Inside Travel Talk

Travel Smarter: Costa Rica Monkeys, Cruise Deals, and What Not to Do When Traveling

• Mark Faldmo & Patrick Wiscombe • Season 3 • Episode 52

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A selfie with your boarding pass could end in a canceled trip—but that’s exactly what happened to one traveler whose reservation was wiped after he posted his full boarding pass online. We dig into the most costly travel don’ts and share practical steps to protect your bookings, your miles, and your sanity before you ever reach the gate.

From there, we jump to big destination news: Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris is transforming into Disney Adventure World, featuring a full World of Frozen land and a water-and-drone show built for golden-hour wow. We also track thoughtful progress in Maui as Lahaina Harbor moves into limited operations and explain how to plan Hawaii responsibly while taking advantage of current Delta Vacations perks for SkyMiles and Medallion members.

If you’re gifting an experience, Costa Rica makes it easy to deliver on wildlife dreams. We map a flexible route through Arenal’s hanging bridges and Manuel Antonio’s pristine beaches, explain how to spot howlers, capuchins, and squirrel monkeys, and break down the best months to visit. Then we set sail for cruise intel: Carnival’s new Ensenada destination upgrades a once-skippable port with a pool-forward playground, and MSC’s New Frontier class balances size with reach to unlock more global ports. For travelers craving fresh Caribbean stamps, we spotlight two Princess itineraries that go beyond the standard loop—a seven-night from San Juan hitting St. Kitts, Dominica, St. Lucia, Grenada, and Barbados, and a 12-night from Fort Lauderdale that adds Puerto Limón, Colón, Aruba, and Curaçao. With up to 40% off fares, free third and fourth guests, and reduced deposits, the timing is right to lock in value.

Ready to travel smarter and see more? Follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review. Your questions shape future episodes—text or call us with your travel puzzle and we’ll help you solve it.

Patrick Wiscombe:

It is time for the Inside Travel Talk Podcast Radio Show. Coming up on today's show, Mark and I will be talking about what not to do when traveling. Lahaina, their harbor, is set to reopen. We're gonna give you details. Christmas Monkeys, Costa Rica, Baja, the travel deal of the week, and finally, seven and twelve-day cruises are 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 Insidetravalk.com. And now, here are your hosts, Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Welcome to the Inside Travel Talk Podcast. 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 give you ideas of where you may want to go on vacation next. And we are presented, proudly presented, by Mark's company, BluePlanetVacations.com, and thank you for taking the time to stop and listen. This week we are talking about what not to do when traveling. We always talk about what to do, we're going to tell you what not to do. Good news. It's going to reopen. Slowly reopen. We'll give you the details. Christmas Monkeys, Costa Rica, Baja. We've got the travel deal for the week. And we've also got seven and 12-day cruises. And those are the cruise deal of the week. So those are just a handful of the stories we'll be talking about on today's show. And let me bring in the co-host of this award-nominated podcast or radio show. We haven't won yet, but we will. We will do it this year.

Mark Faldmo:

Yep.

Patrick Wiscombe:

By the way, how do you like the new studio that I'm in? It is great. Looks good. Yeah. Not that anyone can see it right now since we're on the radio, but let's get right to the travel news headlines. Where do you want to start? Should we go Disneyland Paris Resort? Let's do Disney Paris. Okay, so we're gonna give you some things you need to know or what we know about Disney Adventure World at Disneyland Paris Resort. A lot of Disney in there, Mark.

Mark Faldmo:

Disney is actually rebranding Walt Disney Studios Park in Disneyland Paris. So on March 29th, they will rebrand it as Disney Adventure World. They've changed 90% of the park's offerings since it opened about 23 years ago. And so it's basically a whole new park. They're also expanding the park, they're adding a seven and a half acre world of frozen, which looks really interesting. Um, it's a full-scale recreation of the kingdom of Arendell from the movie, including a 118-foot high north mountain. I've seen some things online about that, and they have Olaf. They have an Olaf robot. Olaf is the snowman in Frozen that's AI, and he just walks around and talks to people all day. One thing they're adding is in kind of their main show area, they're adding the world's first water and drone show. This is where they have fountains and water and they project things onto the water, but behind that they have a drone show going on.

Patrick Wiscombe:

I'm really liking these drone shows. Yeah, there's some really cool things that I've seen in drone shows. I really like it when they they do a combo platter of drone show and fireworks. That's pretty special. Yeah. By the way, speaking of Olaf, Josh Gadd is the voice of Olaf, did a tremendous job. That guy genuinely made me laugh. We always tell you what to do when to travel. This week we're gonna tell you things not to do when traveling.

Mark Faldmo:

This is a very interesting story. I think we've talked about this once before on the podcast and radio show that this applies to any time you're traveling. Cruises, airlines. This happens to be an airline story. A first class passenger ragged online, posted a picture of him, and he showed his boarding pass and said, I can afford a first-class ticket. So he's basically bragging that he can afford a first-class ticket. The problem is his boarding pass has everything you need to pull up his reservation online. By the time he landed, his reservation had been canceled.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Oh my goodness. I it the second I heard you say that, I'm like, that's not good.

Mark Faldmo:

Last time we talked about it, it was someone that said how excited they were to take their cruise and posted the whole confirmation, which someone went in and canceled that. So never post yeah, never post anything with that personal information or anything that someone could access your reservation.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Yeah. Here's some good news. Lahaina's Harbor is gonna open, which is great news. The place is still a mess. So it's good to see that there's a little bit of movement in Lahaina.

Mark Faldmo:

They have actually had part of Lahaina Harbor open. There are three of the tour companies that have moved back in to Lahaina Harbor, and that is good news. It's still limited operations. Oh, sure. There's still damage around there, and actually at the harbor itself, there's still no electricity to the harbor. And so it probably makes it a little bit hard for some of those companies to operate, but they are moving back in, and that is good news.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Just as we were coming on the air, you got some kind of a promotion from Delta Vacations. What are the details?

Mark Faldmo:

This is for all of Hawaii, but since we were talking about Lahaina, I thought I'd throw it in in this segment here. So Delta Vacations is Sky Miles members save up to $200 per reservation, and medallion members save up to $250 per reservation. As long as you're a Sky Miles member, you can always earn up to 10,000 bonus Sky Miles. And if you really want to try and get to medallion status, you earn medallion qualifying dollars on every purchase. So with one trip, you can easily get to silver status or even possibly gold status with just booking one trip with Delta Vacations, usually.

Patrick Wiscombe:

We had a caller question. This came in a little bit earlier this week. This is a question from Sarah. My teenage daughter loves monkeys. Where can I go see monkeys in the wild? I gave her a trip for Christmas to see monkeys. Yeah, that's nice. Now we need to figure out where. So it sounds like we just need to point her the right direction.

Mark Faldmo:

The first place that came to mind for me is Costa Rica. There are some other places uh to see monkeys, but every time I go to Costa Rica, I see tons of monkeys. Costa Rica is one of my favorite places to visit. The one thing I like about Costa Rica is it packs rainforests, beaches, volcanoes, and wildlife into the relatively small country. I recommend staying in a few different places on the same trip in Costa Rica and not going and staying in the same place. And Costa Rica also, it's very tourism friendly. So for a first trip to Central America, it's the perfect vacation. In Costa Rica, there's lots of wildlife, lots of monkeys. The most widespread monkey in Costa Rica are howler monkeys. They will wake you up in the morning if you're too close to them. The most recognizable are the white-faced capuchin monkeys. They're very intelligent, social, curious, but they're also mischievous. Um, I'll tell a story about that in just a minute.

Patrick Wiscombe:

That sounds like my son.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah. They're spider monkeys you can occasionally see. The hardest to see, but also probably the funnest to see, is squirrel monkeys because they usually travel in large packs. And so you just see them going through the trees or in Costa Rica crossing roads. They have, like we have wildlife bridges, they have wildlife cables, so the monkeys can cross the road without interesting risking cars. Costa Rica is definitely a good place to see howler monkeys. Um, but you'll also see toucans, scarlet macaws. There's just a lot of interesting wildlife that you can see there. There are lots of sloths to see there. Just a great place to go see wildlife. Other than just Costa Rica, where? I would recommend, and this is kind of the typical trip that I do, spends a few nights in Arenal Volcano, which is in the rainforest, kind of in the central part of the country. And then I would spend three or four nights in Manuel Antonio, which is in the Pacific coast area, so it's by the beaches. In Arenal, they have an activity that's uh the hanging bridges, where you just walk through different layers of the rainforest on bridges. It's a path about two miles long, and you see all sorts of wildlife. That would be fun. There's an aerial tram there, so you can take the tram up, see the occasional monkey. I've mostly seen sloths on that, but you can take the tram back down, or if you're adventurous, you can zip line back down the mountain. There we go. It has pathway written all over it. Another place to see monkeys, and this is kind of halfway in between Arenal and Manuel Antonio. There's a thing called the Pacific Aerial Tram, and it's the same thing as the other tram in Arenal, but this is where you'd also see things like the toucans. That's the only place I've ever traveled that I've seen a toucan is at that Pacific Aerial tram. There's also a boat ride in that area called the Tarquales River, where you mostly see large crocodiles, but you also see some monkeys there and other wildlife. And then down in Manuel Antonio, you do the Manuel Antonio National Park. And that's one where you hike in to a beautiful beach area and you can spend as much time as you want there. Usually go in with a guide and they take you, point out the monkeys, and give you the ecology of the area. But this is where my story with the white-faced Capuchin monkeys, you always have to leave someone with your stuff because they'll come down and steal purses and towels and food. Uh, they're very mischievous there in Manuel Antonio.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Sarah, if your daughter likes monkeys, we're kind of nailing it right now. Yep. So we've talked about where to go, but I guess I should ask, when is the best time to go?

Mark Faldmo:

The best time is December through April. That's the dry season. Just keep in mind you are in a rainforest, so you can get rain all the time. But December through April is the driest time, the best weather overall. There's also what they call the green season, May through November, which other countries call the rainy season, but for branding purposes they call it the green season when everything is green. Uh, you know, and that's really when you'll see blossoming rainforests over on that Pacific Coast area. That is what's called a tropical dry forest. Has all the same plants as a rainforest, but it does not get enough rain to be officially called a rainforest. I really like the Pacific Coast in the green season. I'd rather put up with some rain and see it more green. And then the kind of the sweet spot for traveling is late April and May, or the best times to go to Costa Rica.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Why is that?

Mark Faldmo:

The transition between the dry and green season. So a little bit less rain, but it's still pretty green.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Okay, good. We do have a travel deal of the week to Costa Rica, right?

Mark Faldmo:

We do, yes. What is that? This is save up to $200 per person, so $400 per room. And if you go to blueplanetvacations.com, under the sun and fun kind of shows my recommended trips for Costa Rica and gives the pricing ranges. Each of those trips has a price for standard hotels or deluxe hotels. And there is a price for a seven-night, eight-day volcano and beaches tour. I actually would up that by a day or two, but you can do it in those seven nights. And then there's five night, six-day tour for just volcano or just the beach if you wanted to do that. Again, if you go to blueplanetvacations.com and get all the information on those three different options that I have. But we also do custom options that we can build whatever type of trip you want to Costa Rica.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Sarah, I hope we've been able to help. Call Mark in the office at the break here. 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717 is how you get a hold of Mark. You always talk about the monkeys now that I think about it.

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah, that's the best part of Costa Rica, I think.

Patrick Wiscombe:

When we come back, it is time, it is time, it is time, it's time for the infamous just cruising segment. We will be talking about destination Baja California MSC. It's placing an order for an all-new ship class, and we're going to talk about the Caribbean. We've got seven-night cruises, we've got 12-night cruises. That is next when the Inside Travel Talk Podcast Radio Show continues. Alongside my good friend Mark Faldmo, my name is Patrick Wiscombe. We will be right back.

Show Voice:

Explore your world. You're listening to the Inside Travel Talk Podcast and Radio Show. Presented by Blue Planet Vacations.com. America's Best Travel Advisors. Call or text the show now. 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. We'll be right back. 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 PlanetVacations.com. Now, 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 Traveltalk.com. Here's Patrick and Mark.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Hello there, I'm Patrick Wiscombe. By the way, Merry Christmas. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Couple days after Christmas, we hope you had a terrific holiday season. If you're off work today, well done. If you're working today, well done. What a great time to be alive. You can work from home, you can work, you can travel, you can do whatever you want. What a blessing it is to be part of this great country. We call the United States of America. Let's get back to the cruise news headlines, which this segment of the show is only about cruise deals. It's only about the cruise news. This is the segment of the show that is most popular that we get the most comments on. So let's do this. Carnival Corporation unveils a $26 million plan for is this a new destination in Baja, California? Or is it Baja Mexico?

Mark Faldmo:

Yeah.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Baja.

Mark Faldmo:

In Baja.

Patrick Wiscombe:

What did Carnival Corporation unveil?

Mark Faldmo:

This is a new destination in Ensenada, Mexico. Ensenada is a port that a lot of cruise lines sail to, and a lot of people don't like going to just Ensenada. That's where a lot of the three and four-day cruises go. But I think this is really exciting. They're not calling this a beach club, and it doesn't look like a beach club. Um, but it's very similar to the private beach club things. There's a an area with a large swimming pool, they have zip lines, they have lots of things, kind of like a small private destination or small private island that they're putting in Ensenada. Has all the hallmarks of a beach club. I would say a pool club. Okay, there we go. That's what it looks like. Um, but they have lots of other activities that go in there. They have a whole area that's dedicated to chocolate and tequila tasting. They're able to accommodate up to 9,000 visitors per day on that. So they will welcome not only carnival ships, but other cruise lines can sell this as an activity. So that does make something really nice to do in Ensenada. But I really like Ensenada. I like going to La Buffetera, the blowhole area that's there. I don't like to barter, but I do like to walk that quarter mile where the bus drops you off down and talk to all those vendors. Oh, yeah, you get nailed there. They give out free samples of churros, so you can eat at least two churros on your way down of free samples. And then the city of Ensenada has some charm. And I think this thing, this private area that Carnival is building, will make cruises there really good.

Patrick Wiscombe:

MSC Cruises has placed an order for an all-new ship class. So we've got the World America, the world class ships, and we talked about last week World Atlantic. That's their version four coming out in, I think it was November of 2027. So a couple of years from now. What is the new ship class?

Mark Faldmo:

There's rumor of a new class of ships that was gonna be bigger, is gonna be the biggest cruise ships in the world, so bigger than Icon of the Seas. Oh my word. Um, but that turned out to probably be some publicity that someone put out there. These ships are called the New Frontier class of ships, and they are actually smaller than the world class ships, so they're 180,000 gross tons, so they are not the 250,000 gross tons that Icon is. And so this ship they wanted to go a little bit smaller, so there's less people, but they do have access to more ports with this size ship. Where MSc sails all over the world, they have a lot of ships that home port in South America, that home port in Europe, where other cruise lines like Royal Caribbean and all of that, they have ships that are just partially. MSC has cruises in these places probably year-round for the most part. This new class of ship will make it easier to access certain ports. They have ordered four of these new ships. The first of them will be delivered yearly starting in 2030. So 2030 through 2034 is when these new class of ships will come.

Patrick Wiscombe:

It is time if you're looking for cruise deals. I heard our listeners perk up like mere cats. It's time for the cruise deal of the week. This was a question that we got from Alex, I believe. Yeah, Alex. And if you have travel-related questions, cruise-related questions, whatever it is, you can call or text the studio. All of these texts and calls go to Mark. 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. Alex's question is I want to go on a Caribbean cruise in February 2026. I've sailed the typical Caribbean itineraries. I want something with unique ports. What are you going to recommend for Alex?

Mark Faldmo:

The typical Caribbean itinerary. I don't know which ones he's done, if it was an Eastern Caribbean or a Western Caribbean, but I think some of the most unique ports in the Caribbean are actually on Southern Caribbean itineraries. I absolutely agree. And so that's what I looked at. I found a seven night and a 12-night itinerary, both on Princess Cruises. So uh right now I'll I'll give Princess's deal that they're running right now, and then I'll go over these itineraries. Princess is up to 40% off of their regular fares, third and fourth guests free in a cabin, and 50% reduced deposits.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Wow.

Mark Faldmo:

Wow. They do have kind of a bonus thing, but that expires today. But they've been adding a special feature every week that is either some type of an onboard credit, just an on-top discount on top of that 40% off. They've been adding something special every week. So I don't know what next week's promotion is yet until tomorrow, but that's the main promotion that Princess has.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Alex, you're gonna be happy with the Southern Caribbean. What is the seven-night classic Southern Caribbean on Princess? What ports are they, and how much is it?

Mark Faldmo:

I've done this one except for one port, and it probably was my favorite Caribbean cruise overall. So it starts in San Juan. Ooh, yeah. Puerto Rico's sneaky great. Yeah, Puerto Rico's a great departure point, and even to go spend two or three days before the cruise there. So this cruise goes to St. Kitts, Dominica, Castries, which is on the island of St. Lucia. That's the capital city of St. Lucia. Goes to St. George, which is in Grenada, Bridgetown in Barbados.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Whoa.

Mark Faldmo:

You know, what I like about this is these islands all kind of have a little bit different heritage. You're getting British, French, and Spanish on this cruise. Each port is unique because of the uh countries that used to own these, and some of them have been governed by multiple countries, and so you get some pretty unique cultures there. Yep. This is mid-February, and this one also has a great price. Inside cabins start at $599 per person. Um, balcony cabins start at $1,099 per person.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Whoa! Is that the seven night? Probably. Yeah, that is the seven night.

Mark Faldmo:

Okay, let's go to the 12 night then. The 12 night. This one is I would call it a deep southern Caribbean cruise. Um, and it does have some of the same ports that Alex might have visited on a Western Caribbean cruise. Um, but it's round trip Fort Lauderdale. So it goes to Gran Cayman and Falmouth in Jamaica, but then it goes down to Porto Limon in Costa Rica, Cologne in Panama, and goes to Aruba and Curacao. Has a little bit more days at sea, but also some unique ones, probably Porto Limon and Cologne are probably ports that Alex has not done on this, and quite possibly Aruba and Curacao as well. What's the pricing for the 12-night deep southern Caribbean? Yeah, so the pricing on this one starts at $1149, so still less than $100 per person per day. And then the balcony cabins start at $1999. And that one is towards the end of February, February 21st, on that one.

Patrick Wiscombe:

Which is exactly what Alex is asking for. So to recap, Mark, what I heard you say, the current princess deal is save up to 40% off, third and fourth guess free, and 50% reduced deposits. Did I get that right? That's correct. Alex, it is time for you to go. I'm excited for you. By the way, the Southern Caribbean, underrated. Awesome. You will not be disappointed, especially if that's what you're going for. Call Mark in the office, get the conversation started, put a deposit down, hold your spot, and then you can decide what to do from there. 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. And Mark will also put all of this on BluePlanet Vacations.com. You can listen to this award-nominated podcast, a radio show, each 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 this show by streaming it. And you can also subscribe to it on inside travel talk.com. All of the podcast links for this show can be found on Insidetrav.com. We're done. Merry Christmas, couple days after. Get out and see the world. Travel while you can because you never know what curveballs life is going to throw at you. And hopefully you haven't had any curveballs thrown at you this week. Live your life deliberately, live your life intentionally, and a sincere thank you for listening to the show. We don't have a business or a show without you. Make it a great week. We'll talk to you next week. By the way, Happy New Year.

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 Blue Planet Vacations.com. Book your adventure right now. Call 888-718-7717. That's 888-718-7717. Thanks for listening. Have a great week. 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.