Inside Travel Talk

Malta Awaits: Hidden History, and the Hottest Travel Deals of the Week

• Mark Faldmo & Patrick Wiscombe • Season 2 • Episode 40

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Want a smarter, cheaper way to get away? We connect the dots between policy shifts, route launches, and demand dips—so you know exactly where the value is hiding and how to book it before everyone else notices. First, we break down the new airline rules on power banks and portable charging, plus the U.S. airports with the worst on-time records (and the one quietly earning a solid B). Then we pivot to a destination we love: Malta. With Delta’s new seasonal nonstop from JFK, this sun-soaked, fortress-studded island just became an easy hop for U.S. travelers. We share why Valletta’s harbor arrival ranks among Europe’s most dramatic, where to stay across styles and budgets, and how to plan a tight-but-rich itinerary on an island you can cross in under an hour.

If a beach fix is calling, Cancún is having a rare moment: sidewalks are calm, rates are soft, and a pay-in-full promotion can save up to $550 off your trip. We talk timing, neighborhoods, and one beloved resort pick that always over-delivers. Then it’s “Just Cruising,” where headlines swing from playful (sunscreen-flavored ice cream, anyone?) to practical: AmaWaterways is offering complimentary pre- and post-nights on select New Year’s sailings, Riviera is building a solo-only river ship, and Aranui is adding capacity across French Polynesia with early-book savings to remote islands few ships reach.

Finally, we roll through the top five cruise deals that punch above their price—from a balcony-at-inside-rate Mexican Riviera week to a deep Southern Caribbean Cunard itinerary, a fjords voyage where a balcony is a no-brainer, and a Honolulu-to-Tahiti crossing that delivers the kind of sea days you’ll remember for years. Ready to turn ideas into dates on a calendar? Subscribe, share this with a travel friend, and leave a quick review so we can bring you more deals, smarter routes, and destination intel every week.

PatrickWiscombe:

Thank you for listening to the Inside Travel Talk Podcast, a radio show. Coming up on today's show, we will be talking about vacationing in Cancun. Their numbers are down. Now's a good time to go. Traveling to Malta. Airlines have new rules about charging your devices when you're in the air. The airport with the worst flight delays, Mark was just there. And count 'em. One, two, three, four, five. Cruise deals of the week. Let's start the show. The Inside Travel Talk Podcast radio show presented by Blue PlanetVacations.com contains travel deals, promotions, and offers that are time sensitive. All offers and information were accurate when the show aired.

ShowVoice:

Travel deals and offers change constantly and are capacity controlled and subject to change without notice.com. Call or text the show now. 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. And check out the podcast at Inside Travel Talk.com. And now, here are your hosts, Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Falkland.

PatrickWiscombe:

Oh, thank you so much for listening to the Inside Travel Talk Podcast Radio Show. Hello there. I am Patrick Wiscombe. The entire purpose of this radio show and podcast is to help you plan and book your next vacation. And if you have no idea where to go, well, we're going to give you some ideas of where you may want to vacation next. And we are presented, proudly presented, by my friend's company, Blue PlanetVacations.com. This week we're talking about vacationing in Cancun. Now is the perfect time to go because their numbers are way down, which means they're going to be dropping prices. We're going to go in depth about traveling to Malta. Airlines have new rules about charging your devices when you're in the air or just bringing them on the plane. And we're going to tell you the airport with the worst flight delays. Mark was just there, and we've got five cruise deals of the week. And Mark Faldmo is back from Nashville. Have you had enough barbecue yet?

MarkFaldmo:

I have. I had some of the best barbecue I've ever had. Oh, where'd you get it? Uh, it's called Hunt's Barbecue. Look them up on their Facebook page. It's amazing. Uh, it's a little food truck, and we stopped a tour bus with 50 people there. Um, they were prepared for us, they knew we were coming, but it literally is a food truck just out in the middle of nowhere, Tennessee.

PatrickWiscombe:

Hey Hank, we're gonna need another side of beef in here.

MarkFaldmo:

Yep. Um, he has his own pits that he's built, and it was so good. We ate barbecue actually three of the seven nights with the group. Very good. You know what? Barbecue is one of my favorite foods. This Hunt's barbecue is one of the places that still does whole hog barbecue. So he's built his pits for whole hog. It was so good. It was amazing.

PatrickWiscombe:

Let's get to the travel news headlines. Let's start with the uh new rules for power banks on flights. I guess that would include not only in the air, but it would also include bringing the devices or the battery packs onto the plane.

MarkFaldmo:

Southwest Airlines in May became the first airline to ban passengers from charging devices with a power bank inside your carry-on bags. So I flew Tennessee on Southwest, and one of the announcements they make now is if you have a power bank and you're charging your device, it has to be out of your carry-on bags and in plain sight. In July, a Delta Flight was uh forced to make an emergency landing because the power bank caught on fire, and so now they have to be out. But you know, a lot of international airlines, Lufthansa, Singapore, Thai Airways, China Airlines, each have a similar policy. The nation of South Korea has a nationwide ban on portable charging in flight and has also prohibited passengers from power banks in the overhead bins or underneath the plane. But you just can't bring a power bank on board any flight in South Korea. And Emirates is also going to do the same thing in October.

PatrickWiscombe:

Isn't there a website that has what the amenities, I think that's the right word, for a particular seat?

MarkFaldmo:

Yeah, you can go to uh seatmaps.com and it tells you what is in the seat. You put in your flight number, and so it'll tell you if it has charging, no charging, if it's a preferred seat for the location, or if it has no window, all sorts of different things like that that you don't always get on the airlines website.

PatrickWiscombe:

Let's talk about the airport that was just named the worst in the United States for flight delays. You were just there.

MarkFaldmo:

It is Dallas Fort Worth. It has an average on time rate of just 71%. That's a C minus. Pretty low. Yeah. Yeah, that is. You know, others uh which I'll be going to this week is Ronald Reagan DCA Airport. It is 72%, and Denver is 75%. So those are the airlines that are pretty low in the on-time departures. The opposite of that, Salt Lake City, where we are, is the best airport in the country for on-time performance.

PatrickWiscombe:

If we go with high school and college math, that would be a B. It's a solid B. In your face, Dallas. Yes. Delta is launching direct transatlantic flights to Malta.

MarkFaldmo:

I'm really excited for this. Malta is probably one of my favorite destinations in that Mediterranean region to visit. It's just so unique, and we'll talk about it here in just a minute. But Delta is launching flights starting in June from JFK to Malta. It's not every day, it's three weekly flights, and it'll be seasonal, running from June to October. So basically the peak season. It will be operated by a 767-300 aircraft, which is my favorite because the seating is just 232 of the seven seats. All but one of them is either a window or an aisle. So six of the seven seats on that are a window or an aisle.

PatrickWiscombe:

Yeah, I love those big wide planes. Even though you were in Nashville, Memphis this past week, I know that you and uh someone in your office was working on a trip to Malta for Jennifer. This will be the uh destination of the week, Malta. But let's just go over some of the options that you gave Jennifer during this past week.

MarkFaldmo:

Malta is a small Mediterranean island, and it's just south of the island of Sicily. So it's kind of right there in between Sicily and Egypt. There are three main islands, but most would go to Malta, which is the the main island. It's known for its history. It also has some of the best snorkel and scuba diving areas in the Mediterranean, and it's also known for its sunshine. More than 300 days a year of sunshine. Sounds like Florida. And it's been owned by the Romans, it's been owned by Arabs, it's been owned by the Knights of St. John, which are the hospital knights during the Crusades, it's been owned by the French, and it's in been owned by the British.

PatrickWiscombe:

And there is a lot of influencer.

MarkFaldmo:

Yeah, so it is a real crossroads of civilizations. English is widely spoken, and it's the capital city, which is Valletta, is a UNESCO uh World Heritage City.

PatrickWiscombe:

Valletta is one of those places that a lot of cruise ships are uh flagged out of.

MarkFaldmo:

Yes, they are. Yeah, a lot are flagged in Malta. And speaking of cruises, cruising into Valletta, there in Malta, is probably one of the top five best cities to cruise into just because the city is kind of up on a cliff and you're cruising in and you have all of that architecture to the buildings there, and it's just fascinating to cruise into Valletta.

PatrickWiscombe:

I know you've been to Malta how many times now? Three times. Okay, what did you want to cruise ship?

MarkFaldmo:

But I would love to go back and spend a few days there. One thing I like is it's a small destination, it's not that big of an island. You could actually get around the whole island um of Malta in under an hour, um, but it is so packed with history and great beaches. It's known as a fortress nation. The three cities that are there in Valletta have massive city walls that kind of fortify and go around each city there. And then the other thing I like is the culture. You know, we talked about all of the different cultures that have run that. And the thing that I like is the history that ties back to the Knights of St. John and the Crusades. Go to some of their fortresses that they had, touring through those. It was just fascinating. What hotels did you recommend for Jennifer? The top three that I recommend there are the Phoenicia Malta. It's a five-star hotel right near the city's main gate. It's kind of classic Mediterranean luxury, and then the Zara Palace, and it is inside the old city walls, kind of romantic, quiet, and full of old world charm. Those are kind of the two that I recommend. There's also a Weston if you want kind of a more resort style that has coastline water views, and then there's another one called the Crew Grand Messina, which is a boutique fortress style hotel. So it looks like a fortress, but it's a small boutique hotel.

PatrickWiscombe:

Come stay in our castle.

MarkFaldmo:

Yeah, so some pretty unique places to stay in Malta. It's just a wonderful destination. And now, as we talked about with Delta, starting up the non-stop flight from JFK, be a great time to go visit and see the island of Malta.

PatrickWiscombe:

Let's get to the travel deal of the week, which is not Malta. That was just for Jennifer. We're going to Cancun. We're going to help you save up to $550, but you have to pay in full when you book with Mark.

MarkFaldmo:

This is a special. Save up to $550 when you pay in full. And we've mentioned this over the last few weeks.

PatrickWiscombe:

But listeners are really taking advantage of this.

MarkFaldmo:

They are, yeah. Um, and we actually haven't talked about this one in conjunction with Cancun yet. So I just wanted to point that out that that's a pretty big discount for Cancun. I just had uh one of the guides I work with down in Cancun. He asked me if I could do anything to get more visitors to Cancun. He drove through on Sunday afternoon, drove through Cancun and just had his video, took a video of him driving, and there's no one on the streets in Cancun. Oh, really? It's just looking at that, and he's like, please, please, please have people come to Cancun. And I don't know what it is. You know, September is usually a slower month for Cancun. Cancun had such a big boom during COVID, people went there two and three times, and I think people might be a little bit cancuned out. But I would say if you're wanting to go to a nice beach destination, look at Cancun with this discount of uh $550. And if you go to blueplanetvacations.com, there is a page on there that lists all of the prices for Cancun.

PatrickWiscombe:

Take advantage of that. Yep. That's a good deal. So save up to $550 when you pay in full. So meaning, call Mark, you have to pay for the entire vacation up front. And then, of course, travel. That is an awesome deal. Cancun, amazing. And uh, Mark, just quickly, what's your favorite place to stay down there? Just personally.

MarkFaldmo:

The El Dorado Casita Suites. Yep.

PatrickWiscombe:

I love it. I knew you were gonna say that. Take advantage of that. Get the conversation started, whether it's for Malta, whether it's for Cancun Call Mark at the brig. 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. And he'll put all of this information on blueplanetvacations.com. When we come back, it is time for the infamous Just Cruising segment, the segment of the show that has made us popular around the country and around the world. We've got five cruise deals of the week. We'll give you the details. That's next. When we continue on the Inside Travel Talk Podcast or radio show, alongside Mark Faldmo. I am Patrick Wiscombe. Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your Saturday and Sunday. We will be right back. Give us about 60 seconds.

ShowVoice:

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.

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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.

ShowVoice:

Contact Blue Planet Vacations at 888-718-7717 or Blue Planet Vacations.com back to the Inside Travel Talk Podcast and Radio Show, presented by Blue Planet Vacations.com, America's best travel advisors. And check out the podcast at Inside Travel Talk.

PatrickWiscombe:

Oh boy. You're listening to the Inside Travel Talk Podcast, a radio show, alongside my friend and co-host, Mark Faldmo. I am Patrick Wiscombe. Coming up in this segment of the show, we are talking about five. Count them. One, two, three, four, five. Cruise deals of the week. We'll give you the details on that. And we'll also be going over the cruise news headlines. In fact, Mark, let's just start there. Where do you want to go here? Do you want to go Carnival Cruise Lines or should we go AMA waterways, river cruising? Let's do Carnival because that's that's an interesting story. Okay, Carnival Cruise line guests are already asking for a ban. It's a strong word. On a rumored edition. What rumored edition is that, Mark?

MarkFaldmo:

I can't believe this. When I told Heather last night, she looked at me, her face said, Are you serious? They are going to introduce sunscreen flavored ice cream. Okay. I I can see why people want that band. So I don't I don't know if that is something to uh just get a little bit of media buzz or what, but I I'm not sure. Sunscreen flavored ice cream is uh pretty good flavor.

PatrickWiscombe:

I'll have the copper tone SPF.

MarkFaldmo:

Yeah.

PatrickWiscombe:

I love those artificial chemicals. Very tasty.

MarkFaldmo:

So, well, I don't know. Maybe it's the like what is that? The sunscreen, the sunbum that's coconut. So maybe it's just co it's coconut flavored ice cream in reality.

PatrickWiscombe:

That feels like a total carnival move right there. Yeah. AmaWaterways is offering complimentary nights on select New Year's Eve departures.

MarkFaldmo:

Okay. And so they're offering a free pre-night and a free post-night on seven-day cruises around New Year's. And now, some of these, it's one night in a hotel and one night extra on the cruise ship. But one that I really like, it's on the called the Melodies of the Danube. So it leaves December 24th. The cruise price on that is $3,039 per person. But that also comes with a one night pre-cruise stay. So the night of December 23rd in Budapest, Hungary, and a one night post-cruise hotel stay in Prague on December 31st. Okay, that's pretty good. So that is the one I would choose.

PatrickWiscombe:

Yeah.

MarkFaldmo:

Um, most of the other ones are, you know, like one night in pre-cruise and then one night on the ship. But that one has two stays that are in a hotel. All of those are December 31st or January 1st are the dates of that extra night. So instead of flying home on New Year's Eve, you're experiencing New Year's in the destination, then flying home the next day. That's a good marketing piece right there.

PatrickWiscombe:

Stay here for an extra night and experience the city on New Year's. And that's a good call.

MarkFaldmo:

That's two free nights. You're basically getting either on the ship or in a hotel.

PatrickWiscombe:

So it's I'd probably go hotel in that case. In the in the cities.

MarkFaldmo:

Yep. Well, especially in Prague. I think that would be a fun place to experience New Year's Eve. Agreed.

PatrickWiscombe:

Solo travelers are set to get their own river cruise ship.

MarkFaldmo:

Who's doing this? We've talked a few times about single and solo travel is becoming more and more popular. A lot of cruise lines make you pay double 200%. Um yeah, because you're paying for the other bed basically.

PatrickWiscombe:

Yeah.

MarkFaldmo:

Yeah, and some of them have discounts that they offer. But now Riviera cruise line is making a ship completely geared towards solo travelers. So all they'll sell are solo cabins. That is going to start in 2027. And I'm interested to see how that goes and if other river cruise lines decide to go with that and make some of their other ships exclusively for the single solo traveler.

PatrickWiscombe:

One of your favorite cruise companies, Aranui Cruises, will have two ships sailing French Polynesia in 2027.

MarkFaldmo:

So yeah, they're adding a second ship to the Aranui brand. So they'll have the Aranui 5, which is the one that we've talked about on the show before.

PatrickWiscombe:

Yeah, how many times have you been on the Aranui 5?

MarkFaldmo:

I've been on it just one time, okay, but it probably is the best travel experience that I've ever had. It's so unique and so different. Now in 2027, they're going to introduce the Aranoa is the name of the ship. And it will do the same thing. It'll sail French Polynesia, including Bora Bora. The new ship is 198 guests, whereas Aranui 5, a little bit larger, 230 guests. The Aranoa will feature 18 itineraries in that maiden season. Right now, for that new ship, if you book any of those 2027 departure dates prior to December 31st, they have between a 10 and 15% discount, depending on the itinerary that you book. They have some special itineraries that go down to the Austral Islands and the Pitcairn Island Islands. The Pitcairn Islands is where a lot of the mutiny on the bounty crew fled to. You get down there and they're so isolated. They're just beautiful and isolated. So they also go to some of these places that no other cruise line goes to. It's just Aranui that goes to the Austral and the Pitcairn Islands.

PatrickWiscombe:

Let's get to the cruise deal of the week. Let's hammer out very quickly the five cruise deals of the week that we have for listeners.

MarkFaldmo:

I just wanted to highlight on BluePlanetVacations.com. Um we do have if you click on cruise deals, we have the top five cruise deals of the week. And it actually has 10 or 15 cruise deals listed there. I get going on this and I say, This is good, this is good, this is good. So so I add more than the top five, but I wanted to go through a couple of these because they are so good. Some of these are last minute, some of them are into 2027. But we'll first start with the seven-day Mexican Riviera cruise. This one is in November, November 15th, and it's on Princess Cruise Lines. The balcony cabins, and I'm just gonna go with that because it's so good. Balcony cabins start at $719 uh per person.

PatrickWiscombe:

Wow.

MarkFaldmo:

The inside cabins are a good price too. But for that price, I'd go with the balcony because that's the cost of a normal seven-day cruise for an inside. So again, balcony cabin $719. Even better in January of 2026. This is a seven-day Western Caribbean cruise on MSc from Galveston. And I think two weeks ago we talked about Galveston cruises. Um, but a balcony cabin starts at $689 per person, so that's even lower. Wow. Um just a great itinerary for the Western Caribbean. One that I really like, and I put this one in here just because of the uniqueness of the itinerary. This is a 12-day Western Caribbean cruise, it's on CUNAR cruise line. It's January 29th of 2026. An inside cabin starts at 11.99 per person, and a balcony cabin starts at 1529. Um, but I chose this because it's a 12-day round trip from Miami. It goes to San Juan, Barbados, St. Martin, St. John. Wait, St. Martin. You go into Phillipsburg? Phillipsburg. Mahu Beach. Um and then it gets down into that deep Southern Caribbean.

PatrickWiscombe:

The Southern Caribbean doesn't get enough attention. It doesn't. Oh my goodness, it's amazing down there.

MarkFaldmo:

Yeah. That definitely is an itinerary that I would choose. And that's a good price for uh Cunard, uh, which is kind of more of a premium uh cruise line. That's about a hundred bucks a day per person. Per person, yeah. Wow. Yeah, and then if we go early May, seven-day Norwegian fjords cruise on Holland, America. So this is a May 3rd date. 2026. 2026, yeah. And I'm just gonna go with the balcony cabin because it starts at 1559 per person. Whoa, that's good. That's only about $40 more than the inside cabin. So yeah, just just get a balcony on that, and that one leaves from Rotterdam, goes to uh Kirkwall, which is way north in Scotland, and then goes to Bergen and two other stops in Norway. Wow, that's amazing. May 2026 on Norwegian cruise line. It's a 12-day Hawaii and Tahiti cruise. This one is all for the itinerary. The price is still pretty good, but it's more expensive than what we've talked about. It starts in Honolulu, cruises all of the Hawaiian islands, so the Big Island, Maui, and Kauai, and then it sails down uh to Tahiti, where you'll get Bora Bora, Raiatea, Morea, and Pappette. Inside cabin on that starts at 1879, and a balcony starts at 41.79. There's a 12-day cruise, and and actually that balcony cost of anything we've talked about, that's by far the most expensive. Oh, yeah. But I've seen this as high as about $5,500 on this itinerary, so it still is a pretty good deal for that itinerary, but again, just the experience of that. You know, there's nothing like after four days at sea, sailing into Bora Bora is a special experience.

PatrickWiscombe:

Man, you came fully prepared. Five cruise deals of the week that really kind of turned into 15 on the Blue Planet Vacations.com. If you know anything about Mark, and we've been doing the show just a hair over uh two years right now, when he sees a good deal and he posts it, it's worth taking a look at. You can listen to this award-nominated podcast or radio show every Saturday and Sunday morning right here on the very radio station that you're listening to right now around the country at 11 a.m. local time, and you can listen to an encore presentation of this show by subscribing, downloading, or streaming the show on Insidetraveltalk.com. We are on all of the major podcast platforms, and all of those links can be found on inside travel talk.com. Okay, we're done. It is now your turn to get out and travel the world while you can because you never know what curveballs life is going to throw at you. And hopefully those curveballs didn't hit you this past week. Live your life deliberately, live your life intentionally. And a sincere thank you to all of you for listening. Make it a great week. We'll talk to you next Saturday and Sunday.

ShowVoice:

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 Whiskey 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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This segment of Inside Travel Talk is sponsored by Star Clippers. For over 30 years, Star Clippers has offered unique, authentic tall ship sailing experiences featuring creative itineraries throughout the Mediterranean, Caribbean, and Central America. To book your unique Star Clipper sailing adventure, contact Blue Planet Vacations at 888 718 7717 or BluePlanetVacations.com.