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
Beyond the Horizon: From Set-Jetting in Britain to Mexican Family Escapes
Vacation Patrick is officially in the building! This week's packed episode captures the excitement of travel planning as Patrick prepares for an unprecedented adventure – four consecutive cruises, including two inaugural sailings. While Patrick gets ready for his Caribbean cruise marathon, we bring you the biggest travel news impacting your future vacations.
Sandals and Beaches Resorts are making waves with a massive announcement – a nearly $1 billion investment to expand their family-friendly Beaches brand throughout the Caribbean. This strategic expansion addresses a growing need in the travel industry for accommodations specifically designed for family travel, with new properties coming to Barbados, the Bahamas, and Jamaica.
Speaking of family travel, we highlight Puerto Vallarta as a perfect destination for families of all sizes, featuring all-inclusive resorts with rooms that actually accommodate larger families. With packages starting at just $1,099 per person including airfare, these vacation options provide exceptional value without hidden costs.
The travel world is buzzing with the emerging trend of "set-jetting" – visiting famous film and TV locations. The UK leads the way with Harry Potter experiences, Downton Abbey tours in the Cotswolds, and literary walks through Oxford exploring the haunts of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien. These immersive experiences connect travelers with the stories they love while exploring beautiful destinations.
Cruise enthusiasts will appreciate our breakdown of sailing options from New Orleans, which just celebrated a record-breaking year welcoming 1.2 million cruise passengers. Whether you're looking for a quick five-day getaway or a full week exploring the Western Caribbean, we've got options starting as low as $479 that will have you escaping winter's chill.
Ready to transform these travel inspirations into your next adventure? Call us at 888-718-7717 or visit blueplanetvacations.com to connect with travel advisors who will help craft your perfect vacation experience.
It is time to talk travel. Welcome to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show Coming up. On today's show we will be talking about big and I mean huge plans for Sandals Resort in Jamaica. Avalon Waterways, a river cruising company in Europe, announces a fleet-wide refurbishment of all of their rooms. Rocky Mountaineer is changing its name to. We'll tell you during the show and vacations on cruising to and around Mexico. Let's start the show. The Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show presented by BluePlanetVacations. com contains travel deals, promotions and offers that may be time sensitive. All offers and information were accurate when the show aired. Travel deals and offers change constantly and are capacity controlled and subject to change without notice.
Show Voice:Helping you plan your next vacation. This is the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show presented by BluePlanetVacations. com, America's best travel advisors. Call us now 801-649-3700, 801-649-3700, and check out the podcast at InsideTravelTalk. com. Here's Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.
Patrick Wiscombe:Vacation Patrick is in full mode. Welcome to the Inside Travel Talk podcast radio show. Hello there, my name is Patrick Wiscombe, alongside my good friend, mark Faldmo, it is time to talk travel, and the entire purpose of this show is to help you. We want you to become part of the show so you can plan and book your next vacation, or we can give you ideas of where you want to vacation next and this show is presented by blueplanetvacations. com. And if you have travel related questions, we want you to be part of the show. Text your travel related questions right now 801-649-3700, 801-649-3700. 800-801-649-3700. And a sincere thank you for taking the time to stop and listen, whether it's on the radio or you are podcasting us. Just a little bit later, mark Vacation Patrick is officially in the building and I'm excited, I'm jealous for you.
Mark Faldmo:You have a big adventure coming up.
Patrick Wiscombe:I don't know how many people go on four consecutive cruises and I do mean back to back, to back to back and we only have two days off on cruise number four between cruise three and cruise four. How common is that? I?
Mark Faldmo:don't think. Four is that common? Several people do back to back just just two cruises. I've done that several times, but never back to back to back to back never for four cruises.
Patrick Wiscombe:I've never seen that before I am in Fort Lauderdale doing the show from the hotel mark is back in salt lake engineering the entire broadcast coming up. This week, Nicki and I will be jumping on celebrity's Ascent going to the Caribbean. And then I have to keep them in order Holland America, also going to different ports in the Caribbean, and then the third one which I will see you down here for MSC's World America. And then cruise number four is the brand new ship from Norwegian Cruise Line Aqua. Two of the four cruises, literally, are going on their inaugural sailing. I can't believe that this is a reality, right?
Mark Faldmo:now. It's quite amazing that you're going to do that and get that experience.
Patrick Wiscombe:You will be down here in what two weeks, in two weeks and your plans for MSC World America. You're part of the media tour and there will be a lot of press not only print and regular press but there will be a lot of YouTube press on MSC's World America. You're part of the media tour and there will be a lot of press not only print and regular press, but there will be a lot of YouTube press on MSC's World America. Yeah, there will be. That's going to be an amazing ship. We have some awesome cruising deals for listeners coming up in the infamous Just Cruising segment. But let's start the show by getting to the travel news headlines. Anytime Delta makes news, it usually impacts Salt Lake in a good way. Delta has announced that they will be adding more Hawaii service from Salt Lake City. This is great news for us.
Mark Faldmo:Starting late fall next year, we'll add a seasonal route from Salt Lake City to Kona on the Big Island. Oh, They'll have their daily nonstop service from Honolulu. They'll have their seasonal service Salt Lake to Maui.
Patrick Wiscombe:Did you say that one is seasonal? That one is seasonal.
Mark Faldmo:It doesn't operate year round. It operates during the winter months, and then they'll add this Salt Lake to Kona route, which I'm excited for.
Patrick Wiscombe:If you have listened to this show, even a little bit in the last year and a half, you know that we, mark and I, are big train people. So I found this announcement kind of interesting that Rocky Mountaineer the train company is going to rebrand their Denver to Moab. That they're going to rebrand that particular line.
Mark Faldmo:They are Yep. So the new name, the actual train name, will be the Canyon Spirit. The itinerary will still be the Red Rocks to Rockies, but it will be Canyon Spirit will be the brand that operates that. So they're going to keep the Rocky Mountaineer in the Canadian Rockies. So that will remain the same. And they're just renaming their US train to Canyon Spirit train. And also another exciting thing for those of us here in Salt Lake City they have extended the route, so it will go between Denver and Salt Lake City. It'll be that original route which goes to Moab, but then from Moab it'll go up to Salt Lake City.
Patrick Wiscombe:Oh, whoa, whoa, Hold on. So it's not just Denver to Moab, it's now Denver to Moab, Moab to Salt Lake City.
Mark Faldmo:To Salt Lake City. So those of us in Salt Lake, we'll be able to board that train in Salt Lake City and end up in Denver.
Patrick Wiscombe:I would be just fine with that. I would, yeah, you went on it, august 2024 and you loved it. I went on that.
Mark Faldmo:I loved it. Yep, and you know, actually next week it's exciting we have August Font, who's the sales manager for Rocky Mountaineer and now the Canyon Spirit, rocky Mountain Air and now the Canyon Spirit. Next week we have a whole interview that's going to be talking about the whole company, the routes and his favorite routes.
Patrick Wiscombe:Always in the first segment of the show, we've got the destination of the week. You didn't know that this was. One of my favorite things is filming locations. You can go visit all of these locations where films popular films have been shot. You can jump on an airplane and go visit all these locations and that's our destination of the week. What are the details?
Mark Faldmo:This is a trend. It's called set jetting jetting around to different film sets and I've actually had several people asked to do this. This particular segment is going to be about the UK, but there's also a similar trend in Hawaii and other places in Europe. Great Britain and Ireland have several different places where films are made and they've actually kicked off a campaign. So Visit Britain has a campaign called Showcase Britain, highlighting all of the different movie sets and places you can go around Britain, probably the one that's most requested by me. I've arranged several People's Europe tours around. This are things around Harry Potter, of course, yeah, and that you know, but the Warner Brothers Harry Potter studio right there in London is a whole tour that has the movie set of Harry Potter that show.
Patrick Wiscombe:JK Rowling. It amazes me that she got all of that entire story out of her head. It's amazing that she even came up with it, let alone put it down on paper, and with such vivid details. It's unbelievable.
Mark Faldmo:It is, yeah, quite amazing and probably and this is one I have not done I've sent several people on that I, but I want to do that it's the Scottish Highlands and Jacobite steam train.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yeah.
Mark Faldmo:Okay, so that is the famous scenes from Harry Potter, with the steam train going over Glenfinnan viaduct, aka the Harry Potter Bridge.
Mark Faldmo:Oh, that gigantic thing, yeah, yeah, and so that is a tour that I absolutely want to do. One thing it's a train. I love trains and then you know, being in the Scottish Highlands is pretty amazing. You know I have several people that just go to Edinburgh, stay for a few days, do that train, which is a full day train. Other popular things in the UK and Great Britain. There's a lot of period dramas that take place there. Downton Abbey tours.
Mark Faldmo:Nicky would love that one. They had their full day tours. They see the Cotswold's and different places from Downton Abbey, Bridgeton that you can do In London. There's a Sherlock Holmes walking tour.
Patrick Wiscombe:Those two movies were sneaky.
Mark Faldmo:good Other things. There's Titanic Experience Museum in the area and there's also a Secrets of the Titanic walking tour that you can do. Would that be underwater?
Patrick Wiscombe:That would be underwater, yeah. What other tours, assuming that there can do, would that be underwater? That would be underwater, yeah. What other tours, assuming that there are more?
Mark Faldmo:There are several more. I'm only raising the top of this. You know, probably the most popular ones are the ones I would be interested in. This next tour and I've done this or a version of this and it's in Oxford. It's the CS Lewis and JR Tolkien tour in Oxford, so it goes around to all the places that they visited there in Oxford. In Christchurch College that's also a Harry Potter scene, that's the dining room scene in Christchurch College, but also that whole room is filled with the imagery from Alice in Wonderland. You go in there. There's a whole stained glass window in there. That's just for Alice in Wonderland, and then all of the imagery that's around there from those authors is very interesting to see. So that's definitely a tour that you should do.
Patrick Wiscombe:Is there an opportunity to go to Platform 9 and 3 Quarters?
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, there's several tours in London that actually do that. There's a Harry Potter walking tour that includes that. There's also a Harry Potter tour by London Taxi, so their black cabs go around and do that One that I want to do because I absolutely love this movie. There is a Paddington Bear tour. Walk around, see some of those places. A few weeks ago went and saw the newest Paddington with Heather and we absolutely loved it.
Patrick Wiscombe:There's just something magical about the movies and then going and seeing the places and recalling where the actual movie took place. It's just kind of fun to see that when you can put the movie in the location. Just kind of fun. If you are interested in doing a UK jet setting or a set jetting, I got that backwards call Mark in his office, just get the conversation started, get the information. You need no obligation. 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. When we come back, we've got the hot travel deal of the week and we are going to where are we? We're going to Mexico. We've got some great cruising deals. No, no, no. Actually, these are the hotel deals, aren't they? They?
Mark Faldmo:are hotel deals.
Patrick Wiscombe:Okay, that is next when the Inside Travel Talk podcast or radio show continues. Alongside Mark Faldmo, my name is Patrick Wiscombe. Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your weekend.
Show Voice:We will be back in about two minutes. If you have travel questions, they have the answers. You're listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show with Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo, presented by BluePlanetVacations. com. Call or text the show right now 801-649-3700, 801-649-3700. We'll be right back.
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Show Voice: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 at InsideTravelTalk. com.
Patrick Wiscombe:Here's Patrick and Mark. Welcome back inside of the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. Hello there. Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your weekend, whether you're listening to us on Saturday morning at 11 o'clock Mountain or on Sunday at 11 o'clock Mountain or on Sunday at 11 o'clock Mountain Coming up in this segment of the show, we will be talking about the hot travel deal of the week, and this week we are going to Mexico. We've got a good deal to get down to Mexico. We've got a good deal to get down to Mexico. But let's first get to the travel news headlines of the week. And, just as we transition over, let me just extend an invitation to all of our listeners. We want to answer your travel related questions, so call or text the studio right now 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. We want to answer your travel related questions. Okay, let's get to the travel news. This was a big announcement by Beaches Resort. This is in Jamaica, correct? I've got the right beaches. It's in the Caribbean.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, okay, sandals and Beaches Resorts are going to invest nearly $1 billion to expand the Beaches brand.
Show Voice:Okay.
Mark Faldmo:So there's the Sandals brand, which is the adults-only all-inclusive, and then there's Beaches Resorts, which is the all-inclusive family brand, and so they are going to really expand that family brand in the Caribbean. They've announced new resorts in Barbados, in Exuma, which is the Bahamas Runaway Bay, in Jamaica, and they are going to convert one of their current Sandals resorts into a Beecher's resort in Jamaica. They're going to build new hotels, convert a few existing hotels. Family travel, which we'll actually see later on. In this segment we have a family travel vacation, but it's something that has been a little bit not thought through in the travel world. It's been harder when you have larger families to travel, and so these resorts are going to be designed for families. They're going to have accommodations that will hold more per room and really try and get family travel to the Caribbean islands.
Patrick Wiscombe:Have you ever stayed at a Sandals Resorts or Beaches Resorts before?
Mark Faldmo:I have never stayed at a Beaches beach resort, but I've stayed in a sandals resort twice. I've stayed at the sandals in Bahamas just this past January for a meeting that I was at, and then Heather and I Was that a sandals resort when you were there. Yeah, that was a sandals resort. Oh, I didn't know that.
Patrick Wiscombe:Okay.
Mark Faldmo:And then Heather and I stayed at the Sandals Montego Bay in Jamaica a few years back.
Patrick Wiscombe:Generally speaking, very nice resorts, though Picture risk. Avalon Waterways has announced a fleet-wide refresh of the ships. Now I know that your favorite rooms when you cruise on the river is Avalon Waterways, because the bed actually faces the window. Were you surprised that they were announcing a fleet-wide refresh Every?
Mark Faldmo:cruise line is always making sure they're up to date with the styles and everything like that. So they're going to upgrade the décor throughout all of the public spaces oh you know, make it more modern. They are going to improve the internet connectivity. They're going to add a second Starlink antenna to each ship so that'll help the internet connectivity. They're going to redesign the sky deck.
Mark Faldmo:That's something I'm interested in, because on most river cruise ships it's just a blank deck up there and they put deck chairs. You know they have to be able to take all of that down to get underneath some of the bridges. So there's not a lot they can do, but I'll be interested to see what they do with that sky deck area. They're going to enhance the observation lounge, upgrade the fitness facilities and then they're also upgrading. They're adding more to their fleet of bicycles. That's one thing that's nice about a river cruise. They have bicycle tours and so you can get off and cycle through the little villages you stop in. So each ship is going to get 15 new bikes plus four new e-bikes per ship.
Patrick Wiscombe:Have you ever experienced an electric bike before? I have not, no Dude. They are some of the most amazing experiences. Did you know that I have an e bike before? I have not no Dude. They are some of the most amazing experiences. Did you know that I have an e-bike?
Mark Faldmo:I do. Yeah, I did see that when I was at your house once.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yeah, 5,600 miles on that bike. The tires are literally worn out. I'm not trying to talk about my fitness. If they're adding e-bikes, that's kind of interesting.
Mark Faldmo:So they are going through the full fleet wide upgrade. This is going to be over the next year or two. As they do that, we'll do a couple ships here at the end of 2025, a couple in 2026, to get them all upgraded to these standards that they want to be at.
Patrick Wiscombe:You know what's interesting to me? You mentioned how low the bridges are and the bridge of the ship literally sinks into the middle of the ship so they can clear and get under those bridges. It's wild to see.
Mark Faldmo:It is.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's get to the hot travel deal of the week, which is a text that we received during the last break. This is from who is this? From? Sharon? She says that she wants to take her family to Mexico, Puerto Vallarta, and she is asking is the fall an okay time to go and is there a room that would hold a family of five?
Mark Faldmo:The answer is, I believe so, yes, yes and yes, yes, fall is a good time to go. I would go later in the year. She particularly asked for late October, which I think is a great time to go. It's not as humid there. You're just starting to get a little bit cooler temperatures. It's always warm in Puerto Vallarta, but a little bit lower temperatures, a little bit cooler temperatures. It's always warm in Puerto Vallarta, but, you know, a little bit lower temperatures, a little bit lower humidity. One thing she says a room that will hold a family of five, as we talked about with the previous story about beaches, kind of expanding that family travel, it's always been hard to find rooms that will hold five.
Mark Faldmo:There are several hotels will allow five in a room, but they might just have one king bed or two twin beds, which doesn't really.
Patrick Wiscombe:No, that doesn't help.
Mark Faldmo:You know it doesn't help for a family of five, and so you know I've gone through and I found three places that do have good bedding for a family of five, so you don't have to get a roll away In the Wiscombe family was called Patrick on the floor yeah, so we want to get you in a place where patrick is not on the floor hey, listen, I'm a dad now, so I get the bed on the floor, kids whenever I was always traveling with large groups, since I made all the travel arrangements, I always claimed a bed for myself.
Mark Faldmo:Everyone else fought over what was left in there or slept on the floor.
Mark Faldmo:So, that was one of the conditions of me booking the trips with my friends. So so I guess first of all, we'll go over the promotion, which is save up to $200 to Puerto Vallarta Now this is booked by April 15th to get that save up to $200. And that is per package. You love Puerto Vallarta, I do. I love Puerto Vallarta. When we're looking for a larger family, it's really important to make sure you have a room that has the right bedding. So these three resorts are ones that I like, that I've stayed at before. These packages are a five nights hotel, round trip airfare from Salt Lake City.
Mark Faldmo:For our listeners that are outside of Salt Lake City, we can get a price for you, and this is departing October 22nd. The Malia Porta Vallarta, which is a four and a half star hotel the price starts at $1,099 per person oh wow. And that room does have two queen beds and a bunk bed. The Riu Vallarta, which is a four and a half star, starts at $1,219 per person, and that is two queen beds and one double bed. And then the Marival Emotions this is probably my favorite hotel for families down there. They do a great job with activities for kids. They're really a good family hotel they're four and a half stars starts at $1,349 per person, and theirs is a two bedroom with two king beds in each bedroom plus a sofa sleeper.
Patrick Wiscombe:So that is a genuinely good option if you're going to Mexico.
Mark Faldmo:Now there are several hotels that said they would allow five. They were three and four star. They were less expensive, but you know these are the ones I would go with. You want your family to have a good experience. Also, again, have the proper bedding.
Patrick Wiscombe:Well, the thing that I like about this is that it includes airfare, five nights, hotel transfers to and from the airport to the hotel and, of course, back. That's a big deal and, of course, finding the right bed, like you said, yeah, and then they are all all inclusive.
Mark Faldmo:So all of your meals and drinks, so really a family of five could go spend that price and not spend another dime if they didn't want to.
Patrick Wiscombe:When you don't look forward to going back to the hotel cause it's a not good makes all the difference, and when everyone's happy, it just makes for a better vacation. Even though it may cost a little more, everyone comes back happy. It's the quality of the vacation. Go, go to Mexico, go to Puerto Vallarta Sharon you probably are going to have additional questions and, of course, anyone else who's listening to the show right now. Get out, see the world while you can, especially while you've got your family home.
Patrick Wiscombe:That time goes by so quickly. Call Mark in his office, just get the conversation started. No obligation, of course. 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. And you can also see this on blueplanetvacations. com. When we come back, it is time for the infamous just cruising segment. We will be talking about the port of New Orleans having a record-breaking year and, of course, we've got two cruises with awesome pricing. That is next with the inside travel talk podcast. The radio show continues Alongside Mark Faldmo. My name is Patrick Wiscombe. Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your weekend. We'll be back in just a couple of minutes.
Show Voice:They've literally traveled millions of miles to answer your travel-related questions. Yeah, they really have. You're listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show Presented by BluePlanetVacations. com. America's best travel advisors, Patrick and Mark, will be back after these messages.
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:Okay, we're back. Welcome back to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show Coming up. In the next 28 minutes we will be talking about five and seven day cruises to Mexico on NCL and Carnival Sitka, Alaska they are voting on a cap on cruise ship passengers allowed in their city Reggae music designed to inspire Caribbean cruising. That is on my playlist literally this next week. Mark it is and how to book an airport security reservation. 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. 801-649-3700. And check out the podcast at InsideTravelTalk. com. Here's Patrick and Mark.
Patrick Wiscombe:All aboard for the infamous just cruising segment on the infamous inside travel talk podcast, a radio show, this award-nominated program at least it is inside of my head. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your weekend each and every Saturday and Sunday morning at 11 o'clock Mountain Time, live here in Salt Lake City. And if you are podcasting the show at a future date, you can just stream the podcast if you don't want to subscribe. If you're not a future date, you can just stream the podcast If you don't want to subscribe. If you're not a podcaster, just go to insidetraveltalk. com and you just press play. But if you are a podcaster, please take the time to subscribe to the show Coming up in this segment.
Patrick Wiscombe:Of course, we've got the cruise news headlines. This segment is only about cruise news. We've got the cruise deal of the week. We've got five and seven day cruises going to Mexico. We'll detail that. But, mark, let's start with the cruise news headlines. Where do you want to start? Should we go Alaska or should we go Florida? Let's go Florida, all right. A Florida county this is not something you hear every single week on the show is offering $3 million to sink a cruise ship closer to a tourist hotspot. What's this all about?
Mark Faldmo:It's an old ocean liner, the SS United States, which is a very historic ship, and so they are going to sink it off the coast of Florida in the Panhandle area near Destin, florida, to be an artificial reef. That area of Florida has lots of dive tourists so this county is offering them $3 million to move the ship closer to their county so they can get a piece of that dive revenue that comes in there.
Patrick Wiscombe:Wow.
Mark Faldmo:And right now the ship is in Alabama. They're stripping it of all the metals that can't be sunk. It probably has some asbestos in it too, so they're getting rid of all of that.
Mark Faldmo:Let's get rid of the poison Before it's sunk to become a reef. The SS United States is a historic ocean liner. Even to this day it still is the fastest passenger ship out there, made the run from New York to London in record time, hasn't been beat yet, and it was in service to the late 1960s. But the US military kept it on until the late 80s because it was so fast in case they needed to move troops, and it was retired. It's had several owners.
Mark Faldmo:Interestingly enough, one of those owners was Norwegian Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line. When a US I think it was called US Cruises went out of business, Norwegian Cruise Line bought one of their ships, partially built, which is now the Pride of America. When Norwegian purchased that ship, which is now the Pride of America, they also went and purchased the SS United States because it was a hull that another cruise line could have purchased to compete with them. So they bought any cruise ship that was built in the US still operating, so that no one could compete with them. They never brought it into service. Now it's going to be sunk in Florida to become a reef for divers.
Patrick Wiscombe:It's going to be interesting to follow this and I realize it's being stripped. I'll just call it parts and poison. It's going to be interesting to see if, in just a few years five, somewhere between five and ten years if we start seeing strange fish yes, we didn't get all the poison, but we start seeing fish with human teeth, just something like that, something crazy. Yeah, Sitka, Alaska residents are voting, or will be voting, on a cap on the number of cruise ship passengers. When is the vote set and what are the details? What are the numbers?
Mark Faldmo:So, the city council just had a meeting this week and they've set the vote for May 30th. So the referendum that's going out is to cap cruise ship traffic to 4,500 cruise passengers per day and 300,000 per year, and also limit cruise traffic to only six days a week, so giving them a day free without cruise ship passengers. Now this is a local advocacy group that is trying to do this. This is actually their fourth attempt to do this. It's never passed the citywide referendum before. Although, looking at that 4,500 cruisers a day, most of the cruise ships that visit there are about 2,500. And I've only ever seen one cruise ship in Sitka before, so I don't know how this will actually affect it, although that yearly cap of 300,000 could affecters. Last year they had 585,000 cruisers oh wow. And so they're just getting one cruise ship a day, where before they were getting two to three cruise ships a week. They're just getting more cruise ships there. So, even that daily cap, there are not many days when they go over that anyway.
Patrick Wiscombe:Okay, I've got my reggae remix. It's being released to inspire Caribbean cruising. Okay, I'll just turn it off.
Mark Faldmo:What's all this about MSC Cruises? This is just in time for the launch of the World of America, which you'll be on in about two weeks time. I'll be on in about two weeks. They have released a playlist on Spotify. They've taken songs from Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, the Beatles, Madonna and reggae-ized them, so they've remixed them and covered them to reggae.
Mark Faldmo:So we will hear this probably on the ship, then On the ship. Yeah, if you want to hear some of these songs, just go to Spotify and type in MSC Holiday Playlist and it should come up for you. Research has shown that music can influence people's travel choices. Here Comes the Sun is the one they did by the Beatles.
Patrick Wiscombe:Here comes the sun. Here comes the sun. Baby Watermelon sugar. Just like that. I killed the travel industry. They will not want to go on the ship with me.
Mark Faldmo:Go to Spotify and find the playlist. I've listened to it. It's pretty good. Does make you want to travel, which is the whole purpose of that playlist.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's get to the cruise deal of the week. Always in the infamous Just Cruising segment, we're taking off from New Orleans, so the main port here is getting from Salt Lake City only because we do the show from here to New Orleans. What are the details on the cruise deal of the week?
Mark Faldmo:First we'll start off with the port of New Orleans had a record-breaking 2024. They had 1.2 million cruise guests come through there, and that was both ocean and river, because New Orleans is a starting point for ocean cruises as well as Mississippi River cruises. Carnival Cruise Lines has a ship based there year round and then in the wintertime they bring in a second ship to do cruises from New Orleans. They've actually are celebrating their 30th year of sailing Caribbean cruises from New Orleans, and then Norwegian Cruise Line has a ship sailing Caribbean cruises from New Orleans, and then Norwegian Cruise Line has a ship that sails out of New Orleans seasonally, so during the cold winter starts in, I think, late November and cruises through March. So for today we're just going to talk about the ocean going cruises. You can do four to eight day sailings from New Orleans. I had buffalo alligator there, so you get some exotic foods too, wow.
Patrick Wiscombe:Buffaloed alligator.
Mark Faldmo:Yep Yikes, it tasted like chewy chicken.
Patrick Wiscombe:Of course it did. Yeah, all right, let's get to the cruise deal of the week. Let's start with the five-day cruise on Carnivore, carnivore, carnival Valor.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, so these are all cruises in January.
Mark Faldmo:So this five-day cruise it's on the Carnival Valor, not even Valor, no no, okay, I'm sorry, carnival valor valor, yeah, and an inside cabin starts at 479 per person and a balcony cabin starts at 714 per person. Jeez, this cruise, it has two ports. It goes to Cozumel and spends a full day in Cozumel, and then it spends a full day in Progresso. Progresso is the port near Merida Mexico and it's the closest port to go visit Chechen Itza. So that's what a lot of cruise guests do there, because it's a shorter drive from Progresso as compared to when you do it from Cancun it's a four-hour drive on that. So, and then you know. Also, one thing I didn't say is New Orleans is quite a ways upriver from the Gulf, and so you do get a little bit Mississippi River cruise.
Mark Faldmo:You get a couple hours of cruising on the Mississippi.
Patrick Wiscombe:See, I've always thought that New Orleans was right on the Gulf. I didn't know that it was that far in it's inland a little bit. What's the seven-day cruise from NCO the?
Mark Faldmo:seven-day cruise is on the Norwegian Escape. Its ports are Cozumel, harvest Cay, which is their private island in Belize, Roatan, which we've talked about the last couple of weeks, I think a few times. It's been on a lot of the cruise itineraries we've talked about. And then Costa Maya. It's a Western Caribbean cruise but goes a little bit further south than a lot of the typical cruises. So that cruise starts at $729 for an inside cabin and $989 for a balcony cabin. What are the dates on that one? That one was January 11th of 2026. Now is a good time to start planning next winter's escape from the cold.
Patrick Wiscombe:Call Mark to get down to New Orleans. Get down, go to Mexico. Book those vacations directly with Mark. Just get the conversation started. You'll obviously have some questions, no obligation, just get the conversation started. 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. And Mark will also post this on blueplanetvacations. com when we come back. Real headlines. Everyone will remember this. London's Heathrow Airport had a massive fire. We're going to talk about travel insurance and I think the airport has opened. Is that correct, mark? It has opened. Yes, we'll also talk about how to book an airport security reservation Kind of tricky, kind of time consuming as well. That is next when the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show continues. My name is Patrick Wiscombe, he is Mark Faldmo. We will be right back.
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Patrick Wiscombe:And now here's Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo welcome back to the inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. Thank you so much for allowing me and Mark what's the correct grammar, mark and I, me and Mark to be part of your weekend. Can you tell I'm a little excited to go on vacation right now. It feels like let's just get through the segment and then I'm in full vacation mode. Yeah, coming up in this segment of the show. In fact, let's just start with this. We've got the travel news headlines. We'll also be talking about how to book an airport security reservation. Let's start with what happened in London. This was a big deal. What was this Monday, Tuesday, late last week? Something this happened last Friday London's Heathrow Airport. There was a massive fire. Now, it wasn't in the airport, but it was off-site at the power plant, if memory serves.
Mark Faldmo:Yes, it was the power plant that serves Heathrow.
Patrick Wiscombe:Uh, it shut the whole airport down and it was a big mess and I don't know how many flights were canceled. It's got to be in the what at least a thousand flights. It's probably more than that probably close to that.
Mark Faldmo:I know British Airways said they had about 700 flights canceled. Just British Airways Wow. So all the other airlines that fly in there is probably close to 1,000 or just over 1,000 total flights that were affected.
Patrick Wiscombe:So this is not intended to be a sales pitch at all. We're just going to talk about travel insurance and, before your eyes glaze over, this is the perfect situation. You never know what's going to happen. And before your eyes glaze over, this is the perfect situation. You never know what's going to happen. But let's talk about how travel insurance would have or is probably helping someone who had a London flight First of all, no one purchases insurance of any kind wanting to use it.
Mark Faldmo:Insurance is for those emergencies, those unexpected things that happen, and especially in travel insurance or travel protection. On this, it took Heathrow two to three days to get back up to full flights. When this happens, airplanes are out of position, not able to do flights at the same time, so there are several, probably thousand, people that had forced overnights. Now, a situation like this this was not anything in the airline's control and so the airline is not responsible to pay for hotels, missed connections, anything like that. And that's where travel insurance comes into place. If you had to spend an additional night or two, travel insurance will pay for your hotels. Travel insurance will give you food allowance if you need luggage, because your luggage didn't make it. So if you need to buy some clothes, toiletries, different things like that, travel insurance will cover for that. Insurance is worth it.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's move on. Let's talk about how to book an airport security reservation. Now, is this clear? Or is this just airport security? Are we talking about TSA pre? What are we talking about here?
Mark Faldmo:Well, this is a program by clear. This was sent in by one of our listeners, mark, not you. He said this was a good talk. Yeah, not me A good topic to talk about, which it is. This is called Clear Reserve. This is a free program. It's operated by Clear, but it has nothing to do with Clear or PreCheck or Global Entry, anything like that. There are 20 airports where you can go on and through this program by clear, you can reserve the time that you go through security. Oh, okay, the first place this started is an airport that definitely needs something like that, which is Orlando Airport. You can get there and the security line can be an hour and a half. I've seen it as long as two hours at some point.
Patrick Wiscombe:You're talking about MCO Orlando and you're talking about the terminal. Coming out of the hotel to get into the airport literally in the lobby. Yes, oh, wow.
Mark Faldmo:So I lucked out, then Even the TSA pre-check lines can be pretty long at that airport. Now this program if you have PreCheck, it doesn't work with PreCheck. If you use this then you have to take your electronics out and you have to go through normal security screening. But it's available at 20 airports worldwide. In the US it's available at Denver Airport, Los Angeles Airport, Minneapolis JFK in New York and Newark Liberty in Newark, new Jersey, Orlando, phoenix Sky Harbor and Seattle-Tacoma Airport. In Europe this program is available in Amsterdam, berlin, Frankfurt, Hanover, London and Rome and then in Canada, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, and then in Canada, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
Patrick Wiscombe:If I've got this right, clear reserve is to how to book an airport security reservation, and that's free.
Mark Faldmo:Okay, it's free, yep, yep. So now it doesn't operate all times during the day, just at the peak times at those airports. So you can go in and say I want to go through security at 5:30. You can reserve it and then you can go through. It's basically kind of a jumpy to the front of the line service that they have. It is limited so that they can guarantee your time through. So if a time slot sold out, a time slot will get sold out. But it is a great way to kind of help plan your trip so you don't spend an hour waiting in the security line.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's go over the various security options. There's TSA Pre and the process to get TSA Pre. How much was it? Was it $70 for like five years?
Mark Faldmo:something like that. Yeah, I think it's $75 for five years and you go to tsagov?
Patrick Wiscombe:I can't remember.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, I think it's tsa. gov is where you go to, yeah tsa. gov, and then you can click on the pre-check and sign up for pre-check.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yeah, okay, tsa. gov apply renew. Okay, I'm looking at the website right now. Now, just for conversation. Let's transition over to customs, which is global entry, which includes TSA pre, which is what we were just talking about. But global entry is for what? And who's the ideal candidate for that one?
Mark Faldmo:That will get you through US customs, coming back to the US. So if you take a lot of international trips, global entry is what you'll want to get, because it comes with both TSA pre-check and the global entry to get you through customs and immigration.
Patrick Wiscombe:So international. If you're doing a lot of international, that is ideal, but if you're just want to skip the line, get through there quickly. You're talking about TSA pre, so what is clear then, quickly? You're talking about TSA pre, so what is clear then? Which is what we were just kind of talking about? But it's to reserve your place in line going to the airport. What's clear generally speaking?
Mark Faldmo:Clear is a paid program. It's similar to TSA. They use biometrics to get you through. I've started seeing clear has two lines Clear with TSA PreCheck and regular Clear and those basically, if you have Clear it'll jump you ahead depending on the airport, but kind of ahead of the TSA PreCheck people. So Clear is a private company that's cleared to do security screening and there are Clear lines at sporting events. You know a lot of the NBA, NFL, major league arenas have clear lines so you basically can just walk through without going through the regular security protocols.
Patrick Wiscombe:We should have done this in the infamous just cruising segment, but we wanted to talk about cruise ship mistakes. To avoid We've got a few minutes here, let's go through this list.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah. So there are a couple of items on this list. One is booking your cruise too late. Oh yeah, it used to be that you could book and get last minute cruise deals. Those are less and less available. Most cruise lines put their best fares out when that ship goes for sale two years in advance, yeah, and then the prices slightly go up. They do have some ways to fill cabins if they need to, but very rarely do they go below that first initial offering price. So don't wait too long. If you want to go on a cruise, it's probably best that you just book it right when you decide you want to go on a cruise. It's probably best that you just book it right when you decide you want to go on the cruise, because chances are the price is only going to go up.
Patrick Wiscombe:Just for conversation purposes only. What happens if you've booked a ship and all of a sudden, because they need to fill ship space, you know, for whatever reason, a particular date isn't selling, and that does happen. What if you paid? I'll just say $1,. A particular date isn't selling, and that does happen. What if you paid? I'll just say a thousand dollars, just to keep it simple. And all of a sudden they advertise your same room, same category, everything is the same, for 900. How does a cruise ship remedy that situation?
Mark Faldmo:So if you're outside of penalty now, the cruise lines don't like to do this, but if you're outside of penalty, you can always cancel it and rebook the cabin. But what they'll do in many cases if it does go down? A lot of them do have the low price guarantee where, if that price goes down in your specific category, they will give you an onboard credit. So they'll make it up to you by giving you money to spend onboard.
Patrick Wiscombe:Who, in your opinion, which cruise line has the best loyalty program?
Mark Faldmo:I think it's a tie. I would go with Princess Cruises I think has the best loyalty program, or Norwegian. Both of those offer you significant things on board, like you know free specialty dining, free internet minutes. So I think they, those two, have the best. I would lean towards Princess myself, but I do like the free specialty meals that come on Norwegian.
Patrick Wiscombe:That's going to do it. Vacation Patrick is officially in motion as soon as I get off the air.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, have a good cruise.
Patrick Wiscombe:Have a good cruises as I should say, back to back to back to back. Baby, you can listen to the show again tomorrow morning 11 am right here on this radio station and, of course, you can stream, download and subscribe to the podcast at InsideTravelTalk. com. If you don't want to subscribe, you can just literally stream the show on InsideTravelTalk. com. If you don't want to subscribe, you can just literally stream the show on InsideTravelTalk. com. Just go to the latest show, just press play and you'll get to hear the sultry voices of Patrick and Mark. If you want to book any of the vacations that we've talked about here for the past hour, call Mark in his office. No obligation. Get the conversation started 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. It is now 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. Live your life deliberately. Live your life deliberately. Live your life intentionally. Thank you so much for listening, really thank you. We don't have a show without you. We'll talk to you again next week that's it.
Show Voice: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.
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