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
Festive Escapes: Santa Claus Express, Paris Delights, and Spring Tulips
Ever wondered how you can experience the magic of Christmas all year round while also catching a glimpse of the Northern Lights? In this episode, we’re inviting you aboard Finland's enchanting Santa Claus Express and Santa Claus Village, an overnight train journey that promises festive cheer and a dash of natural wonder. Plus, we're unwrapping the secrets of perfect holiday planning with travel deals to Paris, a guide to the picturesque Tulip Time River Cruises, and tips on making the most of all-inclusive trips.
Take a virtual stroll through history with us as we explore some of the world's most breathtaking UNESCO World Heritage Sites, from the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu to the architectural splendor of the Sagrada Familia. We’ll also share firsthand insights on the reopening of the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and offer our best advice for making your visit to the City of Lights truly unforgettable. Add to this, breaking travel news such as Alaska Airlines topping the US airline rankings and Disney's thoughtful updates to its accessibility services.
Cruisers, get ready for a treat! We're sharing the latest buzz from the cruise industry, including Royal Caribbean's exciting new onboard musical and Carnival’s splendid itineraries. Curious about travel trends and news? We'll chat about the integration of Eurostar into the SkyTeam alliance, JetBlue's menu changes, and handy tips on navigating TSA food regulations. Whether you’re dreaming of coastal voyages or cozy winter escapes, this episode is packed with inspiration and practical advice to fuel your wanderlust.
Let me welcome everybody to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. On today's show, we are going to be discussing the Santa Claus Express. It's hard to believe that Christmas is in about two months and if you've always wanted to go to Paris, listen up. We've got travel deals to Paris. We're also going to be talking about Tulip Time River Cruises and we have a question for you Should you book an all-inclusive trip? We're going to answer all of those questions, so let's start the show. 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 iskam and mark Faldmoe.
Patrick Wiscombe:It is time for another Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. Good morning. If you're listening to us on Saturday morning, october 26th, or Sunday, october 27th on 860 KKAT here in Salt Lake City, my name is Patrick Wiscombe and if you are brand new to the show, first of all let me just say thank you for listening, thank you for pausing right here on this frequency so you can hear the show. The entire purpose of this show is to help you plan and book your next vacation, give you ideas, and we want to help you create memories, not only for yourself, but for your family, your friends, your significant other. You have definitely found the right show. You can get the podcast at insidravelTalk. com or wherever you get your podcasts. We're on all of the major podcast platforms and we are presented by BluePlanetVacations. com, and let me welcome my good friend, Mark Faldmo. He's also the owner of the company. How are you?
Mark Faldmo:I'm good, it's good to be here. We've got some exciting things to talk about. We have another train story worked in which I'm very excited to talk about.
Patrick Wiscombe:Coming up in this segment. We've got the travel news headlines and we're also going to talk about the destination of the week. Philip is asking a question. He wants to plan a family trip that is uniquely Christmas. That's coming up in this first segment. So let's get to the travel news of the week. You and I have been following this story for a while that Universal's, meaning Universal Studios, universal's Epic Universe has finally announced an opening date and when the tickets go on sale.
Mark Faldmo:We talked about this, probably two months ago, where we kind of gave a preview of the new park, epic Universe. So just quickly, it has five immersive worlds they call them portals which are the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, ministry of Magic, super Nintendo World, how to Train your Dragon and Dark Universe and Celestial Park. Response to this park Tickets went on sale for this this week, this past week. So October 22nd is when they went on sale, and the date of opening is May 22nd. Oh wow, they're really planning in advance. They are yeah and so. So right now the park tickets are on sale, as I mentioned, and you can buy one day, three day, four day, multiple day park tickets, but any of those multiple day park tickets will only include one day at Epic Universe. The rest of the days you'll have to be at one of the other Universal parks.
Patrick Wiscombe:I have great news for you that I forgot to tell you yesterday. When you and I went to Florida in April, we went on the Margaritaville at Sea, the Paradise vessel. Yes, I have good news for you. When we were on that flight, I was getting my global entry application submitted and I had to schedule the interview. That was six months later. Here's the good news. Part of that, and it ties into this next story I finally had my interview yesterday. I finally have global entry Mark.
Mark Faldmo:That's good. I think global entry is one of the best programs you can buy, especially if you travel internationally. It also comes with TSA free check.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yep, why do I bring that up? I know that I support biometrics going through airport security because it's fast. What does this news article say?
Mark Faldmo:So this actually is a surprisingly high number it was 79% support airport security's use of biometric technology to verify identity of travelers. So this does streamline the screening process and make sure that you are who you are. So your biometrics match up with your ID and again it just makes for convenience. You know we've talked about some of the new technologies like TSA PreCheck. You just go, it takes a picture of you and you walk through. It knows who you are, it knows what flight you're on and it saves time.
Patrick Wiscombe:Delta is going to introduce a flight from Minneapolis to Copenhagen. Sure, seems like we're talking about Copenhagen a lot lately.
Mark Faldmo:We are, and it's because of the new code share agreement with SAS Airlines on that. And so I think last week we talked about SAS starting a flight out of Seattle to Copenhagen. This week it's Delta Airlines starting the flight from Minneapolis to Copenhagen. So again, this is just another way Scandinavia is opening up. Copenhagen has been a little bit harder to get to, especially if you're on the West Coast, and there are lots of cruises that start in Copenhagen, so this is just really going to open up that.
Patrick Wiscombe:You have a list of the most travel-worthy UNESCO World Heritage Sites around the world. If someone is not familiar with a UNESCO World Heritage Sites around the world, if someone is not familiar with a UNESCO World Heritage Site, let's just start there. What is that?
Mark Faldmo:When you're traveling, you should seek out these UNESCO World Heritage Sites. They are sites that celebrate human creativity. They have a significance in human history, traditional human settlement, major stages of the earth history and the significant natural habitat for biodiversity. So those are the requirements that UNESCO puts on naming these sites.
Patrick Wiscombe:What are some of those sites around the world?
Mark Faldmo:To name a few, and I've been to several of these and they are definitely worth visiting. The number one on the list is Machu Picchu in Peru. You have always said that Go to Machu Picchu. Yeah, Machu Picchu is amazing, just that whole experience of getting there, what you experience and what you see. Another site is the Karnak Temple in Luxor, Egypt. Another one, Angkor Wat, in Cambodia.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yeah, I do want to do that.
Mark Faldmo:We've talked about that a few times Yep Stonehenge in England. One that's a little bit easier to get to is the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. These are all examples of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Find those sites and work those into your travel plans. That's a great idea.
Patrick Wiscombe:Okay, let's talk about the destination of the week. Was this a text or an email that you got from Philip? This was a text on the show's text line, so let me just give out the show text line while we're talking about it. It's 801-649-3700, 801-649-3700. That's how you get a hold of the show. Philip wanted to take his family on a what he's calling a uniquely Christmas holiday and he's asking do you have any recommendations? You know what? The first thing that came to mind was the Christmas markets in Europe.
Mark Faldmo:That is a good way to experience Christmas related things, and that is probably the first thing that come to my mind as well, but I tried to look for something a little bit more unique. This is something you can actually do year round, but the best time is in that mid-November to December Christmas time, and it is the Santa Claus Express.
Patrick Wiscombe:Is this a train?
Mark Faldmo:This is a train, so this is our train story. This train goes from Helsinki, Finland, to Lapland in the Arctic Circle.
Mark Faldmo:So it goes way up north in Finland. It's an overnight train. It takes about 12 hours to get there. It's a double-decker train, has regular train cars with regular seats, or you can get sleeper cars with private toilet and shower. It is a nice train. And then the destination is really what's nice about it? Its final destination is a city of about 65,000. It's right on the Arctic Circle, actually about four miles south, called Rovunihimi it's the name of the city. There are several hotels, restaurants, things to do there, but the highlight is the Santa Claus Village, and this is where it is Christmas year-round. Oh wow, it's located right on the Arctic Circle. There's actually a webcam that you can go to year round. It's just go to Santa Claus Village dot info and there's a webcam so you can click on it and see what Santa's Village looks like. On that live shot it shows the Arctic Circle running right through it, so you can walk right up the Arctic Circle in that.
Patrick Wiscombe:So you can go to the Arctic Circle, then you can. Oh see, I would do that Just say hey. I've been to the Arctic.
Ad Voice:Circle, and I don't mean the restaurant in Salt Lake.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah Well, I've been there too, but the Santa Claus Village is very unique. Obviously. It's decorated like Christmas year-round. Santa is there year-round, and here are a couple of the places that you can visit, some of the activities you can do. There's Mrs. Claus Christmas Cottage and then they have the Christmas House Safari where you go out on safari and you're holding sleighs by reindeer. There's a place called Santa's Forest that's filled with Christmas trees that you can walk through. There's the Santa Claus office where Santa is making his list. You can visit Santa there. Santa's Motor Park where you drive ice go-karts around a racetrack there we go. There's a place called Snowman World and there's the Elf's Hat Academy and then there's also the Christmas house where Santa Claus is. He's either at his office or at his house. There's lots of things you can do, all Christmas themed and obviously also, if you go there at the right time of the year, great place to see the Northern Lights.
Patrick Wiscombe:Oh, I didn't even think about the Northern Lights. Yeah, that's a first of all. This is just great, but to see the Northern Lights on top of all this, that's pretty special. The live webcam santaclausvillage. info. Can we put that in the show notes on the website?
Mark Faldmo:That'll be in the show notes. So if you go to blueplanetvacations. com, you can click on this episode and that'll be in the show notes as well, along with other information about what to do in Santa Claus Village.
Patrick Wiscombe:How did you find out about this? This is terrific. This is a great idea.
Mark Faldmo:I've heard about it before but I've never really looked into it. So that's one thing. Again, because I like trains, that kind of caught my attention. I really looked into it to see all of these wonderful things you can do on this trip.
Patrick Wiscombe:You will not get better coverage of train travel than right here on this show. I've got my credit card right here. Hold on, I want to surprise my kids with this one. That would be a lot of fun, so I will be calling you. I know I've got your cell number, but let me give the office number for everyone listening 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717 is Mark's office number at blueplanetvacations. com. Get out, go explore the world, especially something like that. If you love Christmas, not only will I do it, mark will probably do it, and then let's report back to the listeners how it went. What a great idea when we come back. We've got more travel news of the week. We've got the hot travel deal of the week, always in segment two, and we are talking about Paris. If you want to go to Paris, this is the segment for you. 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 tuning in. 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.
Ad Voice:Thanks for listening. We'll be right back Europe's most remarkable sites and cities To set out on your own river cruise journey. Contact Blue Planet Vacations at 888-718-7717 or blueplanetvacations. com.
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 here's Patrick Wiscombe and mark Faldmo.
Patrick Wiscombe:Welcome back inside of the inside travel talk podcast and radio show. My name is Patrick Wiscombe. Mark Faldmo joins me. He's the owner of Blue Planet Vacations and if you have questions that you want to text us during the show, please do so 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. If you are planning your own vacation or you need guidance or you want to take advantage of the deals that we're talking about during the show, you can text that number 801-649-3700. Coming up in this segment, always in segment number two of the show, it is the hot travel deal of the week and this week we are going to Paris. We're going to Paris, but before we talk about Paris, we've got some travel news that we need to talk about. With Thanksgiving basically being five weeks out at this point, there are the best and worst days to fly for Thanksgiving 2024. Let's start there, since that's coming up.
Mark Faldmo:If you haven't booked your Thanksgiving travel, you should do it now, because actually the best time to book travel is the first week of October, so we're past that date now. But if you haven't, here are the best and worst days to travel on Thanksgiving. First, the worst day to travel is the Sunday following Thanksgiving, which would be December 1st this year. That is also one of the priciest days to travel on of any day of the year, is it really? Prices are up 10% compared to last year for travel on December 1st and travelers will pay about $140 more per ticket compared to those who wait to travel on Monday.
Mark Faldmo:So it does go down considerably if you can wait, if you can wait until that, Monday December 2nd. Also, other days around Thanksgiving Thursday November 21st and Monday November 25th are ideal days to travel as well. Those days offer about a 23% savings per ticket when looking at flight purchase data.
Patrick Wiscombe:Well, that kind of ties into this next story, the top US airlines. What are the criteria that gives it the ranking?
Mark Faldmo:This is a list of the best airlines. It has 16 factors and they look at things like staff service, seat comfort, technology. So it takes the whole travel experience, breaks it down into 16 factors. Which airlines scored the highest? According to this survey? Alaska Airlines secured the top spot with a score of 87.82 out of a total of 100. Alaska Okay. Delta was followed closely with a score of 86.85. And then Hawaiian Airlines, which scored 86.08. So those are the top three US domestic airlines. At the other end of the spectrum, frontier Airlines received the lowest score of just 4.53 out of a possible 100. Spirit Airlines came in next, at 16.08. Southwest was fourth, JetBlue was fifth, united was sixth and American Airlines ranked ninth.
Patrick Wiscombe:Disney is rethinking its accessibility services program for those with disabilities. Now I'll be the first to raise my hand that when we went to Disneyland, in this case with my mother-in-law, there were 10 or 11 of us in tow.
Mark Faldmo:There was a cheat code to get to the number of people that can go through lines with you and also a site to actually verify that you need it, Because a lot of people just show up and say I need a wheelchair. Now they are being a little bit more judicious in who they actually allow to use that service. You can just go to the accessibility services website for Walt Disney World or Disneyland and it'll give you all of the details.
Patrick Wiscombe:This is good news, and this story ties into the hot travel deal of the week, which is Paris. The Notre Dame Cathedral has finally announced a reopening date. This is the cathedral that burned down. It was years ago at this point. When are they reopening?
Mark Faldmo:So it burned down in 2019. The opening date is December 8th, so just a few weeks away. I would be really interested to see how they've rebuilt that. The main facades, I think, are still there. I remember one tour guide that took us. We walked all the way around the cathedral pointing out all the things. There's a gargoyle on there which is the hunchback of Notre Dame. I just remember some of the little crepe carts that are out in front of that, eating really good crepes in front of Notre Dame. So that's so it was church and dinner.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, church and dinner, but it is an iconic place to visit in Paris and I'm glad that it's opening and that people get to visit that again.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's talk about the hot travel deal of the week to Paris. You have a client that wanted to go to Paris this spring but then backed out. Is that right? Am I reading that right?
Mark Faldmo:Yes, oh wow, they backed out because they talked to some friends and the friends said well, in Paris they don't like Americans, so it's probably not a good vacation experience. Oh boy, and this is a reputation that Paris does have, Although I don't think you should cancel a vacation based on that, because people have all different personalities all around the world and it is that personality. Personally, my experiences in Paris I've rarely experienced that.
Patrick Wiscombe:The speediness.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, I think in the past I've told a story about the only place I've ever been pickpocketed was in the Paris subway.
Patrick Wiscombe:Oh, I didn't know, that's where it happened.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, it was late at night, and if it wouldn't have been for some nice Parisians, I'd had a really hard time getting back to my hotel. The only thing that pick pocketers got were my map and directions back to the hotel.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's talk about the airfare and five nights from Salt Lake City to Paris. What's the price on that and where are we staying?
Mark Faldmo:I looked in April Early spring is a great time to go to Paris. Our fare from Salt Lake City five nights hotel starts at $19.59 per person. Wow, that is so good, and I will say there are hotels that are lower than that. I found some hotels that were starting in the $1,300s per person. But I do believe where you stay is important. This isn't exactly city center in Paris, but it was staying at a hotel called the Mercure Tower Eiffel Point Maribeua, which is about one mile from the Eiffel Tower, so it's still fairly centrally located. Paris has 20 districts. They call them arrondissements and they spiral out from city center. So arrondissement one through four are actually considered the city center and then they spiral out from there. I'd recommend choosing a hotel in arrondissement one through nine, just to give you kind of an idea where things are located. The Eiffel Tower is in arrondissement seven. Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Élysées are in Arrondissement 8. The Louvre Museum is in Arrondissement 1. So it's right in the middle of town.
Patrick Wiscombe:What are some of your favorite things to do in Paris?
Mark Faldmo:The number one visitor attraction is the Eiffel Tower. It has three different levels. You can go to level one, level two or level three. Popular thing to do is there's restaurants on level two so you can go have lunch or dinner there. These restaurants do require a jacket to dine there. My favorite thing at the Eiffel Tower is they have a place called the Macaroon Bar. It's on the second level and they have an exclusive macaroon recipe developed specifically for the Eiffel Tower. So that's another food thing other than crepes that I like.
Mark Faldmo:Going to the third floor of the Eiffel Tower, it's a little bit harder ticket to get, but you can go there and you have great views of the city. Another top place is the Louvre Museum and then Notre Dame Cathedral. You can do a center river cruise. You can do a day or night. You can also do a lunch or dinner cruise as well. I've done a dinner cruise on the Seine, you know, cruising past the Eiffel Tower. It's a nice experience. One place that I would highly recommend is to go out to the Palace of Versailles. Another thing that I like to do is the Paris Catacombs. Yeah, you've mentioned that before the catacombs were created in the 17th century. They're 65 feet beneath Paris, located in limestone quarries. It was because they were just running out of places to bury people, so they decided to bury them underground, but it's a very interesting thing to do.
Patrick Wiscombe:And no trip to Paris would be complete without the D-Day and the Normandy tours. At least that's where my head went.
Mark Faldmo:That's a day tour you can do. It is a long day, it's about a 12-hour day, but you can get up and see all of the sites of D-Day and the Normandy beaches.
Patrick Wiscombe:Not only will I be going on this one, but I'm afraid that five days it's just not even going to be enough.
Mark Faldmo:No, it's not, and that's a good starting spot.
Patrick Wiscombe:I do see Nikki and I going for, I would say, minimum 10 days, maybe two weeks. I can even see us moving there. We'll have the international version of the radio show it was the radio show if you are interested in heading to Paris, call Mark in his office.
Patrick Wiscombe:Save this segment, replay it, go to inside travel talk. com so you can listen to the show again and subscribe to the podcast. But call him in his office 888-718-7717, 888-718-7717. When we come back at the bottom of the hour after the Fox News update, it's the infamous Just Cruising segment. We're talking Royal Caribbean, the Carnival Cruise Lines, has added more cruises for next year and we are going to go see some tulips in Amsterdam. That is next when the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show continues. My name is Patrick Wiscombe. He is Mark Faldmo. We will be right back. Thanks for listening.
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.
Ad Voice:We'll be right back. Eldorado Spa Resort. Our oceanfront resorts are exclusively for adults and have been voted among the most romantic resorts in Mexico and the world. To book your romantic beach getaway at an El Dorado Spa Resort, contact Blue Planet Vacations at 888-718-7717 or blueplanetvacations. com.
Patrick Wiscombe:Welcome back to the Inside Travel Talk podcast radio show Coming up. In the next 30 minutes we will be talking about Tulip Time River cruises in Amsterdam and all-inclusive Mexico vacations, but the question that we're going to ask is should you book an all-inclusive trip? Let's get back to the show. 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:Welcome back into the Inside Travel Talk podcast, a radio show. My name is Patrick Wiscombe. Mark Faldmo is the owner of Blue Planet Vacations and this show is presented by BluePlanetVacations. com. And this show is presented by BluePlanetVacations. com Coming up in this segment. It is the infamous Just Cruising segment. So all aboard, if you're just joining the show here at the bottom of the hour, and thank you so much for tuning us in and taking us along wherever and however you're accessing the show. Today We've got the travel news of the week. This is just the cruise news of the week and of course, we'll have the cruise deal of the week coming up in this segment. But let's first start with the travel news headlines. I saw this story marked that Royal Caribbean is saying hola to Mexican Perfect Day.
Mark Faldmo:Royal Caribbean has their Perfect Day at Coco Cay in the Bahamas, and it's a fully immersive experience that Royal Caribbean has created on the island. They are now just announced a new port called Perfect Day Mexico, which is going to be in Mahoal, which is Costa Maya, Mexico, so that's in the southern end of the Yucatan Peninsula.
Patrick Wiscombe:Oh, that's right, I forgot about that.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, this will be a private port where they'll have a water park. The thing that's nice about this is you'll also be able to go out and do other activities like you would, if you're going to just say Costa Maya. So they'll have a whole transportation hub where shore excursions will leave from, so you're not just locked into that private port area.
Patrick Wiscombe:Carnival Cruise Lines has added more cruises for the 2026-27 season. What cruises are they adding?
Mark Faldmo:They have some new ships coming out and they've also kind of redeployed some ships to meet demand. And one of the things that I think is exciting that they've announced is a series of 10-day Alaska cruises from San Francisco. So they are moving a ship to Homeport in San Francisco. This is Carnival's first time doing that. It's actually going to do kind of an exciting itinerary from Brisbane, Australia, through Fiji, Tahiti and Hawaii to get to San Francisco. We'll talk about that at a later time, but it is going to Homeport in San Francisco and visit Alaska. Carnival has always gone from Norfolk Virginia but they're adding a new ship called the. Carnival has always gone from Norfolk Virginia but they're adding a new ship called the Carnival Sunshine there and it's going to do five to seven day cruises to Bermuda and also series of five to seven day Bahamas cruises from Norfolk Virginia.
Patrick Wiscombe:Is it weird that I want to go to the Bermuda Triangle?
Mark Faldmo:It's not. You've been to the Bermuda Triangle when we were in Key West. What Key West is one of the points on the Bermuda Triangle.
Patrick Wiscombe:I did not know that. Well, I guess I came back. So you came back. Yep, I guess it's safe. You can go. Yep, where's Huey Lewis in the news when you need it? Yeah, this is when I wish we could play copyrighted music on the show Back to the Future musical. Yes, Marty McFly, there's a Back to the Future musical on the new Star of the Seas, isn't that? Which ship is that? Is that Royal Caribbean?
Mark Faldmo:That's Royal Caribbean. Yeah, so this past week Royal Caribbean confirmed that their next Broadway musical will be Back to the Future on the new ship, the Star of the Seas.
Patrick Wiscombe:You know, I'm afraid to say I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I think that's where I got my laugh from George George McFly. I think that's where I got that.
Mark Faldmo:That's probably where you got that.
Patrick Wiscombe:I saw Back to the Future on TV and I'm like, oh my word, I'm imitating George McFly and I didn't even know it didn't know it.
Mark Faldmo:yeah, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian cruise line have always had these Broadway shows. That started years ago when Norwegian brought on the blue man group for entertainment purposes on one of their new big ships and it's kind of just gone from there with Royal Caribbean, kind of just gone from there with Royal Caribbean, kind of one-upping them from the Blue man Group to having a Broadway show. Then Norwegian brought on a Broadway show and now several ships have Broadway musicals. Makes for a nice evening of entertainment when you're out on a cruise. Their announcement for this, their graphic, is a flux capacitor with the date on it. There we go August 31st 2025, which is when it'll start.
Patrick Wiscombe:American Cruise Lines is going to introduce a new class of coastal ships.
Mark Faldmo:These coastal ships. There's two of them coming out. They're going to be 125 passenger sister ships. They'll be arriving in November of 2025. And the hallmark of these ships will be the large cabins. They range from 300 square feet to 620 square feet and every room will have a private balcony. These are really large cabins compared to your average cruise ship cabin. These will do 15-day itineraries. They'll do the Florida coast and the Florida keys and also Florida's Gulf coast and the Florida keys. So now they'll do some pretty unique cruising. To be on that smaller ship 125 passengers I think that's a great way to vacation on a small vessel like that and you get to see some pretty unique places, especially down around the Florida keys.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's get to the cruise deal of the week. Always in segment number three of the show, we're going to Amsterdam. There was a listener. Her name is Megan. She wanted to go see the tulips in Amsterdam and Megan is asking when is the best time to go see the tulips? My guess is spring, somewhere between like mid march and mid April and you're right, a tulip season is mid-march to actually mid-may.
Mark Faldmo:One thing about tulips is you kind of have to get lucky to catch them. As soon as tulips bloom, the farmers cut off the colorful tops because that makes the bulbs multiply, so the fields might only have color on them for one to three days, so you've really got to catch it right when they're coming out. Probably the best place to see tulips is in Keukenhof Gardens, which is in Amsterdam. It's a flower garden but it's only open two months out of the year. In 2025, it's open from March 20th to May 11th. Probably one of the best ways to see the tulips is a tulip time cruise. We've talked about these before, but the round trip Amsterdam. You get to see other places in Europe. You get to see the flowers surrounding area and also windmills, which is another important thing to see if you're going to Amsterdam.
Patrick Wiscombe:My guess is that these cruises the TULIP time cruises probably sell out early, so people should probably get on it real quick.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, so if you're interested in a 2025 cruise, I did find some space on cruises. Some of the lower prices and suites are sold out, but there is availability for the 2025 season and 2026 still has plenty of availability. Alma Waterways is probably my favorite cruise line and they're currently offering 20% off select cruises, plus $899 airfare on select cruises $900 Europe, that's really really good.
Mark Faldmo:The cruise that I looked at was a March 17th cruise, so you know, right at the beginning of the tulip season. It's a seven night cruise and it starts at $29.59 per person. That is with that 20% discount applied, and then the airfare is on top of that. They also do have some discounts if you want to go stay in Amsterdam free for two nights, and I would recommend staying in Amsterdam for two nights pre or post cruise. Just also experience Amsterdam a little bit more.
Patrick Wiscombe:You and I always seem to recommend to go before because you've got a little more energy and after a cruise you're a little tired. Yes, Do you still recommend that?
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, yeah, I still recommend going before the cruise. It helps you get acclimated, especially going to Europe. Helps you get acclimated to the time a little bit. Oh, that's right, and I've done this before getting on a river cruise, not being acclimated to the time and having to get up at 6 or 7 am to catch the excursion. That's included, and you've been up till 4 am because you're not adjusted to the time.
Ad Voice:So I like going to get, you know, get a little bit acclimated to the time there.
Mark Faldmo:That's a great point. I hadn't thought about that one to the time there.
Patrick Wiscombe:That's a great point. I hadn't thought about that one.
Mark Faldmo:Also one thing on that price that $29.59 is kind of the lead-in, which is a window cabin. I'd recommend going up to a balcony cabin. Those balcony cabins start at $38.39 per person. On this particular scene the very lowest price range was sold out and the suites were also sold out on this, so you're kind of in kind of those middle price tiers that are still available okay, and but that's just for 2025, 2026, there's still plenty of availability, still availability okay, where are we going?
Patrick Wiscombe:what ports?
Mark Faldmo:Amsterdam. Go out from there, go to a city called Zirakazizi Sorry I'm horrible at pronunciation, but they have a historic harbor there and from there you can go out to the Delta to see the flood museum, see the dikes, see all of that that makes the Netherlands Netherlands. You know the dikes and windmills. From there go to Ghent. From this port you can also get to Bruges, probably one of my favorite cities to visit in Europe. Then the next port is Antwerp, Belgium. Here you can get some great Belgian chocolate, do some waffle tasting.
Mark Faldmo:Antwerp, the diamond capital of the world. You can go to the Diamond Exchange. Go to Rotterdam. From there is where you'd get Kinderd ijk , which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's the windmills. So kind of going back to our story from earlier about World Heritage Sites Kinderd ijk , where you can go see some amazing windmills, see how they work, see what they do. The ship does go back to Amsterdam and spend a night in Amsterdam, and so on that day you're in Amsterdam. They do have the Keukenhof Gardens excursion. I think this is probably the best way to go see the tulips in the Netherlands. You could go do it by a land tour, but here you also get some of those other places like Bruges, Antwerp, Rotterdam, you get to see other areas of the region.
Patrick Wiscombe:There's some space for 2025, definitely 2026. Take advantage of this. Go to Europe. If you've never gone cruising, try it out, river cruising especially. It's kind of an intimate way to see the world because you're alone. But you're not alone, man. We live in a great time right now where you can pretty much just see the world how you want it, when you want it, however you want it. Take advantage of this offer. Call Mark in his office, 888-718-7717, 888-718-7717. And you can also go to blueplanetvacations. com. This hour always goes by so fast. Last is coming up. We've got more travel news and we're also going to talk about going to Mexico and should you do an all-inclusive vacation? We're going to answer that question next, when the inside travel talk podcast or radio show continues. My name is Patrick Wiscombe, he is Mark Faldmo. We will 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.
Ad Voice:This segment of Inside Travel Talk is sponsored by Star Clippers. For over 30 years, star Clippers has offered unique, authentic tall ship sailing experiences featuring creative itineraries throughout the Mediterranean Caribbean and Central America. To book your unique Star Clipper sailing adventure, contact Blue Planet Vacations at 888-718-7717 or blueplanetvacations. com.
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:I say this every single week. This hour goes by so fast and I want to thank everyone who is tuning in to the radio station right now, 860 KKAT in Salt Lake City. We're on every Saturday and Sunday mornings at 11 am Mountain Time. You can also listen to it on the 860 KKAT app and you can also. If you just want to make sure that you catch every single episode, may I ask you to go to InsideTravelTalk. com to subscribe to the podcast, just so you get every single episode Coming up. In this final segment of the show, we will be talking about all-inclusive Mexican vacations and should you book an all-inclusive Mexican vacations and should you book an all-inclusive vacation? That's coming up here in just a couple of minutes, but before we do, we've got the final travel news headlines for this week's show, and let's start with JetBlue canceling or dropping hot food on transatlantic flights in economy. So it's going to depend on the level of service that you get.
Mark Faldmo:There are actually lots of negative comments about this story. So JetBlue is getting some pushback on this. As you mentioned, they're dropping hot food. They are replacing it with the chilled frittata A chilled frittata.
Patrick Wiscombe:A chilled frittata.
Mark Faldmo:And chilled frittata. Just looking through, some of the comments are saying chilled frittata doesn't make any sense. You know it doesn't even sound good. You're right, it doesn't sound good.
Mark Faldmo:So some of the other choices so a chilled frittata, a grain bowl, ginger, garlic, tofu. So a chilled frittata, a grain bowl, ginger, garlic, tofu, all the salad, all the choices that JetBlue has. So you know this could cause some problems because a lot of the airline meals are built so that they don't smell and if people bring on their own food. I love beef jerky but there's nothing like someone opening a bag of beef jerky on a flight and it fills the whole cabin I guess I've never noticed that before there's could be some disadvantage of this of people just bringing on whatever and having other flyers uncomfortable because of the smells of the food.
Mark Faldmo:So we'll see if that works out. For jet blue it seems like a step back in the customer experience you had me at chilled frittata.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yeah, Eurostar is going to be the first non-airline SkyTeam member. What does that mean for passengers?
Mark Faldmo:The last few weeks we've actually had lots of talk about the SkyTeam alliance, which is Delta Airlines alliance. What that means is you can combine your airline ticket with a train ticket. You could get SkyTeam benefits for the rail portion of your journey. So you say the rail portion, the rail portion okay, the Eurostar is the train that basically runs between Paris and London. Oh, so from there you can get France, Belgium, nether and the UK.
Patrick Wiscombe:When we were talking about JetBlue getting rid of hot food on the transatlantic flights in the economy class, I should have asked this question Can you bring food through TSA? I want to say no.
Mark Faldmo:If you're going through TSA, once you're on the other side of the gate, I guess you can bring it on the plane Actually you can bring food through TSA, you do have to keep in mind that all food would still be subject to the 3-1-1 liquid rule. So, if it's considered a liquid paste or gel, it has to be under the 3.4 ounces. The exception to that are baby food and a few other things.
Patrick Wiscombe:If my food is liquid paste or gel, I'm not sure I want to eat it.
Mark Faldmo:Yes, so you can actually bring solid foods through TSA. So pasta, sandwiches, bread, those are all not subject to that 3-1-1 policy. You do need to keep in mind if you're flying internationally a lot of countries do not allow you to bring fresh fruits and vegetables through.
Patrick Wiscombe:Okay that makes sense.
Mark Faldmo:You can get quite a hefty fine for doing that. Snack ideas I guess that you can bring through Protein bar, dried fruit and nuts. You can bring muffins and pastries, beef jerky Although we just did that story about don't open it on the airplane chips, crackers, things like that.
Patrick Wiscombe:Okay, what's your favorite kind of jerky?
Mark Faldmo:Well, I like peppered beef jerky. Yeah, me too. It used to be teriyaki, but I've moved to complete just an only peppered beef jerky now.
Patrick Wiscombe:So Jack Link's.
Mark Faldmo:Jack Link's. Yeah, so good.
Patrick Wiscombe:Now that we're headed into winter, how do airlines deal with storms?
Mark Faldmo:Now we're just hitting kind of the tail end of hurricane season and moving into that winter time range. There are a lot of things that people don't think of when it comes to airline scheduling. Oftentimes you'll see, one to three days before a storm, you'll see some airlines starting to proactively cancel flight. Now what they're taking into account is they're taking where their crew's at, where the planes are going to be, so that they can bring those planes back into service faster. Before they would fly till the very last minute and then it would take days to a week or more sometimes to recover from storms. So now they're proactively canceling flights and putting them where crew and planes are going to be so they can quickly get planes back into service.
Mark Faldmo:Oh, interesting, and other things they have to take into account are the maintenance schedules of the airplane. So the maintenance schedules come into this. Their airlines are constantly taking planes out of service, putting planes back in service. So if this happens over a storm or something like that, they do have to make sure that the planes are in the right place to start their network up quickly.
Patrick Wiscombe:I wanted to talk about a comment that was made on Facebook about going on vacation to Mexico and if you should book an all-inclusive hotel in Mexico. There was a comment left that you should avoid all-inclusive vacations in Mexico because they ruin the local business. I couldn't disagree more.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, I think this person that made that comment to not stay at any all-inclusive watched a documentary called the Last Tourist. It is a very good documentary. It was created by a guy that owns a company called G Adventures and they really get their customers to be immersed into the local economy. One of the points that is made in this documentary is that many all-inclusive resorts are designed to keep people in the resort and not go out and spend money in the local economy, which there are some that do that.
Patrick Wiscombe:Well, sure, but not everyone.
Mark Faldmo:And also a lot of the all-inclusives are owned by companies outside the country, so not all of the money stays inside the country. I disagree with the premise of the Facebook comment, because the one point that the last horse is trying to make is make sure that you go out and spend money in the local economy. Leave the resorts participate in activities that are operated by local companies. Eat at restaurants yeah, it's true that you're at an all-inclusive all of your food is there but this comment was made in particular to Puerto Vallarta. We talked about last week the Puerto Vallarta taco tour. Oh yeah, you can go out and get some really good food in Puerto Vallarta.
Patrick Wiscombe:Aren't you headed there for Thanksgiving just before Thanksgiving there?
Mark Faldmo:are a few days before Thanksgiving. Okay, all right, yes, and I am traveling on those good days that we talked about earlier. If we look at Puerto Vallarta specifically, there are two locally owned and family-run companies that run all-inclusive resorts. One is Buena Ventura Resorts and the other is Maraval Resorts, and both are really involved in the community. All of the money spent stays within the community of Puerto Vallarta, and each of these companies also has a charity. For instance, the Buenaventura Resorts has a child youth symphony, where they go and identify and help underprivileged children learn to play instruments, identify and help underprivileged children learn to play instruments, and they've actually got some of these underprivileged children into the National Symphony in Mexico. These things really do benefit the local community. I also have a friend that runs a transfer and tour company called Beach Life Concierge in.
Mark Faldmo:Puerto Vallarta. She's a local of Puerto Vallarta. All of her tours year in Puerto Vallarta. She's a local of Puerto Vallarta All of her tours. She doesn't do all of the tours, but all of her tours are designed to get you immersed in the local culture, to really experience the destination. My recommendation is, rather than choosing not to go to a destination or not to stay at a particular type of hotel in this case, an all-inclusive hotel just make sure you're going and participating in the local economy. Singling out all-inclusives doesn't make sense to me, because if you stay at a hotel, most of the time people are eating at the hotel as well, and those hotels are not locally owned. In most cases, that money's going elsewhere. So you can always find locally owned hotels, and both of these the Buena Ventura and Maraval companies each of them has three great properties. There are four or five star resorts. I've stayed at these several times and again, they're just a great way to visit Puerto Vallarta.
Patrick Wiscombe:When are you headed to Mexico again? Was it the week of Thanksgiving? So it'd be what like the 24th and 25th, something like that.
Mark Faldmo:It is yeah, yeah, I'm just going for two nights. A quick trip to Puerto Vallarta. Heather always likes to go somewhere for Thanksgiving, but this year you know, last year we went to Hawaii with the whole family, so this year we're just going a few days before Thanksgiving to just have a nice relaxing beach retreat.
Patrick Wiscombe:If you want to go to Mexico or any of the destinations Paris, the Tulip Time Cruises mark in his office, 888-718-7717, 888-718-7717. You can also visit him at blueplanetvacations. com. And, as we wrap up, you can listen to the show again tomorrow morning, Sunday at 11 am, right here on 860 KKAT. And if you want or need to listen to the show again, you can download and subscribe to the podcast version of this 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, because it really does help us get traction with the podcast platform. So thank you. Well, everybody, now it's your turn to get out and explore the world. You never know what curveball's life is going to throw at you. Live your life deliberately. Live your life intentionally. Don't let life dictate how you're going to live, and just remember today is 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.