Inside Travel Talk

From Rome to Cabo: Your Ultimate Travel Guide

• Mark Faldmo & Patrick Wiscombe • Season 2 • Episode 30

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Ready to navigate the shifting landscape of travel? Southwest Airlines has made a game-changing announcement that will transform how we fly with them. After decades of their iconic open seating policy, they're finally introducing seat assignments! Starting July 29th, passengers can book flights departing January 27th or later with pre-selected seats, choosing from four options ranging from basic to extra legroom. This welcome change eliminates the notorious gate crowding while maintaining Southwest's customer-friendly approach.

Planning a Hawaiian getaway? Take note that advanced reservations for the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor have been suspended due to renovation uncertainty. While the memorial remains open, visitors must now seek same-day reservations or try for standby spots. Meanwhile, Delta continues its reign as America's top domestic airline for the seventh consecutive year, with United, Southwest, Alaska, and Hawaiian rounding out the top five.

For travelers seeking unique experiences, we spotlight private tours in Rome that take you beyond typical tourist paths into underground catacombs and hidden historical treasures. These personalized adventures, led by local guides, offer skip-the-line access and intimate exploration for about $100 per person—comparable to crowded bus tours but infinitely more enriching. Fall visitors to Cabo San Lucas can capitalize on surprisingly low prices (five nights from $999 including airfare) while enjoying prime fishing season or whale watching directly from oceanfront resorts.

Cruise enthusiasts will be intrigued by Travel & Leisure's 2025 rankings, with Virgin Voyages claiming the top spot for the first time. We also highlight HX's expanded Antarctica expeditions offering more opportunities to kayak among icebergs or camp overnight on the continent itself—truly bucket-list adventures. For Panama Canal crossings, October presents excellent options starting from just $1,079 for 16-day journeys.

Ready to turn these travel insights into your next adventure? Connect with us at 888-718-7717 or visit BluePlanetVacations.com to start planning. Remember, travel opportunities await—don't let life's curveballs keep you from exploring our amazing world!

Patrick Wiscombe:

It is the weekend, which means it is time to talk travel. Welcome to the Inside Travel Talk podcast, a radio show Coming up. On today's show, we will be talking about picking your own seat on Southwest Airlines. Advanced reservations to go see the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor have been suspended. We'll give you the details on that. We've got the hot travel deal of the week this week we're going to Mexico, Cabo San Lucas specifically. And we've got hot travel deal of the week this week we're going to Mexico, Cabo San Lucas specifically. And we've got two cruise deals of the week. 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 Welcome to the weekend.

Patrick Wiscombe:

It is the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. Hello there, I'm Patrick Wiscombe, alongside Mark Faldmo, and if you are brand new to this show, we're going to help you plan and book your next vacation, or just give you ideas of where you may want to vacation next, and we are presented by BluePlanetVacations. com. And just a sincere thank you for taking the time to stop and listen and coming up on today's show. We are going to be talking about picking your own seat on Southwest Airlines. After how many years, mark? They've never done this before that I can recall.

Mark Faldmo:

Nope, it's just wherever. Whenever they started, they've always had that open seat policy.

Patrick Wiscombe:

No more. We'll tell you how you can take advantage of that. We've also got advanced reservations for the USS Arizona Memorial, which is in Pearl Harbor. We've got news regarding ticket sales being suspended. There's a little bit more to that story. We'll give you the details. This week we're headed to Cabo. We're going to do a little bit of whale watching. That will be the hot travel deal of the week, and we've got two cruise deals of the week that you'll want to stick around for. But let's get to the travel news headlines. Let's start with the big headline, Mark. I think this is great news for anyone who doesn't want to crowd the gate. I'm going to say that this is probably where gate crowding started with Southwest.

Mark Faldmo:

Yep Southwest, and then they, through different measures, they kind of mitigated that, where you line up in the order that you check in, basically. But now they are starting pre-reserved seat assignments and that actually starts Tuesday, so July 29th. If you're booking a flight on that day for a flight that departs on January 27th or later, you will be able to choose seats on those flights.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Wait, did you say January 27th?

Mark Faldmo:

Yes, so reservations go on sale. To choose your seats on July 29th, next Tuesday. Got it For flights on January 27th or later? Okay, so, basically six months from now, roughly Six months, and Southwest usually releases their schedules in six to eight month increments, so this is their regular release of their winter schedule.

Patrick Wiscombe:

This will be welcome news that you can just pick your seat. Is there going to be any open seating or is this just hey? We're going to assign you a seat now, for everyone.

Mark Faldmo:

Well, everyone will assign a seat, but they do have kind of gone the way of other airlines. So they have a basic fare, which you do not get a complimentary seat until you check in or get to the gate. And then they have choice fare, which will be where you get to choose a seat preferred, which will be seats closer to the front of the airplane, and then choice extra will be the extra leg room. So they have four different kind of seat choices there.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Such great news because it was chaotic around the gate. This is just a welcome change for anyone flying Southwest.

Mark Faldmo:

Unless you figured out how to game the system like me. Hold on. How did you do it? Well, a few years ago with southwest vacations, kind of on a committee, there was some flight attendants and we had them for like three months track all the empty seats on the airplane, and so we found out that the second to last row on the right side of the airplane, the middle seat, was the most likely to be empty. So that's where I would always sit, and it does work on occasion to get no one sitting there, because when it starts getting full, people take all the empty seats ahead of that, and then if they're going to the back of the plane, they always look to the right for a seat. So that's true. You're on the on the left side of the seat that you know. Second or third row back you're more likely to have. You were more likely to have an empty seat, you know what you're right.

Patrick Wiscombe:

You always look to the right first. Yeah, so oh how interesting. Okay, so it's not insider trading, this is inside seeding Seeding yeah, so this is how you. Although that trick is now gone, we do have some news about Pearl Harbor, specifically for tickets for the USS Arizona Memorial, that the advanced reservations have been suspended.

Mark Faldmo:

We've got details on that Well a few years ago the Arizona Memorial actually had some damage due to shifting, and so it was closed for a long period of time. It's been open for several years now, but they do need to do some additional renovations, additional work on that. You used to be able to go in 56 days in advance of when you wanted to go and reserve a time to go to the Arizona Memorial. So what they've done is suspended that reservation. They may open up 24 hours before. So if you want to go tomorrow, you could look on the site and see if it's there or just take standby reservations as spaces available just when you're there that day. So they're not closing the memorial. They just don't know when it'll actually be open, which hours of the day, and so they not closing the memorial. They just don't know when it'll actually be open, which hours of the day, and so they're planning around that. So you now can't go in well in advance to reserve your Arizona memorial.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Pearl Harbor itself is open. It's just to the USS Arizona, where you have the iconic that white.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah the white building Platform over the viewing platform over the Arizona.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Yeah that is special it is. I was surprised at how alive the boat was. It was still leaking oil. I saw a little softball sized drop of oil if that's a drop, come up and I was like, oh my word, this thing is still leaking oil. I was surprised how alive the ship was in that regard.

Mark Faldmo:

It is a great place to visit.

Patrick Wiscombe:

You have a list of the best domestic airlines for 2025. Who are the top airlines domestic airlines in this particular news?

Mark Faldmo:

story. First of all, this is from a publication, the Point Sky, and they do this every year. They put out the top domestic airlines. What they look at is 30% reliability, 25% of the score is experience, 20% is cost and reach and 25% is loyalty.

Patrick Wiscombe:

When they talk about reach, are you talking about their network of where they fly, correct?

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah, so. So pricing and where they fly, okay, Um and so, for the seventh year in a row, delta Airlines was number one, which is good for us here in the Salt Lake market, major hub for Delta. Number two was United Airlines, which is up one spot from last year. This one surprised me. Number three was Southwest Airlines, which is up two spots, and then Alaska Airlines was down two spots, came in at number four and Hawaiian Airlines up two spots to number five Delta. I'm glad to see there. That was no surprise. The jump the Southwest made with all of the talk and everything that's been happening, that was surprising to me.

Patrick Wiscombe:

We want you to be part of the show. If you have travel-related questions, while we are on the air right now, as you're listening to us, send us your travel-related questions, text them or call them to 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. Why do I bring that up? Well, the destination of the week, which is always in this segment, is a question that was texted to us from Marianne. In that text she says I want to do something unique in Rome. What are Mark's recommendations?

Mark Faldmo:

There are several different ways you can do tours in Rome. I have a company I work with that I love to do. They have all local tour guides and they're all private tours, so the tours are just priced on, usually like one to six people, maybe one to 10 people. I'm just priced for the whole tour, and so I really like these private tours because you get a little bit more one-on-one, you get a more in-depth and more localized tour In Rome, a tour that I was looking at. It's called Ancient Rome, an underground experience. This is with a private tour. You can do this one for up to six people for about $600 total. It's a half day tour but it does a lot of the typical sites you would want to see in Rome, like the Forum, the Colosseum, but then it goes in to some places that not a lot of people go, you know, down into the underground, into the catacombs and some of the different parts of Rome that many tourists just don't go to, and so generally speaking.

Patrick Wiscombe:

You skip all the lines too. You just go straight to the front.

Mark Faldmo:

With a lot of these. Yes, and so you know this company. I love working with them. I have actually they're in Rome too. I have a family going to Rome, and so I did a two day tour in Rome too. I have a family going to Rome, and so I did a two-day tour in Rome for them. So they're with the tour guide the whole time, just doing different things before they go get on a cruise.

Mark Faldmo:

And one thing I like about this is the tour guide. They're flying in actually to Rome on Christmas Day, going on on Christmas Day. Do you want me to pick them up from the airport and take them to a private cooking class or something? Oh, wow, and so you know they'll just do unique things like this and it's a really good way to see these destinations. I like touring of any way, but when you can do it with a private guide, like that ancient Roman underground experience, it's like $600. You can do that up to six people, so about $100 a person to do that, which is as much as a bus tour with 40 other people.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Yeah, you might as well just do it by yourself, or you know?

Mark Faldmo:

minimal number. Do a private with a private local guide?

Patrick Wiscombe:

Let me give you out the text in the studio line. Right now we're getting a text from is this Jacob? Yeah, it is 801-649-3700,. 801-649-3700 is how you get a hold of the show, either during the week or while we're on the air. Jacob wants to go fishing and whale watching in Cabo, and he also wants to see Sammy Hagar at his bar. Yes, yep, okay, I made that part up. Patrick wants to go to Sammy Hagar's bar. When is the best time to go? Is his question.

Mark Faldmo:

He had two different parts fishing and whale watching. Fishing in Cabo. The best time to go is September through November and whale watching is December through April, so you'll see whales. Starting in October the fishing does go down. So when we talk about the deal, I actually looked at a mid-October date for Jacob fishing in Cabo.

Mark Faldmo:

I've not been much for kind of that outdoors fishing thing, but I did go fishing in Cabo once. We had a company that had a fishing and golf tournament, but by day four all of their people were fished out. So we had all these fishing boats sitting there. So I went out by myself with the boat crew. They had four lines in the water. I caught 20 mahi-mahi in about two hours. I was so tired and I was like let's go back. And I, but you still have three hours left. So I was like no, let's go back. And you know Cabo is a really good place for fishing because you know, right there at Land's End it's the continental shelf that gets deep and so as the current comes in it stirs up all the food right there, just right outside of Cabo. So a great place for fishing.

Mark Faldmo:

Also about Cabo is the last few months it's really dropped in prices. So what I looked at was October 15th for five nights for Jacob, so this is more in the fishing season than the well-watching season. But a four-star at the Vila del Palmer is $999 a person and that includes airfare right yeah, that's airfare. That was on United Airlines, the Five Nights Hotel and transfers, and that also does include that standing promotion. We've been talking about up to $200 off per reservation.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Okay, and this includes the $200 off, correct? This includes?

Mark Faldmo:

the $200 off, correct? Okay, yeah, and so you know, but overall this is about $300 lower than what we've seen the same thing in Cabo previously. Oh yeah, yep. And then you know, jumping up to five-star hotels the Rio Palace Cabo is $1,279. Probably my pick is the Grand Fiesta Americana, which is $1,689 per person. That one is kind of up on a cliff and the hotel terrace is down to the beach. I love the views from there. I just remember during whale season, sitting in my room, I could just look out and watch the whales just right out there from that Grand Fiesta Americana. Those are all three really good choices in Cabo. Just look out and watch the whales just right out there from that Grand Fiesta Americana.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Those are all three really good choices in Cabo. Take advantage of those offers, Jacob. If you haven't booked it already, call Mark in his office during the break or when you get a second, no obligation 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717,. 888-718-7717. And also take advantage, Marianne, about the private tours in Rome. You won't be disappointed. 888-718-7717. When we come back, it is the segment of the show that we are famous for. We just simply call it the infamous Just Cruising segment, where it's only about the cruise news and it's only about cruise deals. That is next when the Inside Travel Talk podcast, a radio show, continues. Alongside Mark Faldmo, I am 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.

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We'll be right back Inside. Travel Talk is brought to you by anna. Waterways, from castles and capitals to vistas and villages visit some of Europe's most remarkable sites and cities to set out on your own river cruise journey. Contact blue planet 888-718-7717 or blueplanetvacations. com.

Show Voice:

Now back to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show Presented by blueplanetvacations. com, America's best travel advisors. Call or text the show right now 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. And check out the podcast at InsideTravelTalk. com.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Here's Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo oh, the beautiful ship horn of Norwegians, aqua, coming up in this segment of the Inside Travel Talk podcast, a radio show. We will be talking about camping and kayaking in Antarctica. What does that? Got to do with cruising, because HX is offering it, and I saw this headline that Margaritaville at Sea has details on their new flagship. So you and I were on Margaritaville at Sea. What was it? It was the Paradise, paradise. And then they came out with a new flagship called the Islander, if I've got that correct, that's correct. And then. So these are details on their new flagship. I don't know when it comes out. In fact, let's start there. What is the name of their new flagship? I don't know when it comes out. In fact, let's start there. What is the name of their new flagship and what details do we have?

Mark Faldmo:

Their new ship is going to be the Margaritaville Beachcomber. It'll be a refurbished ship. It was formerly the Costa Fortuna, which is a 100,000 gross ton ship.

Ad Voice:

Oh, big ship it's about.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah, it holds about 2,700 passengers. Right now we just know the name of it. We don't know where it's going to sail or what it's going to do, but it will have many of the iconic Margaritaville venues, like Five O'Clock Somewhere, Bar Cheeseburger in Paradise there we go, which is awesome Licensed to chill nightclub. So I'm interested to see where that ship is going to sail.

Patrick Wiscombe:

HX. Refresh my memory, isn't that the more expedition portion of the company?

Mark Faldmo:

So it's expedition cruising. HX is now its own company. It used to be Hurtigruten and they are now two fully separate companies. They have some really interesting shore excursion options. They have some really interesting shore excursion options In their Antarctica season. They are increasing their kayaking capacity by 188% and they're doubling their camping capacity. One of the excursions you can do on Hurtigruten in an Antarctica cruise is they take you ashore by Zodiac with camping equipment and you actually spend the night on Antarctica.

Mark Faldmo:

Oh, see, that I would do in a second, yeah, and so you know that's, you know really for the adventure. But they provide all of the equipment for that a tent, insulated sleeping mat so they include everything you need. They do advise, if you're going to do that, to just make sure you are responsible for your own warm clothing. That's just a unique experience that I would love to do Camp for a night, and they've offered this, but they've not had the capacity. It used to be on a lottery system, so you would put in your name and get drawn from a hat. They still don't have enough for the whole ship to do it, but it's now not a lottery, so it's just on a first come, first serve, because the ship's like 200 people and they have like 90 spots for this, so they have plenty of space for generally anyone who wants to do it.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Let's get to the uh, the world's best cruise line awards for 2025. Where do you want to start? Five let's go backwards.

Mark Faldmo:

This is from Travel and Leisure. They have a whole bunch of different categories, but we're just going to take cruise line overall. Number five is Royal Caribbean.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Really, there are only five. I would have thought they were up there, okay.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah yeah. Number four is Princess Cruises. You're a big fan of Princess too. I love Princess. Number three and this is a surprise is Costa Cruise Line, which is an Italian cruise company owned by Carnival Corporation.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Yeah, that is a little surprising. Have you ever sailed?

Mark Faldmo:

Costa. I have sailed Costa to the Norwegian fjords, yeah. Number two is Celebrity. Oh, dude, I love Celebrity. And number one is Virgin Voyages. Really, this is their first time on this list as number one. We've talked about Virgin Voyages quite a bit. I think that's a well-deserved number one spot. There are a couple surprises on this list. The first surprise was Costa. They typically don't even show up on this list. They weren't in the top 10 last year, so they've done quite a bit to get up there. They're very Italian and so that's what you know. A lot of Americans cruise on it and it's too European for them. Number two surprise is that Norwegian didn't make the top five. That's surprising. Yeah, in a different part of this survey where they rated all the small ships, and even on this overall, Viking has always been on that list. So Viking, for like 10 years in a row, has been the number one small to midsize cruise line and they dropped to number three behind Crystal Cruises and Explorer Journeys.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Cruise deal of the week, which is always in this segment of the show. We just simply call this the infamous just cruising segment and during the break, we received a text. From who is this Rachel? It is Rachel, Rachel. From who is this Rachel? It is Rachel, Rachel. 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700 is how you get a hold of the show when we're on the air, and even when we're off the air to ask your travel related questions. Rachel is asking are there any good Panama Canal cruises in the fall? And the answer is yes, absolutely. Availability really isn't an issue, so it's a matter of pretty much when you want to go.

Mark Faldmo:

October is the best time. It's when all the ships, all the cruise lines are sending their ships from Alaska into the Caribbean, and so there's a lot of these would be called repositioning cruises, although it is a true Panama Canal, but they are repositioning the ships. You know, I found two One is a good price and one is a good itinerary. So the first one is sailing on October 11th. It's a 16-day cruise on Carnival Cruise Lines, on the Carnival Spirit. It goes from Seattle to New Orleans. It has stops in Cabo San Lucas, Punta Arenas, which is in Costa Rica, then goes through the Panama Canal to Cartagena, Colombia, and ends in New Orleans. This one starts at $1,079 per person for an inside cabin or $1,999 for a balcony cabin.

Mark Faldmo:

And that's 16 days. You say 16 days? Yeah, so that is you know. For the inside that's less than $100 a day and for a balcony it's a little bit over $100 a day. The next cruise is also a Panama Canal cruise. This is probably the one I would choose just because of the ports. It's Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale. It's also 16 days, but it visits Puerto Vallarta, Huatulco in Mexico, which is one of my favorite places, goes to Chiapas in Mexico and then goes to Punta Arenas in Costa Rica, then goes to Fort Amador, which is on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal, so it has a full day there and then the next day it goes through the Panama Canal, goes to Curacao and then ends in Fort Lauderdale.

Mark Faldmo:

Actually, the balcony cabin is where the deal is on this, so we'll just go with that. The balcony cabin is $1949 per person. The inside cabin is way expensive on this how funny. So I didn't check that, but the balcony is actually a little bit less than that Carnival cruise. But that's the one I would choose Again October 27th. Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale and the Panama Canal is a fascinating cruise itinerary. You've raved about it for years. Those places in southern Mexico, I think are just great to visit.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Rachel. I hope that answers your question. If you have follow-up questions, call Mark in his office as soon as we get off the air, but if you need to call now for whatever reason, he will return your call. 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. Take advantage of those offers Going to Rome, going to Cabo, going to go see the fishing and the whale watching that's for Jacob, and you can stream, download and subscribe to the podcast at InsideTravelTalk. com. We are on all of the major podcast platforms and you can just go to the website InsideTravelTalk. com to get all the links or just do a search for Inside Travel Talk. Well, our job is done. Now it's your turn to get out and explore the world while you can, because you never know what curveballs life is going to throw at you. We say this each and every week live your life deliberately and live your life intentionally. Don't let life push you around. Thank you so much for listening. We will talk to you again next week.

Show Voice:

That's it. That's the end of the show. Thank you so much for listening. We will talk to you again next week. Call 888-718-7717. That's 888-718-7717. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.

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