Inside Travel Talk

Beyond the Horizon: Exploring Budapest, Cruise News, and Last-Minute Deals

• Mark Faldmo & Patrick Wiscombe • Season 2 • Episode 31

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Ever wondered what it would be like to see Walt Disney "back from the dead"? This week's adventure takes you through the magical new animatronic Walt at Disneyland's Main Street Opera House, created for the park's 70th anniversary celebration after two decades of planning.

We're diving deep into travel innovation with the TSA's new family-friendly screening lanes rolling out at select airports nationwide. This game-changer features dedicated lines for families managing strollers and diaper bags, plus a 15% family discount on PreCheck applications. European travelers, mark your calendars for October 12th—the long-awaited implementation date for Europe's new border entry system.

Budapest beckons in this episode as we share insider recommendations for this architectural marvel. From the picture-perfect Intercontinental Budapest overlooking the Danube to must-visit sites like the Gothic Parliament building and moving "Shoes on the Danube" memorial, we'll guide you through the perfect Budapest experience—including where to find the most authentic Hungarian goulash and stretch strudel cooking classes.

Train enthusiasts shouldn't miss our hot deal on the Canyon Spirit train between Denver and Moab, featuring complimentary Silver Leaf Plus upgrades worth $600 per person. Meanwhile, cruise lovers have plenty to celebrate: Norwegian's ambitious 2027 deployment plans, Carnival's game-changing $600 million Celebration Key beach destination, and a nostalgic Love Boat cast reunion cruise this November with original stars including Julie, Isaac, and Gopher.

Ready to experience Norway's stunning coastal landscapes? Our exclusive Hurtigruten deal saves you up to $3,000 on their Original Coastal Express—a 12-day journey with 34 port calls perfect for Northern Lights viewing this fall.

Connect with Mark and the team at Blue Planet Vacations (888-718-7717) to turn these travel inspirations into your next unforgettable adventure. The world is waiting—what are you waiting for?

Patrick Wiscombe:

Welcome to the Inside Travel Talk podcast, a radio show Coming up. On today's show we will be talking about Walt Disney returning from the dead. We've got details and we've said this for a very, very long time the family that screens together stays together. We've got a last minute deal. If you love trains, stay tuned for the Canyon Spirit last minute deal and the game changer for Carnival. And we have good news the Love Boat cast is getting together. 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, 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, alongside Mark Faldmo. He'll be here in just a moment. He's in the other room printing some stuff off and if you are brand new to this show, the entire purpose of this radio show and podcast is to help you, your friends, your family, whoever you want to go with to book your next vacations or just give you ideas of where you may want to consider vacationing next. And we are proudly presented by my friend Mark Faldmo Company, blueplanetvacations. com. And again, just a sincere thank you for taking the time to stop and listen. Coming up on this show, walt Disney is returning from the dead and we have said for years and years that the family that screams together stays together. And we've got the game changer, or at least a potential game changer, for carnival. And good news. If you are a fan of the love boat, mark one was a love boat on. Was that early 80s, mid 80s?

Mark Faldmo:

no, I think it was mid 70s. Oh dear so yeah, I think it was like 1977, isish.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Okay. Well, if you are an older listener of the show, then you will be happy to know that the Love Boat cast is getting back together. But first let's get to the travel news headlines and let me, just at the top of the show here, let me give out the studio and text number. We want to answer your calls and take your questions during the show 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700 if you have a travel related question, Mark, let's start with the travel news headlines. Tsa has unveiled a dedicated family screening lane.

Mark Faldmo:

This, I think, is a great idea.

Mark Faldmo:

I don't know why they didn't think of this earlier.

Mark Faldmo:

They're rolling this out right now at select airports where there is a dedicated line that is built for and they're able to handle strollers, diaper bags and everything else that comes with people along with families traveling together. I think it'll speed the process up for everybody. Where there's a line that is dedicated to some of those more specialty items is a great idea. And right now it is in kind of its test phases and they chose a great airport for the testing of it and it's Orlando International Airport, so where you get lots of families traveling together, and the other one is Charlotte Airport, charlotte Yep. Soon they hope to be rolling this out to Orange County, Honolulu, Charleston, Jacksonville, providence, Rhode Island, San Juan, Puerto Rico and Tampa are the next airports that will get this family screening lane. And also another thing along with this, the TSA has announced there is a family discount for pre-check oh really. So the family can apply and it would be $85 per person to get pre-check instead of the $100 it currently costs now on an individual basis.

Patrick Wiscombe:

So 15% off, basically Correct. Okay, Europe has set a new date for its new border system. This is the story that just won't go away because Europe can't pull its act together. The ETIAS, which is Electronic Travel Initiative Authorization System, I think, is what that stands for.

Mark Faldmo:

I'm real close to it Anyway, they're tripling the fee?

Patrick Wiscombe:

to what? 20 euro or euros?

Mark Faldmo:

yep, so that's about no 27 almost 30 a person, but it'll cost to get this new and basically it's an entry and exit system. Yeah, and so this does. Finally, they have a date set October 12th. That's just here. In a few weeks, so if you're traveling to Europe on October 12th or after, you will need to use this new entry and exit system.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Walt Disney is back from the dead Mark. Did you see that headline? I did see that. Wow, Let us clarify. There is an animatronic version of Walt Disney, the founder of Disney World, Disneyland. He's going to be in the Disneyland attraction, which I thought was great. It's good to see Walt back, at least in robotic form.

Mark Faldmo:

Yes, this actually opened last week and that's something for the 70th anniversary of Disneyland. So it's in the Main Street Opera House. 70th anniversary of Disneyland. So it's in the Main Street Opera House. It shows Walt in his office and it goes through the history of the animatronic figures. The animatronic Walt is the presenter. Disney always comes up with interesting things and I'm actually surprised they haven't done this sooner. In one of the stories I read that they've been thinking about doing this for 20 years, but it finally came to fruition on the 70th anniversary of.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Disneyland. So they were thinking about doing it for the 50th anniversary, which kind of would have made more sense than 70. You received was this a call or a text from James earlier.

Mark Faldmo:

It was actually both, but the specific question came by text.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Okay 801-649-3700 is the text number to get a hold of the show. He has booked a river cruise starting in Budapest with Julie, who is someone who works for you in your office. He wants to know if he should go to Budapest a few days early and where to stay. Should he go a few days early?

Mark Faldmo:

The answer is yes, I would go at least two days, but probably three days early for the river cruise. There's lots of things to do in Budapest Now. Usually river cruises do have a tour included in Budapest, so part of some of the sightseeing is already included. But there's so much to see in Budapest I would go in a few days before. And as far as where to stay, my favorite hotel in Budapest is the Intercontinental Budapest. It's right on the river, it's across from Castle Hill, so at nighttime you see all the buildings and monuments lit up. There's a nice little kind of boardwalk there with lots of shops and restaurants. I think on the show before I've told the story of me just eating a bowl of goulash in a sidewalk cafe, and it was behind the Intercontinental Hotel. Oh, just looking at the river and looking at all of the monuments Castle Hill, the church was all lit up right at sunset time. It was amazing. I would suggest everybody do that once in their life.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Okay, let me paint the picture for you. Mark has traveled literally almost 4 million miles. If something takes his breath away, it's probably pretty good.

Mark Faldmo:

Yes, it's good so that Intercontinental Budapest is where the first place I would look at, and then there are two others. One is the Budapest Marriott. It is also on the river, but it's a little bit further down. I think the Intercontinental just has a prime location. The Intercontinental is also a short walk from a little square which is called Erzbeth Park, which is just a pedestrianized area with shops, restaurants, things to do. There is a hotel I recommend that's right in that Erzbeth Park as well which is the Kempinski Hotel.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Nice hotel.

Mark Faldmo:

It's a very nice hotel. These are all four and a half five star hotels, nice hotel. One interesting thing about that Erzbeth Park there is a Michael Jackson Memorial. There it's a tree and every year at the anniversary of Michael Jackson's death it gets decorated with pictures and memories and all of that and the reason was is because Budapest, I think, was one of the last concerts that Michael Jackson played and every time he was in Budapest he did stay at that Kempinski Hotel right in the park.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Don't they have a room in there specifically for him? It's called the Teehee Suite.

Mark Faldmo:

I think they do yes.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Yeah, what are some of the things that you like to do when you're there?

Mark Faldmo:

If you're into architecture, Budapest is a great place. Oh yeah, when talking about architecture, the Budapest Parliament is an architecture marvel. It was built in 1885, and it's the largest Gothic building in the world. You can just walk around it or there are tours inside. I've taken the tour a few times and it is amazing inside the building as well. The next place I would visit is Buddha Hill, and this is something that often the river cruises will include, but on Buddha Hill it kind of overlooks the city. You have a great view of Parliament.

Mark Faldmo:

It's on the opposite side of the river as Parliament there's Fisherman's Bastion, st Matthias Church, which we've talked about a few times on this show. It was a Christian church and then when the Turks ruled it, it was a mosque. The thing that's nice about this you know a lot of the Turks and Muslims. They don't like the ornate, and so a lot of the churches. They just destroyed all of that ornateness, but I guess they were a little bit lazy and they just covered a lot of it up. So when Christians took the church back over and they took the walls down, they found hidden rooms that were not destroyed. So it has some really early Christian architecture in it Gothic Christian architecture, and that's also another good place that I've had some Hungarian goulash. That's how we bridge the show.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Everything isged with food, with things to do.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah, there's so many great food things around the world and we've actually got another one we'll talk about a little bit later, relating to Budapest. Another monument that is worth visiting, and this is near the parliament. It's called shoes on the Danube. Oh yeah, and it's a tribute to the Jews that were in Hungary and were taken away to the concentration camps. It is a really kind of moving memorial called Shoes on the Danube.

Mark Faldmo:

Budapest has an amazing old town Jewish quarter that's kind of been renovated. I've gone and walked through those streets. It is one of the most amazing Jewish corridors in the world that you can visit. The Great Market Hall oh yeah, definitely worth a visit. It's a fish market and produce and food on the lower level. The upper level is souvenirs. And then one of my favorite things I've done all around the world cooking classes are always great to do, oh yeah, but in Budapest I did a strudel cooking class and it's called stretch strudel, and so you get this dough and everyone gets around the table and stretches it out and then they fill it up and roll it and make it. You make your own strudel. Strudel is one of the good desserts in that area of the world.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Austria. If someone doesn't know what strudel is, how would you explain it?

Mark Faldmo:

So strudel is a pastry with fruit in the middle, usually apple strudel, and so you roll it up and it's like a big log. You cook it and then slice it up, put some powdered sugar on it and eat it kind of like a pie. Well, I can get behind that.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Yeah, apple pie I'm okay with. Yes. Okay now if someone doesn't know what goulash is, what is goulash?

Mark Faldmo:

because you've referenced it a couple times now goulash is a stew usually made with pork or beef. It has lots of paprika in it and it's probably my favorite type of super stew in the whole world. I love goulash. It has potatoes and carrots. Oh, there we go. It's a lot like stew we have here, but it's heavy and paprika Before we go to break.

Patrick Wiscombe:

If you love trains, take advantage of this. This is on the Canyon Spirit, which is formerly Rocky Mountaineer Hot travel deal of the week. What do we have for listeners this week, mark?

Mark Faldmo:

This is the route that goes between Denver and Moab.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Oh, you did this a year ago, literally a year ago.

Mark Faldmo:

So right now they're having on their Silver Leaf Plus service. They are giving complimentary upgrades to that service, which is a value of about $600 per person. What that gets you is your traditional seats on the rail route, but then they have Silver Leaf Plus only a viewing car and a lounge car where you can go sit and play cards and watch things. They have people that tell stories in there. So it's kind of an upgraded exclusive like lounge access type thing that you can get on that canyon spirit train. And this is only on their service that goes between Denver and Moab. Just, I think last week they did just start bringing that train all the way to salt lake. Oh, they did. But this is only on the two-day service, not the three-day service.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Okay, all right, so this is Denver to Moab, or to Moab, yeah, the opposite direction yeah, and you have to book that by august 12th.

Mark Faldmo:

Okay, and it's another thing. I highly endorse it. I'm strange because I love trains so much, but it was a fabulous train through the Rockies and then down through on that southern Utah area yeah, you loved it.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Take advantage of the hot travel deal of the week the Canyon Spirit, formerly Rocky Mountaineer. Call Mark 888-718-7717, 888-718-7717. And he'll also post this information on blueplanetvacations. com when we come back. He'll also post this information on blueplanetvacations. com when we come back. We've got the game changer for Carnival and the Love Boat cast is reuniting and we've got a Norwegian Coastal Voyages save up to $3,000. This is a very, very significant savings, not only from a monetary standpoint. But who you're going with? This is Hurtigruten. That is next. Plus, we've got the cruise news headlines when the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show continues. Alongside 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. Thanks for listening, we'll be right back Inside.

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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. Here's Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo Ahoy mate's.

Patrick Wiscombe:

You are listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast, a radio show. This is the infamous Just Cruising segment. This is the part of the show that has made us famous around the country and hopefully around the world, but certainly here in America, coming up in this segment of the show. We've got the cruise deal of the week and we've got a special deal for Hurtigruten listeners on . This is a promotion that you'll only hear on this show. We'll get to that here in just a second. But let's get to the cruise news headlines and the cruise news mark. Where do you want to start here? Should we go Norwegian?

Patrick Wiscombe:

yeah, let's start there with Norwegian okay, so Norwegian cruise line will be featuring some special things for the 2027 season. Didn't they just announce this? Was it earlier this week or late last week? I don't remember.

Mark Faldmo:

It was late last week. It's actually their deployment for spring and summer of 2027. Its's interesting how far out I've actually seen some cruise lines already announced 2028 deployments. The best time to get in on a cruise if you're looking for price in the most amenities is to book right when the deployments are put out. So if you're looking to cruise in 2027, want to go on Norwegian, now is the time to go and what they've announced they have over 500 voyages across their 20 ships and they're really emphasizing the seven-day voyages and weekend departures. Some other cruise lines have gone to more of the longer cruises but Norwegian is kind of really trying to stick more to that seven-day voyage and also highlight their private island destinations of Great Stirrup Cay and Harvest Cay, which is in Belize.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Have you seen that announcement from Norwegian? It was some massive construction going on on Great Stirrup Cay, which is their private island. They're finally, finally, finally going to put in a pier private island. They're finally, finally, finally going to put in a pier. They're also going to put in a kind of a beach club where the pool is just going to be enormous.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah, it'll be the I think, the largest swimming pool in the world is what I heard, something like that. It'll be a huge swimming pool and then also a water park they're putting in at Great Stirrup Key.

Patrick Wiscombe:

It's funny that you're in the middle of the ocean, literally on an island called Great Stirrup Key. How many miles off the coast are you? 60, 70 miles, something like that, from off the coast of Miami About, approximately. It was so strange that when Nikki and I were there and we were vacationing this was the month of April that we just lived on four cruises back to back to back to back. That the last day before we came home we were sitting on the beach and you could hear construction like big heavy equipment and it was kind of funny to like. We're in the middle of the ocean and we're hearing construction going on.

Mark Faldmo:

It was just kind of funny. Another thing that Norwegian announced is they're really trying to incorporate more overnights. So, in this deployment they'll visit over 150 ports across 59 countries and in that they'll have 170 overnight stays in destinations like Istanbul and Reykjavik. We talk about their Hawaii itinerary that has a couple of overnights in it, and they're also expanding to eight ships in Europe. That again will mostly do seven day itineraries, to begin and end on the weekends, which will allow guests to experience supports a little bit more.

Patrick Wiscombe:

They got to pay for those ships. They do the Aqua Prima, all of them Yep. The best time period Across the board. No last minute cruise deals. Get on the list to be notified. When these new deployments from all of the cruise companies, that is the best time to book your cruise period. It's not even close. It definitely is A game changer for Carnival. This is there. Is this Celebration Key? This is Celebration Key. This could be very, very interesting.

Mark Faldmo:

This is a new private beach destination for Carnival, and Carnival really hasn't been into the private island thing. No, they've kind of lagged behind other cruise lines and so this is a beach destination. It's on Grand Bahama Island.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Which I thought was interesting, because it's not technically, it's not a private island.

Mark Faldmo:

No, it's not, and they're terming it as a private beach destination. So Carnival has invested $600 million in phase one of this new project and it's on 68 acres of land on the south side of Grand Bahama. It has freshwater lagoons, family areas, adult areas, 10-story water slide that's shaped like a sandcastle. So they've really put a lot of thought into this and eventually they're going to expand at an additional 154 acres and the pier will have capacity for two cruise ships at a time. It's open now? Right, I think it is. It is yeah, it opened about 10 days ago.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Okay, that's what I thought. The Love Boat If you're a fan of the 70s TV show the Love Boat, the cast is going to reunite on a themed cruise aboard Regal Princess. What are the details and how?

Mark Faldmo:

can people book that Probably through you? Yeah, they can book it through me and also per our earlier conversation. The Love Boat ran from 1977 to 1987.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Okay, so I'm not crazy. It was, you're not crazy to think early eighties, okay, all right.

Mark Faldmo:

So this Love Boat Reunion cruise they just announced it and it's for November 16th of this year, so just a few months away, and it sails from Galveston. It will have several of the original cast members, kind of the main highlight will be Cynthia Tooze, who was Julie McCoy, the cruise director, and the other kind of headlining was not a regular person on the love boat, but Sharo oh wait, she's still alive. She is, I guess, yep, and so she'll be the main one. But other characters will be on there Vicky Steuben, gopher will be on there, Isaac will be on there oh man, I loved Isaac, he was hilarious. And so it's a seven-day cruise, again from Galveston, November 16th. For being a specialty cruise like this, the prices are pretty good. An inside cabin starts at $608 and a balcony cabin starts at $839. Oh, wow, its ports are Cozumel with an overnight, so two full days in Cozumel, and then Roatan Island with three days at sea.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Gavin McLeod will not be making an appearance.

Mark Faldmo:

He will not, unfortunately.

Patrick Wiscombe:

No, that's too bad.

Mark Faldmo:

I have been on four cruises with the cast of the Love Boat and they're pretty fun to do.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Wait, hold on.

Mark Faldmo:

You've seen the cast that many times, all of the inaugural cruises they invite a lot of the cast back, so I've seen a lot of performances and different things that the cast does. Nowadays it's more of a meet and greet because they're all getting fairly old, but it's fun to see those. That's one thing I like about Princess Cruises. They always on the TV have the Love Boat channel that just plays the Love Boat episodes.

Patrick Wiscombe:

When they leave the port they always play the Love Boat theme on the ship's horn. Ship's horn.

Mark Faldmo:

yeah, which is their ship horn?

Patrick Wiscombe:

Cruise deal of the week. If you want to save significant money with Hurtigruten, we'll make this the cruise deal of the week. If you want to save Hurtigruten money with , we'll make this the cruise deal of the week. What details do we have? I'm assuming it's Norway.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah, it's Norway and you know Hurtigruten talked about in the past. I think it's a great product, a great way to explore coastal Norway, and this is one of the companies I met with a few weeks ago. And we're talking about gtm, the global Travel Marketplace. I've known about them but I had a really good chat with one of the vice presidents there at Hurtigruten Just made me more excited for this product and I've actually had a couple of requests for Hurtigruten.

Mark Faldmo:

Hurtigruten actually has two different products. One is their original Voyage, which is actually used for locals and mail. So they're contracted by the government to do a 12-day round trip that delivers mail and locals can use it as a ferry. They also have a signature Voyage, which is more like a cruise, but it still has lots of little stops on there, and right now Hurtigruten is offering up to $3,000 off their original Coastal Express. So this is the one that operates like a ferry kind of. It's a 12-day round trip from Bergen. Bergen's beautiful and it does stop at places in the middle of the night, but what you miss on the way up you get on the way back during daytime hours, and so you do get to see all of that it has 34 different ports in 12 days.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Whoa.

Mark Faldmo:

They run shore excursions where you might get off at one port but get on the ship in another port, because some of the stops are as short as 10 minutes oh, really quick To as long as four hours, but they have a really good program to get you out to see the different things and back to connect with the ship. This deal is up to $3,000 on select sailings. Most of these are fall sailings, so it'd be a good time, if the Northern Lights are on your bucket list, to do this Norwegian coastal voyage with Hurtigruten.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Take advantage of the cruise deal of the week. That is absolutely worth doing. 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717 is how you get a hold of Mark and his company. You can also get their contact information on blueplanetvacations. com. You can listen to this show again tomorrow morning at 11 am Mountain Time, right here on this radio station and around the country. Plus, you can stream, download and subscribe to the podcast at insidetraveltalk. com or on all of the major podcast platforms. When you go to the website insidetraveltalk. com, we're on all of the major podcast platforms. When you go to the website insidetraveltalk. com, we've got links to all of those podcast platforms. Well, now it's your turn to get out and explore the world while you can, because you never know what curveball's life is going to throw at you. Live your life deliberately, Live your life intentionally. And just a sincere thank you for listening, Mark. Have a good week. You too, Patrick. We'll talk to you again next Saturday and Sunday.

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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