Inside Travel Talk
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Inside Travel Talk
Unforgettable Escapes: Italian Adventures, Black Friday Bargains, and Cruise Innovations
Uncover travel secrets and score unbeatable Black Friday deals as we unlock a treasure trove of vacation opportunities. Experience the allure of Italy with a curated itinerary that ensures you savor every moment, from the historic streets of Rome to the romantic canals of Venice. Plus, witness how airlines are transforming travel with exciting new routes and innovative accessibility features, ensuring every journey is more inclusive and enjoyable.
Join us for a journey through Italy's most captivating cities. We'll guide you through the must-see landmarks and hidden gems of Rome, Florence, and Venice, with tips to enhance your adventure. Whether you're standing in awe at the Colosseum or gliding through Venetian waters, this episode is your ticket to crafting the perfect Italian getaway.
We explore the latest in cruise travel, including the thrilling innovations aboard Norwegian Cruise Line's upcoming Prima Plus ships. Discover why cruising might be the ultimate travel hack, with affordable options rivalling the cost of city living. From adaptive wheelchair seats to single occupancy accommodations, we discuss how the travel industry is evolving to welcome all adventurers. Don't miss our insights into the best airport experiences, passport processing milestones, and more travel news that could shape your next vacation.
Welcome to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. On today's show, we're going to talk about Black Friday travel deals. This is the one time of the year that you can save huge amounts of money and have an exceptional vacation, and we've also got several listener 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:Helping you plan your next vacation. This is the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show presented by BluePlanetVacations. com, America's best travel advisors. Call us now 801-649-3700, 801-649-3700, and check out the podcast at InsideTravelTalk. com. Here's Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.
Patrick Wiscombe:May I have your attention please? You are listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. My name is Patrick Wiscombe. Mark Faldmo will join me here in just a second. Thank you so much for taking the time to stop and listen to the show. And if you are brand new to the show, the entire purpose of this radio and podcast is to help you plan and book your next vacation and help you create memories for yourself, your family, your friends, your loved ones, whoever that might be. And if you don't know where to go, then our job is to give you vacation ideas and destinations for you to consider. This show is all about fun and it's about creating memories that you will never forget, that when you are an old man or woman, you'll look back and go. You know what? I'm sure glad that we did that. That's what we do on this show. You can get the podcast of this show at InsideTravelTalk. com or wherever you get your podcasts. And if you're listening in the Salt Lake City area, we're on the air every Saturday and Sunday at 11 am right here on 860 KKAT and we are presented by BluePlanetVacations. com Coming up on this edition of the show.
Patrick Wiscombe:We will be talking about Black Friday travel deals. So if you want to save a ton of money, this is the one show that you've got to listen to from start to finish. Of course, we've got the travel news headlines, but we've also got a great option to go to Italy For eight to nine days. We're going to answer Trisha's question. Let me bring in my co-host and one of my best friends, because something significant happened purely from a vacation standpoint this past week. We just want to point people to blueplanetvacations. com to sign up for the hot travel deals of the week, and let's start there where people can sign up.
Mark Faldmo:This is a service that we offer at Blue Planet Vacations, where we'll email listeners or our customers whenever a good travel deal breaks. We don't want to spam anyone. We try and keep them to one email every seven to 10 days or so or whenever a great travel deal breaks, for instance last week. Caveat here this deal is no longer available, but last week there was a flight from Salt Lake City to Honolulu for $441 round trip, which is an amazing deal to fly Salt Lake City to Honolulu. Wow list got the email with that notification and that deal was valid for about a day and a half before that airfare was either sold out or just discontinued.
Patrick Wiscombe:And the only way to get it is to get on the email list. So, blueplanetvacations. com. Where is it on the website?
Mark Faldmo:For the first time to blueplanetvacations. com. There'll be a pop-up that will ask you if you want to register for it, or you can just go in the upper navigation bar. There is a hot deals tab. You can just click on that and it'll take you to a registration form.
Patrick Wiscombe:Take advantage of these promotions. They don't come around a lot, but when you do, it seems like you always hear it after the fact.
Mark Faldmo:So, yes, so we really try and keep people informed of travel deals and vacation options. There's so many different wonderful places in the world to visit that this email list will give you good deals, vacation ideas, just a whole bunch of options to help plan your vacation.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's do one news story and then let's start with the Black Friday vacation travel sale. Because we live in Salt Lake City, there are flights available from Salt Lake City to Asia. What are the details?
Mark Faldmo:This is on an airline called Starlux and they have just created a partnership with Alaska Airlines connecting through Seattle. So your Salt Lake to Seattle portion will be on Alaska Airlines and then from Seattle on Starlux. You would fly to their hub in Taipei, Taiwan, and they have connections to several cities in Japan, several cities in Southeast Asia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines and they have some really good prices, For instance, Salt Lake City to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam for just over $1,000. Wow, so some really good pricing. It is a very nice airline to fly on.
Patrick Wiscombe:It's Salt Lake City to Seattle and then you transfer to Starlux, Correct? Yes, If you want to get to Asia, call Mark in his office, 888-718-7717. One more time 888-718-7717. And I feel like we need to have some fanfare. Maybe I could just get the studio audience to hype this up for us. It is now time for the Black Friday travel sales to begin. Where do you want to start? Should we start with Globus, their Black Friday travel deals?
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, let's start off with Globus, because it also goes along with one of the questions that we have from a listener. For those who don't know, Globus is a tour company mainly in Europe, but they do have tours worldwide. They have three different options. They have your traditional group tours and they have small group tours, which are below 25 guests, and they also have independent tours, which I really like because you can they help out when you arrive to the airport with transfers. They have a host at the hotel that can help you out with travel options and information in the cities, and then, if you're doing a multi-city, they provide the transportation in between the cities. For instance, one I was just looking at was three days in Rome, two days in Florence, two days in Venice, and they included the train travel in between a host at your hotel and just makes it a really easy way to have an independent tour but also have some backup there to help you.
Patrick Wiscombe:What kind of promotions in terms of dollars off are they offering?
Mark Faldmo:Their Black Friday promotion is $1,000 off select 2025 tours, plus $995 fixed airfare rate. These offers are mostly valid to European destinations, with departures in the spring and fall, but there are departures to other areas of the world on this promotion.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let me make sure I got that right. So $1,000 off select 2025 tours plus $995 fixed airfare rates. That's correct, that's really good. And then they just book that through you. Right, they can book that through me. Well, that kind of ties into the text that we got earlier this week from Trish. So, while we're on the air, you can send your text to 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. Trish wants to take an Italy vacation and has about eight to nine days. What do you recommend, mark, and what are your favorite places to visit?
Mark Faldmo:That quarter that we just mentioned on Globus would be a good one. What I would recommend if you had eight to nine days in Italy, would be three nights in Rome, one night somewhere in Tuscany, two nights in Florence and three nights in Venice.
Patrick Wiscombe:So Rome, Tuscany, Florence, Venice. Sign me up. Here's my credit card. Let's start in Rome. How many nights there.
Mark Faldmo:Yep, so three nights in Rome. You'll really need that first day to recover from your international overnight flight to Rome. What I recommend people do is to take a hop-on, hop-off tour that day you arrive. If you'll arrive in the morning, your hotel won't be ready till three or four in the afternoon, so you can sit in the hotel lobby or you can go try and see site. I like doing a hop on, hop off tour and then your other days in the city I would try and get tours or inside visits to the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Vatican, and then you'll also want to see some of the other sites like Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps.
Mark Faldmo:Rome is just a wonderful city to visit. Three days might not be enough, but you can get the main sights in in three days. Where do we go from there? I would go to Siena, which is in Tuscany. Siena is a hilltop town a little bit out of the way as you're going between Rome and Florence, but it's well worth the visit. Their Piazza del Campo is one of Italy's most stunning piazzas. One thing that's unique to that is that twice a year it has a horse race that goes around the piazza.
Patrick Wiscombe:I need to stop you there. Okay, this is Remedial Piazza. What is a piazza?
Mark Faldmo:So a piazza is like a town square, a central plaza in cities in Italy.
Patrick Wiscombe:I think it'd be fun to see the horse race in the piazza. It would, yeah, from Tuscany, where do we go?
Mark Faldmo:So go to Florence. The one thing I like about Florence is it's a pedestrianized city. Downtown main area. There's no cars or very little cars some delivery vehicles, maybe some local residents, but it's a pedestrianized city. The top sites in Florence would be Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral Church it's the third largest church in Europe Wonderful place to visit inside and just walk around. Then there's the Uffizi Gallery, which is probably one of the best museums for Renaissance art. Ooh, Nicki would like that. I've been to Uffizi twice and really loved it. You know I'm not much of an art gallery person, but it's fascinating to see that and get the history. The other one is the Academia Gallery. That and get the history. The other one is the Academia Gallery, which is where Michelangelo's David statue is at.
Mark Faldmo:But my favorite part of the city is Piazza di Santa Croce. This piazza it's kind of in the leather area of the city, so there's lots of leather shops. But the reason why it's my favorite is food. It has a place called Vivolli. It's one of the oldest gelato places in Florence and it is fantastic. One of my favorite restaurants in all of Italy. It's called Casa Toscana, which is just off of one of the side streets there. Those are the best places to eat anyway. Yeah, it's awesome and it has some of the best lasagna. I love the food at this restaurant.
Patrick Wiscombe:I probably love lasagna way too much. That's one of those meals where I'm just like I know my body's telling me I'm full, but I don't care. From Florence, where do we go?
Mark Faldmo:You go to Venice and my first tip for Venice is just take in the city, experience the city. It is such a unique experience, even though it'll cost you a little bit more. I would stay on the island of Venice. A lot of people try and save money and stay at hotels that are not on the island. You waste time getting to and from the city. Also, if you're staying in the city on the island, you don't have to pay the tourist fee to get into the city.
Mark Faldmo:Venice in the evening is fantastic, busy in the daytime. In the evening time it's a wonderful city. So the sites to see in Venice St Marco Square, which is the main area of the town, places that a lot of people will recognize, the Grand Canal, take a gondola ride. The Rialto Bridge, which are fun things to do and great things to see, and again, just walk around, find little alleyways, get lost in Venice. It's wonderful. And then outside of the city there are also two other islands. One is an island called Murano, which is famous for glassblowing. You can go to a glassblowing demonstration. This is passed down generation to generation. There are some stories that some of those glass blowers can't leave the island because they're the secrets that they have about the practice of glass blowing and how that's done. And then one of my favorite islands is Burano Small little island, colorful buildings, and it's famous for its Venetian lace.
Patrick Wiscombe:How many nights was that that we just rattled off? There was five, six, about nine days. Nine days? Oh wow, Trish. Call Mark in his office If that is something that is interesting to you, which clearly it does, because you said you want to take a vacation to Italy and you have about eight to nine days. We just nailed it. Call Mark in his office if you would please. 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. And the reason I'm talking slow there is, you know that someone is reaching for a piece of paper while they're listening to us. I'll do it. Let me do it one more time 888-718-7717.
Patrick Wiscombe:If this has whet your appetite for what we're going to talk for the next hour or the next 45 minutes, keep listening. This is just the start of the deals that we're talking about. When we come back, we're going to talk about Hawaii, we're going to talk about Mexico and we've got special promotion codes that you can only use with Mark. 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 this to be part of your day. We will be right back. Thank you so much for allowing this to be part of your day. We will be right back.
Show Voice:If you have travel questions, they have the answers. You're listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show with Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo, presented by BluePlanetVacations. com. Call or text the show right now 801-649-3700, 801-649-3700. We'll be right back.
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Show Voice:America's best travel advisors. Call or text the show now 801-649-3700, 801-649-3700,. And check out the podcast at InsideTravelTalk. com. Here's Patrick and Mark.
Patrick Wiscombe:Serving up travel deals. This week and every week you are listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. My name is Patrick Wiscombe. He is Mark Faldmo, owner of BluePlanetVacations. com, and if you want to sign up for the hot travel deals, just go to BluePlanetVacations. com. And if you want to sign up for the hot travel deals, just go to blue planet vacations. com so you can take advantage of all of the deals between each show and then call Mark in his office to book it 888-718-7717 888-718-7717. And I just want to say thank you for allowing us to be part of your Saturday and Sunday mornings. We are on 860 KKAT in Salt Lake City every single Saturday and Sunday at 11 o'clock Mountain Time. Let's get back to the hot travel deal of the week, which is going to be in this section, but before we do that, let's get to the travel news headlines. I saw that Delta is expanding service to Alaska. Did I read that right, yeah?
Mark Faldmo:A few weeks ago we talked about the trend of the coolcation people wanting to go to cooler destinations. Oh yeah, and this is kind of playing on that and it shows that the demands there. They have increased capacity from Atlanta and Detroit to Anchorage and they have added a new flight from Salt Lake City to Fairbanks, Alaska. Here in the market. We're getting a new flight to Fairbanks, which helps for people that are doing Alaska cruise tours. A lot of those cruise tours cruise up to Alaska and a lot of them start and end in Fairbank, and so this will make it easy for us here in Salt Lake to get a flight back to Salt Lake City from Fairbanks. Now, years ago Delta did have a flight to Fairbanks but they canceled it, so it's good that that service is back for us here in Salt Lake City.
Patrick Wiscombe:There's two places that you will never get an argument from anybody in your family. Number one is Hawaii, number two is Alaska. Yeah, the only argument is which one should we go to first, Hawaii or Alaska. Yeah, that's about as contentious as it gets.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah.
Patrick Wiscombe:Southwest Airlines is leading the way in increased checked bag fees. I don't like the way this sounds already.
Mark Faldmo:It's not what you think. Southwest is still on the first and second bag fly free. That's been a huge marketing tactic for them. Yeah, it's been a competitive advantage. Yeah, and it's been part of their DNA. Now there have been some talks that Southwest might change that, so we'll look for the future, but they are increasing check bags fees in some other ways. One is overweight bags.
Mark Faldmo:If your bag is 51 pounds or more, it's $150 per bag. If it's 71 pounds or more, it's $200. So if your first bag is over 51 pounds, you have to pay the $150. So one thing that I see at airports a lot is people switching things between suitcases to try and get it under the 51 pounds. This is significantly more than what other airlines charge and these fares just increased a few weeks ago.
Patrick Wiscombe:So the first two are still free. Up to 51 pounds. Correct 50 pounds. Up to 50 pounds, Excuse me. Yeah, up to 50 pounds. And then a third and however many else, then you're going to pay for it. Yeah, Delta Airlines and the Department of Transportation have confirmed plans for adaptive wheelchair seats on future flights.
Mark Faldmo:A huge statistic is in the US, between 10,000 and 15,000 wheelchairs and other mobility devices are damaged each year, which is a huge number. Of that, delta has been working on a seat which is similar to like on a bus, where the seat folds up and you can back your own wheelchair and stay in your own wheelchair during the flight, so you don't have to check that. This is definitely a good thing for those with mobility challenges and those in using wheelchairs.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's get to the hot travel deal of the week, which seems to be this entire show. Funjet has their Black Friday sale.
Mark Faldmo:This is a new offer that's out this week and it's up to $300 off international and Hawaii trips, or $150 off domestic. One thing that makes this unique is this discount is valid for travel starting right now. The promo code we talked about last week you had to travel after February 1st, but this one you can travel in December or January or November if you want to get in that really last minute vacation mode.
Patrick Wiscombe:That sounds like Patrick and Nikki. We got a few days, let's go.
Mark Faldmo:And I've actually looked at a few of these. I looked in January and there's some great travel deals out there. So mostly where you would use these two would be Hawaii and Mexico and the Caribbean. Cancun packages with this all-inclusive packages start at $1239 per person for a four-star hotel. Hawaii continues to be one of the hot destinations as far as price goes. You can still get a vacation package to Hawaii starting at $899 per person. Wow. The Cancun one that we just talked about and the Hawaii one are all airfare and five nights hotel.
Mark Faldmo:Puerto Vallarta, one of my favorite destinations, starts at $1139 per person and that's again an all-inclusive resort. Now I will say for Cancun and Puerto Vallarta, I generally start out with the four-star and above. There are some three-star hotels that do price out less than this. But often, as we've talked about, when you're paying money for a vacation, you want to get the best value possible and have the best experience possible. So a lot of those Mexico inclusive. I start out with a four star, but if you do want something a little bit less expensive, that option is out there.
Patrick Wiscombe:This is only segment two of the show and we've already rattled off multiple Black Friday deals. Pull Black Friday deals. If you want to book any of these, call Mark in his office, monday through Friday, standard business hours, 888-718-7717, 888-718-7717. And, just as a reminder as we go to break, go to blueplanetvacations. com and sign up for the hot travel deal of the week when we come back. Segment three of the show is the infamous just cruising segment. And yes, we do have Black Friday sales for cruises On Virgin Voyages. We've got Norwegian Cruise Lines, MSC it's all coming up. Cruise Lines, MSC it's all coming up. If this is your time of the year to go on vacation or save the most money to go on vacation, continue listening, if you would please. You are listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast, a radio show, alongside Mark Faldmo. My name is Patrick Wiscombe. Thank you so much for listening. We will be back in just a few minutes. My name is Patrick Wiscombe. Thank you so much for listening. We will be back in just a few minutes.
Show Voice:They've literally traveled millions of miles to answer your travel-related questions. Yeah, they really have. You're listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show presented by BluePlanetVacations. com. America's best travel advisors, Patrick and Mark, will be back after these messages.
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Patrick Wiscombe:Welcome back to the Inside Travel Talk podcast or radio show Coming up in the next 30 minutes. We still have more Black Friday vacation savings. Let's continue 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:Now back to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show presented by BluePlanetVacations. com America's best travel advisors. Hit us up right now 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700, 801-649-3700. And check out the podcast at InsideTravelTalk. com.
Patrick Wiscombe:Here's Patrick and Mark All aboard, all aboard, all aboard For the infamous Just Cruising segment. Right here in segment number three, you are listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast, a radio show alongside my good friend, Mark Faldmo. My name is Patrick Wiscombe. This week's show is nothing but Black Friday vacation deals. We always find the best value and prices on vacations, but this week is exceptional and if you want to listen to all of the deals that we are serving up, go get the podcast, if you would. Insidetraveltalk. com. Insidetraveltalkalk. com. Okay, mark, it is time for the cruise deal of the week, coming up here in just a second. But first let's get to the travel news headlines that are cruise specific. I saw that NCL has revealed details about games and the spa on their vessel called the Norwegian Aqua Norwegian has actually introduced two new ships.
Mark Faldmo:They're in what they call their Prima Plus ships Norwegian Aqua and Norwegian Luna. Aqua being launched in 2025, Luna being launched in 2026. Aqua being launched in 2025, Luna being launched in 2026.
Patrick Wiscombe:Oh wait, hold on. So they've got two new ships coming. I knew about the. Aqua 2025, but the Luna is 2026. Are they selling that now? They?
Mark Faldmo:are selling that now. Oh, okay, as the category of the ship says Prima Plus. So this is an upgraded version of the Prima class ships and I've sailed on the Norwegian Prima before, one of my favorite ships to sail on. It's a big ship. There are two areas that they focused on is their game zone and their spa. They have a beefed up version of miniature golf.
Mark Faldmo:If you've ever been on a cruise ship, most of them have something that looks like a miniature golf course, but they're in a small tucked away area, part of the ship. It's not really mini golf as we know it. On these two new ships the mini golf area is two and a half times larger than what was on the Prima and it's over two decks. Years ago, cruise lines would look at these spaces and say they're not revenue generators, so they'd make them small or just cut them out. Over about the last six or seven years, we've seen cruise ships just really introducing these game zones. One thing I do like about the Galaxy Pavilion that's on this is they have a lot of virtual reality experiences. They have virtual roller coasters, virtual games and then they have retro arcade. So, if you like Pac-Man, donkey Kong yes, they have space invaders. They have a retro arcade on board, which I'm a fan of that. I'll spend all my time in that retro arcade.
Patrick Wiscombe:I love Donkey Kong. I love Pac-Man. Do you know what game I would love to get in? There would be Defender. Do you remember that game, defender? I do remember Defender, that was so good, tell me about the spa.
Mark Faldmo:These ships offer a redesign of their spa and salon with new services and they have a clay sauna, a clay sauna, a clay sauna. So a clay spa is kind of a combination of a mud bath and a sauna steam room and so you have the that sounds amazing the clay treatments while in the sauna.
Patrick Wiscombe:That sounds like you're muddy. And then it what gets caked on you. Yes, you have to peel it off.
Mark Faldmo:It sounds like you're muddy, and then it what gets caked on you, yes, you peel it off, yeah, and then you let the work of the sauna kind of work, the benefits of the clay in.
Patrick Wiscombe:Oh, I would do that in a second. I didn't even know such a thing existed.
Mark Faldmo:Cruise lines are always trying to kind of one-up and make sure they have the best facilities and unique treatments. This other thing that we talked about, the lasso therapy pool, it's a therapy pool that uses seawater, marine products, seaweed, mud, sand, plankton, other things to give some type of health benefits.
Patrick Wiscombe:I'm not a spa person, so All we need now is some guppies to chew off the dead skin on my feet yes, I'm sure they have that too, the fish spa.
Mark Faldmo:I've never done that. I don't know if I dare stick my feet in a water full of fish I draw the line at piranhas yeah, another thing is their thermal suite on these ships.
Mark Faldmo:They have twice as many of the heating lounger chairs. One thing I like is their thermal suite on these ships. They have twice as many of the heating lounger chairs. One thing I like is the thermal suites in these. They're usually on the front of the ship or the back of the ship with great views of the ocean. Just sit there and relax.
Patrick Wiscombe:The Holland America's 124-day cruise costs less than living in Manhattan. Well, I've lived in Manhattan. Let's talk about that cruise.
Mark Faldmo:This is a story that was out in Travel and Leisure showing the value of cruising. While this is probably a little bit more expensive than most people would want to spend, it's a lot less expensive than living in many areas of the country. So what this story did is they compared the average rent in Manhattan, which was about $5,200 per month, or about $168 a day. The lowest daily rate on this Holland America world cruise was about $180 per day, and so now people would look at that and say, well, that's not less expensive. One thing you have to consider is the cruise rate includes all of your food and entertainment.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yes.
Mark Faldmo:Basically, you're eating on. What's that $12 a day difference. So it really is less expensive to take a 124-day round-the-world cruise on Holland America than live for six months in New York City.
Patrick Wiscombe:Carol wants to go on a cruise. She is single. She says that she's heard that most cruise lines charge like there are two people in a cabin. So, essentially, is there any way around this? And I'm going to say yes, because it seems like cruise ships they're taking into account solo travelers now.
Mark Faldmo:They are, and several years ago when the Norwegian Epic came out, they had their studio lounge, which was a whole keyed access entry area that had its own lounge made exclusively for solo or single travelers. Other cruise lines were naysayers. Now there are other cruise lines that have started to add in these single only cabins in their ships. So Norwegian started it. There are cruise lines that do have single cabins that don't charge double. The cabin price is set based on one person in the room rather than being based off of double, like most people are traditionally used to. Royal Caribbean has some of these. Virgin Voyages also has some solo cabins for Insider. And then cruise lines that don't have cabins for singles are starting to offer single supplements that are not the full 100%. They might be 50% or 25%, but yes, there is a way around that. But look at some of those. I particularly like Norwegian Cruise Line. I've sailed in that single category with the Studio Lounge twice, really enjoyed it.
Mark Faldmo:It's nice to have a keyed access area where you kind of have your own area where no one else can get into other than those in that specific area.
Patrick Wiscombe:Carol, call Mark in his office if you need more details about that, 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. It is time for the cruise deal of the week, always in this segment of the show, but basically this is a Black Friday vacation sale that's in full swing right now. Let's talk about the cruise deals plural of the week. Let's start with Virgin Voyages of the week.
Mark Faldmo:Let's start with Virgin Voyages. Their Black Friday sale is 80% off the second sailor or second guest, plus up to $300 in free drinks, and if you book a cruise that's more than 180 days in advance and paying full, you'll get an additional 10% discount. There are several things I like about Virgin. One we've talked about quite a bit is how they cater to those with special dietary needs. They also are one cruise line that I feel they don't really try and nickel and dime you. So, for instance, in their basic cruise, fare includes Wi-Fi gratuities, water and soda. All of the dining venues are included. There's no upcharge. Really. The only thing that is additional are alcoholic drinks or the mixed drinks, and so that's what this $300 in free drinks would go to cover for the Black Friday sale. So I think Virgin Voyages does a great job in several areas. They also have several cruises starting at $99 per person per day.
Patrick Wiscombe:Really. We've been doing this show for over a year and that's the first time I've heard that.
Mark Faldmo:I think this is one of the better deals out there that I've seen.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's move over to NCL Norwegian Cruise Lines. By the way, that is a question we get. What is NCL and what is Norwegian Cruise Lines? It's the same thing, it's the same company.
Mark Faldmo:It's the same thing. It's the same company, it's the same thing. Yeah, what's?
Patrick Wiscombe:their black Friday vacation Norwegians yeah.
Mark Faldmo:So Norwegians is 50 off all cruises, plus free airfare on the second guest, and this is also combinable with their more at sea promotion, which is an upcharge. It includes free drinks, specialty dining, short excursion credit, free Wi-Fi package and third and fourth guest sale free. Holy cow With that more at sea.
Patrick Wiscombe:So the more at sea we've talked about. But the 50% off all cruises plus free airfare for the second guest I've never heard that one.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, that's a great deal that Norwegian is offering for Black Friday. Okay, and let's go to MSC Cruises about their Black Friday deal their Black Friday and again, this is one that's a preview sale, so this technically ends next week, but they're going to re-up it for official Black Friday sale. But theirs is up to 35% off cruises, plus free drinks and Wi-Fi and up to a $400 onboard credit.
Patrick Wiscombe:We do this show every week and we always scour for the best deal, the cruise deal of the week. They made this effortless for you and I this week.
Mark Faldmo:They did.
Patrick Wiscombe:These are phenomenal deals.
Mark Faldmo:Lots of great travel deals out there and you know now is the time to start booking that winter vacation. A lot of people book their warm weather vacations starting in January. But if you want the real deals, book in the fall time, book now and take advantage of some of these Black Friday deals.
Patrick Wiscombe:Absolutely. Call Mark at his office and call him now, as we're going to break. Just call him 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. Now, this does not obligate you to book anything. Let's just get the conversation rolling and then you can make a decision when and where, because obviously you're going to have to talk with your friends and family. Hey, I'm going on this, let's all go. But if you're ready to go, you could also just call them and book it. So, whatever your needs are, call Mark 888-718-7717. When we come back, more Black Friday sales. I kid you not, there's more. We've also got Mark's travel tips. I kid you not, there's more. We've also got Mark's travel tips and, by the way, I received a lot of feedback about what to do if your passport is lost or stolen while you're on vacation. That received a lot of feedback, which was very positive. We might have to re-air that, just so people can hear that conversation. Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your Saturday. I'm Patrick Wiscombe. He's Mark Faldmo. We will be right back.
Show Voice:Explore your world. You're listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show presented by BluePlanetVacations. com, America's best travel advisors. Call or text the show now, 801-649-3700.
Ad Voice:801-649-3700. We'll be right back 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:They'll help you plan and book your next vacation. Yeah, really, you're listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show presented by BluePlanetVacations. com, America's best travel advisors. Call or text the show now 801-649-3700, 801-649-3700. And now here's Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.
Patrick Wiscombe:Serving travelers around the world. Each and every Saturday you are listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. I am Patrick Wiscombe, he is Mark Faldmo, owner of BluePlanetVacations. com, and as we're coming back for this final segment, let me just remind listeners that if you need to listen to any of the segments again because you heard something you like, go to InsideTravelTalk. com. We are on all of the major podcast platforms. We've had some killer deals.
Patrick Wiscombe:This is the Black Friday show, the one time of year where the whole show is just nothing but ideas and the best prices and values to go on vacation, blueplanetvacations. com, to sign up for the hot travel deal or deals, in this case, of the week. Okay, mark, this show has gone by so fast. This week. There's been so much to talk about, so many great deals, so many values. We'll recap some of those deals coming up here in this segment as we start to wrap up. But let's get to the quick hit travel news headlines. I saw that there was an article for the best and worst airports in North America. I'm curious to see who the best are and who the worst are.
Mark Faldmo:This list is interesting to me, for one, salt Lake is not on it, and I think they should be on it. They're not on it in either category. This was a survey done by JD Power and it was a survey of 26,000 travelers about the experience at airport. So the survey included ease of travel through the airport, level of trust with the airport, the terminal facilities, airport staff departure to airport experience, food and beverage retail and arrival from the airport. They broke it down into mega airports, large airports and medium airports. For mega airports, the top three were Minneapolis, Detroit and Phoenix.
Patrick Wiscombe:Phoenix is considered a mega airport.
Mark Faldmo:It is and how they did that was over 33 million passengers per year. Okay, all right. So based on that, so it's based on passenger volume. And then large were 10 million to 32.9 million. So based on that, so it's based on passenger volume. And then large were 10 million to 32.9 million, and then below 10 million was the other size airport. My experiences with these three airports I'd probably put Detroit at the top, but Minneapolis got it and I'd put Phoenix far down the list.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, that's why I was surprised it's one of my least favorite airports personally, because I don't think there's very good food options and if you have to transfer from one terminal to the other it's a pretty long walk.
Patrick Wiscombe:Well, not to mention the car rental. You literally almost get to downtown Phoenix to pick up a car.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, okay. And then, at the bottom of the list of the mega airports, Chicago ranked the worst, Toronto airport was third worst and then Newark liberty, which I agree with those. Moving on to best and worst large airports, John Wayne airport, orange county was the best, tamp Tampa was second and Kansas City was third. I recently just flew into Kansas City and I really enjoyed it. It actually reminded me a lot of Salt Lake Airport. I think there was a lot of commonality in the design of those airports. And then the bottom three airports, St Louis, Montreal and Philadelphia. So it's interesting that Kansas has Kansas City and St Louis same state best and worst airport.
Patrick Wiscombe:St Louis is a dump, and I'm not even talking about the airport, I'm just talking about the city. That place is a dump.
Mark Faldmo:I've never been there, so I don't save your money.
Patrick Wiscombe:I can't say St Louis, where the Cardinals play downtown. I just remember walking around there, going. Why is St Louis so interesting to visit? So what? You've got the Cardinals and we got the arch Big deal, sorry, wow, okay, back off, Patrick, calm your mind down, everything is fine. I saw a news story that more than 24 million US passports were processed this year 2024. Is that right?
Mark Faldmo:It's been a record year for passports. That is nearly 500,000 more than in 2023. Even with the more passports, the time to process passports has been cut by nearly half. Late 2023, we were telling people you are 12 to 16 weeks to get a passport. That's now down to four to five weeks and in most cases it's quicker than that. I've seen people get a passport back, without expediting fees back in about two and a half weeks.
Patrick Wiscombe:So I paid the expediting fee and we got it back in like two, two and a half weeks, and you're telling me that's common.
Mark Faldmo:now that's common now, wow, okay, and you know, they've also rolled out a new online passport renewal system. I think we briefly talked about this last week, but that's really helped in speeding up the processing time of passports.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's continue the black Friday sale as we've done through each of the four segments of the show. Avalon waterways has their black Friday sale. If you're not familiar with that, that's European river cruises. What's their?
Mark Faldmo:promotion, so they have prepaid gratuities on select sailings. That's a value of 25 per person per Now. Gratuities are always optional, but as you've said many times, Patrick, those people deserve the extra tips that you give them. Honestly they really make or break a cruise.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yeah, they deserve more than that, because it feels like we're in a tipping culture. Tip me for just doing your job. These guys and girls really work hard to make or break a vacation. They do an amazing job.
Mark Faldmo:They have $249 air per person on select river cruises, so that's $249 airfare to Europe and they have save up to a thousand dollars per couple on select river cruises. Most cases you can combine two of these and there probably are a few where you could combine all three of these offers on a river cruise.
Patrick Wiscombe:Before we run out of time, let's recap all of the offers that we've made for the past hour and I'll let you decide where you want to start.
Mark Faldmo:Let's go back and talk about Globus, which is the three different touring options. They have traditional group tours, small group tours or independent tours, mostly in Europe, but they do have them worldwide. Their Black Friday offer is $1,000 off select 2025 tours, plus $9.95 fixed rate airfare.
Patrick Wiscombe:Which is just a phenomenal offer $995 to Europe round trip amazing.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, and then also again some great tour options. The next deal this is for mainly Mexico, all-inclusive and Hawaii and the Caribbean. It is valid worldwide, but that's mostly where you do this with Funjet Vacations. So they have up to $300 off international and Hawaii trips and up to $150 off domestic vacations. To get those deals, you can go to blueplanetvacations. com. We have deals posted to each specific location Hawaii and Mexico.
Patrick Wiscombe:While we're here, let's recap the blueplanetvacations. com, the hot travel deal of the week, or how to sign up. So they just get those in the email.
Mark Faldmo:Go to the website. Pop-up will pop up where you can enter your information, or you can just click in the navigation bar the hot deal update and that'll take you to a page where you can register for the email updates.
Patrick Wiscombe:What other deals do you want?
Mark Faldmo:to recap here let's recap the Virgin Voyages one, which I think is a great deal. So Virgin Voyages, one of my favorite cruise lines. It's all adults. They do really good with people that have dietary concerns or issues, but their deal is 80% off the second guest, $300 off in free drinks, and if you book a cruise 180 days in advance and pay in full, you'll get an extra 10% discount, and they have cruises starting at $99 per person per day.
Patrick Wiscombe:That really is amazing, that is.
Mark Faldmo:And then we also did have a Norwegian and an MSC offer, but in the interest of time, you can go to blueplanetvacations. com and see what those are.
Patrick Wiscombe:Every single week we talk about the hot travel deal of the week, the cruise deal of the week, the destination spotlight. This is the one show every year and really it's going to continue really for a few weeks, just because we're in the Christmas buying period. This is the one time of year that you can absolutely save the most money to go make memories with your family, year that you can absolutely save the most money to go make memories with your family. Call Mark in his office to book 888-718-7717, 888-718-7717. And, as he mentioned, just go to blueplanetvacations. com to sign up as well. You can listen to this show again tomorrow morning, Sunday, at 11 am, right here on 860 KKAT here in Salt Lake. If you want or need to listen to the show again, go to InsideTravelTalk. com.
Patrick Wiscombe:We are on all of the major podcast platforms, and can I ask you to download and subscribe platforms? And can I ask you to download and subscribe and, while you're at it, leave us a five-star review please, because it really does help us get traction with the podcast platforms. So just thank you in advance. Well, now it's your turn to get out and explore your world while you can, because you never know what curveball's life is going to throw at you. You can, because you never know what curveballs life is going to throw at you. Today is a good day for a good day. Live your life deliberately, live your life intentionally and remember what you're not changing, you're choosing. Thanks for listening. Really. Have a great week, mark, and I will talk to you again next Saturday and Sunday mornings.
Show Voice:Have a great week, mark, and I will talk to you again next Saturday and Sunday mornings. 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.