Inside Travel Talk

Africa Safaris, Germany Tours, and Alaska Cruises: Plan Your Next Adventure

• Mark Faldmo & Patrick Wiscombe • Season 3 • Episode 42

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Ready to travel smarter, lighter, and farther? We kick things off with the carry-on shakeup: American Airlines is moving bag sizers to the lobby, cutting gate chaos and speeding up boarding without changing the rules. It’s a small change with big benefits for anyone who hates last-minute checks at the jet bridge—and a sign that practical boarding is making a comeback.

From there, we fast-track your bucket list with a 25-day Cape Town-to-Cairo adventure that strings together Kruger’s big game, Cape Town’s coast, Victoria Falls, Kenya’s Maasai Mara, and a Nile cruise between Aswan and Luxor. If Africa has felt overwhelming to plan, this itinerary solves it with expert pacing, built-in safaris, and seamless logistics. We pivot to Germany for a choose-your-own best-of: sail the Romantic Rhine with free airfare promos and stops like Heidelberg, Rüdesheim, and Cologne before finishing in Amsterdam, or build a nimble Berlin–Munich duo. In Berlin, get your bearings with hop-on-hop-off, then step into history at Checkpoint Charlie, Wall sites, and the Holocaust memorial. In Munich, base near Marienplatz, day-trip to Neuschwanstein, and reflect at Dachau.

Alaska gets the deep dive it deserves. For the best blend of price and weather, mid to late May is the sweet spot. We highlight can’t-miss ports—Skagway’s White Pass rail, Glacier Bay’s towering ice, Juneau’s reliable whale watching, and Ketchikan’s Misty Fjords—and share two standout itineraries: an early-May Princess sailing with Glacier Bay at a sharp balcony price, and an 11-day mid-July Cunard voyage that stacks Icy Strait, Hubbard Glacier, Sitka, and Wrangell for serious port collectors.

Industry updates round out the show: MSC doubles down on Alaska with a refreshed, mid-sized ship and aggressive pricing; Viking unveils a 142-day world cruise with free business-class airfare, generous onboard credit, and visa services; and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings aligns loyalty across Norwegian, Oceania, and Regent so your status travels with you as your tastes evolve.

Subscribe, share with a travel-loving friend, and leave a quick review to help others find the show. Where should we plan next together?

Patrick Wiscombe:

Buckle up everyone. Welcome to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. Coming up on today's show, we will be talking about bag sizers. Oh yeah. The ultimate 24-day journey from Cape Town to Cairo, the travel deal of the week to Germany. MST is ready for another season cruising in Alaska. And of course, we have the cruise deal 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. 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 Blue Planet Vacations.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 weekend. You are listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast, a radio show. Hello there. I am Patrick Wiscombe alongside Mark Faldmo. He'll be here in just a moment. The entire purpose of this radio show and podcast is to help you plan and book your next vacation, or just give you ideas of where you may want to go on vacation next. And we are presented by Blue Planet Vacations.com. And just a sincere thank you for taking the time to stop and listen to this show. Coming up, we will be talking about bag sizers. Oh yeah. We'll tell you where they're moving them. The ultimate 24-day journey from Cape Town to Cairo, and the travel deal of the week to Germany, and MST is getting ready for another season in Alaska. And of course, in the next segment of the show, we have the cruise deal of the week. Mark, you literally took off from Washington, D.C. Was it Reagan International? It was Reagan, yep. DCA all the way to Hawaii. That is a long, long flight. That is 11 and a half hours. Isn't that longer than going from Salt Lake to Paris? That feels like it's in that range. It is. That's about 45 minutes longer. So it's a longer flight. You can only choose one place to go, Hawaii or Paris. What are you choosing? Hawaii. I knew you'd say that. Let's get right to the travel dudes headlines. Let's talk about bag sizers. Just what everyone wants to hear right out of the gate. American Airlines is moving their bag sizers from the gates to check-in lobbies. That makes more sense anyway.

Mark Faldmo:

Yes. One reason why they're doing this is because it was always so congested at the check-in gates. They're actually just doing away with the bag sizers. What? They're getting rid of it. And they are. That does not change the rules for the size of a carry-on bag.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Right.

Mark Faldmo:

But it slows down boarding, especially when the gate agent is asking people to check all their bags. So basically, what Americans said is carry-on bags, which is 45 linear total inches, size width, length, still stands. If you get a bag bigger than that, and if it fits in the overhead bin, it fits in the overhead bin. If not, you'll slow down the plane and check it. Oh, interesting. That's always been annoying to me, especially on some of the budget carriers where before you get on, some of them make every single passenger put their carry-on bag in that bag sizer. And it's so annoying.

Patrick Wiscombe:

I've never experienced that. It's just we get on and we just go. So go.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah. I didn't know that was really good. I actually haven't seen a bag sizer at any Delta gates recently either. So um, but America made a big deal about this.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Southwest has announced their first flights to Alaska.

Mark Faldmo:

On May 15th, they will be flying to Anchorage, Alaska from Phoenix and Las Vegas is where the connections will go through. This is only operating in the summer season, so mid-May to mid-September, but it'll be a seasonal route. But it's always good to add extra competition.

Patrick Wiscombe:

What city are they coming out of? Phoenix, Las Vegas. Did you say Salt Lake? Or do you have to connect through those other two cities?

Mark Faldmo:

You have to connect. So it and I'm sorry, I probably misspoke. It's Las Vegas and Denver. Oh. Are the the two cities that they'll be flying to Anchorage from?

Patrick Wiscombe:

I thought this was pretty cool. The ultimate 24-day African journey, Cape Town to Cairo. Awesome.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah, this is by a company called Colette Tours. They do tours all over the world, but they've kind of really been focusing on Africa three times a year. It's a 25-day tour. You'll fly into Johannesburg, spend one night there, and then go to Kruger National Park for a safari, and then fly down to Cape Town for three nights, then fly to Victoria Falls for three nights. And Victoria Falls is on my bucket list. I yeah, absolutely want to make it to Victoria Falls at some point. And then fly to Kenya, spend five nights total there between Nairobi and the Masimara. I'm doing a safari there. And then from there, you'll fly to Cairo, or you'll spend four nights in Cairo, plus do a river cruise between Aswan and Luxor.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Wow.

Mark Faldmo:

It really is the ultimate Africa tour. So nine different accommodations that you'll stay at. It includes 51 meals. As we talked about, uh Kruger National Park, Victoria Falls. There's seven uh wildlife safaris included in that, and then also Victoria Falls.

Patrick Wiscombe:

That sounds like the way that I would want to see Africa. Just see the highlights and then come home.

Mark Faldmo:

Yes.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Yeah. 24, 20, what'd you say? 24, 25 days? 25 days. Yeah. That's pretty good.

Mark Faldmo:

Probably the best tour I've seen of Africa. And it's definitely the most extensive. And you see everything. Most people don't do a safari and do Egypt at the same time. So you you get the very best of Africa.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Let's get to the travel deal of the week. And we received a text question from was this Jenny or Janae? I think it's Janae. Janae. Okay. Yeah, Janae. So if you have travel-related questions, text or or call the show. 801-649-3700 801-649-3700. Janae wants to go to Germany. And she says, I have seven to eight days. What would you recommend? So it's kind of a wide open question.

Mark Faldmo:

There are a couple ways. We've talked about Globus tours before. The two ways that I would actually see Germany, one would be on a river cruise. We talked about Avalon waterways a lot. Right now they have free airfare to Europe, so it makes it a pretty good deal. Yeah. They have their romantic Rhine, which starts in Basel, Switzerland, goes down to a stop in the Black Forest, goes down to a stop where you can get to Strasbourg, France, goes to Mainz in Germany. You'd go to Heidelberg, which is probably one of my favorite German towns to visit. Goes to Rudesheim, then goes to Cologne, the cathedral in Cologne. You've seen it in person, right? A couple of times, yes.

Patrick Wiscombe:

That is some breathtaking architecture.

Mark Faldmo:

It actually still has an unexploded bomb from World War II in it. They didn't want to move it and risk damaging the cathedral. So it's just up there somewhere, which is interesting. Um and then it ends ends in Amsterdam, Holland. So that is one way to do it. If you kind of wanted to do Germany a little bit more on your own, I would recommend, and and this is a build your own package. Then right now at Blue Planet Vacations, we have a $500 off, a build your own package to anywhere in the world. But I'd recommend doing Berlin and Munich. Probably spending four nights in each city, and then just you know, quickly what to do uh in that area. In Berlin, I would do the hop on, hop off tour. Um it's a combination of bus and boat that you can do it, and you can buy a 48-hour pass to do that.

Patrick Wiscombe:

You are a big fan of the hop on, hop off stuff, because it's guaranteed transportation and it kind of takes you to the big spots anyway.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah, and I love it, especially for the first day in a city, especially a city that you've not been to. Yeah. Because usually you can do those routes in about two hours, two and a half hours if you don't get off, and it gives you a great overview of the city, and then you can plan out the rest of your days from there.

Patrick Wiscombe:

It's got to include something from World War II, then.

Mark Faldmo:

It does. There's a great walking tour. It's World War II and Cold War walking tour. Go to places like Checkpoint Charlie, see the Berlin Wall.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Is Checkpoint Charlie still there? It is. Obviously, the wall is gone, but they kept that. That's good.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah, checkpoint. In fact, when I was in Berlin, I went to Checkpoint Charlie, and they have guards there dressed up in each of the uniforms, and you know, kind of make it as authentic as they can. I started talking to the guy that was playing the German guard, and turns out he was from Provo, Utah. So it is authentic, but maybe the actors are not authentic if if there's one from Provo, Utah. Germans are a warm-hearted people. Yes, yeah. And Provo. And other things. The the Holocaust Museum in Berlin or memorial is actually quite moving there. That's probably one of the better ones I've seen around the world. And then from Berlin, you can go to Postom, which is where the Prussian Empire was based. There's a big palace and very interesting things there. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. So there's lots you can do in Berlin. And then, you know, also for me, it's very interesting to see the differences between East Berlin and West Berlin. Oh, yeah. They would still be very, very different at this point. It is. It is. There's still the you know, kind of communist department complexes in East Berlin, where West Berlin is a lot more developed. Although that was 12 years ago that I went, and there's been a lot of construction, so it's probably not quite as distinct, but it was still pretty distinct when I was there. And then from Berlin, you'd take the train down to Munich. By the high speed train, it's three and a half hours. I would stay right in the city center. I would start off with the hop on hop off tour, spend time at the Merriamplatz, which is the main city square, home to the famous Glockenspiel, which occurs three times a day. It's a big clock, and the whole building has little performances like cuckoo clocks, and pretty interesting to do that. And then from Munich, that's where you'd get to Neuschwinstein. So you can do Neuschwinstein, which is a castle that Walt Disney based Cinderella's castle on. Lindorf, which is uh another castle that was built by King Ludwig, who built lots of castles in the area. And one thing that I always love to do there is go to the Hofbrow House. Now I know there are some Hofbrow houses around the world that you can go to, but this is the original one and have a German experience. Get a pretzel there. Have a picture with Heather that has a pretzel that's bigger than her head there. So just really good pretzels. Um, and then also something you should do when in Munich is go to Dachau concentration camp, which is about an hour outside of town, and go and see that part of our world's history.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Janae, call Mark, customize a trip or cruise the Rhine River. Your choice, obviously. What a great way to see the world. Either by cruise, a river cruise, or just build your own package. Get up to is this up to $500 or $500, $550?

Mark Faldmo:

It's $500 off any um custom built. Okay.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Take advantage of that. Janae, 888-718-7717-888-718-7717, and he'll post this information on BluePlanetVacations.com. When we come back, it is time for the segment of the show that has made us famous around the country and around the world. It is the infamous Just Cruising segment. We'll be talking about MST getting ready to open sales for their second season in Alaska. Norwegian Cruise Lines is going to debut their loyalty program across all three of their brands. What? They have three rounds? Yeah, we'll tell you who they are. And of course, we have the cruise deal of the week. That is next. When the Inside Travel Talk podcast or radio show continues, alongside Mark Faldmo, I am Patrick Wiscombe. We will be right back. Give us about 60 seconds.

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Taking you to destinations around the world. The Inside Travel Talk Podcast and Radio Show is presented by Blue Planet Vacations.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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Now, back to the Insight Travel Talk Podcast and Radio Show. Presented by Blue Planet Vacations.com, America's Best Travel Advisor. Call or text the show right now. That's 801-649-30700. 801-649-30700. And check out the podcast at InsideTravelTalk.com. Here's Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Just on a personal note. So I am granddude now times two. Congratulations. Very exciting. They still haven't decided on a name, so I would say, welcome to the family, baby. But I don't know a name yet. But in the words of my first grandson, Casey, he just calls him Baby Pancake. So welcome, baby pancake. Coming up in this segment of the show, we've got the cruise deal of the week, but first let's get to the cruise news headlines. I saw this headline that MSC Cruises is opening its second Alaska season. Their first season will actually be next year, 2026, but they're already opening sales for their 2027 season. One would assume that sales have gone very well.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah, sales have gone well. And if you're looking for the best priced cruises, MSC has the best price cruises out there, even for 2026. They're anywhere from 50 to 150 per person lower than most cruise lines. So they're being really aggressive as a new cruise line to the market. They kind of have to be. Their 2027 season will start April 26th of 2027 and go through the end of September. Before it starts this season, the MSc Posisa, I think is has.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Yeah.

Mark Faldmo:

Uh POSIA is undergoing the biggest renovation upgrade in MSc cruise history. They're adding a yacht club, two specialty restaurants, they're adding and making big upgrades to their Aria spa. So they're really making a push for this to be now. This is a medium-sized ship, but they're making it a push to be one of their best ships at sea, and it will be sailing in Alaska.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Viking has a new world cruise. I guess it would be an ocean cruise.

Mark Faldmo:

It is an ocean cruise. Before I go over the itinerary, I just want to go over some of the benefits of a Viking world cruise. Now, this cruise is 142 days long. So it goes to 31 countries and includes 61 tours. But some of the perks of this free business class airfare and transfers, 4,000 per couple shipboard credit. 4,000? Yeah, 4,000. Um, and then an additional 2,000 if you're a past guest. And then for a limited time, you get reduced deposit of 10%, complementary visa services, because you will need to get a visa to enter some of these countries.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Oh, yeah.

Mark Faldmo:

A free average package and free Wi-Fi. So if you book a world cruise before October 31st and you get all of those perks, probably the big class airfare is worth it. Yeah.

Patrick Wiscombe:

I'm glad that they're including that stuff because all of that stuff adds up.

Mark Faldmo:

It does.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Yeah.

Mark Faldmo:

I'll quickly go over the itinerary because we probably don't have time to go over it too in depth because it is 142 days and 31 countries. Um, but starts in Fort Lauderdale, goes to Great Country. Yeah, great country. Through the Panama Canal to Los Angeles, goes over to Hawaii, goes down to French Polynesia and the Cook Islands, goes to New Zealand, sells over to Australia, sells up that west and north coast of Australia, through Singapore, some ports in Thailand, ports in the Indian Ocean, the seashells, and then goes to Kenya, goes to Madagascar, and then down the Horn of Africa, stops a few stops in Africa, then a few stops up the west coast of Africa, goes to Cape Verde Islands, and then to Morocco, Portugal and Spain, France, and then ends in London. Wow. So, you know, quite the itinerary from Fort Lauderdale to London. You know, I think this one is very exceptional for the ports that it offers. Especially you're basically almost completely circumnavigating Africa. Oh, yeah. Which is pretty interesting. So again, 142 days with free business class airfare. Give me a call and we can price this out for you. Could you stand being on a ship for 142 days?

Patrick Wiscombe:

I think I could. Going to those ports, I could do it. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings is debuting a loyalty program across all three of their brands. Now, let's just go over the three brands quickly. Norwegian, NCL, that's probably the most well known. What are their other two brands?

Mark Faldmo:

So they have Oceana, which is a luxury or just slightly below luxury cruise line, and then they have a region cruise line, which is pure luxury. It's probably one of the top cruise lines in the world. And so now they are combining their uh or their kind of status matching, I guess, their loyalty program. So if you're a latitude reward member with Norwegian, you'll have similar status on Oceana and Seven Seas, which I think is good. Royal Caribbean and Celebrity have done that for years.

Patrick Wiscombe:

That seems like a just a necessary move.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah. Especially hoping to get some of those Norwegian cruisers to move on to the next brand to Oceana and Regent. And you know, possibly to get some of those Oceana cruisers to cruise in the haven on Norwegian, which is a very luxury experience.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Let's get to the cruise deal of the week, which is always in this segment of the show. And uh we received a call. Was this David? I think it was. Was this a call or a text? I think it was a I think it was a call. 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. If you want to get a hold of the show while we're on the air, but also throughout the week, if you have travel-related questions, David is asking, he has an Alaska cruise question. He says, I want to take a cruise to Alaska next year, so I guess it'd be 2026. When is the best time to go? And are some of the ports better than others? The best time, I think, for price is probably early May, late September.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah, you are correct on that. And personally, I think the best overall time if you're trying to get weather and price is mid to late May, because you know, Alaska is a temperate rainforest, and May is the driest month. And so you kind of get those lower May prices with less rain in May. Now you're probably gonna see rain two to three days of your cruise anyway in Alaska. Um, but that's probably the best time. And you know, when you get there mid to late May, the whales are just starting to get there, so you're not gonna miss out on seeing some of the wildlife like you might in the late April or early May sailings.

Patrick Wiscombe:

What are some of the ports that you would not miss?

Mark Faldmo:

This was a hard one because every port I've been to I love in Alaska. But for me personally, the ones I would not miss are Skagway and Glacier Bay. Skagway with the white patch rail. Um, that's probably one of my favorite activities to do in the world. I also have family history there because uh one of my great-great-grandfathers was a gold prospector and went over the white horse. Oh, I didn't know that the traditional way, um, where you had to pack up a thousand pounds of supplies because Canada won't let you enter Canada unless you had supplies to make it to where you were going. Unfortunately for him, by the time he got there, they had already found a way to get there by riverboat from Fairbanks, and so all of the plots were taken by the time he got there. So um but I like Skagway because it does have that gold mining history and the white horse pass. And then the other one, again, not to miss, is Glacier Bay.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Yeah, it really is amazing. Yeah, what about whale watching though?

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah, and if you want to go whale watching, it's good everywhere, but I think Juno is the best port. I've had the best whale watching excursions out there. I have a company I work with that just very good at whale watching there every time I've gone. And then Ketchikan is kind of my other favorite port. Take a flight scene or by boat to go to the misty fjords, yeah. Uh, which is just amazing. That's kind of the the traditional Alaska cruise. Skagway, Juno, Ketchikan, uh, and then they throw in Victoria there for their international port.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Victoria is great, but hopefully you can get there during the day if it's one of the uh the one-way trips, so that you get there during the day instead of the four-hour midnight.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah, yeah, eight to midnight. So those are kind of my favorite ports. Most ports that I've been to in Alaska are pretty good.

Patrick Wiscombe:

You really can't go wrong with Alaska at all. Since this is the cruise deal of the week, what do we have for listeners this week?

Mark Faldmo:

So I just picked out two Alaska cruise itineraries for next year 2026. One is for price and one is for the itinerary. And the first one is a seven-day Alaska cruise on Princess Cruises. This one is kind of a repositioning cruises. It's the very beginning of the season, May 2nd. And it starts in Vancouver and ends in Seattle. Um it goes to Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, and Glacier Bay. So this one is hitting all of those ports that we talked about. Yeah. I'm just gonna give the balcony cabin because it's not that much more expensive than the inside. It starts at $12.99 per person, which for Alaska, that's you know, if you take this into June, you're up in the 2000s per person. So this is a great price for that. And then the next cruise, I chose this one for the ports. It's actually an 11-day Alaska cruise, round trip Seattle. It's on Cunard cruise lines. So its ports are Seattle, Victoria, Ketchikan. Oh, so they actually stop in Victoria? In Victoria, yeah. Okay. And then Ketchikan, Rangwrell, Alaska, Sitka, Icy Strait, Glacier Bay, Skagway, and Hubbard Glacier. Whoa! And it is 11 days, but I uh it hits all of the good ports um in Alaska. Although I see it does not hit Juneau. So that's the one one port that we talked about that it doesn't include. Um but for 11-day cruise, inside start at 1589 and balcony cabins start at 2459. Whoa. So, and that's mid-July. So that's right in the peak of summer at the perceived best time to go. You just can't go wrong with Alaska ever.

Patrick Wiscombe:

And those are some great itineraries. Take advantage of that, David. Call Mark in his office, just get the conversation started, no obligation. 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. And Mark will also post this and his contact information on BluePlanetVacations.com. You can listen to this podcast, a radio show, every Saturday and Sunday morning right here on this radio station and all radio stations around the country starting at 11 a.m. local time. And you can listen to an encore presentation of the show by subscribing, downloading, or you can just stream the show right on inside travel talk.com and all podcast platform links can be found on inside traveltalk.com. Well, that's it. We're done. We've done our job. Now it's your turn to get out and see and travel the world while you can, because you never know what curveballs life is going to throw at you. Live your life deliberately, live your life intentionally, and a sincere thank you for listening. Make it a great week. We'll talk to you next weekend.

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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. Have a great week.

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