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
Serene Sailings: Mediterranean Gems, Winter River Cruises, and Alaska Cruise Tours
What if you could travel smarter, enjoy delicious perks, and avoid common travel mishaps all at once? Tune in as we unravel the secrets to making the most of your travel experiences, from discovering hidden gems in Mediterranean cruise ports to relishing Shake Shack's tasty offerings aboard Delta Airlines flights. With winter on the horizon, we guide you through top travel destinations, whether you're chasing the sun in Cancun or embracing the winter charm of Paris.
Hosts Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmoe share their expertise and personal stories, responding to listener queries with tailored travel advice. Discover unique Mediterranean cruise itineraries with Royal Caribbean and MSC Cruises, and learn how weather patterns influence travel choices, prompting more adventurous off-season escapades. We also highlight Southwest Airlines' eco-friendly switch to bamboo cups, a small but significant step towards sustainable travel.
Let's not forget the crucial travel tips to avoid cruise pitfalls, especially when winter river cruising. From ensuring you have the right travel documents to the necessity of travel insurance, we cover it all. We explore the intersection of technology and travel, with insights on how apps and digital tools can enhance your journey. Plus, learn why Ama Waterways' winter river cruises offer incredible value and explore Royal Caribbean's strategic moves in the cruise industry. Get ready to plan your next adventure with confidence and style!
Welcome to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show Coming up. On today's show we're going to be talking about Mark's favorite Mediterranean cruise ports, how to get bonus Delta SkyMiles, what Shake Shack and Delta are teaming up. We'll tell you how, and we'll also be talking about wintertime cruises. Let's get started. The Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show presented by BluePlanetVacations. com contains travel deals, promotions and offers that may be time sensitive. All offers and information were accurate when the show aired. Travel deals and offers change constantly and are capacity controlled and subject to change without notice.
Show Voice:Explore your world. It's the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show presented by BluePlanetVacations. com. Call or text the show now 801-649-3700, 801-649-3700. And check out the podcast at InsideTravelTalk. com. And now here are your hosts, Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.
Patrick Wiscombe:I don't know about you, but my stomach has taken in more food in the last few days than I care to admit, but man, was it tasty. Welcome to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. Alongside Mark Faldmo, my name is Patrick Wiscombe. This is the hangover the food hangover edition of the show. As I was talking about right at the very beginning of the show, we're going to be talking about Shake Shack, as if I want to talk about more food, shake Shack and Delta are teaming up. We'll give you the details coming up here in just a few minutes.
Patrick Wiscombe:Thank you so much for taking the time to stop and listen to the show Just a few minutes. Thank you so much for taking the time to stop and listen to the show and the entire purpose of this show is to help you plan and book your next vacation and help you create memories, not only for yourself, your friends, your family that when you look back and you're an old man and you need to take pills, you're going to go. Man, I'm glad I went on that vacation with my family. If you don't know where to go, then our job is pretty simple to give you vacation ideas and destinations for you to consider. You can get the podcast at InsideTravelTalk. com or wherever you get your podcasts If you're in the Salt Lake City area. We are on the air every Saturday and Sunday morning, starting at 11 am Mountain Time, and this show is presented by BluePlanetVacations. com. Mark Faldmo is the owner of said company. How are you feeling after all that food? Pretty?
Mark Faldmo:good, I had a good holiday. I actually went to Puerto Vallarta earlier this week, loved it. I came back just in time for a good Thanksgiving meal.
Patrick Wiscombe:Oh, that's right, I forgot. You took off and went down there.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, we just went for a quick time to Puerto Vallarta. This holiday probably wasn't quite as good as last year, when we took the whole family to Hawaii and ate at Duke's, but it was still a great Thanksgiving Lots of good food.
Patrick Wiscombe:Generally speaking, everything is a downgrade when you're not in Hawaii and you're not sitting at Duke's Looking at I can't think of the volcano, but Diamond Head, diamond Head, oh that view, and the beach and the ocean, looking at Diamond Head is that is some next level awesome. Yes, yeah, let's start here, since it's really starting to get pretty cold outside. What are the five most popular winter destinations for Americans?
Mark Faldmo:Number five is Paris, France. It's the only cold weather destination that made this list.
Patrick Wiscombe:Paris was number five. What's number four? So?
Mark Faldmo:number four is Playa del Carmen, Mexico. So in the kind of Riviera Maya there it's got great beaches right there by the Mayan ruins. You know a lot of great archaeological sites snorkeling, the second largest coral reef is just outside of Playa del Carmen. There.
Patrick Wiscombe:I always think of the Mayan ruins, but I don't think of great beaches next door.
Mark Faldmo:Tulum has one of the best beaches in the area. I think you have to take a little pathway of stairs down to it and it's just a great beach. What's number three on this list? Cabo San Lucas, another Mexico destination, this time on the west coast of Mexico. Cabo is one of the sunniest destinations year-round, great for golf deep-sea fishing.
Patrick Wiscombe:And.
Mark Faldmo:Sammy Hagar and Sammy Hagar, which, by the way, did you see? He continued his residency in Las Vegas.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yeah, I did see that I think Patrick will be taking a trip down to Las Vegas then, yes, I didn't realize what a Sammy Hagar fan I was, me too.
Mark Faldmo:So maybe we should take that trip and go see them together.
Patrick Wiscombe:So I agree. I don't think Heather and Nikki would want to come on that one.
Mark Faldmo:Probably not. What's number two? So number two is Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, another beach destination. I very much enjoy Punta Cana. One of my favorite things to do there is go out on the countryside and visit a local farm, kind of a local community, and they just show you how they live, show you how to make chocolate, because Dominican Republic is a pretty large producer of chocolate. It's a beach destination, but a good one.
Patrick Wiscombe:And then the number one destination for winter.
Mark Faldmo:I would consider this the same as number four. They say number one is Cancun, Mexico. So to get to Playa del Carmen you have to fly into Cancun anyway, and they're about 40 miles apart. For the same reasons. Good beaches, good food. You know, when I was there it's been about 10 days ago in Cancun Lots of good tacos. One thing I like there at the hotel I like to stay at that we talked about, which was El Dorado Royale, different habanero sauce. I love habanero sauce and in the morning they have these rolled tacos. So taquitos, put some onions and cilantro on with some sour cream, habanero sauce, and then I'll eat a taquito and then drink some Mexican hot chocolate with the cinnamon. Makes that burn really good.
Patrick Wiscombe:I wish that I could indulge in the pleasures of food I sweat at ketchup, so what you just described just sounds like a day of me sitting in the hotel room. There's other good, more mellow food. Give me a good corn tortilla or a flour tortilla. Give me a Diet Coke. I saw a news item that Shake Shack Burgers and Delta Airlines are teaming up, or at least kind of teaming up, to feed the burgers to some of its passengers. What are the details, though?
Mark Faldmo:This will be for those in first class, where you get a choice of meal. So one of the meals is going to be a Shake Shack cheeseburger. There we go. Right now this is only available from flights departing Boston, but they are going to roll it out to other airports. I don't think I recall ever seeing an airline team up with a restaurant for onboard food. Yeah, that's a first. And if it's consistent with Shake Shack, I thought this was kind of interesting.
Patrick Wiscombe:while we're talking about Punta Cana, Rafael Nadal, the tennis player, and Malia Hotel Brands are teaming up. What are the details?
Mark Faldmo:They are opening up a new lifestyle brand hotel. It's called Xel. It will be opening in Punta Cana, expected to open on December 12th.
Patrick Wiscombe:Oh, so coming up real quick.
Mark Faldmo:It's a smaller, 190 room hotel. It's going to be all inclusive, so that means it's going to have, you know, the typical all inclusive information. It's going to have multiple restaurants and, of course, with Rafael Nadal, it's going to have seven tennis courts.
Patrick Wiscombe:Of course it is. I thought that they would have played on his name. The name of the place would be called Backhand. Yeah, all right, let's get to the destination of the week. Was this a text or an email that you got? Destination of the week. Was this a text or an email that you got? This was a text. Okay, dave wants to go on a Mediterranean cruise, but wants unique ports. And what ports should he consider?
Mark Faldmo:So my favorite two ports, which are also unique in the Mediterranean I think, is Valletta in Malta and Kotor in Montenegro. A few years ago it was rated as Europe's cultural heritage center. It's like walking around an open-air museum. It has some Arab influence, it has Greek influence, it has Roman influence. It's an island in the kind of southern Mediterranean and it actually was basically founded by the Hospitaller Knights during the Crusades and it was a hospital island, so I guess that's where they'd evacuate all of the injured Crusaders to Malta.
Mark Faldmo:Sailing into Valletta and Malta is spectacular. It's got high cliffs with the yellow stone buildings, colorful balconies. It is, I think, my favorite place in all of the Mediterranean to visit. And the other one, Kotor in Montenegro, in the Aegean Sea. And sailing to there it's sailing up what they call Europe's southern fjord. So you sail in the morning. It's a scenic cruise, like kind of sailing through a fjord in Alaska or Norway, and then you get to the end of it and there is the city of Kotor, which is a small walled city, lots of history, kind of a unique situation there in Kotor. And if you're like to shop for Christmas stuff, there's a Christmas shop there that my wife loves to go in. I can't tell you how many hundreds of dollars we've spent in there buying nutcrackers and Russian nesting dolls and St Nicholas and there's all sorts of amazing Christmas stuff in that Christmas shop in Couture Montenegro.
Patrick Wiscombe:We're a little bit short on time, so let's continue this conversation on the other side of the break. We'll give you the itineraries. For what Was it? Couture or Malta? Or yes to both?
Mark Faldmo:To both. I have one itinerary that includes each of those stops, okay, great.
Patrick Wiscombe:We'll continue the conversation and if you have questions that you want to ask us while we're on the air, text us right now 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. Dave, we will continue talking about your Mediterranean cruise and the unique ports that's coming up next, and we also give you the hot travel deal of the week in the next segment. Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your Saturday and Sunday mornings. Mark and I will be right back.
Show Voice:Taking you to destinations around the world. The Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show is presented by BluePlanetVacations. com, America's best travel advisors. Call or text the show now 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. Thanks for listening.
Ad Voice:We'll be right back. We'll be right back. 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.
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 InsideTravelTalkcom. Here's Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmoe.
Patrick Wiscombe:Mark, I was just thinking about the Shake Shack burger, the cheeseburger that we were talking about in the first segment. Shake Shack teaming up with Delta Airlines bringing their burgers to the service If you're in first class. I haven't eaten yet, so that sounds amazing.
Mark Faldmo:I think that's where I'm going to go today for lunch.
Patrick Wiscombe:Should we just go there after the show? Yes, All right, that sounds so good right now. Welcome back to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. Alongside Mark Faldmo, my name is Patrick Wiscombe, dreaming of Shake Shack Burgers Coming up. In this segment of the show we have the destination of the week. We're going to continue the conversation. Dave sent a text that he wants to go on a Mediterranean cruise but wants unique ports and the ports that he should consider. And we've also got the travel news headlines. And, of course, always in this second segment, we've got the hot travel deal of the week and we're going to tell you how to get some bonus sky miles if you're a Delta flyer. But let's first get to the travel news headlines. You know this doesn't surprise me at all that weather is a concern and is increasingly being factored into travel decisions for US travelers.
Mark Faldmo:This is interesting in that this has become more pronounced the last year or two, where people are making travel decisions based on possible weather, so avoiding certain destinations prone to hurricanes or blizzards or large storms. They are making travel decisions based on potential weather.
Patrick Wiscombe:It's a little tough to time the weather, honestly. You just need to know that hurricane season is between, what is it? June through November. June 1st through the end of November. Okay, so we're still technically in that right now, yeah, but today's the last day.
Mark Faldmo:Yes, and when I was in Cancun about 10 days ago there was a hurricane that hit in Belize and we saw some effects of that A little bit windy. One thing is we've talked about in the past you also can get some pretty good deals when considering traveling in some of these off seasons. So hurricane season in Mexico and the Caribbean, for instance, looking at Costa Rica, if you go during what they call the green season, which is the rainy season, you can get some good deals on that. I guess pros and cons, but more and more people are opting to try and avoid these if they can. But again, it's hard, like hurricane season that takes out six months out of the year that you can travel, so it's almost advantageous to travel when the weather is going to be kind of rough because of the deals available.
Patrick Wiscombe:But the flip side of that is you can't be upset if something goes wrong.
Mark Faldmo:Yes, side note, I did a honeymoon for a friend to Costa Rica about two weeks ago and they got there. The operator said well, we had to cancel their zip line because it was rainy. They got it rescheduled. Then they had to cancel the national park because the government closed all the national parks due to rain, and they said it's just unusually rainy here. And then when I talked to my friend he's like oh, that was one of the best trips that we've had. So you've got to figure out how to make the best out of your situation. For that situation in Costa Rica they do call it the green season because it makes the jungle absolutely amazing. Humid, yes.
Patrick Wiscombe:Southwest Airlines is making bold changes to its drinks and travelers. Well, they seem to be split.
Mark Faldmo:They're trying to do away with plastics on board, so they are now serving drinks in bamboo cups.
Patrick Wiscombe:Please no paper straws. Yes, I draw the line at paper straws.
Mark Faldmo:Yes they just fall apart.
Patrick Wiscombe:I said that we would continue the conversation and, if you're just joining us, one of our listeners his name is Dave he sent a text to us here in the studio 801-649-3700, 801-649-3700 to get your travel questions answered. He wanted to go on a Mediterranean cruise, but wanted unique ports, and what ports should he consider? That was the question In segment one. We started answering that question, but we wanted to give him a more detailed answer. So let's talk about the Couture Montenegro itinerary and then let's give him the Malta itinerary.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, so I've chosen two itineraries. So one includes Kotor, one includes Malta. The first one is Royal Caribbean. This is the one that includes Kotor. It's a May 24th 2025 departure. It's an Adriatic sea cruising. It leaves from Venice. It goes to Kotor, which is the unique port, also goes to Athens, Santorini and Split in Croatia, before returning back to Venice. That's a great itinerary. You get a little bit of the Greek Isles, you get some Croatia, which is another I almost put Croatia on this list because it's pretty unique as well, but I think Kotor, out of all of these, is the most unique. But then you get Athens, the history of Athens, amazing Santorini, beautiful landscapes in Santorini. And then, of course, starting and ending in Venice is always a plus. I think two weeks ago we talked about Venice as one of the unique places in the world to visit. So this cruise again May 24th inside cabins start at $857 per person and a balcony cabin starts at $1437 per person. That is a phenomenal deal.
Patrick Wiscombe:That is that's a great price for a med cruise deal that is, that's a great price for uh, mad cruz Dave, call mark in his office, book it with him or, if you have additional questions, his office number, 888-718-7717. One more time, 888-718-7717. What was the price on that again?
Mark Faldmo:That one started at $857 per person.
Patrick Wiscombe:And what cruise line is that? That was on Royal Caribbean. That's a really good one. Let's talk about the Malta itinerary.
Mark Faldmo:This one is on MSC Cruises. It goes round trip Barcelona goes to Marseille, France, genoa, Italy, Naples in Italy, Messina on Sicily, and then the port we're focusing on is Valletta, in Malta, and back to Barcelona. This is on the MSC World Europa.
Patrick Wiscombe:That's a pretty new ship, if memory serves their new large ship. Yeah.
Mark Faldmo:This was a May 2nd departure Starts at $1019 per person for an inside or $1319 for a balcony, so a lower price balcony than that other cruise.
Patrick Wiscombe:Did you say what the dates were for Dave on the Couture and Valletta Malta?
Mark Faldmo:Yes, that one was May 24th.
Patrick Wiscombe:All right, hot travel deal of the week. Let's go with the email that both of us got a little bit earlier directly from Delta talking about bonus sky miles. So if you're a Delta person, listen up.
Mark Faldmo:Delta has an offer with Delta Vacations. They're one of my preferred suppliers. I book a lot of vacations through Delta Vacations and this is a way to get SkyMiles on your whole vacation. You get your miles on flights, hotel car, any activities. Plus you get those additional medallion qualifying dollars. So you can get up to 10,000 bonus SkyMiles for booking a Delta vacations package. So how it works is the lead person on the reservation, so the main person will get those bonus SkyMiles and the points for the hotel car activities, all of that and the bonus medallion qualification miles, but everyone else will still earn their flight miles on that. So you know booking with Delta Vacations is a great way to help build up and earn SkyMiles. And then also you know, if you're looking to get status with Delta where you earn those medallion qualifying dollars, it'll really help. I've looked at a couple of instances for the medallion qualifying miles just to see what you could get. A six-night trip to Cancun on average is about $6,000 medallion qualifying dollars.
Patrick Wiscombe:Won't that get you to gold status?
Mark Faldmo:That'll jump you pretty quick, and that was in Delta Comfort six-night hotel, the four-and-a-half five-star hotel, with some activities added in to that. It's a great way to earn those medallion qualifying miles and also just get your regular SkyMiles up for redemption. And also they do have a promotion that's going on right now If you are a medallion member with Delta, you can get up to another $250 off your vacation price. Also, don't forget, if you have a Delta SkyMiles credit card, you also can get two to three miles on top of everything you spend, because you get the bonus miles with using a Delta American Express card as well.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yeah, right here, I've got the reserve card. By the way, one of the things that I love most about this thing is getting into the Sky Club. Salt Lake Sky Club is amazing.
Mark Faldmo:Awesome, it is, yeah, and there's. If you travel a lot and most travelers probably do know this that travel a lot I'd get the Delta Reserve Card, so you do get that included access into the Sky Club. It's a lot less expensive to pay the annual fee on the reserve card than to just outright buy a Sky Club membership.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yeah, agreed, I think it's $650 a year to have this card. Yes, if you travel a lot, money well spent, Dave, I hope that answers your question. Call Mark in his office to book. Dave, I hope that answers your question. Call Mark in his office to book 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. The number's also good if you have follow-up questions for your Mediterranean crews. And then, of course, the MSC their itinerary. By the way, MSC does have great ships, very modern, and Royal Caribbean does a great job in that part of the world as well. You just really you just can't go wrong. Call Mark 888-718-7717. And you can also go to blueplanetvacations. com when we come back. It is the infamous Just Cruising segment. Nothing but cruise news and cruise deals. You're going to get more cruise deals, even though we've already kind of hinted at the cruises in this segment. That is next when the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show continues. My name is Patrick Wiscombe, he is Mark Faldmo. We'll be back after the break. Thanks for listening is.
Show Voice:Patrick Wiscombe. He is Mark Faldmo. We'll be back after the break. Thanks for listening. 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, 801-649-3700. Thanks for listening.
Ad Voice:We'll be right back. Visit some of 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.
Patrick Wiscombe:Welcome back to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show Coming up. In the next 30 minutes, mark and I will be talking about 10 disastrous mistakes cruise passengers make winter river cruising and we're going to answer the question that we get frequently what is a cruise tour? 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.
Patrick Wiscombe:and now here are your hosts, Patrick Wiscombe and mark all aboard for the infamous just cruising segment, part of the inside travel talk podcast, a radio show airing each and every Saturday and Sunday right here and on InsideTravelTalk. com, where you can pick up the show. Coming up in this segment, the infamous just cruising segment, we've got 10 disastrous it's a big word mark disastrous mistakes that cruise ship passengers make. We'll talk about that. That cruise ship passengers make. We'll talk about that. We'll also be talking about Viking and Disney dominating the US as the best cruise lines and we'll be talking about Royal Caribbean is confirming their deal to buy Mexico's port of Costa Maya. I did not know that. Really, that's a pretty big development.
Mark Faldmo:Mark, yeah, that is. That'll be interesting when we get to it.
Patrick Wiscombe:And we've also got the cruise deal of the week. We are talking about winter river cruises on Ama Waterways. That is all coming up here in just this segment of the show. But let's get to the travel news headlines. Where do you want to start? Should we go Royal Caribbean or do you want to talk about the 10 disastrous mistakes? Let's start off with the mistake 10 disastrous mistakes that cruise ship passengers make. Let's fly through these. Let's go 10 to one here.
Mark Faldmo:Most of these can be avoided if you book with a professional travel advisor. A lot of people make these mistakes, just not knowing. Number one is scheduling a flight on the same day as embarkation. Oh yeah, yeah, that's a bad one. There are some ports you can do that in, but I still don't even recommend that. I say always fly in a day before. You never know if a flight's gonna get delayed or canceled. You wanna have plenty of options to make it to your cruise. Cruise is a big investment. You don't want to miss it. No, all right. Number two. Number two and this is a big one I think this is now three shows in a row that we've mentioned this, but failing to purchase travel insurance.
Mark Faldmo:What a good travel insurance plan will do? It helps you out if you're delayed or your flights are canceled. It also covers lost luggage and also health reasons when you're traveling. So, on every trip, I highly recommend purchasing travel insurance. There's lots of good companies out there. I particularly like Travel X Insurance, but there's other ones Travel Guard, travel Insured all do a good job and you should purchase travel insurance for any vacation, not just a cruise. Number three Is showing up to the port without correct documents.
Patrick Wiscombe:Now, the documents that you're talking about, generally speaking, are your passport or the birth certificate and, I guess, id.
Mark Faldmo:And ID, yeah, and in some cases a visa Number. Four is confusing real ID with enhanced driver's license or an EDL. An EDL it functions like a passport card, so it's not a passport, but an enhanced driver's license is proof of citizenship. So you can take a what's called a closed loop cruise, so a cruise that departs and ends at the same port on an EDL, without your passport, without your birth certificate, and people are confusing the enhanced driver's license with real ID. So real ID is one that has the gold star in it and you for sure need your birth certificate with that one. But I would just make it easy If you're going on a cruise, get a passport.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yeah, really Take the time, Just get it done.
Mark Faldmo:Number five Overlooking the 24-week pregnancy rule. I've had many clients that have tried to show up with the port within that 24 weeks and been denied boarding, even though we've advised against it. They all think they can do it. You do need a doctor's note to board if you're pregnant, saying that you're not within that 24-week rule. This is also going back to the getting travel protection, because sometimes you book a cruise way in advance. So if you've purchased travel insurance and then become pregnant, travel insurance would cover if you're not able to go but you can't be pregnant and then purchase the travel insurance, you have to have purchased it before for travel insurance to cover it in that situation.
Patrick Wiscombe:Number seven.
Mark Faldmo:Attempting to bring a baby under six months of age.
Patrick Wiscombe:Not a good idea.
Mark Faldmo:Anyway, most cruise lines are either six months or 12 months, so the child has to be older than that. So just check with your cruise line. Cruise lines do have pretty good medical facilities on board, but they're not equipped to help with infant medical issues as much, so they've all made this rule just for the safety of the infant.
Mark Faldmo:It's the right call, yes, number eight is failing to put your mobile device in airplane mode. That's a really good one. I've had people come back with a thousand dollar phone bill because they did not put their phone in airplane mode. Ships have a cell tower on and then you'll pay the ship's rate for mobile data at sea, which is very expensive.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yes, you will.
Mark Faldmo:And then if you get calls and texts, luckily there's, you know, a lot of times you can get internet on board and a lot of the chat apps. You know a lot of times you can get internet on board and a lot of the chat apps you know. Whatsapp and Apple's messages and Google messages all let you send text messages via Wi-Fi connection now. So there are lots of ways that you can avoid that and still communicate with the outside world. Number nine not checking the yalla board times on port days. There's some really funny YouTube videos about there, about pier runners. As the ship's pulling out, they're running down the pier. So just make sure you know what the all aboard time is. The all aboard time is usually 60, 45 or 30 minutes prior.
Mark Faldmo:Read the cruise contract. All cruise lines have a cruise contract that you agree to when you purchase a cruise. These documents can be quite lengthy, but it does contain valuable information. You can get those on the cruise line website. Most confirmations will come with a link to that. I think it was in last week's show. What are the cruiser's responsibilities when they change ports or they cancel a port? That's all in the cruise contract.
Patrick Wiscombe:When Nikki and I were on MSC Seashore MSC Cruises Seashore the ship we were in port in Costa Maya and I think Icon of the Seas was in port. You and I have been together in Miami when Icon of the Seas is in. That ship is so enormous I didn't even know a ship could be that big. Royal Caribbean just confirmed that they're buying Mexico's port of Costa Maya and that's where I saw, in addition to being with you.
Mark Faldmo:I saw the Icon of the Seas in port there and I was like good grief and I was closer to it this time, my point being they're buying that port A few weeks ago they mentioned the perfect day Mexico, which was in that Costa Maya port, and they did recently confirm that they've purchased land adjacent to the port in Costa Maya, and this is where their perfect day Mexico will go. Now other cruise lines will still call on Costa Maya, but their Perfect Day Mexico will have a separate entrance to the port. They're going to kind of bring in their beach club concept in with this as well. Oh good, so it'll be a private port there in Costa Maya or Royal Caribbean.
Patrick Wiscombe:The private islands. If you've never been to one, get to one. They are that spectacular Just to go on that alone, regardless of the other ports, the private ports where the ships pull up and you can have an entire beach day worth every penny to get on a cruise ship yes. Really. Yeah, I made a mistake, mark. I started talking about the 10 disastrous mistakes that cruise ship passengers make, and we went way too long.
Mark Faldmo:We did, but that was a great segment.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yeah, it really was Okay. So what we'll do when we came back, this will be I mentioned that it was the cruise deal of the week. What we're going to do is we're just literally going to move it down to the next segment. We'll get to the Winter River Cruises, we'll talk about Ama Waterways offering a 20% off on select sailings and we'll give you the additional deal that we have. That was my mistake, my bad. More of the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show when Mark and I come back. Thank you so much for listening. We'll be right back.
Show Voice:Explore your world. You're listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show with Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo. Call or text the show now 801-649-3700. That's 801-649-3700. And check out the podcast at InsideTravelTalk. com. We'll be right back.
Ad Voice:Inside Travel Talk is brought to you by Travelex Insurance Services. When the travel insurance question comes up, a lot of people think I'm young and healthy, I'll be fine. But in today's uncertain world, are you sure If you're not check out Travelex Insurance Services, their travel insurance plans can help protect you and your vacation? A lot of travel insurance plans look similar, but let's talk about customer experience. Travelex is known for their award-winning customer service and high claims paid rate. Travelex partners with travel advisors throughout North America. So ask your travel advisor for Travelex or contact Blue Planet Vacations at 888-718-7717 or blueplanetvacations. com for more information.
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:Final segment of this week's Inside Travel Talk podcast, a radio show alongside Mark Faldmo. My name is Patrick Wiscombe. I made the mistake of not getting to the cruise deal of the week because I went a little bit too long on the travel news, so thanks for hanging out. I promise we will get to the infamous cruise deal of the week coming up in this segment as we come back from break. We've got one piece of travel news that we need to talk about. That traveler frustration is real, obviously, but let's talk about the technology, how it's helping travelers. Mark, let's start there.
Mark Faldmo:This is a study that was done by Amadeus, which is a GDS Global Distribution System for Travel. It's what the airlines use and travel agents use. So in their study it was half of travelers found that the most frustrating part of travel is finding the correct routes and schedule. Interestingly enough, that is higher among younger travelers and lower among older travelers, but it came out to about 50%. And also, what they find frustrating is when a flight is delayed or changed, and so this is where technology really can come in, especially with the airline's mobile apps and other mobile apps to help you just reschedule a flight right on a Monday of travel with notifications.
Mark Faldmo:Digital bag tracking One thing that's nice. A lot of airlines do this. I like on Delta, where it says your bag is loaded onto the plane yes, I do like that. Or your bag is coming out on carousel five when it's coming out. So now there are a lot of things that technology can do to help alleviate stress, and you know things that we've talked about before as well, such as TSA, precheck, global ID, real ID all of these new technology things are wonderful and hopefully will help reduce some of the stress of travel. Interestingly enough, in this report, they did find that of leisure travelers, about 50% for all of these categories actually wanted human intervention at the security checks, border control, when they check in for flights, when they check in for a cruise. There still is that need for the human intervention in that. Oh how interesting. But there is technology that can help with a lot of this stuff.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's get to the cruise deal of the week, delayed from segment three to this segment. Let's talk about winter river cruises. Your favorite river cruise line is Ama Waterways. What deal do we have for listeners this week? I think?
Mark Faldmo:we talked a few weeks ago about some river cruise lines adding winter cruises and now more and more are adding them. It'll be an interesting experiment to see if this works. Just going back to ocean cruise lines, I remember years ago Norwegian Cruise Lines said it was going to do round-trip Caribbean cruises from New York and everyone said those will never work out of New York in the winter months.
Patrick Wiscombe:I would argue that it would actually be more packed.
Mark Faldmo:It is because all of those people from the Northeast can drive to New York rather than fly to Miami save them money. So it actually turned out to be a hit. So I hope these river cruises also turn out to be a hit. You can actually save some money by doing this, because the prices are significantly less than in the regular cruise season. And that's one thing where people say who really wants to go to Europe in the dead of winter? But again, the prices are good and you'll get to see these cities with nobody visiting them. I'm just thinking of, I think, like Dernstein in Austria on the Danube Other than locals, the only tourists there. It'd be wonderful to have that whole, that little city to yourself.
Mark Faldmo:What a unique experience, yep. And then you know, as I previously mentioned pricing, I did look at Amo Waterways. So I compared a seven-day Danube River cruise in February and in May, which isn't even peak season. So the river cruise in February was $2,400 per person in February compared to $4,100 per person in May. So what's that? $1,700 per person Per person? In Europe most cruise lines are only on the main rivers, so the Rhine and Danube in the wintertime, which in my opinion are the two best rivers. So if you're looking for a good deal, want to see some interesting parts of Europe without many people, look at these winter river cruises.
Patrick Wiscombe:If you could only take one Rhine or Danube what's the one that you're going to go to first?
Mark Faldmo:I'm going to say Danube. The Danube is by far my favorite because it involves Budapest, which is one of my favorite cities. There we go. Okay, a lot of people might say the Rhine, because of all the castles. The scenery on the Rhine is just amazing.
Patrick Wiscombe:So what I'm hearing you say is you really can't make a mistake.
Mark Faldmo:I don't think you can make a mistake on either of those rivers.
Patrick Wiscombe:So it's really just preference. Yes, I also saw that Alma Waterways is offering up to 20% off select sailings. Did I see that right? You did.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, Even in these winter months, Alma Waterways has 20% off select sailings and they have the fixed rate airfare starting at $8.99 for 2025 cruises or $9.99 for 2026 cruises. Even in the winter or the spring or summer or fall, now is a great time to book a river cruise.
Patrick Wiscombe:How many days, generally speaking, are the river cruises?
Mark Faldmo:a river cruise. How many days, generally speaking, are the river cruises? There are some that are four or five nights, but generally speaking they're seven to 21 day voyages, Depending on the cruise line. We'll say Grand European Tour, which includes the Rhine, the Danube, all of the rivers in Europe are connected through canals and locks and different things, so you can go all over Europe on a river. You can have these longer cruises as well.
Patrick Wiscombe:What's the longest cruise you've been on on one of those rivers?
Mark Faldmo:I've only done a seven day. It's the longest.
Patrick Wiscombe:When you got to the end of the seven days, did you ever go, yeah, okay, I'm good. Or was it like man? I sure wish I had, you know, another three to seven days.
Mark Faldmo:I'm always wanting more.
Mark Faldmo:I'm sorry I'm asking the wrong person, yeah, and you go to some of these smaller cities there are hundreds of them along the river so you could stop at and see wonderful sights. So you can't possibly see everything there is to see just in that week long on the river. They really try and choose the best spots. There are several different Danube offerings or different Rhine offerings that all visit slightly different ports to try and give you an option to see all of that. So I would just find an itinerary. Find two or three places that you really want to see. For me it would be Budapest and some of those Eastern European Slovakia, different places like that, which I really like. So just find some cities that interest you and find an itinerary that meets that.
Patrick Wiscombe:You received a text a little bit earlier this week from Kate and she sent you the text to 801-649-3700. So if you have a specific travel-related question, text Mark or I guess you could call it too, but text Mark at that address. Kate is asking I've heard you and Patrick talk about cruise tours before. She's asking what is a cruise tour? Okay, let's just start there. What's a cruise tour?
Mark Faldmo:Well, a cruise tour is where you combine a cruise with a land tour. There are cruise tours all over the world. Most prevalently, you'll see them in Alaska. There are some in Europe, there are some in Asia, there are some in the South Pacific. Norwegian offers a cruise tour in Hawaii. They have their seven-day cruise, but you don't really get to see Oahu, so they have a three-night cruise tour that includes the Polynesian Cultural Center and some different things like that, and we'll just go back and focus on Alaska right here, because that's their several Alaska cruise tours offered. A lot of people do want to get into that interior of Alaska. They want to see Denali, they want to see Fairbanks, and so what a cruise store does is it allows you to see that interior of Alaska.
Patrick Wiscombe:It's one thing to see it from the river. There were times that I wanted to spend more time in port than going back to the cruise ship early, and so I would think that that would be very interesting to a lot of people.
Mark Faldmo:It would yeah, and so you know I found a unique cruise tour this is one that Holland America has done for quite a while that I wanted to do. There are several different variations of this. I just chose the 10-day cruise tour, and this is 10-day Denali and Yukon. And so what you do is it leaves from Vancouver, you sail to Skagway, so your ports on that would be Ketchikan and Juneau, and you actually get off the ship in Skagway. You take the White Pass Railroad to Whitehorse in Canada and then you take a bus to Dawson City, Canada, and then from there you take a flight to Fairbanks and then from Fairbanks you come down, spend a day in Denali National Park and then you take the train Denali down to Anchorage. Oh wow, so you're doing five of the seven days on the cruise. You get off part way through and do that Yukon territory in Canada, Plus you get to see Denali National Park.
Patrick Wiscombe:Alaska is so great you just can't go wrong. There's two vacations that everyone will agree on Hawaii and Alaska.
Mark Faldmo:And that's why's why you know, last week we talked about small ships in Alaska. There are so many different ways to do Alaska. We'll probably do a segment in the future about if you just want to do a land tour to Alaska.
Patrick Wiscombe:There's so much to see and experience in Alaska you will always be glad that you went to Alaska. You'll always be glad that you went to Alaska. You'll always be glad that you traveled the world. You'll always be glad that you went to Europe. Alma waterways go, during the low season, $2,400 per person to go sail the Danube. That's astonishing. That's a $1,700 savings. Instead of going in May, go in February, have Europe all to yourself.
Patrick Wiscombe:Call Mark in his office, 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. Thank you so much for listening. You can listen to this show again tomorrow morning, sunday, at 11 am, right here on 860 KKAT here in Salt Lake City. And if you want or need to listen to the show again, you can also download and subscribe to the podcast version of the show on InsideTravelTalk. com and we're on all of the major podcast platforms. Well, now it's your turn to get out and explore the world while you can, because you never know what curveballs life is going to throw at you. Make it a choice to live your life deliberately and live your life intentionally. Thank you so much for listening, really, mark, and I sincerely appreciate you listening each and every week. Have a great week. We'll talk to you again next week. Thank you.
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. Thank you.