changing travel regulations and must-see destinations. Mexico has made a pivotal customs law reversal, easing travel to Cancun, while the European Union's delay in biometric travel checks means you'll still be collecting those passport stamps. If you're dreaming of a cool escape, learn about the rising trend of "coolcations" and how you can snag a sweet deal for a spring getaway to Oslo, Norway. Don’t miss Disneyland’s exclusive ticket offers for early 2025, making magical memories more affordable for families.
For cruise lovers, we bring the latest industry updates you won't want to miss. MSC Cruises is setting sail for a new world record while building a state-of-the-art terminal in Galveston, Texas. Princess Cruises is upping the tech ante with faster internet tiers, and Royal Caribbean's hiking gratuity rates. Our tips segment will ensure you travel smart and safe, featuring insightful advice on selecting the best airplane seats and understanding entry requirements with tools like Sherpa. Plus, hear a cautionary tale about the perils of oversharing on social media and a quirky case of a child being denied a passport due to his unique name. Tune in for these stories and more, and visit our newly launched BluePlanetVacations.com for all your travel planning needs.
Welcome to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. On today's show, mark and I will be talking about Scandinavian vacations cruising the Mexican Riviera, plus an exotic South Pacific cruise. Let's go. 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:Oh, my goodness, it is time for another Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio for Saturday and Sunday, October 19th and 20th 2024. My name is Patrick Wiscombe and, if you are brand new to the radio show or the podcast, the entire purpose of this show is to help you plan and book your next vacation. This show is all about fun. You can get the podcast at InsideTravelalk. com or wherever you get your podcasts. We're on all of the major podcast platforms and if you're in Salt Lake City, we're also on the air each and every Saturday and Sunday mornings, starting at 11 o'clock in the morning, mountain time, and this show is presented by blueplanetvacations. com. Mark Faldmo joins me. And, mark, I'm a little tired. I just got back from Phoenix doing a little business down in Phoenix and it's good to talk to you.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, so a little quick trip for you, but here we've had a little bit of rain the past few days, so you probably enjoyed being in the sun. I did.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's get to the travel news of the week and this particular portion of the show. It's airline intensive and we've also got some hotel news. In fact, let me just start there. Turtle Bay Resort in Hawaii, on Oahu specifically, they're changing their name. They're now going to be known as the Ritz-Carlton Oahu.
Mark Faldmo:Turtle Bay is one of the only places that you can stay on the North Shore, and there's also the Courtyard Oahu North Shore which is in Laie, just a few miles away from the Turtle Bay. This is interesting that they are going to that luxury brand of Ritz-Carlton. Turtle Bay has always been a nice hotel and I know two years ago they underwent a huge renovation and made it very luxury and so I think they were just positioning that to be able to turn it into a Rich Carlton. So now they have that whole branding and marketing behind them. The hotel itself is out on a little peninsula yeah, it is. You have a beach on either side. There's a really good surfing spot there and then the actual beach on one side. The Turtle Bay Beach is one of the better beaches on the North Star.
Patrick Wiscombe:It is spectacular United is launching a global expansion for this next upcoming summer 2025, adding eight cities and 13 routes.
Mark Faldmo:This is very interesting because United is adding, as you mentioned, eight new destinations. Seven of them are not served by any other US airline. Oh, really, Well, I would say seven and a half, because one of the destinations Delta also announced, so currently, most of them next May or June. So they have Newark to Bilbao, Spain. Newark to Faro, Portugal, Newark to Madeira, Portugal, and I think this is the most interesting one Newark to Nuuk. There will be a flight from US to Greenland and then Newark to Palermo, Italy. So that's the one that Delta also announced. So it's interesting. We've gone from zero flights to Sicily to now two flights to Sicily.
Patrick Wiscombe:Within just a few weeks that we've talked about.
Mark Faldmo:Just a few weeks, yeah. And then they do have the small hub in Tokyo. So they're adding a flight Tokyo to Taiwan and a flight Tokyo to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, and then the last flight is Washington DC to Dakar. They're also beefing up their flights to Venice and to Nice Delta.
Patrick Wiscombe:They've just announced that they are adding a new flight from Los Angeles, from LAX, specifically to Brisbane, Australia.
Mark Faldmo:Traditionally, Australia New Zealand have only been served by their national airlines, so Qantas or Air New Zealand. In the last few years Delta has been making some inroads into that. Now we're getting flights from mainland US directly to Australia, which is very nice. With this new flight to Brisbane, Delta is going to offer 17 weekly flights between the US and Australia. Wow, so that's between Sydney and Brisbane that they'll offer that many flights.
Patrick Wiscombe:This isn't good news for consumers, but Spirit Airlines is discussing a possible bankruptcy filing.
Mark Faldmo:I hope that they'll stay in the market somehow I am not a big fan of Spirit, but competition is always good. Spirit does keep some of the other airlines a little honest in what they charge and do. The CEO of Spirit has come out and kind of really ripped the Department of Transportation for denying that merger. They denied it because it would create less competition and now that decision might take out an airline from the market and they're just looking at Chapter 11, which means they'll still operate. But I know they've already made significant route changes. For us here in Salt Lake I read a story that Spirit is considering or has completely pulled out of Salt Lake City starting in December or January. But there are some cities that they are just completely pulling out of.
Patrick Wiscombe:I want to share some good news, and I know you do too, but blueplanetvacations. com and I'm mentioning it specifically just so we can start really pointing our listeners to the website blueplanetvacations. com the website is live, but one of the things that I wanted to talk about is Mark's philosophy for taking care of traveling customers planning vacations versus other travel advisors. Let's start there.
Mark Faldmo:Obviously, for any business, a website is important. What I've really tried to do with this website is connect it to our travelers. A lot of agencies use like feeder services where that service just feeds deals into their site Not that those are bad, but it doesn't really connect it to the person that is viewing the website. I don't use those feeder sites. It creates a lot of extra work for me to try and tailor and personalize each deal for our market, for our listeners, for our audience. Every agency's website and even on mine, you'll see the traditional cruise deals like 60% off, 70% off, you know, depending on the cruise line. But I've tailored those a little bit more to certain destinations, tailored them to our listeners, to our market. So hopefully those deals, I guess, make more sense to them. It shows them how they can use that deal in their travels.
Patrick Wiscombe:One of the things that I've already signed up for is the hot travel deal updates. Tell people how to do that and what they can expect.
Mark Faldmo:There is a form you can click on hot deals or there may be a pop-up that pops up asking you if you want to register for that. It is our email list and those emails will come out every seven to 10 days or whenever a hot deal breaks. I don't want to spam people. I don't want to send things out every few days, like some people do. I will only send things out if it's relevant and timely.
Patrick Wiscombe:One of the things that I really liked was that you can actually book cruises and vacations online, but I think that something is unique is that anyone who plans a vacation will be assigned a travel advisor to help with reservations.
Mark Faldmo:On the website. There's both a vacation booking tool where you can book destinations Hawaii, Mexico, the Caribbean and then there's also a cruise booking tool on there, and if you book there, you're assigned to one of our advisors to help with any other travel needs, to just make sure things are booked correctly and as you want. A lot of people have issues with booking online because they're not sure they did it right. They're not confident in what they've booked, and so this is a way where, if you want, you can at least do your research there and then call our agents. But if you do book, you will be assigned an advisor who will help you through that process.
Patrick Wiscombe:See, I think that's the difference. You're also adding the podcast to the website.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, so it's there on the main page. The latest episode is there, and then there's the whole podcast section that lists all of our past podcasts, and so this is also where you can find the show notes.
Patrick Wiscombe:One of the things that many people don't know about you is that you've traveled nearly four and a half million miles and you are going to be able to share your experiences, and you'll also be able to see some of the destinations where you will be going.
Mark Faldmo:But Mark has also been there, which is why he can help you travel, so that's one of the things I've always enjoyed doing is writing about my travel experiences, so there is an extensive blog section on the site. It'll have travel tips, travel news, travel destination information. One of my favorite blogs that is currently there is one on the Aranui 5, which we've talked about before. That sails between the Marquesas Islands and Tahiti, so all of the information about my experience on that cruise is there.
Patrick Wiscombe:And of course people can book it too.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, and people can book it as well.
Patrick Wiscombe:I love cruising. I don't think I love cruising as much as you do, because you've been on over 150, but one of my favorite sections on the website is the top five cruise deals of the week. This is kind of how we plan the show.
Mark Faldmo:You know there are a lot of people like you that like to cruise. Sometimes they don't know where they want to go. So this top five cruise deals of the week section is designed to give you some ideas and also show you where the value is in the deals.
Mark Faldmo:One thing I've also done there is those lists the inside, outside and balcony costs. But highlighted in red is a deal if it's an exceptionally good deal. There's some Alaska cruises on there that have really good rates for balcony cabins, so I've highlighted those in red or some that have a really good lead in inside price. So that kind of helps you decipher deals and know what's out there.
Patrick Wiscombe:Take advantage of Mark's travel experience and let him help you, and let the website help you. Book your vacation on blueplanetvacations. com, where you will be assigned a travel advisor, just to make sure that you are getting exactly what you want and that you're not gambling with Well. I hope this works out Blueplanetvacations. com one of the best places to book your vacation. Moving forward, coming up in the next segment, we've got the hot travel deal of the week, always in segment number two, and we're going to Scandinavia in the springtime. That is next when the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show continues. Alongside Mark Faldmo, my name is Patrick Wiscombe. Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your Saturday and Sunday mornings. We will be right back.
Show Voice: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.
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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:Welcome back inside of the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. Hello there, my name is Patrick Wiscombe, alongside Mark Faldmo. Mark Faldmo, owner of blue planet vacationsc. om, and, if you are just joining us this very moment, mark was able to launch the website this next week and you can book all of the vacations with the assistance of his travel advisors at blueplanetvacations. com. That's huge news, mark.
Ad Voice:I'm applauding you. I'm excited.
Patrick Wiscombe:Well done Coming up in this segment segment number two of the show always the hot travel deal of the week. We are headed to Scandinavia, but we're going to do it in the spring of 2025, and we're going to answer one of your clients' questions. Janice wants to go to Scandinavia in the spring and she's going to ask what destination would you recommend for a nice vacation? That's coming up here in just a couple of moments, but let's continue on with the travel news of the week. Two or three weeks ago, you and I were talking about the Cancun airport charging taxes, and I do mean hefty taxes. If you brought a laptop and, let's just say, an iPad, you would get dinged on taxes. A phone didn't count, but it looks like they've eliminated the customs tax for bringing multiple devices.
Mark Faldmo:This is a good thing. This is a very good thing. I always travel with a laptop and a tablet. Most places in Mexico have this current customs law where they can tax you on the second device 19% of the perceived value up to $4,000. So that could be hundreds of dollars on that second device. Oh yeah, but they received so much pushback on this and actually saw a decline in numbers when this story first was reported. I started seeing this about six weeks ago in the news and then I saw an official thing a few weeks ago, which is when we talked about it, and now they've completely reversed that. So it definitely is a good thing for travelers going to Cancun.
Patrick Wiscombe:All right. So if you have a laptop and I'll just say an iPad or something, you can go. You're good to go now To Cancun.
Mark Faldmo:Now there are other destinations, more than just Mexico. There are several countries that have similar things, but I've never actually seen it enforced. It could be enforced. So that's one reason Look at the entry requirements for countries you're visiting and make sure you're not surprised by any of these little. I'll just say stupid laws.
Patrick Wiscombe:You and I have been talking about the EU and its biometric travel checks for a few weeks now, really for about the past year, and we just did a story on it last week. So the European Union has delayed the new biometric travel checks as their computer system is just not up to the task. It's almost getting comical at this point how bad this rollout has been.
Mark Faldmo:And you know, last week we talked about our story was they're doing away with passport stamps and they're starting this on November 10th. They're starting this on November 10th and so after they made that, it's been an official announcement for a while, but we just did that story on the angle of the passport stamps. Now Germany, France and the Netherlands said that their border computer system is not ready for that and cannot handle the new biometric screening. So even if one country is not ready, they can't roll it out in any other destination. They all have to do it at the same time.
Patrick Wiscombe:I saw this story that Disneyland a $50, first of all, let that sinking a $50 kids.
Mark Faldmo:That's the qualifier. Disneyland ticket is back. What are the details on that? Yeah, so this is a promotion that starts next week, so for a limited time, children aged 3 through 9 traveling in early 2025 can get a one-day one-park ticket starting at $50. That's amazing. The tickets go on sale next week, October 22nd. That is what Tuesday is. When those go on sale. They're valid for visits January 7th to March 20th. Can they book those?
Patrick Wiscombe:$50 tickets through you?
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, they can we can do a full Disney package with those promotions. They also have a flexibility to add that a one, two or three day pass and you can also add a hopping onto that. Those are great. Obviously more expensive to add those, but that one day. One park pass starts at $50 per child. There also are some specials on adult tickets. They are not every day you kind of have to look at the ticket calendar but there are days where adults are going to be priced at $104 a day to Disneyland $104.
Patrick Wiscombe:I haven't heard that price in years.
Mark Faldmo:Wow. So Disney's getting a little aggressive, at least for their softer season, that January through March timeframe.
Patrick Wiscombe:Here is a marketing term that I'm okay if it leaves the coolcation. Yeah, the coolcation, yeah, the coolcation. What's the coolcation? Just in case people don't know.
Mark Faldmo:And this kind of goes with our hot deal of the week. But a coolcation is when people choose to travel either to a country with cooler weather or travel to hot weather destinations in their cooler seasons, so you're taking a coolcation. This is a trend that kind of started in 2023 and has really come to stride this year, in 2024. Looking at this data to these destinations has shown a 300% increase in bookings. They're the coolcation destinations we talked about. This destination, greenland, is the number one coolcation destination, which is interesting because Greenland is hard to get to unless you do it on a cruise ship. But a lot more cruise ships have started going there and, as we discussed, united now has a flight to Greenland. Greenland's kind of becoming what Iceland was 10 or 15 years ago, kind of that emerging interesting destination. Oslo, Norway, is the number two coolcation destination. The Baltics, so Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and then the French Riviera. In the wintertime, nice, France, when it's cooler, there are less crowds is another coolcation destination.
Patrick Wiscombe:Since we're talking about coolcations, let's talk about the hot ironically enough hot travel deal of the week. You had a client. Janice wanted to go to Scandinavia this spring 2025. What destinations would you recommend for a nice vacation? Is her question.
Mark Faldmo:Any of those that we just talked about I think would be great. The one I chose for this particular one is Oslo, Norway. I love Norway cruises that go to Norway. That's a good way to see Norway, but also just going to Oslo. They look at an early May departure from Salt Lake City to Oslo, Norway, so this was midweek departures. This was for six-night hotels, so the whole vacation with the flights would be seven days and six nights. The price was $1689 per person based on double occupancy.
Patrick Wiscombe:That's amazing because I know that Scandinavia can be kind of spendy. That's an amazing price.
Mark Faldmo:There are hotels that are less than this price. You can get it down probably in the $1,300, $1,400 per person, but I chose this hotel. It's called the Ton Hotel Opera. It's basically connected to the main rail station and then it's a short walk over. There's a pedestrian street that I love going to in the evening times. I've stayed there a few times and that's where I always choose to stay, because it was just so easy to get around.
Patrick Wiscombe:How many times have you been to Oslo? I've been to Oslo seven times. Okay, all right, so you will know what to do. Let's talk about that.
Mark Faldmo:I've got two of my favorite things. One of them is closed, but I'll still talk about it the Fram Museum, which is the strongest wooden ship in the world. It was basically a wooden icebreaker ship. Really, it still has the world record for sailing furthest north and south on a single voyage. One of my favorite is the Norsk Folk Museum. This was kind of an open air living museum. They have buildings from different parts of Norway and they have one of the most interesting building exhibits is the Gull Stave Church. Norway is famous for their wooden stave churches and this is a church that they moved to this place, but it was originally built in the 1200s.
Mark Faldmo:What's a good day trip for Norway? I believe we've talked about this in the past, but it's Norway in a nutshell. Take the train from Oslo to Flam. There's a scenic train down the fjord in Flam and then you take a cruise on the fjord and then you take a bus up to the top, to another train station, and then from there you can take the train either back to Oslo or you could continue on to Bergen and spend a night in Bergen so you would end up staying at the hotel that you had originally booked, that seven day, six night hotel.
Patrick Wiscombe:So this is a day trip correct.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, you can do it as a day trip and that's how I've done it.
Patrick Wiscombe:All right, we got to take a break here. When we come back, it is the infamous Just Cruising segment. We've also got last minute Mexican Riviera cruises, so if you've ever wanted to cruise the Mexican Riviera, do not miss this next segment. You are listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. Alongside Mark Faldmo, my name is Patrick Wiscombe. Thank you so much for waking up and being part of the show. We 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. We'll be right back.
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Patrick Wiscombe:Welcome back to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. If you are just joining us, mark and I have already discussed a Scandinavian vacation, a $50 Disneyland ticket yes, I really did say $50 Disneyland ticket and coming up in the next 30 minutes we're going to talk about cruising the Mexican Riviera, plus an exotic South Pacific cruise and more travel news. So let's get started. 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 the Just Cruising segment, the infamous Just Cruising segment Alongside Mark Faldmo. My name is Patrick Wiscombe. If you are ready to go cruise the Mexican Riviera, stay right here for the next few minutes. We're going to give you the details and we've got a really, really great offer for listeners this week. But first we need to get to the quick hit travel news headlines for this week. But first we need to get to the quick hit travel news headlines for this week. And, as we went into the break, MSC Cruises. They're going to try and set a Guinness World Record and they're going to try and do it by using all of the ships in their fleet. What details do we have on that, mark?
Mark Faldmo:This is actually a program that they've had on a few of their vessels and they're going to roll it out to the whole fleet and it's where gas can break a Guinness world record. To date there have been 30 records broken on an MSC cruise ship. Those include the fastest to pull 100 meters of rope. Fastest time to complete 20 chair rotations in under 21 seconds. Putting on the most pairs of socks on one foot in under 30 seconds. But they do have an official Guinness Book of World Record adjudicator on board that judges those and if you break a Guinness World Record you're given an official certificate so you can claim that you broke a Guinness World Records and then you're also put in the book.
Patrick Wiscombe:I saw this story that Galveston, Texas, has started construction on the $151 million cruise terminal.
Mark Faldmo:This is mainly going to be an MSC cruise terminal. They're going to convert an old cargo warehouse and turn it into a 165,000 square foot cruise terminal and additional parking structure. This is good news for Caribbean cruisers. Galveston is also traditionally a port that's a little bit less expensive to sail out of.
Patrick Wiscombe:Princess Cruises is introducing faster internet for Princess Package cruisers only.
Mark Faldmo:They are adding another tier of internet and you can only get it if you're a Princess Plus or Princess Premier package holder. If you go with the lower tier pricing, you can get the regular standard internet Starlink, where they're going to allow faster speeds, if you've purchased that Princess Plus or Princess Premier package.
Patrick Wiscombe:I saw that another cruise line is going to up the gratuities. Normally I would like, oh, come on, come on. But cabin stewards and the servers on cruise ships, they deserve to be paid truly. They make or break a cruise, deserve to be paid.
Mark Faldmo:Truly, they make or break a cruise. They do All of the staff really do, as you said, make or break a cruise. And so Royal Caribbean is adding another 50 cents a day per person to the gratuities. So the standard rate will go from $18 to $18.50. If you're in a suite, it'll go to $21 from $20.50. If you're currently booked on a Royal Caribbean cruise, you can repay your gratuities by November 1st and lock in the lower rate, but after November 1st they will charge the higher rate.
Patrick Wiscombe:Because this is the infamous Just Cruising segment always in segment three of the show. It is time for the cruise deal of the week, and we actually have two cruises this week, but mostly we're going to concentrate on the Mexican Riviera. What do we have for listeners this week?
Mark Faldmo:I've had several calls for last minute Mexican Riviera cruises. Something easy for us here in Salt Lake area to get to Mexican Riviera cruises leave. Something easy for us here in Salt Lake area to get to Mexican Riviera cruises leave from Los Angeles or San Diego. The one I chose was on Princess Cruise Lines on December 14th and it's a seven-day cruise that visits Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta. How many days it starts? Seven nights, oh, seven nights. So it starts at $678 per person for an inside cabin or $808 per person for a balcony cabin. This does include all taxes and fees, so anything that is required to pay this includes. So on this Princess ship they actually don't have outside cabins, and so this balcony rate. It's a pretty good balcony rate 808, but that is either an obstructed or partially obstructed balcony. But you can still go out on the balcony and enjoy the outside at that, and you can also, if you want, upgrade to just a full balcony.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's talk about things to do in the Mexican Riviera.
Mark Faldmo:So I've kind of chosen my favorite shore excursions or just activities that I like to do when I'm there on a land vacation as well, but they can all be done as a shore excursion. In Cabo I like to do whale watching. Cabo is kind of on the continental shelf there, and so the currents come and just stir up lots of food and so there's lots of whales in that Cabo area. There's some glass bottom boats that go out and do that.
Patrick Wiscombe:Now did you say stir up food Probably for the whales.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, yeah, because it hits that kind of continental shelf and it goes up, so it brings up all of that food just up right in an area there. Cabo is also really good for deep sea fishing for that same reason.
Patrick Wiscombe:Have you ever done that before?
Mark Faldmo:I have, oh you have. We had a company that had a fishing tournament and by the fourth day no one wanted to go out. So I went out on a boat all by myself and caught probably 30 mahi-mahi. They had four lines in the water like no move to this pole, move to this pole. I was like two hours in and I said I'm done. So I cut the trip in half because I couldn't, it was so tiring and so. But it's a great place for deep sea fishing.
Patrick Wiscombe:What else do you like to do?
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, the other thing I like to do is a little bit more of a cultural thing is go to Todos Santos. We've talked about the Mexican magic towns before, so this is a magic town. There is a hotel there called Hotel California. They play off of the Eagles, but it is not the hotel that that's about.
Patrick Wiscombe:So Hotel California-ish Ish, yeah, eagles, but it is not the hotel that that's about.
Mark Faldmo:But so hotel california, ish, ish, yeah, and so they are in Baja, California, so it's called the hotel California. But you go in and the eagles are playing all the time there, um, and it's just a nice little town to visit.
Patrick Wiscombe:That's about 45 minutes away from Cabo what about some of the outdoor adventures in Puerto Vallarta?
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, and so in Puerto Vallarta there's a tour and it's actually called the outdoor adventure, and this is one where you take a Zodiac across the bay, you take a four by four up a mountain, you switch from a four by four to donkeys and go up to the top of the mountain and then you zip line down. On the way down the mountain there are three water slides and a few places where you rappel, and so you kind of do everything zipline, rappel and water slide coming down the mountain.
Patrick Wiscombe:That sounds amazing. I've never even heard of this one.
Mark Faldmo:It is. That's probably my favorite thing to do there. I also like snorkeling at the Marietta's islands. These tours will take you out to the islands where you can snorkel, um, and then they also go to a kind of a secluded private beach where your boat is the usually the only boat there. And then another thing in Puerto Vallarta. You know me, I always like food. They have one of the best taco tours where you walk around Puerto Vallarta. They have one of the best taco tours where you walk around Puerto Vallarta and eat tacos with all the best little taco stands.
Mark Faldmo:See even that sounds great For us here in the West Coast area, easy to get to and usually a pretty good price, and this date was a great price.
Patrick Wiscombe:When is it? It was December 14th.
Mark Faldmo:So coming up here in about two months.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yes, I know that we have one last cruise deal for listeners. Where does this one sail out of and how long is it?
Mark Faldmo:In the past we've talked about Hall America's legendary voyages. Oh yeah, and this is one of those legendary voyages. One of those legendary voyages. So this is a 51 day cruise round trip San Diego that visits about everywhere in the South Pacific. You would want to visit the 51 days. It starts at $7,109 per person for an inside or $7,809 for an ocean view. I'm sorry the ship does not have balconies, but they do have suites that have balcony If you want those prices.
Patrick Wiscombe:Did you see 51 days?
Mark Faldmo:51 days. So it's like, what is that?
Patrick Wiscombe:A hundred, and I don't know, $150 a day per day. Yeah, that's a 51 days Geez yeah.
Mark Faldmo:What I like about this is the itinerary. So you leave from San Diego cruise to Hawaii. It visits Kona, Kauai, it overnights in Honolulu and then visits Maui, and then back to the Big Island and visits Hilo. From Hilo it cruises down to an island called Fanning Island.
Patrick Wiscombe:So you spend about a week in Hawaii five to five-ish days, Correct.
Mark Faldmo:Okay In Hawaii and then you go to Fanning Island and I've been to Fanning Island four times. It's a small atoll, 800, 900 miles south of Hawaii. A lot of the locals there, they don't have electricity and so it's kind of like Polynesia was 100 years ago, Hawaii was 100 years ago. They still live in kind of grass huts and things like that, but it's a wonderful stop. The people are so nice there.
Mark Faldmo:From Fannin Island you then cross the equator and then you cross the international dateline and then you go to Samoa, go to Pago Pago in American Samoa, then from there you cross the international dateline back, go to Apia in Samoa and then you go to Fiji, a couple of ports in Fiji, and then you go to a couple of ports in Tonga and then from there you go to French Polynesia. You go to some of the Tuamotu Islands, go to Raiatea, Moorea, Huahini, overnight in Papetee, which is on the island of Tahiti, and then back up to some more Tuamotu Islands. Then go to Nuka Hiva, which is in the Marquesas Islands, another one of my favorite cruise stops and then from there you cruise straight back to San Diego. So this really visits every South Pacific country that you'd want to visit and it is a great price If you have 51 days to spare. $7,000 a person starting point is a pretty good rate for a 51 day cruise.
Patrick Wiscombe:A lot of people are going to hear that $7,100 price and that's $139 a day.
Ad Voice:That's amazing To go see all of that.
Patrick Wiscombe:Oh my word, it feels like someone who has to be on sabbatical or is retired. Hey, we'll see you in 51 days. Yeah, we got to take a break here when we come back. We've got the final segment of the show. Mark's Travel Tips Got a few more travel news headlines that we need to share with listeners. Go to blueplanetvacations. com. That is the company's website, blueplanetvacations. com. It is such a great time to be alive, Such an easy time to travel to. If you really stop and think about it. You can pick your destination and just go. That's what this show is all about. It's about having fun. It's about creating memories that will last an entire lifetime. Final segment of the show coming up. Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your day. You're listening to the inside travel talk podcast, a radio show alongside Mark Faldmo. My name is Patrick Wiscombe. We will be right back explore your world.
Show Voice:you're listening to the inside travel talk podcast and radio show with pat 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:America's best travel advisors. Call the show right now 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700.
Patrick Wiscombe:And now your hosts, Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo, final segment of this week's Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. I am Patrick Wiscombe. He is Mark Faldmo, owner of BluePlanetVacations. com. You can always call his office Monday through Friday 888-718-7717, 888-718-7717. And I just want to remind listeners that you can sign up for the hot travel deal of the week on his website Again, blueplanetvacations. com. You can also book vacations on the website, which is a new feature that just came out this week, and then anything that you book will automatically be given to a travel advisor to make sure that you are getting exactly what you want, not what you're exactly hoping for. How's that, mark? Yeah, oh, we hope we're doing it right.
Patrick Wiscombe:This show is all about creating memories with you and your family, your friends, your loved ones, whoever it is that you want to travel with. This is the show for you, and if you want to pick up the show, you can go to InsideTravelTalk. com and you can also pick it up on BluePlanetVacations. com. Let's start with the travel news headlines as we start to wrap up for this week. You wouldn't think that airplanes have massive difference between them, but there is. You have a travel tip about how to find the best seat on a plane. I think there's a website called SeatMaps. com. Why should people look up where they're going to sit on a plane?
Mark Faldmo:I use this all the time seatmaps. com, and if you go to blueplanetvacations. com, there's also a link in our travel resources. What it does is it lists every seat and says if it's a good or a bad seat. I am a window seat person and on some 737s and some other aircraft some of the window seats have air duct going up them, so they are missing a window. Kind of judges seats like this is a good seat because of where it's located, or this is a bad seat because of where it's located. It'll tell you if the seat reclines. It'll tell you if it's a narrower seat because some seats towards the back of the airplane and in other places are a little bit narrower because the fuselage starts to bend, yeah, and so it'll just tell you the pros and cons of each seat on the airplane. They have every airline. You can either put in your flight date and flight number and it'll bring up your aircraft, or you can just browse say I'm flying on Delta, and then it'll list all of the different types of airplanes that that airline flies.
Patrick Wiscombe:One of the most important travel tips that we can share with listeners. If you're traveling internationally, meaning from the United States to someplace else, sometimes there are country specific entry requirements, and this is where Mark's experience will absolutely help you. There's a link on blueplanetvacations. com and it is a tremendous resource, in addition to Mark, of what requirements are needed if you're going to a country. This is something that most people just don't even think about.
Mark Faldmo:A lot of countries require visas to go or require certain forms to be filled out before you go. That's one of the more confusing parts of travel, and so this website, Sherpa, and again there's a link to this on blueplanetvacations. com. If you go to the bottom footer, there's a link to this on blueplanetvacations. com. If you go to the bottom footer, there's a link to travel resources and there's a link to this Sherpa for country-specific entry requirements. What I like about this is it'll summarize what the entry requirements are and then it will give you the link to the official country's the embassy or the official country's information on where you can find that. You can search these things and not get accurate information. So I rely on this link to make sure I get to the correct government entity of the country I'm visiting for that information.
Patrick Wiscombe:As we start to wrap up here and as I was flying back from Phoenix, really anywhere you and I have traveled together. We've been to Florida, we've been, you know, Atlanta, we've been a few places and one of the things that just amazed me is that we're 30,000 feet in the air and I'm sitting there texting, and what a remarkable miracle that it is. I saw this news story that SpaceX, that Starlink, has 2,500 airplanes under contract to get their service, and if you really stop and think about that, that's incredible.
Mark Faldmo:A lot of airlines, I think. As we talked about last week, united is starting free Wi-Fi. Delta's had free Wi-Fi for about 18 months now. Just that. We've come that far for a service that you paid for that was slow, to now a service that's free and you can stream movies on it.
Patrick Wiscombe:The entertainment options nowadays on flights are amazing, and there's a lot a library of things that you can watch and listen to. One more story before we take off that I saw that a family's $15,000 cruise was canceled because of a Facebook post. What was that about?
Mark Faldmo:This is a lesson to be careful what you post online. Now I've heard this happen to airline tickets before, but they were so excited that they booked their cruise. They posted a copy of the confirmation from the cruise line and said look, we're going on this cruise, which had all of their identifiable information, had their confirmation number, everything you need to go, and so someone got on and canceled their cruise just days before they were to go. They were in penalty, they lost all of their money and so just be careful about what you put online.
Mark Faldmo:I've seen this happen before People posting flight itineraries, flight confirmations online and the same thing has happened where it's canceled and they lose their money. It's fine to say you're going on a cruise, but don't post anything.
Patrick Wiscombe:Here's my proof that I'm going that I'm going. Yeah, that feels like a social media thing. Hey look what I'm going. That I'm going. Yeah, that feels like a social media thing. Hey, look what I'm doing. Someone was denied a passport because of their name. What was that about?
Mark Faldmo:I think we had a story about this a little bit earlier, but this is a whole different name. So a seven-year-old boy was denied a passport because of his name. His parents are Star wars fans, no and no. They named him first name Loki, middle name Skywalker, and then his last name, and so because both of those names are trademarked, he he was denied a passport. That's right. I forgot that trademarks can get and so I think we did one that was a Game of Thrones name.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yeah, or another child was denied.
Mark Faldmo:So you know, I guess when you're naming your children, be careful that it's not a trademark name. It'll be hard to get a passport.
Patrick Wiscombe:Loki Skywalker. Yeah, it's kind of a cool name because it'll be hard to get a passport.
Mark Faldmo:Loki Skywalker yeah, it's kind of a cool name though.
Patrick Wiscombe:Well, yeah, Loki Loki, we feel bad for you. Loki Skywalker oh boy, I hope they get it resolved, me too. Yeah, that's it for this week's edition of the Inside Travel Talk podcast, a radio show. Remember, if you want to take advantage of any of the offers that we've discussed for the past hour, office Monday through Friday 888-718-7717, 888-718-7717. And be sure to sign up for the podcast on InsideTravelTalk. com and be sure to sign up for the hot travel deal of the week on Mark's website, blueplanetvacations. com.
Patrick Wiscombe:You can listen to the show again tomorrow morning, Sunday, at 11 am, here on AM 860 KKAT in Salt Lake City. If you want or need to listen to the show again, you can download and subscribe to the podcast version of the show on InsideTravelTalk. com. We are on all of the major podcast platforms and, while you're at it, may I ask you to subscribe and leave us a five-star review. It really does help us get traction with the podcast platforms. So thank you. Well, now it's your turn. Get out and explore the world while you can, because you never know what curveballs life is going to throw at you. Live your life deliberately, live your life intentionally and just remember today's a good day for a good day. Have a great week. We'll talk to you again next week.
Show Voice:That's it. That's the end of the show You've been listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show with Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo, presented by BluePlanetVacations. com. Book your adventure right now. Call 888-718-7717. That's 888-718-7717. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.