Inside Travel Talk

Fiji Airfare Deals, Santorini Beach Clubs & Viking Cruises with Free Airfare

• Mark Faldmo & Patrick Wiscombe • Season 3 • Episode 45

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Three-hour airport lines in Europe, a Category 5 bullseye in the Caribbean, and cruise lines racing to out-innovate each other — travel is changing fast, and we’re turning the noise into a plan. We unpack the EU’s new entry-exit system with on-the-ground realities from week one, why kiosks failed in some airports, and how to avoid the worst of the delays while the rollout stabilizes. Then we head to Jamaica, where a decisive December 15 target for full tourism operations shows an island pushing hard to welcome guests again. If you’re eyeing winter sun, we break down what’s opening, what’s still pending, and how to keep your options flexible.

Holiday seekers get a timely detour to Germany’s Christmas markets. We compare Nuremberg’s storied sprawl with Cologne’s dramatic cathedral backdrop and highlight Heidelberg’s intimate square for travelers who like smaller, cozier scenes. From there, we fast-forward to 2026 planning: Jasper’s quieter Rockies, Fiji’s culture-rich adventures and river safaris, Oulu’s Air Guitar World Championship energy, plus curveballs like Adelaide and Vienna for food, music, and palaces. It’s early-bird planning with purpose, zero fluff.

The cruise segment is stacked. MSC is exploring a four-ship class that could eclipse Royal Caribbean’s Icon class in size and capacity, signaling major competition on price and experience. Royal Caribbean extends its beach club strategy to Santorini to counter crowd fatigue with guaranteed loungers, pools, and easy access to the island’s views. Viking hits a 100-ship milestone and doubles down on river cruising growth, nudging lines toward new ports and quieter towns. And yes — the deals are real: Fiji airfare from major U.S. gateways starts at $798 with Australia add-ons and free stopovers, while select Viking river sailings include free airfare, reduced fares, and limited low deposits.

Ready to plan or just want smarter options on your radar? Hit play, then call 888-718-7717 to get the conversation started. If you enjoyed the show, subscribe, share it with a travel-loving friend, and leave a quick review — what destination tops your list next?

Patrick Wiscombe:

It is the Inside Travel Talk podcast, a radio show, coming up in the next 30 minutes. Mark and I will be talking about a four-ship fleet of the world's largest cruise vessels from MSC, a new Royal Beach Club coming to Santorini, Greece. Viking reaches a 100-ship milestone, Jamaica's Category 5 hurricane bounce back plans and three hour lines. Yikes. 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 Insidetrav.com. And now, here are your hosts, Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Welcome to the Inside Travel Talk Podcast, a 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, or just give you ideas of me you want to go on vacation next, and we are presented, proudly presented, by BluePlanetVacations.com, a Mark Faldmo company, who is back in Salt Lake City right now, taking care of all of the engineering duties to get us on the air this week. And just a sincere thank you for taking the time to stop and listen. And this week we are talking about a four-ship fleet. I have to say that very carefully. Of the world's largest cruise vessels from MSC cruises, Viking reaches a 100-ship milestone. And after just massive devastation on uh Jamaica's island, the Category 5, what was it? Was that Hurricane Aaron? Melissa.

Mark Faldmo:

Melissa Melissa.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Category 5 hurricane just absolutely decimated that island. But they do have some bounce back plans. So that's just a handful of the items that we're going to be talking about on today's Inside Travel Talk podcast or radio show. Let's get to the travel dues headlines. Let's start with the three-hour cues. And believe it or not, this has nothing to do with the government shutdown. We're talking three-hour cues in the EU, the EU entry and exit system, week one. There are only three countries ready, but Brussels is seeing a three-hour line. That's crazy. And we've been talking about this entry-exit system for it feels like two years at this point.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah, there's two different parts. Um, there's the entry-exit system, and then there's the ETIAS, Electronic Transportation Entry Authority, something like that, which is different. And they've been plagued with technical issues, so that's pushback. But Europe did decide to go through with this entry and exit system, which is where you scan your passport, takes biometric information, fingerprint, and then when you leave, you do the same thing. You scan your fingerprint on the way out so they can keep track of who's entered and exited the EU. This launched about three weeks ago, but uh in the first 10 days, they were experiencing three-hour lines, Luxembourg, 90-minute delays, airports unprepared, travelers unprepared, things just didn't work. In fact, in Prague, all of the kiosk completely failed, so they had to move everybody over to manual. And so that's what was taking long. It is getting better, and more and more countries are coming on, but this is just something I think the EU wanted to do. They delayed and delayed and delayed and fitted out too soon.

Patrick Wiscombe:

And now everyone else is delayed. Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica. I mean, just dead on bullseye. Category five storm. I saw a report that winds did reach over 200 miles an hour, which is just crazy to me.

Mark Faldmo:

It is, yeah, and just devastating for the island. But one thing where Jamaica relies so heavily on tourism, they do have plans in place, probably not for what they experienced, because that was a direct hit by a huge storm, but they do plan to have full industry operation by December 15th.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Which is genuinely impressive. I said six weeks. That's five weeks from right now.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah. I've seen several things. Some airports are starting to open. I've seen some hotels starting to open and some hotels saying they're not taking any new reservations until they get a little bit more certain in their situation. But the island as a whole, for at least the tourism infrastructure, plans to be totally operational by December 15th. I love Jamaica. One of my favorite places to visit in the Caribbean. The food is good, the people are nice. It's just a great, great place to visit.

Patrick Wiscombe:

You've been to Germany and their Christmas markets, so I just want to pose the question: Nuremberg or Cologne? Which has the best Christmas market in Germany?

Mark Faldmo:

I thought this would be fun just a little bit before Christmas. There still is time if you want to go visit those. They did start this week on the Christmas markets. Oh, they did. They run through anywhere between January 1st and January 4th in most cases. But this is the usually the big question. Nuremberg or Cologne. Nuremberg is the most famous, um, probably the largest, and it is the oldest. It's it's been operating for nearly 500 years. That's probably the one that I would choose if I had to choose these two. Although the cathedral Christmas market in Cologne is amazing. You know, to be there in that setting. If you if you've never seen the cathedral at Cologne, it's amazing. It hasn't been clean, so it's it's black. I thought it was just designed that way.

Patrick Wiscombe:

I didn't even think about from a dirt standpoint.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah, no, it it's just dirty, but it fit. I mean it's awesome. Not dirty in a bad way. It's it's an awesome thing. And yeah, you know, one thing that I I like about Christmas markets in a very loose way, I kind of compare them to state like the state fairs here in the US. Really good, interesting food is you know, what you get at Christmas markets. So um as often does our segments turn it into food for me. Um I'm hungry too. And another one that is not often talked about in these of the best, Heidelberg. I like the Christmas market at Heidelberg because it's smaller and the setting of it in the town square is just amazing. It's a great setting. So every city in Germany has a Christmas market and they're all worth visiting. Really good way to get in and see local culture.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Let's get to the destination of the week, which is kind of broad. Some of the best places to travel in 2026. What places are on the list?

Mark Faldmo:

This was a list from Fromers, which is a great travel publication and guide. So I'm not gonna go through all of them, but these are the best places according to surveys in 2026. The first one on the list is Jasper in Canada, so Alberta. Yes, and you know, those Canadian Rockies are so awe-inspiring and magnificent.

Patrick Wiscombe:

We have great mountains in Utah, but there's something about the ruggedness in Canada, the Tetons. It's just a little different.

Show Voice:

Yeah, very majestic.

Mark Faldmo:

And you know, one reason why this is on the list, you know, in 2024 they had a big fire that ran right through Jasper, and they're all back opened up, but they're kind of not seeing the tourism numbers, which means this is a great time to go see this area and experience it with lower travel numbers. You know, we often talk about the Rocky Mountaineer, you know, that usually runs from Vancouver to Jasper or Banff. Banff is great too. Yeah, and now they have a train that just goes between Jasper and Banff. It just stays in that area. Yeah. And and that again is kind of due to that fire. They're trying to get tourists back in there. Since they're less tourists, they can do some of these unique things with some of these trips. The next place on the list, great place in the Pacific Ocean, is Fiji. Oh wow. Uh we do we talk about Fiji a lot. Movies like Castaway, Blue Lagoon, TV shows like Survivor, which has been filmed there a couple of times, I believe. Fiji is just a great place to visit, good hotels. I'm actually working on a trip for someone right now to Fiji, and they're so excited for it. Oh, yeah. Um, you know, uh especially the Sigatoka riverboat jet safari. Oh, did you recommend that to them? I did. Oh, well done. That's great. You know, that's something that was brought from New Zealand and it works perfect in Fiji where you go up the river pretty far, and then you get off and you walk into a local village that still has a chief and you experience that Fijian culture. Fiji is a great place to visit. Another place on the list, and this one I want to visit just because of a festival they have. It's Ulu, Finland. Say Ulu, Finland. It's O-U-L-U. Oh, yeah.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Okay.

Mark Faldmo:

And it's uh a quirky little town, Arctic Circle adjacent, so not quite in the Arctic Circle. It has hosted the Air Guitar World Championship since 1996. I would totally go do that. So um the the picture they have on this article is a bunch of people air guitaring. So the further north you get, as we've talked about Finland, Sweden, Norway, even in Alaska, the scenery changes and the landscape, it's almost indescribable. Every year the EU designates two cities, the European capitals of culture, and this year, Ulu, Finland is one of those two cities, the European capital of culture for this year. Give me two more places that are on the list, Mark. Okay, another place is uh Adelaide, Australia. Oh, yeah, okay. Most people know Sydney and Melbourne. Adelaide's a little bit out of the way. Vienna, Austria. The way I've mainly visit Vienna is on a river cruise. But I've also gone there by land and just a really compact downtown area, lots of culture there to see the stallions uh in Vienna is something that people really want to go see. Schonbrunn Palace, which is amazing. I actually was lucky. I got invited to an event at Schonbrunn Palace, uh, which was just a small group of people with a private concert. Oh, that would have been cool. So you can do things like that there, and you know, just lots of fascinating places to visit.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Before we take a break, let's get to the travel deal of the week, which is Fiji. And we have a travel deal specifically for our listeners. And it includes is is this free airfare?

Mark Faldmo:

Uh no, or is it just the airfare? It's it's an airfare special. Oh okay. Um, so right now from Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Dallas, flights to Fiji start at $798 per person. Wow, that's good. About $200 lower than normal. But if you did want to go to another place from again Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Dallas, connecting through Fiji, you can get to Sydney, Melbourne, or Brisbane for $999 per person. Wow. And you can get a free stopover in Fiji. So how long is that good for? That is good right now through um the end of November. It'll probably be extended a little bit, but right now, the end of November.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Oh my goodness.

Mark Faldmo:

Take advantage of that one. Yeah, and then with those, um, you know, bundle that with a hotel package, and you can save even more.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Oh my goodness. Take advantage of that one. I'll just say drop if you've ever wanted to go to Australia or Fiji for that matter. Get on the phone, just get the conversation started. There's no obligation. Talk to Mark. 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. And he will also post this on Blue PlanetVacations.com. Man, that's awesome. Coming up in the next segment, it is the infamous Just Cruising segment, the segment of the show that has made us famous here in the United States and around the world. We'll be talking about MST's four-ship fleet, the world's largest cruise vessels, and of course, we've got the cruise deal of the week with free airfare. That's next when the Inside Travel Talk Podcast radio show continues. Alongside Mark Faldmo, I am Patrick Wiscombe. Thank you so much for allowing this to be part of your weekend. We will be back. Give us about 60 seconds. Thanks for listening.

Show Voice:

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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Inside Travel Talk is brought to you by Ama 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 Vacations at 888-718-7717 or Blue Planet Vacations.com now back to the Insight Travel Talk Podcast and Radio Show.

Show Voice:

Presented by BluePlanet Vacations.com. America's best travel advisors. Call or text the show right now at 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. And check out the podcast at InsideTravel Talk.com. Here's Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Hello there. My name is Patrick Wiscombe, and may I greet everyone aboard. Ahoy, Matees. This is the infamous just cruising segment, the segment of the show that has made us famous around the country and around the world. This week we are talking about MST's four-ship fleet of the world's largest cruise vessels, and of course, we've got the cruise deal of the week, Viking River Cruises deal with free airfare. We'll get to that here in just a second. But let's first get to the cruise news headlines. In fact, Mark, let's just start there. Let's start with MSC cruises considering building a four-ship fleet of the world's largest cruise vessels. Okay, so if that's true, the current reigning ships of gargantuan size are icon of the seas and currently star of the seas, which is icon of the seas part two. So if that's true, that's what they're aiming for, and it will probably be larger than that if this really happens.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah, and so they're considering this. They're in discussions with the shipyard in Finland to construct these ships. It would by far surpass Real Caribbean's icon class ships in both volume, gross tonnage, and passenger capacity. Each ship is proposed to measure 365 meters in length and reach 265,000 gross tons, which exceeds icon, which is 250,000 gross tons. That is actually one Titanic larger. That's the difference in the ship of Titanic larger from icon to this new class. Oh my goodness. And we've talked about this about MSc, and I think in two weeks we're gonna have Laura on from MSc. Maybe she can address this as well. MSC is the only cruise line that is privately held. Yeah. And so they can do whatever they want. That's why you see reasonable fares, some of the lowest fares out there, because they're not beholden to a board of directors where they need to show profit. Now they are making profit, but they they don't have to show it to shareholders.

Patrick Wiscombe:

That could be a serious undercutting of Royal Caribbean, because they charge premium amounts of money. I won't say Disney type premium amount of money for cruises, but kind of in that range where you pay a ton for those newer, bigger ships.

Mark Faldmo:

If you look at the long two ships that came out about the same time, the uh Star of the Seas and MSE's World America, I think they both came out within about two months of each other. World America was still a pretty hefty price tag, but it was nearly 30 to 40 percent less than what Royal Caribbean was charging for a brand new ship.

Patrick Wiscombe:

I think that that is the competitive advantage. Now, assuming that they can deliver on an icon of the seas type experience for half the price, that's gonna put a whale of a dent in Royal Caribbean.

Mark Faldmo:

We'll see where that goes. Cruise lines are always building things bigger and newer, but no one's really ever kept pace with Royal Caribbean as far as size goes.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Royal Caribbean, speaking of them, announces plans for a Royal Caribbean beach club in Santorini, Greece. I'm becoming a big fan of these beach clubs.

Mark Faldmo:

They kind of started with this concept at Perfect Day at Coco Kay, which was their private island. They rebranded that last summer, last summer, I guess that was just a few weeks ago for last summer. Um, but they opened up their beach club in Nassau, Bahamas. They've announced one in Mexico, and then somewhere in Australia, I can't remember in Australia, and now they're going to Greece. It's gonna be that same concept of a beach club, which if you've heard my stories of Santorini, beautiful place, but there's way too many people. Yeah. If there's a lot of cruise ships in there, if you can get to like the Royal Beach Club where you have a little bit more laid-back experience, you can still experience and see Santorini, hopefully without the crowds.

Patrick Wiscombe:

I love these beach clubs. That might be the secret weapon in a lot of these cruise ship companies.

Mark Faldmo:

When Norwegian first started their private island, which was the first one ever, people said that'll never fly. No one wants to go to a private island in the Bahamas, and everyone's putting multi-millions of dollars into their beach clubs because and their private destinations because that is what people want to go see.

Patrick Wiscombe:

I'm blanking on the name of Norwegian cruise lines private beach. I've been there, it was there in April. Yeah, great Starp Key. They're investing millions of dollars right now for a beach club there as well. It's not going to be just the island with oceans coming, it's gonna be full-on pool experience as well.

Mark Faldmo:

It is, it'll be the largest swimming pool in the Caribbean when it's done.

Patrick Wiscombe:

I love competition, it just drives everyone to get better. Speaking of reaching a milestone, Viking has reached a 100-ship fleet after naming nine new long ships. This is a big deal.

Mark Faldmo:

I've always watched Viking and they never name just one ship at a time. They have a day where they name multiple ships at one time. That's just how fast river cruising is growing. Viking started in 1907 with four river ships. Now they just named their hundredth ship, which consists of 88 river ships and 12 ocean ships. Of those ocean ships, uh, two of those are expedition ships. Viking is just growing, and their CEO, Torsten, I've had dinner with him. He's a nice Norwegian man. Uh very, very interesting discussions with him about the growth of river cruise companies and all of that. But he says in this article, we just have to build to meet the demand.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Oh, wow.

Mark Faldmo:

By 2030, four years from now, they're expecting to add 31 new river ships, and by 2033, as many as 14 more ocean going ships. So that is the demand that Viking is seeing for ocean and then kind of their small luxury type ocean going ships. Celebrities are new into the market. Ama Waterways is building more ships, Avalon Waterways is building more ships. There is just a huge demand for river ships. One thing I've always liked about river cruising is you do go to these smaller towns and villages. I think with the number of river ships that are coming, they're really gonna have to diversify, and we'll see lots of new and interesting ports, other smaller towns and villages that want their piece of that. Oh, yeah. You know, so I think it's really gonna open up a lot of great ports and unique opportunities to visit Europe.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Let's get to the cruise deal of the week, which is always in this segment of the show. We are talking Viking River cruise deal, but it includes free airfare. What are the details?

Mark Faldmo:

First off, we'll start. This expires November 30th. Um, about three weeks from today. Yeah, you gotta move. It's free airfare on select sailings with reduced cabin fares and also several sailings you can get for just a $25 per person deposit. Really? The itineraries that have free airfare, and the first one is the Grand European Tour. This is a 15-day river cruise. It's the best of both worlds because you get both the Danube and the Rhine in that 15 days. Free airfare, $25 deposit, four countries, and the price on that starts at $4499 for the lower season. In the summer, it's gonna be more than that, but that's the lead-in price, $4499 with the free airfare. And then the other one that I think is great is pharaohs and pyramids, so the Nile River. Oh wow, same same thing, free airfare, $25 deposit, 12 days, 11 different tours or stops starting at $6,000 per person. And the other one, a lot of people might not know this, but Viking does also do the Mississippi River. They have an eight-day tour with free airfare starting at $4,000.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Where do you fly into for the uh Mississippi River?

Mark Faldmo:

Um this particular cruise, it's the the Mississippi Delta Explorer, which is New Orleans to Memphis, Tennessee. There are a few other itineraries that have that free airfare. Other itineraries like the Ryan Getaway, Danube Waltz, Romantic Danube, um, those all have reduced airfares. It's a great value right now to go with Viking.

Patrick Wiscombe:

That is a great deal. We kind of hit some home runs this week. We did. So anyone listening, any of our listeners, call Mark in the office, just get the conversation started. There's no obligation. 888-718-7717-888-718-7717. And he's also going to post this on Blue PlanetVacations.com. Which, by the way, you've been busy on the website. I have. You've been making some changes, so I have. Yeah. You can listen to this podcast, a radio show, again tomorrow morning, Sunday, right here on this radio station. And we air on all radio stations around the country starting at 11 a.m. local time. And you can listen to this show by streaming or subscribing at inside travel talk.com. All podcast platform links for the show can be found at inside travel talk.com. Okay, we are done. Now it's 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. Live your life deliberately, live your life intentionally. And a sincere thank you, really. Thank you for taking the time to stop and listen, and we hope you have a great week. We'll talk to you next Saturday.

Show Voice:

You're listening to the Inside Travel Talk Podcast and Radio Show with Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo. Presented by Blue Planet Vacations.com. America's Best Travel Advisors. Call or text the show now. 801-649-3700. That's 801-649-3700. And check out the podcast at Insidetraveltalk.com. We'll be right back.

Patrick Wiscombe:

We will not. We're done for the week. I played the wrong outro. Yeah, clearly. Have a great week, everyone.

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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 saling 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.