Inside Travel Talk
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Inside Travel Talk
Wild Wonders: Costa Rica & French Polynesia
Travelers seeking extraordinary experiences should consider French Polynesia's cruise offerings. Despite setting records with 52,000 cruise passengers in 2024, these numbers represent what busy Caribbean ports handle in a single week. This relative solitude creates a more authentic, uncrowded experience whether you choose Windstar's tall ships, the luxury Paul Gauguin line, or the unique half-cargo, half-cruise vessel Aranui. For maximum value, consider repositioning cruises connecting Hawaii, French Polynesia, and Australia/New Zealand, with 14-day voyages starting at just $1,640 per person.
Wildlife enthusiasts will find paradise in Costa Rica's biodiversity hotspots, particularly the Arenal volcano region and Manuel Antonio National Park. The hanging bridges, Sky Tram, La Fortuna Waterfall, and natural hot springs near Arenal provide thrilling encounters with howler monkeys, sloths, toucans, and countless other creatures. Mark recommends splitting your vacation between these two regions for the perfect balance of adventure and relaxation.
American Airlines' upcoming carry-on policy changes reflect a broader industry trend toward stricter enforcement of baggage dimensions, now including wheels and handles in measurements. And beware the dangerous TikTok "airport theory" suggesting 15-minute arrival windows before flights – a recipe for missing your vacation entirely.
Looking for incredible cruise value? Norwegian Cruise Line just dropped Caribbean prices by $300-$400 per person for fall sailings, with 7-day voyages starting at just $642 from New Orleans. Contact Mark at 888-718-7717 to take advantage of these limited-time offers before they disappear.
It is time for the Inside Travel Talk podcast, a radio show. Hello there. On today's show, Mark and I will be talking about a sad goodbye to carry-on luggage as we know it. Yes, it's true, and it has nothing to do with Southwest saying goodbye to free luggage and no, I'm not making that up, that is a real thing. That is happening a little bit earlier this week A French Polynesian repositioning cruise, the best wildlife destinations around the world and a special service for those of you who are in love Marriage licenses upon arrival. 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 Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.
Patrick Wiscombe:Back from Phoenix Arizona. Welcome to the Inside Travel Talk podcast, a radio show. My name is Patrick Wiscombe, alongside Mark Faldmo, he is back from his travels. I am back from my travels and can I just say how glorious Phoenix Arizona was in March, early March, before the 100 degree temperature showed up Awesome down there. Went to go see some spring baseball Coming up on this show Southwest saying goodbye to free luggage and no, we're not making that up, that happened a little bit earlier this week and a goodbye to carry-on luggage Totally separate story. We'll give you the details on that coming up here in just a few minutes. But let's first get to the travel news headlines. I saw that French Polynesia how many times have you been there, Mark? Been there five or six? Okay, French Polynesia sets a new record for cruise visits last year 2024.
Mark Faldmo:This is a record for them, but I want people to pay attention to these numbers. So in 2024, they set a record of 52,000 cruise passengers that embarked on a cruise from the island of Tahiti, and that's up 20% from 2023 and up 15% from pre-pandemic levels. And then also, 62,000 passengers visited the island in transit, which is up 45% from 2023.
Patrick Wiscombe:When you say in transit, you mean literally going from one place to the other, but they stopped there.
Mark Faldmo:Yes, like on a repositioning cruise or so a cruise that doesn't start or end in Tahiti. One thing that struck me was it's a record, but yet only 52,000 passengers. A port like Nassau, Bahamas, gets that number of cruise passengers in a week probably, and so, even with these record levels, French Polynesia is still a great place to sail. We are most likely going to be the only ship there, no matter what cruise line you decide to go on. Very rarely do ships overlap. You really get that laid back less crowded feel when you're in French Polynesia on a cruise.
Mark Faldmo:I've done French Polynesia several times on a cruise. I've done it on bigger ships and I've done it on smaller ships and I've loved it every time.
Patrick Wiscombe:Speaking of French Polynesia, Mark, what's the best way to cruise to French Polynesia there?
Mark Faldmo:are three cruise lines that are based there pretty much year round Windstar Cruise Line, which is one of the tall sailing ships that does French Polynesia. There's Paul Gauguin Cruise Line, which is a small ship, luxury cruise line. And then there's Aranui that we've talked about, which is more of a unique it's half container ship and half cruise ship.
Patrick Wiscombe:And you've been on that.
Mark Faldmo:I've been on the Aranui. I have not been on Windstar or Paul Gauguin. The best way, I think, if you want to see French Polynesia is by a repositioning cruise or a type of specialty cruise that visits there but doesn't begin or end there. That'll help keep the expenses low. I did pick out three different itineraries that I think are a great way to see Tahiti and French Polynesia.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's go, option number one.
Mark Faldmo:This is a repositioning type cruise and this is pretty close in. It goes from Hawaii to Papeete in French Polynesia. It's on Norwegian Cruise Line. It leaves May 12th of this year. They do this also in November and then they do it again in 2026, may and November.
Patrick Wiscombe:Did you say May 12th or May 21st?
Mark Faldmo:May 21st. Oh, okay, yep. So this is a 14-day cruise. It starts in Papeete, goes to Morea, Raiatea, bora Bora, with an overnight in Bora Bora, and then it cruises up to Hawaii, goes to Hilo, Maui, Kauai, and then ends in Honolulu. Oh, wow, that specific region, but particularly Tahiti. Now, this is a 14 day cruise. It starts at $1,640 per person for an inside cabin and for a balcony cabin, $2,575 per person, which, for a 14 day cruise, those are pretty good rates. Oh yeah, the next cruise that I found is this fall. This is one that I would jump on it and do in a heartbeat if I had the time. It's a 20-day cruise and this one sails from Honolulu down to French Polynesia I'll go over the full Itinerary in a minute and then hits New Zealand and ends in Sydney, Australia. Oh wow. So this is on Celebrity Cruise Line on the Celebrity Solstice. Leaves October 2nd Again. Leaves Honolulu, visits Papeete, Raiatea in French Polynesia, Morea and then three ports, including Auckland in New Zealand, ending in Sydney.
Ad Voice:Wow.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, it's an amazing itinerary. So this 20-day cruise, an inside cabin starts at $23 99 per person, a balcony at $3134 per person.
Patrick Wiscombe:Okay so inside cabin about $100 a day and just a little bit more than that for a balcony you mentioned. There are three ways. What's the third way?
Mark Faldmo:Now this way is for people that don't like to fly, so you actually can get to French Polynesia without flying, or without flying very long. So Princess Cruises has a 32-day cruise that is round-trip Los Angeles. I'm curious about this one. This one leaves October 15th this fall. Leaves from Los Angeles, cruises down October 15th this fall. Leaves from Los Angeles, cruises down, hits Kauai and Honolulu in Hawaii, then cruises to Pago Pago in Samoa, Apia Samoa. Then hits Fiji has a couple ports in Fiji and then across to Papeete and Morea in French Polynesia before returning to Los Angeles. How many sea days is that one? So that has lots of sea days it has. Of the 32 days it probably has. Let me just count them up quickly. Looks like there's about 16 sea days.
Patrick Wiscombe:So literally half the cruise is just sea days, half the cruise is just sea days. See, I love sea days, absolutely love them.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yeah, but you do get to see fantastic parts of the world, oh my goodness, you know, there's one thing that I just can't erase from my brain, that I just never get tired of, and that's either being up on the aft of the ship or just sitting on a balcony, or just being outside in general and just watching the horizon, the sunrise, the sunset. I just never get tired of it, ever, yeah, and that's why I love sea day so much. I love being at sea.
Mark Faldmo:This may be a little bit too long for me. Um, the longest segment has eight sea days in a row. Okay, that's a lot. So, and that's that last, from Tahiti back to Los Angeles that has those long days at sea. Price-wise, that's 32 days $2788 per person for an inside cabin or $5847 for a balcony. What ship is that? On the Sapphire Princess, on Princess Cruises.
Patrick Wiscombe:I'm getting to the point in life where I just want to live on cruise ships, yes, and just sail the world. We can do the radio show via Starlink. I can work from wherever this sounds. I might be calling you after the show. During this past week, you got a text from Susan asking the question what are the best wildlife watching destinations in the world? So a big question. What would you say?
Mark Faldmo:Well, there's several places for wildlife viewing, and it also depends on the type of wildlife viewing that you want to do. The five places that come to mind right away are Kenya for safaris. One of the most wonderful trips I've ever taken was to Kenya to see that. The Galapagos Islands, where you get to see a lot of the rare wildlife. I have a really good contact and every time I talk to them about the Galapagos Islands I just go crazy. I want to go there.
Mark Faldmo:Alaska again, for different types of wildlife. You have the whales, the bears, the moose, the elk. Another one is the Okavango Delta in Botswana, similar to Kenya, but it's less visited, and so you get a little bit more intimate experience when you do that. And then Costa Rica. Costa Rica is going to be our travel deal of the week, so we will talk about that next segment a little bit more. The monkeys, the crocodiles, the toucans, the macaws just everything you see in that area of the world is quite interesting and amazing. So if you're looking for wildlife watching destinations, those would be my top five.
Patrick Wiscombe:You realize that we could do an entire segment on each one of those Kenya Galapagos Islands which do want to go visit. Well, actually, all of them. Susan, if you have follow-up questions, just call mark in his office or just call him during the break he will answer the phone 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. Just get the conversation started. Man, you came out swinging hard today with the infamous just cruising segment. I didn't know we were going to go that heavy.
Patrick Wiscombe:Take advantage of those offers from Mark the NCL repositioning cruise, Princess Round Trip Cruise Los Angeles and Honolulu to Sydney Awesome, you will never be disappointed when you go on vacation. Call him in his office, 888-718-7717,. Or you can see all of this on blueplanetvacations. com. When we come back, we've got the hot travel deal of the week, as Mark mentioned, and we've got additional travel news headlines and you can pick up your marriage license right at the airport. We'll tell you where that is next when the Inside Travel Talk podcast, a radio show, continues alongside Mark Faldmo. My name is Patrick Wiscombe. Thank you so much for listening. We will be right back.
Show Voice:Helping you get out and see the world. 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. Book your vacation now 888-718-7717, 888-718-7717. The show will continue after this.
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: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 check out the podcast at InsideTravelTalk. com. Here's Patrick and Mark.
Patrick Wiscombe:Welcome back inside of the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. Alongside Mark Faldmo, my name is Patrick Wiscombe and, if you are just tuning into the show this very moment, the entire purpose of our radio show and podcast is to help you plan and book your next vacation. And if you have no idea where you want to go, our job is simple as to give you ideas of where you should consider next, and this show is presented by BluePlanetVacations. com. And just a genuine thank you for taking the time to stop and listen. Coming up in this segment big news, big news. I need some kind of sound effect. Should I call it the furious meter? Big news and furious meter. Oh boy, mark is locked and loaded for this one, and let's just start with Southwest Airlines. So this happened a little bit earlier this week. Mark is not happy.
Mark Faldmo:Anyone who travels on Southwest should not be happy Southwest actually this week made five major changes to its customer policies, and the first and biggest one being no more bags fly free on Southwest man.
Patrick Wiscombe:That's been a staple for literally decades, and that's been a differentiator for Southwest.
Mark Faldmo:Southwest was different and that's what made them fun to fly on Right, and now they're going to be just like the rest of them, starting on May 28th. So any ticket booked after May 28th, no more free checked bags, unless you're a Rapid Rewards A-list member, which is the highest status level, or if you're traveling in business select fares. One exception that they're kind of matching other airlines If you do have the Rapid Rewards credit card, you do get a free checked bag.
Patrick Wiscombe:So a checked bag with one checked bag with the credit card.
Mark Faldmo:Four months ago there were rumors about this and the CEO said bags fly free is the number one reason why people choose Southwest. He said this is never going to change. And now it's four months later and it's changed.
Patrick Wiscombe:So it's a must-lie situation, is what I'm hearing you say yes, he knew it was coming, but he didn't want to rock the stock, basically.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, and so the other big change they made was how you earn Rapid Rewards, or the number of Rapid Rewards points you make per ticket. So if you buy Southwest, want to get away the very basic fares, you'll now only earn two rapid rewards points per dollar spent where it used to be five.
Patrick Wiscombe:Oh, wow.
Mark Faldmo:Big changes. And then they've also lowered two of their other fare categories. But if you buy their business select, you actually earn two more rapid rewards than you used to. So on the higher end tickets they're giving you more rewards and on the lower end they're giving you less rewards. That just makes me want to use all my rapid rewards up before they make it harder to redeem rapid rewards points.
Patrick Wiscombe:Well, you know which I fear is the next? Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're rolling this out in phases.
Mark Faldmo:Yes, I've got about 600,000 rapid rewards points that I need to use in the next six months, so I'll be traveling a lot.
Patrick Wiscombe:So you and I, heather Nikki, will be taking off and going someplace, Perhaps French Polynesia? Oh wait, maybe they don't fly.
Mark Faldmo:Actually they don't fly there.
Patrick Wiscombe:One place I know you can fly. I know you're married already to Heather, but if you want to get married, las Vegas airport is offering marriage licenses upon arrival. If you just have to have it immediately, they'll just give it to you upon arrival.
Mark Faldmo:It's a pop-up marriage license bureau. You know, in Las Vegas, the wedding capital of the world, the one thing is the airport is not a legal place to get married. So you you can't land, get a license and get married right there. You'll have to go to one of the wedding chapels, or I think McDonald's has a drive-thru wedding chapel in Las Vegas.
Patrick Wiscombe:I'll have my wife's hand in marriage and I'll have the quarter pounder, please. The US State Department is issuing a warning about bringing guns and ammunition. Why do I see them wagging their finger and just getting a haughty look of derision?
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, well, it's because of problems that they had last year, particularly to one destination, which is the Turks and Caicos. Because of this, they increased the travel warning to a level two oh, they did which is exercise increased caution. Sure, you know that's the same level as France and Sweden, united Kingdom, Italy, but they did have to raise the warning over this, just so people will look at the warning. And the main bulk of the warning is don't travel with guns or ammunition, which I didn't think you could do anyway. Yeah, even in checked bags.
Mark Faldmo:But what has happened and I actually have a friend who was a retired police officer that this happened to he used his shooting bag that he went to the gun range with and a bullet had fallen down underneath the thing and TSA found it for him. But if you're traveling to countries like Mexico, even if you have empty shell casings some people have an empty shell casing on a necklace or something and even that will get you in hot water. But in the Turks and Caicos, even the most minimum offenses can get you up to 12 years in prison. They've had a couple of American travelers detained for many months while it worked out and they just released them on time served, but that's a great way to ruin a vacation that's a definite damper if you go to a gun range, make sure you don't use that bag for travel, or make sure it's all.
Mark Faldmo:The nooks and crannies are searched thoroughly, because there are a lot of countries where this can cause problems.
Patrick Wiscombe:Oh boy always in this segment of the show. Segment number two is the hot travel deal of the week and we talked about it, briefly touched on it in the first segment Costa Rica yeah, Costa Rica is one of my favorite destinations in the world and I love it particularly for that wildlife watching.
Mark Faldmo:I like the monkeys and sloths, and when you spot a toucan in the wild, it's amazing.
Patrick Wiscombe:When is the best time to visit Costa Rica?
Mark Faldmo:Costa Rica has their dry season and their green season. Green is code word for rain Wet, so the dry season is December through April. The green season is May through November. The Caribbean coast has a little bit of a different season. Even during the green or rain season you can get sun. It's more of the tropical downpours that you'll see. And then, if you want to avoid the crowds, the shoulder seasons, the best months to visit are May, june and November. That's still putting you in the rainy season, but not quite in the rainiest part of the rainy season, and so those are good times to travel.
Patrick Wiscombe:What areas do you personally like to visit? So?
Mark Faldmo:there are kind of four main areas. There's Guanacaste, which is known for its beaches. It's in the northwestern part of the country. There's the Central Pacific, which is kind of in the center west, on the Pacific side of the country.
Patrick Wiscombe:There's the Caribbean side, and then I didn't even think about the Caribbean side. Yeah, you're right.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, it's not very, it's probably not very large. Well-visited? Yeah, not very many people visit that, but there are some interesting hotels there. There are some hotels on the Caribbean side where you have to boat into the hotels to get there. You just you have to take a canal, a waterway to get to them. So they're pretty remote and isolated. And then the fourth area is the volcano area, which you like, which I love.
Patrick Wiscombe:I know you've done the volcano. In fact, the volcano has woken you up when it's exploding Not, I mean not catastrophic exploding, just making noises, Just burping. But it's loud. Had to die coke, yeah. What do you suggest as an itinerary in Costa Rica then?
Mark Faldmo:In Costa Rica, I'd break it up in two different areas. I would spend some time in Arenal, which is the volcano area, and I'd spend some time in Manuel Antonio, which is in the Central Pacific area. In Arenal, my three favorite things to do there are the hanging bridges, which are suspension bridges hung through the canopy of the forest.
Mark Faldmo:You walk through them you see lots of wildlife. Usually, now, wildlife is wildlife, so sometimes it's not there, but you get to see the flora and fauna of Costa Rica. The next one is the Sky Tram, which is a gondola that takes you up to the top of a mountain. You can either hike down from there, take the gondola back, or you can zipline down, and this zipline has amazing views of the volcano as you're going down. And then I like to also go to La Fortuna Waterfall, which is just a nice waterfall area to go to. And then I guess one more thing is hot springs, lots of hot springs around Costa Rica, around this area.
Patrick Wiscombe:Manuel Antonio, you brought that up. What do you like doing there?
Mark Faldmo:This is where you'll see lots of monkeys. Take a tour guide into the national park. They'll walk you to the beach area and then you'll have the rest of the time free there, but they'll give you an explanation of everything. It's a very fun activity to do and it's probably one of my most favorite beaches to visit, although, as you mentioned earlier, this is a place. Don't leave your stuff unattended. Monkeys will steal your stuff. And then there's other things to do in the area. There's mangrove adventure tours. It's a great area to visit, so I would say, do those two things.
Patrick Wiscombe:One thing that I remember you doing was the, was it?
Mark Faldmo:a CIA plane that's basically been turned into a restaurant, or it is a restaurant. Yeah, it's a restaurant called El Avion and one of the CIA planes that was abandoned in Costa Rica after the Iran-Contra scandal Got it. They took it, hauled it up a mountain. Contra scandal Got it. They took it, hauled it up a mountain, built a restaurant around it some of the best sunsets you'll ever see, good food and a very interesting atmosphere.
Patrick Wiscombe:El Avion.
Mark Faldmo:Nice, el.
Patrick Wiscombe:Avion Yep. I've never been to Costa Rica, but I know that it's going to happen.
Mark Faldmo:Do you have deals on this one? I do so I actually just updated a new page on blueplanetvacations. com where you can go to see what these deals include. The first thing, what I like to do is actually build a custom trip for people. I think that's the best way to get what you want out of it. But I also have put together some preset Costa Rica vacations. There's an eight day volcanoes and beaches tour, or there's just a six day volcano tour or a six day beach escape. The eight day volcano and beaches tour starts at $15.99 per person plus airfare, and that includes seven nights hotel, hot springs tour, Emmanuel Antonio tour and all the transportation within the country and daily breakfast. But for the rest of the tours I know we're running out of time here Just go to blueplanetvacations. com and you can see the information on those three out-of-the-box tours. Or I'd be happy to set up a custom vacation to other areas of the country as well.
Patrick Wiscombe:I am excited to get to Costa Rica and you know that I'll do it. That sounds like a threat and you know that I'll do it. That sounds like a threat and you know that I'll do it, Mark, yes, I'm going to go see the world. Call Mark in his office during the break 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. When we come back, it is the infamous Just Cruising segment. It's only about cruise news and it's only about cruising and we've got the cruise deal of the week. That is next when the Inside Travel Talk podcast, a radio show, continues. My name is Patrick Wiscombe. He is Mark Faldmo. Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your weekend. We will be right back.
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.
Ad Voice:This segment of Inside Travel Talk is sponsored by El Dorado Spa Resorts. Escape to Cancun's Riviera Maya with authentic all-inclusive luxury at an El Dorado Spa Resort. To book your romantic beach getaway, 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 28 minutes we will be talking about MSC's World America, the brand new ship, MSc's godmother, drew Barrymore and I'm kind of curious if Orlando Bloom's going to be there A new ship christening in Key West, a not so good TikTok trend Of course I don't know that. There's a lot of good tiktok trends and ncl's new lower Caribbean prices. 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: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. And check out the podcast at InsideTravelTalk. com. Here's Patrick and Mark.
Patrick Wiscombe:All aboard for segment number three of the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show, the infamous Just Cruising segment. We'll be talking about MSC's new World America ship. Mark will be on the media tour. I will not, but I will literally get on the ship as he's getting off. I'm very, very excited to get on that ship and during the break I've got some exciting news, mark, I didn't even put it on the rundown so I had to clear out of the studio because my daughter-in-law just sent the family text that she and my son, Brandon, are expecting another grandchild.
Patrick Wiscombe:Congratulations, I'm grand dude times two. Well, at least the upcoming number two. How exciting is that? That's exciting. I'm pretty young to be a grand dude though you are. I'm 35. No, I'm just kidding. That'd be something. My head is kind of spinning from getting that news. Thank you for indulging me for just a moment. We'll get to the cruise deal of the Week here in just a moment, but let's first get to the Cruise News headlines and let's start with MSC's World America Drew Barrymore and in case you haven't seen the MSC World America ad, it's Drew Barrymore and Orlando Bloom. She has been named MSC World America's godmother.
Mark Faldmo:The christening and naming ceremony will take place on April 9th, which I'm excited to have been invited to. That I'm looking forward to that. I always enjoy those ceremonies.
Patrick Wiscombe:What happens at a naming ceremony.
Mark Faldmo:I always enjoy those ceremonies. What happens?
Mark Faldmo:at a naming ceremony Christening and naming ceremony. It's a long-standing maritime tradition. It goes way back. They usually choose a female to be the godmother of the ship the godmother that's when the champagne is thrown against the hull. They give it the name, they give it a blessing for safety and good luck on the ship's journeys. It's a really festive time. These days, most of the godmothers are celebrities. You know, I remember back to I think it was the Norwegian breakaway I actually had a godfather which was Pitbull. That was a fun naming ceremony. I think with Drew Barrymore, that will be a fun naming ceremony as well. This is a break from MSC. Every other MSC ship's godmother is Sophia Loren because the family has a connection to that family. The World America will be the first MSC ship that has a different godmother, which is Drew Barrymore.
Patrick Wiscombe:Does the Christine happen on land or does it happen on the ship and they bash it?
Mark Faldmo:How does that work it happens on land Others I've been to. They set up temporary bleacher stands around the bow of the ship so everyone that's invited usually goes and sits in those bleachers. I guess it depends on the port, because I've done some where they do it in the theater. They have different venues around the ship where it's done, so it can be done either way, but it's done in port before it sets sail on that first voyage.
Patrick Wiscombe:And you're on the ship. Is it the April 9th through the 12th? I think that sounds right.
Mark Faldmo:Yes, Okay, so I'll go that afternoon They'll do the naming ceremony and then they'll set sail that evening.
Patrick Wiscombe:And what are the ports on that one? Probably MSC's Ocean Key Marine Reserve, their private island.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, so that's what it is. We just spend overnight there, oh, is it? Oh, okay, so we just have two days at MSC Ocean Key.
Patrick Wiscombe:So you're going to dock there overnight? Yes, that naturally brings up the question since it was a commercial about Drew Barrymore and Orlando Bloom, do you think he's going to be there?
Mark Faldmo:I think he's going to be there. That's what my wife asks me every day.
Patrick Wiscombe:Was Legolas going to be there?
Mark Faldmo:Yes.
Patrick Wiscombe:You know, the first time I remember seeing him obviously it was Lord of the Rings and he had a really breakout career at that moment but I always pictured him with white hair. So when I actually saw who he was, with dark, almost blackish hair, I was like that's not the same guy. Yeah, kind of freaked me out. Heather asking hey, uh, you think he's gonna be there? Uh, no, no, honey, no, not at all. Is heather going with you on this one?
Patrick Wiscombe:does she get going with me, okay, good see if you can get a selfie with him.
Mark Faldmo:She would like I will try that, because every inaugural I've been on with her I've gotten a selfie with the godparents of the ship. So, um, the ones I like the most. One of Norwegian ships was the rocket, so I got my picture with 12 rockets. Another ship was the Miami dolphins cheerleader, so I got my picture with the Miami dolphins cheerleader.
Patrick Wiscombe:So so that's the tradition I will try and keep with Drew Barry more and just drew Barry more in this case. Yeah, but he'll probably be there too.
Mark Faldmo:Yes.
Patrick Wiscombe:Speaking of christening ships, American legend coastal ship was christened, or is going to be christened in Key West, Florida, one of my new favorite places on this planet. Yeah, I love Key West. Oh, so awesome there.
Mark Faldmo:We've talked about American Cruise Line before. This is one of their new coastal cat ships which, going through that same ceremony actually last week it had its christening in Key West. So it's going to sail around the Florida Keys and around the Gulf Coast area and then it's going to move up to Washington DC and cruise around the Chesapeake Bay and then move up into Canada, new England and the Hudson River area. These ships are I think they'd be fantastic to go on. There are a hundred passengers and you get to go some really unique out-of-the-way places. One of the interesting itineraries that this does in the Chesapeake Bay. It has a whole itinerary focused on the Revolutionary War.
Patrick Wiscombe:Oh, I'd do that in a minute.
Mark Faldmo:I'm actually going to see if we can get them to be on a guest one of these times and see if we can't get out to see one of their ships. Interestingly enough for us here in Salt Lake City, their training center is in Draper what. They have a place where they train their crew, where they have full cabins. They have their whole culinary there where they do a lot of their training. They're based in, I think, New Hampshire, somewhere in New England, but they have a training center here in Salt Lake City.
Patrick Wiscombe:I think going around the Florida Keys on that ship would be terrific. Chesapeake Bay, but also the Hudson man, that would be spectacular. To see New York like that it would. Ncl is, from what I can read, leaning heavily on music nostalgia with four new shows. What ships is this going to be on and how much nostalgia are they bringing to their ships?
Mark Faldmo:Norwegian, I think, has always done a very good job with their shows and with some of these kind of nostalgic shows. So their new show is called Bring Back the 90s. It is going to be in production by the end of this summer on a couple of Norwegian ships. It's going to feature music through the decade with Destiny's Child, Salt-N-Pepa, Alanis Morrissette. Bring in really that pop culture.
Patrick Wiscombe:Well, that's ironic, don't you think? Yes, did you get that?
Mark Faldmo:reference? I did get that reference. They did a test run on Norwegian Getaway and it will be officially be aboard the Norwegian Joy on July 7th, which is Alaska Sailings from Seattle. What other shows? Another show that Norwegian is bringing on is called Brits who Made it Big in America. Norwegian is bringing on is called Brits who Made it Big in America. It is called Red, white and British and it is going to have musical performances featuring songs from David Bowie and Queen and that has actually started on the Norwegian Breakaway and will be on Norwegian Epic starting in May and then it'll move into Norwegian Prima on its Europe season. They will have two more shows. One is called Icons the Bands and it's going to just feature songs from legendary bands from different generations and this will be more of a show which has a nine-person cast. And then the other show is called Ignite the Night, which is kind of like a Dancing with the Stars type presentation. So those are the four new shows on Norwegian.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's get to the cruise deal of the week, which is going to be all about NCL. They've announced lower prices in the Caribbean. What deals do we have for listeners this week?
Mark Faldmo:So there are several different sailings where Norwegian has lowered the price for Caribbean sailings. I am going to focus on just one, and it's the Norwegian Escape which departs Round Trip. New Orleans goes to Costa Maya, Mexico. Harvest Cay, which is in Belize yeah, it's kind of a private island experience and then Roatan in Honduras and Cozumel. I would call it exotic Western Caribbean, although now more and more ships are going to Roatan and Belize.
Patrick Wiscombe:So Roatan was one of your favorite places it is.
Mark Faldmo:I loved Roatan. It reminds me a lot of Tahiti and the South Pacific, tropical and green. One of my favorite destinations in the Caribbean, and actually Costa Maya, is as well.
Patrick Wiscombe:So is that Costa Maya still technically the Caribbean? It is, oh, it's the Mexican Caribbean. What are the actual deals that our listeners can call you about this week?
Mark Faldmo:The prices have actually dropped about $400 per person compared to last week. I noticed this because this is one of the sailings that I've had on the top five cruise deals on the blueplanetvacations. com and I was just amazed at the price drop, particularly in the balcony cabin category. This is November dates. Leaving from New Orleans Inside starts at $642 per person and balcony starts at $872 per person For a seven day cruise. For a seven day cruise Wow. Now I said November dates.
Mark Faldmo:The date over Thanksgiving is not have a price drop, it's still up there in price because that's a good time to cruise, but the other dates in November did drop anywhere from three to four hundred dollars compared to what they were about two weeks ago.
Patrick Wiscombe:Oh wow, that's a significant drop.
Mark Faldmo:I've also noticed, if you're interested in shorter cruises, five-day cruise from Miami dropped about $300. Starts at $509 for an inside cabin. The ports on that Miami, Nassau, Bimini Islands which you're going to get- to go to in.
Patrick Wiscombe:April. Yeah, I'm excited about that one.
Mark Faldmo:One of my favorite stops, and then Norwegian's Private Island. Those are October and November dates that had that price drop for the shorter cruises out of Miami, the five-day cruise. Is that also NCL?
Patrick Wiscombe:on that one.
Mark Faldmo:That is also Norwegian on the Norwegian Getaway. So these are newer ships. Then these are some of Norwegian's newer ship.
Patrick Wiscombe:I don't know what it is is. It might be the new ship smell. But wow, those new ships are spectacular. They are. Those are great prices. Call mark during the break. Just get the conversation started. Call them 888-718-7717, 888-718-7717. And you will post this on blueplanetvacations. com, correct, or it's probably already there.
Mark Faldmo:It is. Most of these are in the top five cruise deals of the week, which there's about 15 on there right now. Top five.
Patrick Wiscombe:There's a lot of good cruise deals. Yeah, there is. When we come back, we'll get to Mark's travel tips. We'll wrap everything up for this week. That is next. Oh, and we also have additional travel news headlines and we're saying goodbye to carry-on luggage as you know it. And no, this is not Southwest related. This is different. Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your Saturday and Sunday. 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. 801-649-3700. We'll be right back. 801-649-3700.
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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 and Mark.
Patrick Wiscombe:Faldmo. Welcome back inside of the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. My name is Patrick Wiscombe, alongside Mark Faldmo, and if you're just joining the show, we have had some tremendous offers travel offers, cruise offers from the infamous Just Cruising segment. We'll recap those coming up and we will also be talking about saying goodbye. Goodbye to carry-on luggage as we have always known it. We'll get to that story here in just a second.
Patrick Wiscombe:And anything TikTok related? Generally speaking, not good, especially if it's a trend probably not good. Tiktok trends are causing people to miss flights. I am not sorry for people who are doing this at all. No, not at all. Earlier in the show, you and I were talking about the significant and I do mean decades long change that Southwest Airlines is saying goodbye. You have to pay for your carry-on bags from now on. That was the one differentiator between all of the airlines and Southwest. That is now gone. But this is a different story Mark about. American Airlines has said that they are going to be changing their baggage policy. What are the details on this one? I feel like we're just getting kidney punched this week.
Mark Faldmo:Flying with a carry-on bag has always been kind of a rite of passage for the modern traveler. Yeah, I've gone up to 10 days in a small carry-on before and the small carry-on before. But now American Airlines and probably others are going to start shaking things up in air travel. It is following moves of regulatory changes in Europe. And so American says. I haven't heard any news from other airlines that are going to do this, but American has said they're going to start tightening their baggage policy to more closely match the regulations in Europe.
Patrick Wiscombe:My understanding of that is basically the carry-ons are going to be a little smaller. Is that right?
Mark Faldmo:Yes, and they're going to enforce it more. Everyone who's traveled has probably seen the size-wise and so they are going to make sure that you have one carry-on that will fit in the size-wise and your other personal item has to fit in the seat in front of you. This story got me going. I went and measured every bag in the house to see what I could have. Luckily, the bag I fly with meets that the item that fits in the seat underneath you. So your personal item has to be no more than 18 by 14 by 8. That's right about what my laptop bag is, which you've seen. My laptop bag that's pretty big and full of stuff, so that'll fit in those dimensions. That's a big a big bag.
Patrick Wiscombe:I mean the way that you pack it. I mean you get some stuff in there.
Mark Faldmo:Yes, I get lots in there. It has all my radio equipment and everything in it when I travel, so that you know we can do things like this. So, but the big change is going to be the roll-on carry-on bags, which will now have a limit of 22 inches by 14 inches, by nine inches. Isn't that what it's always been? It has, but now it includes the wheels and handles. Oh, or, before the wheels didn't necessarily count. So some bags that 22 inches will be a lot of carry-on bags will be slightly too high. So my bag makes it that I travel with. But you'll just have to watch that if this policy goes into effect.
Patrick Wiscombe:Oh see, I thought it was going to take effect already.
Mark Faldmo:No, the American has said they'll probably move into it later next year. Oh, okay, you know. So this is something. They're just trying to get the word out to people, because some people will show up and we've talked about travelers behaving badly. This policy will result in several travelers behaving badly because they're going to be strict about these sizing limits on carry-on bags.
Patrick Wiscombe:I think I'm going to be okay then with my luggage, the Samsonite. What do I have? What is this called the free form? 21 inch hard side carry on luggage with spinner wheels, hard shell carry on suitcase, tsa airline approved. That was a mouthful, but it is technically 21.25 inches by 15.25 inches by 10 with the wheels and meets the cabin size restrictions of most airlines. So I should be okay there. Yeah, you should be okay. It was the wheels part of it that I was getting kind of concerned about. I was like, uh-oh, anything tiktok trend always kind of makes me go okay, how immature are you? And I sound like an old man. Get off my lawn. What's the trend?
Mark Faldmo:This TikTok trend that's called the airport theory, and it advises that, arriving at the airport just 15 minutes prior to departure, you can still make it through the gate and make your flight. No, you won't. So years ago I would show up 30 minutes and be fine, but there are so many factors that go into that. Do you need to check a bag? Do you have priority security screening? Do you have any special needs? A big part of it is which airport are you flying from? Airports are created equally.
Patrick Wiscombe:No and I saw that firsthand. Earlier this week, Monday, going from Phoenix back to Salt Lake Phoenix was by far slower than anything I experienced at Salt Lake, not even close.
Mark Faldmo:It's a bad trend. Don't take any advice from TikTok. Generally speaking, Arriving 15 minutes before the flight, that's when airlines usually close the doors to the flight Just by default.
Patrick Wiscombe:I just by default. That's a bad idea.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, if you're not on board between 10 and 15 minutes, they'll give your seat away to stand by travelers. So this trend has caused several people to miss their flights. According to Google, there's actually been an 8,000% increase in what to do if you miss your flight. Type related searches oh boy. So arrive at the 90 minutes before, which is recommended, or a little bit longer if you're traveling internationally.
Patrick Wiscombe:In Salt Lake. Let me tell you what happened last Friday, eight days ago. Salt Lake International to Phoenix is where Nikki and I went and we have digital ID. So we were flying on Delta. We also had TSA pre and we just walked into the TSA pre line, stood in front of a camera and then they waved us on, didn't even present a driver's license. That's normal. So let me fast forward. Three days later we are coming home this past Monday in Phoenix. So I was expecting the same experience to happen where we jump in line, but this time they took our driver's license. They still took our picture. I mean, that part is normal, but it was the driver's license piece. That kind of surprised me. We've got TSA pre. They have all of our information. Is that normal?
Mark Faldmo:That is so. The digital ID, which is what you want, where you don't have to pull anything out right is only available at select airports so that's, why okay yeah, not all airports are created equally, right. Some airports don't have any of that stuff. There are actually a few airports that don't have tsa pre-check. Now they're they're small I know that, but there are some that don't, and there are some that don't, and there are some that don't have that line open at all the all times.
Patrick Wiscombe:If you're used to one thing, you can assume that it's going to be the same at any other airport that you're using so you leave three hours before and then basically, if you get through fast, you just hang out in delta sky club or and or an airline lounge, yeah, lounge yeah, yeah.
Mark Faldmo:Or if there's not a lounge at the airport, I'm at. I just go find a quiet place in the airport, because there's usually one you can find, you know, and wait for the fight while we're talking about phoenix to salt lake, I had shake shack in phoenix, the pho which is right, right near the gate.
Patrick Wiscombe:Why has nobody ever told me about Shake Shack? That was one of the best burgers I've ever had in my life. And there's a Shake Shack in.
Mark Faldmo:Salt Lake airport. How did I miss that? I like Shake Shack. Oh so I've actually only ever eaten at a Shake Shack in an airport in Los Angeles, in Salt Lake and a few other airports but it is a great burger.
Patrick Wiscombe:Just another quick news story Discount carriers are starting to drop transatlantic routes as network airlines expand. So the key here is there's discount airlines and then there's regular airlines, and discount carriers, if I've got it right, are starting to just say no, we won't go over the Atlantic.
Mark Faldmo:These are airlines that were primarily transatlantic airlines. So North Atlantic, which is a Norwegian airline, Play Airlines, which is Iceland. You say Play, Play is their name yes.
Mark Faldmo:I've never even heard of them, and then another one called Contour Airlines, and they mainly do transatlantic flights from different cities in the US, but they are starting to cut back because the competition is getting so much We've talked about the last few weeks. It seems like every other week we have a new story about United, American, Delta adding a new international route Right, and so it is making it harder for these more budget airlines to compete in that transatlantic space. You know, a lot of these started or really gained prominence during the pandemic, when the big airlines were afraid to do anything. These are the guys that really jumped on the demand. That was there, that early demand, but now it's starting to tailor off and people are becoming more comfortable flying the mainline airlines.
Patrick Wiscombe:As we start to wrap up during the infamous Just Cruising segment, the cruise deal of the week, which was really really good a $400 price drop. What are the details again?
Mark Faldmo:So this is on Norwegian Cruise Line. Their Caribbean cruises for this fall have dropped in price anywhere from $300 to $400 a person, inside cabins starting at $649. A balcony cabin starting at $879. And those were cruises leaving out of New Orleans. Get the conversation started. And those were cruises leaving out of New Orleans.
Patrick Wiscombe:Get the conversation started. Go travel, go see the world. Awesome, you will never regret seeing the world. That's going to do it, mark. We're done. You can listen to the show again tomorrow morning, Sunday, at 11 am, right here on this radio station and around the country, and you can stream, download and subscribe to the podcast on InsideTravelTalk. com. If you don't want to subscribe, you can just stream the show right from InsideTravelTalk. com. But if you do, subscribe to podcasts, we're on all of the major podcast platforms and you can find all of the links also at InsideTravelTalk. com. All right, our job is done. It is now your turn to get out and explore the world, because you never know what curveball's life is going to throw at you. Live your life deliberately. Live your life intentionally. Thank you so much for listening, mark, and I will talk to you again next week. Have a great 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.