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
Wanderlust Weekly: From Penguin Parades to Irish Escapes
Hidden gems and extraordinary travel experiences await the curious explorer! From Australia's charming penguin parade to luxury villas across the globe, this week's journey through travel possibilities reveals destinations you likely never knew existed.
Mark Faldmo shares his discoveries from the Global Travel Marketplace in Fort Lauderdale, where he connected with fascinating suppliers offering unique adventures. Imagine watching hundreds of bowling pin-sized penguins (just 8-12 inches tall) make their nightly journey from sea to shore on Phillips Island, Australia. Or consider exploring southern New Zealand during winter to witness the spectacular Aurora Australis – the Southern Lights – with optimal viewing in July and August.
For travelers seeking luxury without excessive costs, villa rentals provide surprising value when calculated per room. A fully-staffed five-bedroom beachfront villa in Punta Cana averages $275 per room nightly, comparable to upscale hotels but offering far more privacy and space. Similarly, nine-bedroom villas along Italy's Amalfi Coast start at $200 per room per night – an extraordinary setting at a competitive price when traveling with family or friends.
Adventurous souls will appreciate the newly highlighted five-star tourist railway in Laos, offering scenic daytime journeys with excursion stops and comfortable hotel accommodations. Meanwhile, Florida travelers can experience a rare all-inclusive resort at Sandpiper Bay in Port St. Lucie, providing meals, drinks, and water activities without leaving the United States.
The segment's showstopper deal? Free airfare to Ireland with Globus tours starting at just $1,299 for seven-day itineraries visiting either Northern Ireland or the southern regions. For cruise enthusiasts, exceptional values include MSC Caribbean sailings from $428, transatlantic journeys on Norwegian from $599, and premium Eastern Caribbean cruises on Cunard from $1,215.
Whether you're drawn to wildlife encounters, cultural experiences, or simply phenomenal travel deals, these insights will transform your vacation planning. Ready to experience something truly memorable? Contact Blue Planet Vacations to turn these extraordinary possibilities into your next adventure.
Welcome to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show Coming up. On today's show, mark and I will be talking about bowling, pin-sized penguins, a unique vacation idea, free airfare to Ireland, stinky fruit, India's link to the Boston Tea Party, three cruise deals of the week and is it possible that a fifth Disney park is coming to Florida. 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:Welcome to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. Hello there, I'm Patrick Wiscombe. Mark Faldmo will be here in the studio here in just a moment and, if you are brand new to this show, the entire purpose of this radio show and podcast is to help you plan and book your next vacation and give you some ideas of where you may want to consider going on vacation next. And we are presented by Mark's company, blueplanetvacations. com. And just a sincere thank you for taking the time to stop and listen.
Patrick Wiscombe:Around the country each and every weekend, Saturday and Sunday morning at 11 o'clock. This week we are talking about bowling pin-sized penguins that you can visit, mark. Is that in Australia? I think it is. Yes, that is in Australia. Free airfare to Ireland, stinky fruit, which doesn't sound interesting on the surface, India's link to the Boston Tea Party, three cruise deals of the week and there is a possibility and mark's got the details on this. I don't know if these are exclusive details, but there is talk of a fifth Disney park in Florida. I think there are so many people going to Florida right now that they could probably build it. Mark, what would you say?
Mark Faldmo:I would say that they definitely can build that.
Patrick Wiscombe:You are just getting back from Fort Lauderdale where you spent an entire week going to the global travel marketplace, the GTM meeting. What are some of the suppliers that you came across?
Mark Faldmo:I have a list of about 125 partners around the world that I work with, but this event really introduces me to new suppliers, to new experiences that I can help pass on to travelers. I met five suppliers that I've never even heard of before but would probably sell them.
Patrick Wiscombe:Where do you want to start? Australia? Yeah, let's go there. Let's start in Australia. Okay, let's go with the Penguin Parade on Phillips Island, which is how far from Melbourne?
Mark Faldmo:Yeah, so it's about two hours south of Melbourne and this is something I've never even heard of before, but it sounds like it's a pretty popular thing to do, and it is called the Penguin Parade. What it is is every night, the penguins go from the sea to their nests or burrows and they have bleachers set up where you can watch the penguin parade, so the penguins don't have the bleachers set up. No, no, the little park does. Well, I'm sure the penguins like it too. Oh, I'm sure the penguins like it too, oh.
Ad Voice:I'm sure they do.
Mark Faldmo:You know, and so every night there's between 10 and 5,000 penguins that you can watch. Do this penguin parade? Oh wow, and these are called small penguins. They're about the size of bowling pins eight inches to 12 inches, and it's a very popular thing to do and it is kind of in a conservation area. They also do have a koala conservation center, and so it's just a great new activity that I learned about for Australia.
Patrick Wiscombe:I don't think I'd get past the koalas and them just sitting there eating eucalyptus.
Mark Faldmo:Yeah.
Patrick Wiscombe:I'd probably pause right there going. You know that's pretty cute. What other new suppliers did you find?
Mark Faldmo:You know we're always talking about rail. On this program I learned about a brand new option for rail and this is actually a new tourist line and it's in Laos, so it's a rail system that runs north to south. It's a five-star train. It is a day train, so you travel during the day, see the scenery, it has some stops for excursions, and then you spend the night in hotels. There are some parts of it where you'll get off the train and do parts of the tour by car or some other vehicle and then meet up with the train later in the day or the next day. But it's pretty good pricing it's a 12-day tour that starts at about $2,000 per person.
Patrick Wiscombe:Where's Laos? Isn't that near Vietnam, Thailand area I?
Mark Faldmo:think it is. So, yeah, Laos in, that is, in between Cambodia and Thailand. What an interesting part of the world.
Patrick Wiscombe:One thing that I find myself doing much more than I have ever done in the past is I love staying in hotels. I might be weird that way, but I really do like nice hotels. But one thing that I've been doing lately is I've been going to Airbnbs just seeing what unique properties are around. Didn't you run across somebody that actually has access to villas? That would be very similar to Airbnb.
Mark Faldmo:Yes, I did get actually a new partner that I am registered to sell that has access to 50,000 villas around the world. These are very nice. Most of them are, you know, five star accommodations. The one thing they said when you're looking at a villa, don't look at the total cost, look at the per room cost. Yeah, for instance, they have a villa in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. It's a fully staffed, so it has a full-time maid, a full-time cook, full-time gardener, just to keep up with the place, five bedrooms. And that villa right on the beach, its own pool pool, starts at $275 per room per night, holds up to 14 people, and so when you break that on per room to have your own private space, big lounge, a game room, that actually works out to about the same or a little bit less than some of the hotels in the area, but it's a private residence, just for you.
Patrick Wiscombe:I'm actually starting to go that direction. Unless it's a really nice hotel, I'm really kind of digging these staying in unique properties. I like this idea.
Mark Faldmo:Another one Now. This is larger, but this is a villa on the Amalfi Coast in Italy. It is a nine bedroom villa that starts for $200 per room per night. It comes with a housekeeper, so it doesn't have a chef, all of that. But you get 20 people there to spread out that cost, and this one was perched up on a hill overlooking the water just a very beautiful setting. And this company has all sorts of villas around the world and the guy that I talked to was the guy that does their buying and he says everything we have has to be a great location with a great view. So that's kind of their philosophy. If there's a group of you, renting a villa is not unaffordable. You may look at the total price and say, oh, that's a lot, but if you break it down per room, it's not that much more than staying in a hotel.
Patrick Wiscombe:We've already talked about Australia, but let's stay kind of close. Let's go to New Zealand. What's available there, assuming that there is something we talk a lot about the Northern Lights and Aurora Borealis.
Mark Faldmo:Oh yeah, I met a company in New Zealand. What they do are Southern Lights, which are called Aurora Australias. They do tours that are based around the Southern Lights in New Zealand. Right now is the best time to see the southern lights, so optimal time is between April and September, which is their winter. July and August are the best two months in southern New Zealand for the southern lights.
Patrick Wiscombe:Let's work our way back to the United States, Florida, which is where you spent all of last week meeting all of these suppliers. Any new suppliers in Florida?
Mark Faldmo:One thing I learned about was a resort called the Sandpiper Bay Resort. It's in Port St Lucie, just halfway between Orlando and Miami, on the East Coast, and this is a family-friendly, fully all-inclusive resort. In the US we don't talk much about all-inclusive resorts because there just aren't any, but this is a hotel that includes all your drinks, meals, non-motorized water sports, right on the east coast of Florida.
Patrick Wiscombe:And what's the airport that's closest to St Lucie?
Mark Faldmo:The closest airport would be West Palm Beach, but you could really fly into Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando that's about two hours away. They do have a Brightline stop. That's about 20 minutes away from their resort, so you could take the train to that as well.
Patrick Wiscombe:You know, you and I are huge Brightline fans, Brightline train fans. It is such an easy way to get up and down that East Coast.
Mark Faldmo:It is, yeah, very affordable too. It is Same with the US's 250th year, so they were trying to make that link. They have an independence sale that kind of celebrates India's independence and US independence. The link is the tea that was thrown into the harbor at the Boston Tea Party came from India. There we go. So that's the link they were making. But this company has seven to 19 day cruises in India. The river cruises are mainly in the eastern part of the country, and so they also do some land tours to the Golden Triangle, which is where most tourists visit Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, where you'll see the Taj Mahal, and then you can go do one of their seven to 19 day river cruises in the other part of the country. They're all five star, super deluxe. Almost everything that I met with in India is really deluxe, but also really good prices.
Patrick Wiscombe:Now, one of the things that was on the rundown was stinky fruit, and I talked about it at the top of the show. What's this stinky fruit about?
Mark Faldmo:So the name of the fruit is durian. It's mainly in Indonesia, Borneo, when I was talking about this was a person that did tours in Borneo and it was kind of like glamping things like that, but they brought up the durian. The durian is a fruit that in Indonesia it is banned from public markets because it smells so bad. It often smells like raw sewage. It just smells really bad. It's in the same family as breadfruit, but if you can get your brain around actually eating it, it is actually a very sweet and delicious fruit. I don't know if my brain would allow me to eat it if it smells that way. That's just what I was thinking here have some poo yeah smells that way.
Mark Faldmo:That's just what I was thinking. Here have some poo, yeah. So you know, I've I've seen that on like the food network, like food challenges, where they try and eat that it does taste very good if you can get past the smell from what people say. So so you know, that's a kind of more of a trivia thing. Um, but if you're ever in Indonesia, Borneo kind of in that area of the world- it's a unique thing to do.
Patrick Wiscombe:Last thing before we go to break, of course, the hot travel deal of the week, which is free airfare to Ireland. Everyone's ears just went what I just heard free airfare to Ireland. What are the details? This is with.
Mark Faldmo:Globus and a few weeks ago we talked about these escape deals, which were off season, you know December through February dates. They have just come out with a new promotion and we've sold several of them at Blue Planet Vacation, so I'm not sure how long this is going to last. But they have two tours that are offered Northern Ireland Escape, which is round-trip Dublin, that goes up to Northern Ireland, and then they have an Irish Escapes, which is also seven days, starts from Dublin but does the southern part of Ireland. These tours start at $12.99, including airfare and the seven-day tour. Now this is from major gateways like Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, to add on from Salt Lake. I think it's another $200 or $300 to add on from Salt Lake, but that is still a great deal, oh yeah.
Patrick Wiscombe:That's what I was just going to say.
Mark Faldmo:And actually and I have not looked at this, I'm just looking at my inbox right now I just got an email from Globus that they also do have a Scotland tour. Now, this one does not include airfare, but for January and February Scotland tours, that tour starts at $699. Plus airfare. Okay, so they have some of those British Isle tours that are just great prices right now for off-season and, as we talked about off-season, less crowds, it is a little bit cooler weather, but it's a great time to visit these destinations.
Patrick Wiscombe:See, this is what this show is good at we give people ideas of where to go that they hadn't even considered, of where to go that they hadn't even considered. If you have heard anything that has piqued your interest, call Mark in his office at the break. I know that we're on the air right now, but call him. He will return your call, or someone in his office will return your call immediately 888-718-7717, 888-718-7717. And you can also find Mark at blueplanetvacations. com. When do we come back? The very segment that we are famous for. It is the infamous Just Cruising segment. We've got three cruise deals of the week going out of Port Canaveral, Barcelona and Miami. And, of course, we've got the cruise news of the week going out of Port Canaveral, Barcelona and Miami. And, of course, we've got the cruise news of the week that is next when the Inside Travel Talk podcast, a radio show, continues alongside my good friend Mark Faldmo. My name is Patrick Wiscombe. Thank you so much for listening. We will be right back.
Show Voice:Taking you to destinations around the world. The Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show is presented by BluePlanetVacations. com, America's best travel advisors. Call or text the show now 801-649-3700, 801-649-3700. Thanks for listening. We'll be right back. 3700.
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Show Voice:Now back to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show presented by blueplanetvacations. com InsideVacations. com America's best travel advisors. Call or text the show right now 801-649-3700, 801-649-3700. And check out the podcast at InsideTravelTalk. com.
Patrick Wiscombe:Here's Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo All aboard for the infamous Just Cruising segment right here on the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. Hello there, I'm Patrick Wiscombe. Hope you are having a terrific weekend, whether you are listening to us Saturday or Sunday around the country at 11 o'clock am Mountain Time. Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your weekend Coming up in this segment of the show, the segment of the show that has made us famous worldwide well, definitely here in US the infamous Just Cruising segment, where it's only about the cruise news headlines and the cruise deals of the week, of which we have three. But let's first get back to the cruise news headlines. This was kind of a jarring headline, mark, when Norwegian Cruise Line has canceled that's the jarring word, cancels 40 plus cruises on two ships. What are the details? This is for.
Mark Faldmo:November 2026 through March 2027. They canceled Norwegian Breakaway out of San Juan and Norwegian Prima out of New Orleans. But here's the catch they just switched the ships. So the Prima is going to San Juan and the Breakaway is going to New Orleans. Same date, same itineraries, just different size ships. But this far out those ships aren't full and so people will still get the cruise they want. Now some people may have chosen New Orleans to go on the Norwegian Prima because it's one of the newest ships, but otherwise you're not missing a whole lot if you are booked on one of those cruises and decide to stay on the sailing just on a new ship.
Patrick Wiscombe:This one kind of surprised me, though, when you got back and you were talking to me about Disney has a plan or at least they're discussing plans to come up with a fifth park theme park in Florida oversight district, which is what Disney World is governed under.
Mark Faldmo:They have land set aside for a possible fifth theme park as well as some other small parks, and I think Disney is feeling a little bit left behind with Epic Universe with all of the vacuum that that created, because it had such a good release kind of sucked the wind out of a lot of things Disney was trying to do. I think the last new park that Disney made was Animal Kingdom.
Patrick Wiscombe:That's pretty old, which was 30 years ago. Yeah.
Mark Faldmo:And so they're trying to come up with a new option and get some of that focus back on Disney.
Patrick Wiscombe:While we were at the break, we received a text from was this Jamie? Yeah, Jamie, yeah, she sent a text during the break that said in the past you and Mark have mentioned to always get a balcony cabin on a cruise ship. I want to take a river cruise, but many ships don't have a balcony. Should I only look at ships with a balcony? The answer is probably no, because I know that there's French balconies, there's infinite verandas, so I'd probably say no. What's your opinion, mark?
Mark Faldmo:You know, as we've talked about in the past, a lot of river cruise ships do not have a balcony. But they do have French balconies where the whole wall opens up, or they have, like on the MSC cruise ship, where the window goes down and it turns your whole room into a balcony.
Patrick Wiscombe:Yeah.
Mark Faldmo:The reason for that is is to give you more space. The room that that balcony takes out of your cabin makes your room smaller, so I would go with just even a large picture window. There are some older ships that don't have opening windows, which is probably fine, although I do like the option to be able to open up the wall and turn it into a balcony. But I'll tell you what might be a problem when you're in port. A lot of the river crew ships dock side by side, and so you might have to walk through three to five ships just to get ashore, which is kind of interesting, but if you're one of those middle ships, you wouldn't be able to enjoy your balcony anyway. And also just a warning every night, make sure your curtains are closed, because you might wake up and have someone looking right into your room from the other cabin. So how you doing? Yeah, yeah, you know. And then another reason why a balcony is not quite as important.
Mark Faldmo:There are a lot of places on the river. Let's take the Central Rhine, for instance. You'll want to have a 360-degree view and you'll want to go through the scenic cruising, probably on the sun deck, when you're doing the Central Rhine, that stretch of river I think it's about a 30-mile stretch of river has the highest concentration of castles in the world. Oh wow. So you want to have a 360 degree view anyway, you might do that on your balcony and get half the castles, but you never know what's on the other side, unless you're where you can see it.
Patrick Wiscombe:Always in this segment of the show is the Crucial of the Week, and we've got three that we need to talk about. Where do you want to start here, Mark Well?
Mark Faldmo:let's start with what I think is the best overall value, which is a seven-day Caribbean cruise December 14th from Galveston on MSC Cruise Lines. So this visits Costa Maya, Roatan and Cozumel begins and ends in Galveston Probably one of the best prices in a while and ends in Galveston Probably one of the best prices in a while. Inside cabins start at $428 per person. Balcony cabins start at $619 per person.
Show Voice:Wow, what ship is this on?
Mark Faldmo:What MSC this is on the Seascape.
Patrick Wiscombe:Oh, okay, so good, it's a newer ship.
Mark Faldmo:It's a newer ship. Yeah, very good pricing. They're just before Christmas. If you want to get away when it's just starting to get cold here, great time to go First two weeks of December best time to travel You're going to find the best deals.
Patrick Wiscombe:What's the cruise deal of the week from NCL?
Mark Faldmo:This is a 12-day transatlantic cruise. It goes from Barcelona to Miami. It does have two ports of call, so Cadiz, which is Seville, spain, and Ponte Delgada, which is in the Azores, and then with several days at sea. But what makes this a good deal is the price. The inside cabin starts at $599 per person for the 12-day cruise and a balcony cabin starts at $1299 per person. Wow.
Mark Faldmo:So again you know, transit lot and cruises, if you like, cruising days at sea, just want to get from one place to another, with some very interesting ports. The Azores are something that a lot of people probably would like to go to, but don't go to a lot this is a great way to do that.
Patrick Wiscombe:What ship is this on the NCL ship, that is, on the Norwegian Jewel, and then the last one is out of Miami. But that's the only detail I have.
Mark Faldmo:This is a 12-day cruise and what I like about this it's on Cunard. So it goes to Miami, it visits the Eastern Caribbean cruise plus what you'd get on a lot of Southern Caribbean cruises. So you know San Juan, St John, St Thomas, but also gets down to Barbados, some of those other spots Does this one, get down to Phillipsburg Maho Beach, where the planes fly in over your head.
Mark Faldmo:It does. Yes. So this cruise for 12 days starts at $1,215 for an inside cabin so about $100 a day and a balcony starts at $1,880 per person oh, it's about $160.80 per person, oh, wow. It's about $160 per person per day.
Patrick Wiscombe:Is that a 12-day or a 21-day?
Mark Faldmo:That is a 12-day. So it is that one is a January 8th departure and Cunard has nine, 12 and 21 days run in the wintertime. Cunard is a good cruise line. It's considered more of a premium line. It's very British but a good way to go.
Patrick Wiscombe:Man, you really brought your A game this week with the cruise deals of the week. Take advantage of those offers. This is for January 2026. And MSC is December 14th and NCL is October 15th 2025. Take advantage of those. Get out and see the world while you can Call Mark in his office, get the conversation started, no obligation 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. Take advantage of those offers.
Patrick Wiscombe:You can listen to this show again tomorrow morning, Sunday, at 11 am and around the country at 11 am, right here on the radio station that you're listening to right now, and you can stream, download and subscribe to the podcast If you want an encore presentation of the show at InsideTravelTalk. com. We are on all of the major podcast platforms and we have links to all of those podcast platforms on InsideTravelTalk. com. Well, it's your turn now to get out and explore the world while you can, because you never know what Curveball's life is going to throw at you and hopefully you haven't experienced any of those curveballs lately. Live your life deliberately. Live your life intentionally. Thank you for listening. We don't have a business, we don't have a show without you. Have a great week. We will talk to you again next week.
Show Voice:That's it. That's the end of the show You've been listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show with Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo, presented by BluePlanetVacations. com. Book your adventure right now. Call 888-718-7717. That's 888-718-7717. Thanks for listening.
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