February 22, 2025 • 52 mins
Unlock the secrets of luxurious travel experiences as Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo, guide you through the latest and greatest in the world of travel. Ever wondered how a cruise vacation can transform your perspective? Discover the allure of Virgin Voyages and Mediterranean Cruises, and understand why Puerto Vallarta is stealing the spotlight this wave season. We unpack the nuances of Florida's booming tourism industry and also address the challenges facing Santorini due to recent earthquakes and the implications for travelers.
Get ready for irresistible travel deals and news! From Hawaii's potential all-inclusive option to Venice's extended tourist tax, we cover the spectrum of exciting opportunities and considerations for curious travelers. Puerto Vallarta emerges as the hot travel deal of the week with substantial savings for adventures from Salt Lake City. Plus, Royal Caribbean's new cruise itineraries and Princess Cruise Lines' enticing offers are bound to have you dreaming of Mediterranean shores. Our insights into the Cruise Globe app and state-by-state favorite cruise lines add an extra layer of excitement for cruise enthusiasts.
As we head into the future of travel, payment innovations and luxury journeys take center stage. Norwegian Cruise Line's acceptance of PayPal simplifies your booking experience, while stories of AI in travel planning bring both humor and caution. For those with a taste for opulence, the growing trend of luxury train travel offers a unique escape. We wrap up with a heartfelt reminder to seize life's adventures and explore the world with intention. Catch the full episode to stay inspired and ready to embark on your next unforgettable journey.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Patrick Wiscombe (00:00):
It is time to talk travel.
Welcome to the Inside TravelTalk podcast and radio show.
On today's show, we are goingto be talking about Virgin
Voyages, Mediterranean CruiseLines, and we are headed to
Mexico, Puerto Vallarta,specifically.
Let's start the show.
The Inside Travel Talk podcastand radio show presented by
BluePlanetVacations.
com contains travel deals,promotions and offers that may
(00:24):
be time-sensitive.
All offers and information wereaccurate when the show aired.
Travel deals and offers changeconstantly and are
capacity-controlled and subjectto change without notice.
Show Voice (00:38):
Helping you plan your next vacation.
This is the Inside Travel Talkpodcast and radio show Presented
by BluePlanetVacations.
com, America's best traveladvisors.
Call us now 801-649-3700,801-649-3700, and check out the
podcast at InsideTravelTalk.
(00:58):
com.
Here's Patrick Wiscombe andMark Fulton.
Patrick Wiscombe (01:14):
It is the weekend, which means it is time
to talk travel.
Welcome to the Inside TravelTalk podcast and radio show.
Hello there, I am PatrickWiscombe.
Mark Fulton will be here in thestudio here in just about 30
seconds.
The entire purpose of this showis to help you plan and book
(01:35):
your next vacation, and if youhave no idea where to go, mark
and I will be giving you someideas of maybe where you should
consider going on your nextvacation.
And this show is presented byBluePlanetVacations.
com, and I just want to saythank you for taking the time to
(01:55):
stop and listen.
As I mentioned at the verystart of the show, we're talking
about Virgin Voyages,Mediterranean Cruises, Puerto
Vallarta.
But before we get to thosespecific topics, let me bring in
my co-host and friend, markFaldmo.
I don't like this trend thatwe're on that I just don't even
talk to you during the week,like the last three weeks, and
(02:18):
then we jump in the studiotogether and we have to quickly
catch up and plan the show.
Mark Faldmo (02:24):
Yeah, yeah, I have to get back to talking more
regularly, absolutely.
Patrick Wiscombe (02:29):
Been busy, though it has been busy.
We're in wave season right now.
Mark Faldmo (02:33):
Traditionally in the travel world wave season is
January, February and March andwe can sell up to sometimes a
little bit more of 50% of all ofour total sales happen in those
three months, so it's a busytime in the travel world.
Patrick Wiscombe (02:47):
Let's get to the travel news headlines and
then we'll get to Virgin Voyages.
I saw a news story that Floridahas set an all-time tourism
record.
Now you and I were there lastyear.
I get it.
Florida is awesome.
Mark Faldmo (03:01):
Yeah, it is.
Florida has lots of advantages.
They have the theme parks, theyhave the top two busiest cruise
ports.
Plus they also have the sixthbusiest cruise port.
Air arrivals in Florida in 2024were up 3.1%.
Room nights sold in Floridawere up 1.6%.
So that's over their biggestyears ever.
(03:23):
It's one of my favorite placesto go.
We've talked about this before,but I love Miami area, going
out to the Everglades, going outto some of those places that
aren't, as I guess, touristy assome of the places in Florida.
Interestingly enough, thecities that saw the most growth
were Tallahassee, panama Cityand Pensacola.
(03:44):
Really so it wasn't what we'dthink of Miami, Orlando, Tampa
area.
It was these kind of secondarycities that saw the largest
growth.
Patrick Wiscombe (03:53):
It's just awesome down there it is,
although you do have to get usedto the humidity, or at least
Patrick does.
Mark Faldmo (04:00):
Yeah, no, Mark does too.
Mark doesn't like humidity.
Yeah, no, Mark does too.
Mark doesn't like humidity.
Patrick Wiscombe (04:04):
I'm a desert rat.
I saw some of the picturescoming out of Santorini, Greece,
the earthquake that happenedand it's leaving, or it has left
, at least the pictures that Isaw.
Santorini just deserted.
There's some destruction forsure.
Mark Faldmo (04:18):
Santorini is probably one of the most popular
, or at least on everyone'sbucket list when they think of
Greece.
It's up on a hill, an islandthat has the whitewashed
buildings with blue-tone-toppedbuildings.
It is just a picturesque Greekisle when you think of that.
But they have, over the pastthree to four weeks, been
(04:39):
suffering from a series ofearthquakes which actually this
past week, caused the firstcruise ship of the year, which
was the Viking Star from VikingCruises, to cancel its port, and
they also canceled.
I believe, two other cruises toSantorini.
But one thing that makesSantorini beautiful is its
location.
(05:00):
If you look at Santorini on amap from above, it's kind of a
half moon island with otherlittle islands that complete and
make a full circle.
Santorini is actually a caldera, the top of a volcano.
So what you're seeing onSantorini is the top of an
inactive volcano, but that'swhat makes it such a scenic
(05:21):
island.
Patrick Wiscombe (05:22):
I hope they can recover quickly.
Mark Faldmo (05:24):
Yeah, santorini is an island that's almost
completely dependent on tourism,so if there's no tourism, the
residents would have a very hardtime making a living.
Patrick Wiscombe (05:34):
Airlines are calling for scrapping the
passenger compensation proposal.
Mark Faldmo (05:40):
Last year we talked about the new rule that went
into effect where, if a flightwas canceled due to an airline
issue so not weather thepassenger either could take the
rescheduling that the airlineoffered or the airline had to
refund them in with, I believe,at seven days, so they can get a
full refund.
(06:01):
A few months ago, there was anew proposed rule where, on top
of that for domestic delays, theairline would have to pay $200
to $300 per passenger on top ofrefunding them.
Oh really, and so that's whatthe airlines are asking the new
administration to scrap?
(06:21):
As a passenger, I think thatsounds great.
If my flight is delayed, theypay $200, just for a flight
delay.
Sure, what that's going to dois raise the cost of air travel
for everyone, because they'llhave to build that cost into the
tickets.
Yeah, they will I kind of agreewith the airlines here that that
shouldn't be an additional step.
(06:42):
I think a full refund or takingwhat the airline can offer for
a reschedule is faircompensation.
The one thing I don't want isairlines to start increasing
their fares to start coveringall of these government
regulations that are beingproposed or going into effect.
Patrick Wiscombe (07:00):
Always in the first segment of the show is the
destination of the week, andthis week we're going to take a
deep dive into Virgin Voyages.
Where do you want to start here?
Mark Faldmo (07:10):
We've talked about Virgin Voyages a few times, but
I thought it'd be nice tooccasionally do some segments
where we kind of take a deepdive into some of the lesser
known cruise lines, hotels,destinations, and so this week I
just want to start with howdifferent they are.
They have whole new lingo.
(07:30):
They've crafted lingo.
If you notice, it's VirginVoyages.
So, they use the term voyageinstead of cruise.
You're not a passenger onVirgin Voyages, you're a sailor.
Kind of their theme isrebellious luxe, which is luxury
, yet cheeky vibe.
Vitamin C is termed.
(07:51):
So vitamin C is S-E-A, which istheir wellness program.
They don't have a buffet onboard, they call it the galley.
It's almost like food trucks.
I think by far it is the bestconcept I've seen at sea for
that kind of traditional buffetarea.
They really cater to those withfood allergies or special food
(08:16):
needs.
My wife, she's allergic to justabout everything food-wise but
in that galley that's the firstcruise she's ever been able to
go to that buffet area and havealmost a full selection of food
she can eat.
They cater to it.
One of the big things is she'sallergic to dairy Desserts are
always hard.
She had five or six differentdairy-free choices of desserts,
(08:38):
so they really do cater to that.
Patrick Wiscombe (08:41):
Let's talk about Virgin Voyage as being an
adults-only cruise.
So this is the anti-Disneycruise, basically.
Mark Faldmo (08:47):
It is.
It's the perfect getaway forcouples.
Patrick Wiscombe (08:52):
I know that we've already talked about the
food just a little bit, but I doknow that they have some
interesting culinary offers.
What are they?
Mark Faldmo (09:00):
They have 20 dining experiences on board.
They don't have a main diningroom as you would think on a
cruise ship.
They don't have a main diningroom as you would think on a
cruise ship.
Most cruise lines have a maindining room and you go either
first or second dining or you goanytime dining, but they have
five or six main restaurants andyou eat at a different
(09:20):
restaurant every night.
One night you might go toKorean barbecue, the next night
you might go to a steakhouse.
They have a vegan themedrestaurant which, by the way, I
did order a cauliflower steakthere at their vegan restaurant.
It was one of the best thingsI've eaten.
I'd say it's in one of my top10 meals I've ever had was their
(09:42):
cauliflower steak.
It actually wasn't a slicedcauliflower steak, it was a
whole thing of cauliflower, butit was very good.
Patrick Wiscombe (09:50):
So I'll have a head of cauliflower, please.
Mark Faldmo (09:52):
Yeah, that's something that's different and
unique is you don't really eatat the same restaurant every
night.
Basically, they're likespecialty restaurants on other
cruise lines and you rotatethrough these restaurants.
Patrick Wiscombe (10:05):
What about entertainment on Virgin Voyages?
Mark Faldmo (10:08):
It kind of breaks the traditional mold compared to
other cruise lines.
They really try and offer alittle bit more immersive
experiences, fromthought-provoking shows to
interactive shows.
They are a little bit more edgy.
Some of the shows you kind ofhave to watch they might have
some language in them, butgenerally overall very good
(10:29):
entertainment.
Patrick Wiscombe (10:30):
When you say the entertainment is more
inclusive, you're not talkingabout people watching the show.
They're including the audiencein the show.
That's correct.
Mark Faldmo (10:42):
Okay, so they really try and immerse the
audience into the show.
That's correct.
Okay, yeah, so they really tryand immerse the audience into
the show that's going on.
Patrick Wiscombe (10:48):
While we're talking about vitamin C S-E-A,
let's talk about some of thewellness amenities.
Mark Faldmo (10:55):
Yep.
So again, that's their wellnessprogram on board.
They do it differently than alot of cruise lines.
Like yoga programs, their detoxprograms, they have
personalized fitness on board.
Wellness is probably one oftheir main building blocks of
their brand.
They do have a traditional spa,but it goes well beyond the
(11:16):
traditional spa.
Patrick Wiscombe (11:18):
For the fare that you pay when you get on
Virgin Voyages.
Is all of this stuff justincluded?
What about Wi-Fi drinks?
Are they extra charges?
Mark Faldmo (11:26):
So your fare includes Wi-Fi tips and
gratuities, all dining options,beverages which is complimentary
, soda, water and various otherdrink options, all of the
fitness center classes and allof the entertainment.
So there's nothing more onboard other than shore
excursions really, that youwould need to pay.
(11:47):
They do offer some upgradedexperiences that you can buy,
but it's different than mostcruise lines, especially in the
beverages, where you haveincluded soda on the ship.
Patrick Wiscombe (11:57):
Okay.
So, unlike other cruise lines,virgin Voyages just includes all
of that, rather than gettingnickeled and dimed for each one
of those things.
Mark Faldmo (12:06):
That's correct.
Okay, and one thing if you lookat Virgin Voyages fares,
they're very competitive toother cruise lines.
Even with all of thoseadditions, it doesn't add that
much more when you compare it toother cruise line itineraries.
Patrick Wiscombe (12:20):
Oh, see that might be very appealing to a lot
of listeners then yes, oh seethat might be very appealing to
a lot of listeners then.
Mark Faldmo (12:25):
Yes, I think all of those inclusions plus the
adults only is perfect.
Patrick Wiscombe (12:30):
Well, that's going to do it for the deep dive
into Virgin Voyages.
What about current VirginVoyages promotions, Mark?
Mark Faldmo (12:38):
Right now, if you book by February 28th, virgin
Voyage's current promotion is80% off the second guest free
drinks up to $300.
That is for their premieralcohol and mixed drinks.
So, as we said earlier, you doget sodas and certain other
drinks are included.
But if you want kind of thattop shelf, upscale experience,
(13:01):
they will pay up to $300.
And then if you pay in full,you get an additional 10% off
your cruise when you pay in full.
Patrick Wiscombe (13:08):
Okay, so that means as soon as you book it,
you just pay for the whole thing.
I'll just call it a layawayplan.
Mark Faldmo (13:14):
Correct.
Patrick Wiscombe (13:14):
Okay, so just pay for the whole thing and get
another 10%, get an extra 10%off.
How many times have you sailedwith Virgin Voyages, Mark?
I've been on Virgin Voyages onetime and it was a good
experience for you.
Mark Faldmo (13:30):
It was very good, I would go again, and again.
Patrick Wiscombe (13:34):
Call Mark in his office if you are interested
in sailing with Virgin Voyages.
Call him in his office duringthe break 888-718-7717.
888-718-7717, 888-718-7717.
(13:55):
And he will also post this onblueplanetvacations.
com.
When we come back it is the hottravel deal of the week and
this week we're headed to PuertoVallarta.
So if that is on your bucketlist or someplace that you want
to return to, we've got a $300savings that you'll want to cash
in on.
That is next when the InsideTravel Talk podcast and radio
show continues Alongside MarkFaldmo, my name is Patrick
(14:18):
Wiscombe.
Thank you so much for allowingus to be part of your weekend.
Show Voice (14:22):
We'll be right back allowing us to be part of your
weekend.
We'll be right back.
If you have travel questions,they have the answers.
You're listening to the InsideTravel Talk podcast and radio
show with Patrick Wiscombe andMark Faldmo, presented by
BluePlanetVacations.
com.
Call or text the show right now801-649-3700.
(14:45):
801-649-3700.
We'll be right back.
Ad Voice (14:57):
This segment of Inside Travel Talk is sponsored by El
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Show Voice (15:21):
You're listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast
and radio show presented byBluePlanetVacations.
com, America's best traveladvisors.
Call or text the show now801-649-3700, 801-649-3700.
And check out the podcast atInsideTravelTalk.
com.
(15:42):
Here's Patrick and Mark.
Patrick Wiscombe (15:50):
Welcome back inside of the Inside Travel Talk
podcast and radio show.
We hope you are having anabsolutely terrific weekend and
thank you for allowing us to bepart of your weekend by allowing
us to be inside of your earsand hopefully entertain you and
give you ideas of where to go onvacation next.
(16:14):
Coming up in this segment ofthe show always segment two of
the show we have the hot traveldeal of the week and this week
we're going to Mexico, PuertoVallarta specifically.
But before we do, let's get tothe travel news headlines.
I thought this was kind ofinteresting, mark how Hawaii is
(16:36):
considering if I've got thisright an all-inclusive vacation
option on the Big Island.
Mark Faldmo (16:43):
I get lots of calls that say they want to go to
Hawaii and stay at anall-inclusive resort and there
really aren't any fullall-inclusive resorts like you
would think of in Mexico.
Yeah, I think there's one thattried it a few years ago.
It didn't go well, but theHilton Waikoloa Village on the
(17:03):
Big Island is offering anall-inclusive promotion.
What this includes is when youbook this room rate, so it's one
of the room rates you can book.
You can get just a regular roomor you can book the
all-inclusive promotion.
So it includes daily breakfastat their buffet and then it
includes dinner at one of theirrestaurants.
(17:24):
They have three restaurantsthat you can eat at or you can
upgrade to their Luau.
It includes drinks at mealtime.
It also includes one hour ofthe Lagoon Beach toy rental, so
you can rent a kayak, stand up,paddleboard, water tricycle or
paddle boat.
Patrick Wiscombe (17:44):
Have you ever done a tricycle?
I have Me too.
Mark Faldmo (17:49):
It's harder than it looks.
Also, one thing that thisoffers that I think is a good
perk is it includes dailyself-parking, which is $50 a day
if you pay for it, so it's areally good offer.
Again, it is going to be moreexpensive than just buying the
regular room rate, but if you dowant everything included and it
(18:09):
to work like an all-inclusivein Mexico, this is a good option
.
Patrick Wiscombe (18:13):
Where is Hilton Waikoloa?
I know it's the big island.
Is that Hilo or is that Kona?
Mark Faldmo (18:19):
It's in Kona.
That's what you would fly into,so it's about 20 minutes from
the airport.
I love the big island.
Patrick Wiscombe (18:25):
I saw that Venice and their day tripping
tourist tax has been extendedthrough 2025.
Mark Faldmo (18:40):
It is Yep, so it's extended through 2025 and
they've doubled the price, soit's now 10 euros.
It was five euros, it's now 10euro.
Anyone going into Venice forthe day will have to pay this
day tripper tourist tax.
If you are staying at a hotel,you do not have to pay it.
Patrick Wiscombe (18:53):
And you like staying in Venice instead of
trekking into Venice?
Mark Faldmo (18:57):
Correct.
If I were visiting Venice, Iwould stay on the island.
There's nothing like Venice inthe evening.
Patrick Wiscombe (19:03):
Let's get to the hot travel deal of the week,
which is Puerto Vallarta, inMexico.
Let's first talk about theareas of Puerto Vallarta that
you like to stay, and so whentraveling to Puerto Vallarta,
(19:24):
there are several that you canchoose from.
Mark Faldmo (19:27):
In Puerto Vallarta, the main area where people stay
is the hotel zone.
The hotel zone is kind of bestfor convenience and it's where
all of the all-inclusive resortsare.
It's kind of right in betweenthe airport and the downtown
zone.
And then the downtown zone iswhere I like to stay just
because I like going to theMalecon, I like everything there
(19:49):
is to do in the downtown zone.
I would say for first-timevisitors, the downtown zone is
probably the best place to stay.
Patrick Wiscombe (19:57):
So stay out of the hotel in this case to stay.
Mark Faldmo (20:03):
So stay out of the hotel in this case, yeah, out of
the hotel zone, yeah.
And then there's also theMarina Vallarta.
That's right next to theairports, where all the cruise
ships come into, but there aresome pretty nice all-inclusive
resorts there, and this is wherea lot of the resorts for
families are based.
The next zone is the ZonaRomantica, so the romantic zone,
which I don't necessarily liketo stay there, but I like to go
(20:26):
visit there because it'sprobably the most traditional.
You'll get there and just feellike you're in that colonial
Mexico Probably.
My next favorite place to stayis the I would call it the South
Beach area.
This is the area that's kind ofon the other side of downtown,
but it has the best beaches.
(20:47):
It has hotels, like the HyattZiva that we've talked about,
but it's just kind of on its ownlittle bay, its own little
secluded beach, and so this isthe area that has the best
beaches in Puerto Vallarta.
Patrick Wiscombe (21:01):
So let's get to the actual hot travel deal of
the week.
What are the promotions that wehave for listeners this?
Mark Faldmo (21:06):
week.
So right now, book by February27th and you can save up to $300
for trips to Mexico, PuertoVallarta in particular here that
we're talking about, and thisincludes Five Nights Hotel,
round-trip airfare from SaltLake City and this also includes
Roundtrip transfers from theairport to the hotel.
Lately I've kind of only beenlooking at four-star and above
(21:29):
hotels because those prices havebeen so good.
The Crystal Puerto Vallartastarts at $1,089 for Airfare,
five Nights Hotel from Salt LakeCity and the transfers between
the airport and hotel.
And then if we bump up to afive-star hotel, there's a few
that will go over here.
But the IberoStar selectionPlayamita starts at $1329 per
(21:54):
person.
Now this is an area that we didnot talk about.
It's about an hour kind ofnorth of the airport, so it's a
ways away from the airport, butit's kind of in the newer.
It's kind of an upscale areafor vacations in the Puerto
Vallarta area.
And then the Villa PremierBoutique Hotel, five-star
boutique.
(22:14):
There's 72 rooms, so it's small, located in the downtown area.
It's the closest hotel to theMalecan, which I really like.
It starts at $1739 per personand this date I can't remember
if we mentioned that or not it'sMay 7th, but we can also look
at other dates on that.
Patrick Wiscombe (22:31):
What was the first one where he had to book
by the?
Did you say February 27th?
Mark Faldmo (22:35):
Correct, yeah, booked by February 27th to get
the up to $300 off.
Patrick Wiscombe (22:40):
How many times have you actually physically
been in Puerto Vallarta?
Mark Faldmo (22:45):
So including times when I've stopped on the cruise,
probably 30 or 35.
Patrick Wiscombe (22:52):
I was expecting you to say, like I
don't know, five, 30 to 35.
Wow.
Mark Faldmo (22:59):
Yeah, quite a bit.
I love Puerto Vallarta.
Patrick Wiscombe (23:01):
Yeah, you do Take advantage of those offers.
Call Mark in his office duringthe break.
Just get the conversationstarted.
There's no obligation888-718-7717.
888-718-7717.
(23:22):
Or you can also go toblueplanetvacations.
com.
When we come back after thebreak, it is time for the
infamous Just Cruising segment,and this week we're going to the
Mediterranean.
Stick around, If you've alwayswanted to go to that part of the
world.
That's what we're talking aboutnext and we've got some awesome
deals for listeners this week.
Thank you so much for listening.
(23:44):
We will be right back.
Show Voice (23:51):
They've literally traveled millions of miles to
answer your travel relatedquestions.
Yeah, they really have.
You're listening to the InsideTravel Talk podcast and radio
show presented byBluePlanetVacations.
com.
America's best travel advisors,Patrick and Mark, will be back
after these messages.
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Patrick Wiscombe (25:00):
Okay, we're back.
Thank you so much for listeningto the Inside Travel Talk
podcast and radio show Coming up.
In the remaining 30 minutes wewill be talking about Royal
Caribbean having a new home portin San Diego, cruising in the
Mediterranean.
That will be the cruise deal ofthe week.
Let's get back to the show.
The Inside Travel Talk podcastand radio show presented by
(25:21):
blueplanetvacations.
com contains travel deals,promotions and offers that may
be time sensitive.
All offers and information wereaccurate when the show aired.
Travel deals and offers changeconstantly and are capacity
controlled and subject to changewithout notice.
Show Voice (25:43):
Now back to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and
radio show presented byBluePlanetVacations.
com America's best traveladvisors.
Hit us up right now801-649-3700, 801-649-3700.
And check out the podcast atInsideTravelTalk.
com.
(26:03):
Here's Patrick and Mark.
Patrick Wiscombe (26:17):
All aboard for the infamous Just Cruising
segment on the Inside TravelTalk podcast and radio show.
My name is Patrick Wiscombe, instudio with Mark Faldmo Coming
up.
In this final segment of theshow, we're going to be talking
about Royal Caribbean and theirbrand new ship that's going to
(26:39):
home port in San Diego.
That's good news.
Cruising in the Mediterraneanthat will be the cruise deal of
the week, and how to find themost popular cruise line in your
state.
That's coming up in thissegment, and it's only about
cruise news, so let's go aheadand start right there, mark.
Royal Caribbean has justannounced that they're going to
(27:00):
home port one of their ships inSan Diego.
What details do we have on that, though?
This?
Mark Faldmo (27:04):
will be the third ship on the West Coast for Royal
Caribbean 2026 and 2027 winterseason.
They will move the Serenade ofthe Seas to San Diego.
It will run three, four andseven night destinations and
include a new port for RoyalCaribbean, which will be La Paz,
Mexico.
So this won't be the typicalMexican Riviera cruise.
(27:25):
It'll have that additionalunique port of La Paz, Mexico.
This year Royal Caribbean addedthe Navigator of the Seas and
Ovation of the Seas, so thiswill be the addition of a third
ship on the West Coast for RoyalCaribbean.
Patrick Wiscombe (27:40):
A new Royal Caribbean ship, Legend of the
Seas, is now for sale to thepublic.
Do we know the itineraries?
Mark Faldmo (27:47):
Just a few days ago they put their brand new ship,
the Legend of the Seas,itineraries up for sale, and it
will spend the summer of 2026sailing the Mediterranean from
Barcelona, and then it will moveto Fort Lauderdale for the
winter season of 2026, where itwill do Caribbean cruises.
So if you're interested insailing on the newest, biggest
(28:08):
and best that Royal Caribbeanhas, this is a ship for you.
Patrick Wiscombe (28:12):
That is one of the things that you and I love
to do just to jump on new cruiseships.
Got that new cruise ship smell?
Yes, I thought this was kind ofcool, Mark, that you can track
all of your cruises in one placewith the Cruise Globe.
Mark Faldmo (28:26):
This is a unique app that someone's come up with
called thecruiseglobe.
com, and you can go in and putall of your past cruises back to
2015, in and it will show you amap on the world of every
cruise port and itinerary thatyou have.
All of these ships havesatellite data, so it actually
(28:47):
tracks the exact path that yourcruise ship went.
Patrick Wiscombe (28:51):
Did it really Okay.
I'm going to have to do thatthen, cause that sounds like a
lot of fun just to see the linesof where we went Sometimes.
Mark Faldmo (28:59):
You know Google has a thing everywhere you went
this year, and so Delta also hasa thing, so I like to see that
where I've been, but it doesn'ttrack any of the cruises
released.
So this is an interesting appto do that.
There are a lot of people thatactually do go out and purchase
professionally done, framedphotos of their cruise itinerary
, okay, and so this is kind ofan alternate to doing that.
(29:21):
I am going to do this and seewhat my map shows up.
Again, they have all data goingback 10 years to 2015.
So it will only have a smallportion of my cruises, but it'll
be interesting to see that.
Patrick Wiscombe (29:35):
This was kind of interesting that you can
actually find out what the mostpopular cruise line in your
state is, Because we'rebroadcasting from Salt Lake City
.
Let's start with Utah.
What is Utah's most popularcruise line?
Mark Faldmo (29:50):
As with most of the country, Utah's most popular
cruise line is Disney CruiseLine.
Patrick Wiscombe (29:55):
Okay, that makes sense.
Mark Faldmo (29:56):
This was actually a survey study done by USA Today.
West Coast, us US is PrincessCruises, and then you kind of
have the middle and northernpart of the US which is Disney
Cruise Line, and then Texas,Louisiana, Oklahoma, the
Carolinas is Carnival CruiseLine.
(30:16):
In Florida it's CelebrityCruise Line, whoa Celebrity.
Yeah, in New York it'sCelebrity Cruise Line, whoa
Celebrity.
In New York it's MSC CruiseLine, and then in Georgia, new
Jersey and Delaware it's VirginVoyages.
I know I left a couple statesout of that, but those cruise
lines cover the survey.
I find it interesting.
Ad Voice (30:36):
Royal Caribbean did not show up as a favorite in the
state as an all-out favorite.
Mark Faldmo (30:38):
Royal Caribbean did not show up as a favorite in
the state as an all out favorite.
Well, especially in Floridawith Icon of the Seas man,
there's a lot of Royal Caribbeanships down there Norwegian
didn't show up on thisno-transcript and a couple of
states that have VirginCelebrity and MSC.
Patrick Wiscombe (30:59):
Oh, interesting, that is not
anything that I thought you weregoing to say.
I guess you could say Celebrityis owned by Royal Caribbean.
Mark Faldmo (31:07):
Correct.
Yeah, but they are their owndistinct brand.
Yeah, they are.
Patrick Wiscombe (31:10):
Always in this segment of the show, at the
bottom of the hour, we alwayshave the cruise deal of the week
, and this week we're going tothe Mediterranean.
And what offer do we have forlisteners this week?
Mark Faldmo (31:23):
So this is on Princess Cruise Lines.
They have their standard 40%off the cruise fare, free cabin
upgrades and third and fourthguests free in the same cabin.
But on top of that, forMediterranean cruises booked by
February 28th, they're giving upto an additional $800 instant
saving discount and deposits of$99 on select voyages.
Patrick Wiscombe (31:49):
So you're saying that you're going to be
very busy this week?
Listeners have to takeadvantage of these offers
between now and like the 25ththrough the 28th.
Mark Faldmo (31:58):
Correct, so it's close in.
We have from today, SaturdayFebruary 22nd.
We do have a week left to bookthose.
So these are on Princess'snewest ships which are sailing
over in the Med right now.
You're not only getting prettymuch brand new ships, but you're
getting very interestingitineraries.
Patrick Wiscombe (32:18):
You, me and our wives.
We like cruising on the newestcruise ships.
I was looking at Sun Princess.
That's a nice ship.
That's a way nice ship.
Mark Faldmo (32:27):
It is, and in the Med it has some very good
pricing.
So on the Sun Princess theyhave a seven-day Western
Mediterranean cruise that sailsbetween Barcelona and Rome.
It visits Gibraltar, so that'sa stop I've not been to but then
it goes to Marseille, genoa,Italy port that'd be closest to
(32:49):
Florence and Pisa, and then endsin Rome, and on August 9th.
So this is in the summertimeand I'm just going to give the
balcony cabin on this starts at$1,609 per person for that
seven-day cruise.
Wow, the reason on that theinside cabin is only like $200 a
person less, and so for thatprice difference you might as
(33:11):
well go in a balcony.
Patrick Wiscombe (33:13):
But it is available, just in case.
Mark Faldmo (33:15):
It is available if you want that lower inside price
.
There's also an ocean viewprice in between that.
Patrick Wiscombe (33:21):
Now, when you talk about ocean view, I won't
say it's called a porthole, butbasically that's what you're
talking about Some kind of aporthole or pitcher window.
Mark Faldmo (33:28):
Or pitcher window, yeah, and that's an ocean view.
And then the cruise that Ithink I find most interesting is
on the Majestic Princess.
This is a 10-day Greece andTurkey cruise, so it sails
between Athens and Rome.
This one's a little bit closerin, it's on June 20th, but it
sails from Athens.
(33:50):
Goes to Mykonos in Greece, goesto Kusadasi in Turkey, so from
there you can go to Ephesus,which I think is one of the most
fascinating archaeologicalsites you can visit in that
whole region.
Then it goes to Rhodes inGreece, goes to Crete in Greece,
goes to Katoclone, which isnear Olympia, so that would be
(34:12):
the port where you can go seewhere the first Olympics were
held.
Goes to Valletta in Malta,which we've talked about before
that.
Patrick Wiscombe (34:20):
Yeah, you love .
Mark Faldmo (34:21):
One of the most fascinating ports.
Sailing into Valletta, Malta,is amazing.
That's probably one of the topfive cruise experiences that you
can have, I think, just becauseof the scenery and how Valletta
is laid out.
It goes to Naples, go to Capri,go to Pompeii.
You can go eat at therestaurant where the very first
(34:41):
pizza was made.
I would do that.
In Naples, Italy, and then endsin Rome, so it's a 10-day
cruise.
Balcony cabins start at $17.99per person.
Patrick Wiscombe (34:52):
This sounds like very, very port intensive.
Mark Faldmo (34:55):
It is yeah, so it only has two sea days in 10.
You're in port every other day.
Patrick Wiscombe (35:02):
How much was that again?
Did you say $1799?
Mark Faldmo (35:05):
Yeah $1799 for a balcony cabin.
Again, there are insidesavailable.
They're about $200 a personless than that, but for this
sailing into Malta I think thebalcony cabin is worth it, just
for that experience.
Patrick Wiscombe (35:25):
This might seem like a strange question,
but what side of the ship forthis cruise would you be?
On the port side, the left side, or starboard side, the right
side?
Mark Faldmo (35:29):
You would want to be on the starboard side for the
sail into Valletta, Malta.
Okay, that's where all thescenery is.
When they sail out, it'll be onthe other side of the ship.
All the scenery is when theysail out, it'll be on the other
side of the ship.
Patrick Wiscombe (35:44):
But you know, I think the sailing is the time
when it's I guess you'd say it'smost magical when you're
sailing in.
You have raved about Malta foras long as we've been doing this
show over a year and a half now.
Mark Faldmo (35:52):
Yeah, I think of all the cruise ports I've been
to, that is definitely in thetop five of my favorite cruise
ports.
Patrick Wiscombe (35:59):
Well, and I mentioned that you've done 150
cruises before and so, if itgets your attention, 150 plus
cruises is a lot for anybody.
But what I'm saying is, if itgot your attention, just do it
the way Mark did it, because ifhe was moved, just do it.
Mark Faldmo (36:15):
Yeah, and you know, in this itinerary again,
Kusadasi is also one of myfavorites.
Going to Ephesus I loved rightthere by the port in Kusadasi
they had a bazaar those Turkishbazaars are to, so it's a very
good itinerary.
And also starting in Athens,going a few days before and see
(36:44):
Athens.
My favorite experience there isjust going to a street café and
getting a euro.
Nothing like a good Greekauthentic euro.
Patrick Wiscombe (36:53):
Well, I know what we're going to do, Nicky
and I.
Man, we are loading up on thecruises.
Have you noticed that?
Mark Faldmo (36:58):
Yeah, this week has lots of cruises.
There's even a little bit moreto come in the next segment.
Patrick Wiscombe (37:05):
All right, more cruises coming up in the
next segment.
We've also got Mark's traveltips and we're going to talk
about NCL accepting PayPal forcruise payments.
That's kind of cool.
And we'll talk about the topfive cruise deals good Mexican
Riviera and Alaska cruises.
The goodness just continues inthe next segment.
(37:26):
Thank you so much for allowingus to be part of your weekend.
You're listening to the InsideTravel Talk podcast, a radio
show.
Call Mark in his office if youwant to book any of these
vacations 888-718-7717.
888-718-7717,.
888-718-7717.
Show Voice (37:45):
We will be right back.
Explore your world.
You're listening to the InsideTravel Talk podcast and radio
show presented byBluePlanetVacations.
com.
America's best travel advisors.
Call or text the show now801-649-3700, 801-649-3700.
(38:07):
We'll be right back.
Ad Voice (38:16):
This segment of Inside Travel Talk is sponsored by
Star Clippers.
For over 30 years, StarClippers has offered unique
authentic tall ship sailingexperiences featuring creative
itineraries throughout theMediterranean Caribbean and
Central America.
To book your unique StarClipper sailing adventure,
contact Blue Planet Vacations at888-718-7717 or
(38:37):
blueplanetvacations.
com.
Show Voice (38:46):
They'll help you plan and book your next vacation
.
Yeah, really, you're listeningto the.
Inside Travel Talk podcast andradio show presented by
blueplanetvacations.
com, America's best traveladvisors.
Call or text the show now801-649-3700, 801-649-3700.
Patrick Wiscombe (39:15):
And now here's Patrick Wiscombe and Mark
Faldmo.
Welcome back inside of theInside Travel Talk podcast and
radio show.
My name is Patrick Wiscombe,alongside Mark Faldmo, coming up
in this final segment of theshow, we have got the top five
cruise deals that we're justgoing to mention.
We're extending the cruise dealof the week, or the infamous
(39:41):
just cruising segment, into thissection of the show, and we're
also going to be talking aboutNCL.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdingis now going to accept PayPal
for cruise payments, so that isnot something that we have seen
quite yet.
In fact, mark, let's just goahead and start there.
As we come back from break, NCLhas announced that they are
going to take PayPal for cruisepayments.
(40:02):
When did that?
Mark Faldmo (40:02):
start.
That just barely started, andso that's for Norwegian Cruise
Line Holdings brands, which isNorwegian Cruise Line, Oceana
Cruises and Regent Seven Seas.
They did some testing on thisand found that customers using
PayPal get a 43% faster checkoutthan those using some of the
traditional methods of checkout.
Patrick Wiscombe (40:23):
So friction creates delay.
Mark Faldmo (40:26):
Yeah, and you know, I think last week or maybe the
week before we talked about Ithink it was JetBlue they're
starting to take Venmo.
A lot of travel companies don'ttake these kind of alternate
payment methods, so I think thisis a good thing for travel
brands to start taking PayPal,Venmo, Google Pay, Apple Pay,
things like that.
Just making it easier is a goodthing.
Patrick Wiscombe (40:47):
Apple Pay I'm a huge fan of.
There is just something magicalabout sending money through air
.
It's just amazing.
Mark Faldmo (40:53):
In the past and I guess this segment we talk about
travel tips.
I always would have Google Payor Apple Pay added to your phone
when you're traveling.
Make sure your phone is secureso it's behind a password or
some type of biometric ID.
I lost my wallet on an airplaneReally and I landed in New York
(41:16):
.
I don't know what happened.
I walked off the plane.
I did the airplane dance, whichI call it, which is check for
my keys, wallet and all of theimportant things, and I was
walking off.
I didn't see it.
I went back to my seat nowallet.
Patrick Wiscombe (41:30):
Really.
Mark Faldmo (41:31):
So I had no money, no credit cards.
I did have my phone.
Luckily, I knew my credit cardnumber and so I set up a Google
Pay account.
With that, I got that all takencare of.
I had the Uber app on my phoneso I could get to where I needed
to get, but Google Pay saved me.
I do like these alternativepayments.
(41:51):
Without that, I wouldn't havebeen able to check into my hotel
.
You would have been hosed, Iwould have.
Yeah, it would have not beenfun.
Patrick Wiscombe (41:59):
I saw a survey that Gen Z does not trust AI
for booking travel.
Gen Z is so tech savvy but Ican see that AI could go
horribly wrong.
Mark Faldmo (42:12):
And I've got some stories about this.
Ai is a great tool, especiallyfor travel advisors.
I use it every day.
I've had some interestingstories.
In fact.
Just two weeks ago, we had aperson come into the office and
they said we found this perfecttrip and here's what we want to
do.
And I looked at it and I waslike how did you come up with
(42:35):
this?
It's like oh, I just said I wantto do a trip to England and
Scotland in AI and I had itplanned me out.
I suppose I could put thattogether, but it would have been
a miserable vacation with theamount of travel AI had them
doing.
One of the things they told AIis they wanted to see lots of
castles.
I had like six differentcastles a day and it was the
(42:56):
craziest itinerary I've everseen.
It probably made logistic sense.
It didn't, and so there wasanother study done I think we
talked about this last yearwhere someone said I want to
take a family vacation to Mexico.
Plan it out.
Yeah, I remember this.
It was like to Mexico Cancunarea and it had them staying in
(43:16):
four different places and two ofthem were adult only hotels
that AI recommended.
So there is a place for AI andtravel.
It can give you some good ideas, but I would not rely on it.
That's another reason why touse a professional travel
advisor.
Some of these AI tools aregreat, but they don't.
(43:37):
I mean, AI has all of thisinformation and it just kind of
spits it out and hopes it's good.
Going back to that main story,the Gen Zs, which are, I think,
18 to 35 year old's right now,just don't trust AI for much
right now.
Patrick Wiscombe (43:54):
So call Mark yeah.
Mark Faldmo (43:56):
Call Mark is what we're saying.
Call Mark, no matter whatgeneration you're a part of and
we can help.
Patrick Wiscombe (44:01):
Let AI plan something for you, but let Mark
check your work.
If you've been listening to theshow for any amount of time,
you know that Mark and I lovetraveling on trains and we have
the biggest train travel trends.
Wow, say that 10 times For 2025, what are the train travel
(44:21):
trends?
Mark Faldmo (44:22):
The trend is there's more and more of these
train companies operating allaround the world.
There's a new train in UK, theBelmond Express, which operates
two to three night train tourswith sleeper cars.
It's a luxury train that goesaround the UK.
There's some new additions tothe Orient Express which we've
(44:44):
talked about.
Now.
Both of these first two optionsare in the luxury category, so
they're very, very luxurious.
In fact, off-air, we weretalking about this new car that
Orient Express has added, whichis where a person buys the whole
car and it has a bedroom, a bigbathroom, a sitting room with a
fireplace.
It's probably pretty pricey,but if you can afford it, it's
(45:07):
probably amazing.
That'd be awesome.
Also launching in 2025 thatwe've talked about the La Doce
Vita Orient Express, which is anItalian train tour.
I think last week we talkedabout the night train.
There's actually several ofthese night trains starting
around Europe.
There's one starting in Italycalled the Espresso train, which
(45:28):
is a night train to get peoplefrom Rome to the Italian Alps
and then further away outside ofEurope.
Most of what we've talked aboutis in Europe.
We've talked a lot about theRocky Mountaineer, which has
Canadian travel, as well asSouthern Utah train travel.
Patrick Wiscombe (45:46):
And you were on it in August of last year, 24
.
Mark Faldmo (45:50):
24.
Yeah.
Patrick Wiscombe (45:51):
And you loved it.
It was two days.
Mark Faldmo (45:53):
Yeah, I went from Denver to Moab.
I would do it again in aheartbeat.
And then there's two brand newtrains out there.
There's a train starting inSaudi Arabia, so it will be the
first rail service.
It's called Dream of the Desertand I don't have a lot of
details on this, but I thinkthat would be interesting to do.
And then there's a train calledthe Trans-Mongolian Railway,
(46:16):
which is an 11-day train fromChina to Mongolia.
So that starts in Beijing on abullet train to Inner Mongolia
and then you explore all ofMongolia, including the Gobi
Desert, some other interestingsites there in Mongolia.
That's kind of our train reportfor this, but lots of new and
(46:37):
exciting things when it comes totrain travel.
I like train travel becauseit's kind of a laid back way to
travel.
Patrick Wiscombe (46:43):
Yeah, and you don't have to watch the road.
Mark Faldmo (46:45):
You don't have to watch the road or the tracks
yeah, you get scenery.
I kind of like that slower paceof rail travel.
Patrick Wiscombe (46:54):
Okay, before we close up shop for the week,
let's mention the top fivecruise deals for this week.
This will just be an extensionof the infamous Just Cruising
segment from last segment.
What are the top five cruisedeals?
Mark Faldmo (47:06):
So I just wanted to point out on the
blueplanetvacations.
com, under cruise deals, thereis a link to the top five cruise
deals of the week.
As I was preparing for the show, I decided to add in these last
two cruise deals and I put themat the top of the top five
cruise deals just because theprices are so good.
One is a seven-day MexicanRiviera cruise.
(47:29):
This goes November 8th.
An inside cabin starts at $699per person and a balcony cabin
starts at $829 a person.
Patrick Wiscombe (47:39):
Wow, what ship is that on?
Do you remember?
Mark Faldmo (47:41):
That is, on the Royal Princess, which is one of
Princess Cruises' newer ships.
And then the next cruise deal Iwanted to point out and this
one is a little bit close in,but again the price point on
this is amazing it's a seven-dayAlaska cruise.
It's a northbound cruise onNorwegian Cruise Line, on the
(48:04):
Norwegian Jade, which is one ofNorwegian's older ships, but
it's also one that I really like.
I like the layout of it.
I think the ship interior flowsreally well.
This is a cruise that goes fromVancouver to Whittier, stops at
Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway,Hubbard Glacier, which is one of
my favorite glaciers.
(48:24):
Departure date is May 12th, soclose in.
Patrick Wiscombe (48:28):
Yeah, it is.
Mark Faldmo (48:29):
Inside cabin starts at $499 per person.
Balcony cabin starts at $799per person.
Patrick Wiscombe (48:36):
For Alaska.
How many days For an Alaskacruise?
Seven days.
Mark Faldmo (48:40):
That's the seven-day northbound cruise,
holy cow, may 12th.
Wow.
So again, both of those, alongwith about eight other cruise
deals, are on that top fivecruise deals on the
blueplanetvacations.
com website.
So just in the upper navigationarea click on cruise deals top
five and then click on the topfive cruise deals and that will
(49:03):
come up.
Patrick Wiscombe (49:03):
I'm going to give an unsolicited plug.
You have no idea I'm going todo this, but I have spent quite
a bit of time onblueplanetvacations.
com.
This is going to sound like apromo piece, it's not.
Mark doesn't even know.
I'm going to say this.
I don't know if you've noticedthat Patrick has spent a ton of
(49:27):
time looking at cruises thisweek on the site.
You probably have noticed a lotof time on the site from you
know, but, uh, you know some IPaddress.
It's me, yeah, and I will justsimply say that if you know what
you're looking for, go toblueplanetvacations.
com and then, in the right side,just do a cruise search and you
can book it online and it doesa phenomenal job explaining the
(49:47):
deck plans, what your cruise is,what your room is.
And I don't know if you'venoticed, but I did book some
cruises.
Did you get emails that Iactually booked?
I did.
Mark Faldmo (49:58):
Oh, I saw a reservation come through for you
, so only one.
No, you've been busy.
You've actually booked a few.
I was just only one yesterday,but before that there were two
others.
Okay.
Patrick Wiscombe (50:10):
So that's my point is, I was a little bit of
self-service there, just becauseI knew that you are in the
middle of wave season and Icould just do it myself.
You and I have not discussedthis, but your website in terms
of booking cruises is phenomenalBluePlanetVacations.
com yeah.
Mark Faldmo (50:29):
And you said that if you know what you're looking
for, go there.
Patrick Wiscombe (50:32):
But even if you don't know what you're
looking for.
Mark Faldmo (50:34):
You can go to some of the resources like the top
five cruise deals, or justsearch.
You can put in you want to lookfor a med cruise.
It'll tell you every ship andevery cruise line and all of
their prices for whatever timeperiod you put in.
Patrick Wiscombe (50:47):
So it was phenomenal.
And I'm not trying to talkabout the website.
All I'm saying is that I knowhow busy you were this week.
I'm glad that you goteverything then.
Yeah, all right, we'll wrap itup there thing then.
Yeah, all right, we'll wrap itup there.
In case I didn't make it clear,go to blue planet vacations dot
com for the deals that we havealready discussed.
But if you have additionalquestions and inevitably you
(51:13):
will, because even I have hadquestions I just happen to have
mark's cell phone so he was ableto respond even though he was
incredibly busy Call him in hisoffice.
Get the conversation started.
There's no obligation.
Call him 888-718-7717,888-718-7717.
(51:34):
And thank you so much forlistening.
You can listen to this showagain tomorrow morning, Sunday,
at 11 am, right here on thisradio station and around the
country, and you can stream,download and subscribe to the
podcast at InsideTravelTalk.
com.
Mark and I are on all of themajor podcast platforms.
(51:57):
We've done our job.
Now it is your turn to get outand explore the world while you
can, because you never know whatcurveballs life is going to
throw at you.
As we like to say here, liveyour life deliberately, live
your life intentionally.
And again, thank you so muchfor listening.
Have a great week.
Show Voice (52:20):
That's it.
That's the end of the showYou've been listening to the
Inside Travel Talk podcast andradio show with Patrick Wiscombe
and Mark Faldmo, presented byBluePlanetVacations.
com.
Book your adventure right now.
Call 888-718-7717.
That's 888-718-7717.
(52:41):
Thanks for listening.
Have a great week.
It is time to talk travel.
Welcome to the Inside TravelTalk podcast and radio show.
On today's show, we are goingto be talking about Virgin
Voyages, Mediterranean CruiseLines, and we are headed to
Mexico, Puerto Vallarta,specifically.
Let's start the show.
The Inside Travel Talk podcastand radio show presented by
BluePlanetVacations.
com contains travel deals,promotions and offers that may
(00:24):
be time-sensitive.
All offers and information wereaccurate when the show aired.
Travel deals and offers changeconstantly and are
capacity-controlled and subjectto change without notice.
Show Voice (00:38):
Helping you plan your next vacation.
This is the Inside Travel Talkpodcast and radio show Presented
by BluePlanetVacations.
com, America's best traveladvisors.
Call us now 801-649-3700,801-649-3700, and check out the
podcast at InsideTravelTalk.
(00:58):
com.
Here's Patrick Wiscombe andMark Fulton.
Patrick Wiscombe (01:14):
It is the weekend, which means it is time
to talk travel.
Welcome to the Inside TravelTalk podcast and radio show.
Hello there, I am PatrickWiscombe.
Mark Fulton will be here in thestudio here in just about 30
seconds.
The entire purpose of this showis to help you plan and book
(01:35):
your next vacation, and if youhave no idea where to go, mark
and I will be giving you someideas of maybe where you should
consider going on your nextvacation.
And this show is presented byBluePlanetVacations.
com, and I just want to saythank you for taking the time to
(01:55):
stop and listen.
As I mentioned at the verystart of the show, we're talking
about Virgin Voyages,Mediterranean Cruises, Puerto
Vallarta.
But before we get to thosespecific topics, let me bring in
my co-host and friend, markFaldmo.
I don't like this trend thatwe're on that I just don't even
talk to you during the week,like the last three weeks, and
(02:18):
then we jump in the studiotogether and we have to quickly
catch up and plan the show.
Mark Faldmo (02:24):
Yeah, yeah, I have to get back to talking more
regularly, absolutely.
Patrick Wiscombe (02:29):
Been busy, though it has been busy.
We're in wave season right now.
Mark Faldmo (02:33):
Traditionally in the travel world wave season is
January, February and March andwe can sell up to sometimes a
little bit more of 50% of all ofour total sales happen in those
three months, so it's a busytime in the travel world.
Patrick Wiscombe (02:47):
Let's get to the travel news headlines and
then we'll get to Virgin Voyages.
I saw a news story that Floridahas set an all-time tourism
record.
Now you and I were there lastyear.
I get it.
Florida is awesome.
Mark Faldmo (03:01):
Yeah, it is.
Florida has lots of advantages.
They have the theme parks, theyhave the top two busiest cruise
ports.
Plus they also have the sixthbusiest cruise port.
Air arrivals in Florida in 2024were up 3.1%.
Room nights sold in Floridawere up 1.6%.
So that's over their biggestyears ever.
(03:23):
It's one of my favorite placesto go.
We've talked about this before,but I love Miami area, going
out to the Everglades, going outto some of those places that
aren't, as I guess, touristy assome of the places in Florida.
Interestingly enough, thecities that saw the most growth
were Tallahassee, panama Cityand Pensacola.
(03:44):
Really so it wasn't what we'dthink of Miami, Orlando, Tampa
area.
It was these kind of secondarycities that saw the largest
growth.
Patrick Wiscombe (03:53):
It's just awesome down there it is,
although you do have to get usedto the humidity, or at least
Patrick does.
Mark Faldmo (04:00):
Yeah, no, Mark does too.
Mark doesn't like humidity.
Yeah, no, Mark does too.
Mark doesn't like humidity.
Patrick Wiscombe (04:04):
I'm a desert rat.
I saw some of the picturescoming out of Santorini, Greece,
the earthquake that happenedand it's leaving, or it has left
, at least the pictures that Isaw.
Santorini just deserted.
There's some destruction forsure.
Mark Faldmo (04:18):
Santorini is probably one of the most popular
, or at least on everyone'sbucket list when they think of
Greece.
It's up on a hill, an islandthat has the whitewashed
buildings with blue-tone-toppedbuildings.
It is just a picturesque Greekisle when you think of that.
But they have, over the pastthree to four weeks, been
(04:39):
suffering from a series ofearthquakes which actually this
past week, caused the firstcruise ship of the year, which
was the Viking Star from VikingCruises, to cancel its port, and
they also canceled.
I believe, two other cruises toSantorini.
But one thing that makesSantorini beautiful is its
location.
(05:00):
If you look at Santorini on amap from above, it's kind of a
half moon island with otherlittle islands that complete and
make a full circle.
Santorini is actually a caldera, the top of a volcano.
So what you're seeing onSantorini is the top of an
inactive volcano, but that'swhat makes it such a scenic
(05:21):
island.
Patrick Wiscombe (05:22):
I hope they can recover quickly.
Mark Faldmo (05:24):
Yeah, santorini is an island that's almost
completely dependent on tourism,so if there's no tourism, the
residents would have a very hardtime making a living.
Patrick Wiscombe (05:34):
Airlines are calling for scrapping the
passenger compensation proposal.
Mark Faldmo (05:40):
Last year we talked about the new rule that went
into effect where, if a flightwas canceled due to an airline
issue so not weather thepassenger either could take the
rescheduling that the airlineoffered or the airline had to
refund them in with, I believe,at seven days, so they can get a
full refund.
(06:01):
A few months ago, there was anew proposed rule where, on top
of that for domestic delays, theairline would have to pay $200
to $300 per passenger on top ofrefunding them.
Oh really, and so that's whatthe airlines are asking the new
administration to scrap?
(06:21):
As a passenger, I think thatsounds great.
If my flight is delayed, theypay $200, just for a flight
delay.
Sure, what that's going to dois raise the cost of air travel
for everyone, because they'llhave to build that cost into the
tickets.
Yeah, they will I kind of agreewith the airlines here that that
shouldn't be an additional step.
(06:42):
I think a full refund or takingwhat the airline can offer for
a reschedule is faircompensation.
The one thing I don't want isairlines to start increasing
their fares to start coveringall of these government
regulations that are beingproposed or going into effect.
Patrick Wiscombe (07:00):
Always in the first segment of the show is the
destination of the week, andthis week we're going to take a
deep dive into Virgin Voyages.
Where do you want to start here?
Mark Faldmo (07:10):
We've talked about Virgin Voyages a few times, but
I thought it'd be nice tooccasionally do some segments
where we kind of take a deepdive into some of the lesser
known cruise lines, hotels,destinations, and so this week I
just want to start with howdifferent they are.
They have whole new lingo.
(07:30):
They've crafted lingo.
If you notice, it's VirginVoyages.
So, they use the term voyageinstead of cruise.
You're not a passenger onVirgin Voyages, you're a sailor.
Kind of their theme isrebellious luxe, which is luxury
, yet cheeky vibe.
Vitamin C is termed.
(07:51):
So vitamin C is S-E-A, which istheir wellness program.
They don't have a buffet onboard, they call it the galley.
It's almost like food trucks.
I think by far it is the bestconcept I've seen at sea for
that kind of traditional buffetarea.
They really cater to those withfood allergies or special food
(08:16):
needs.
My wife, she's allergic to justabout everything food-wise but
in that galley that's the firstcruise she's ever been able to
go to that buffet area and havealmost a full selection of food
she can eat.
They cater to it.
One of the big things is she'sallergic to dairy Desserts are
always hard.
She had five or six differentdairy-free choices of desserts,
(08:38):
so they really do cater to that.
Patrick Wiscombe (08:41):
Let's talk about Virgin Voyage as being an
adults-only cruise.
So this is the anti-Disneycruise, basically.
Mark Faldmo (08:47):
It is.
It's the perfect getaway forcouples.
Patrick Wiscombe (08:52):
I know that we've already talked about the
food just a little bit, but I doknow that they have some
interesting culinary offers.
What are they?
Mark Faldmo (09:00):
They have 20 dining experiences on board.
They don't have a main diningroom as you would think on a
cruise ship.
They don't have a main diningroom as you would think on a
cruise ship.
Most cruise lines have a maindining room and you go either
first or second dining or you goanytime dining, but they have
five or six main restaurants andyou eat at a different
(09:20):
restaurant every night.
One night you might go toKorean barbecue, the next night
you might go to a steakhouse.
They have a vegan themedrestaurant which, by the way, I
did order a cauliflower steakthere at their vegan restaurant.
It was one of the best thingsI've eaten.
I'd say it's in one of my top10 meals I've ever had was their
(09:42):
cauliflower steak.
It actually wasn't a slicedcauliflower steak, it was a
whole thing of cauliflower, butit was very good.
Patrick Wiscombe (09:50):
So I'll have a head of cauliflower, please.
Mark Faldmo (09:52):
Yeah, that's something that's different and
unique is you don't really eatat the same restaurant every
night.
Basically, they're likespecialty restaurants on other
cruise lines and you rotatethrough these restaurants.
Patrick Wiscombe (10:05):
What about entertainment on Virgin Voyages?
Mark Faldmo (10:08):
It kind of breaks the traditional mold compared to
other cruise lines.
They really try and offer alittle bit more immersive
experiences, fromthought-provoking shows to
interactive shows.
They are a little bit more edgy.
Some of the shows you kind ofhave to watch they might have
some language in them, butgenerally overall very good
(10:29):
entertainment.
Patrick Wiscombe (10:30):
When you say the entertainment is more
inclusive, you're not talkingabout people watching the show.
They're including the audiencein the show.
That's correct.
Mark Faldmo (10:42):
Okay, so they really try and immerse the
audience into the show.
That's correct.
Okay, yeah, so they really tryand immerse the audience into
the show that's going on.
Patrick Wiscombe (10:48):
While we're talking about vitamin C S-E-A,
let's talk about some of thewellness amenities.
Mark Faldmo (10:55):
Yep.
So again, that's their wellnessprogram on board.
They do it differently than alot of cruise lines.
Like yoga programs, their detoxprograms, they have
personalized fitness on board.
Wellness is probably one oftheir main building blocks of
their brand.
They do have a traditional spa,but it goes well beyond the
(11:16):
traditional spa.
Patrick Wiscombe (11:18):
For the fare that you pay when you get on
Virgin Voyages.
Is all of this stuff justincluded?
What about Wi-Fi drinks?
Are they extra charges?
Mark Faldmo (11:26):
So your fare includes Wi-Fi tips and
gratuities, all dining options,beverages which is complimentary
, soda, water and various otherdrink options, all of the
fitness center classes and allof the entertainment.
So there's nothing more onboard other than shore
excursions really, that youwould need to pay.
(11:47):
They do offer some upgradedexperiences that you can buy,
but it's different than mostcruise lines, especially in the
beverages, where you haveincluded soda on the ship.
Patrick Wiscombe (11:57):
Okay.
So, unlike other cruise lines,virgin Voyages just includes all
of that, rather than gettingnickeled and dimed for each one
of those things.
Mark Faldmo (12:06):
That's correct.
Okay, and one thing if you lookat Virgin Voyages fares,
they're very competitive toother cruise lines.
Even with all of thoseadditions, it doesn't add that
much more when you compare it toother cruise line itineraries.
Patrick Wiscombe (12:20):
Oh, see that might be very appealing to a lot
of listeners then yes, oh seethat might be very appealing to
a lot of listeners then.
Mark Faldmo (12:25):
Yes, I think all of those inclusions plus the
adults only is perfect.
Patrick Wiscombe (12:30):
Well, that's going to do it for the deep dive
into Virgin Voyages.
What about current VirginVoyages promotions, Mark?
Mark Faldmo (12:38):
Right now, if you book by February 28th, virgin
Voyage's current promotion is80% off the second guest free
drinks up to $300.
That is for their premieralcohol and mixed drinks.
So, as we said earlier, you doget sodas and certain other
drinks are included.
But if you want kind of thattop shelf, upscale experience,
(13:01):
they will pay up to $300.
And then if you pay in full,you get an additional 10% off
your cruise when you pay in full.
Patrick Wiscombe (13:08):
Okay, so that means as soon as you book it,
you just pay for the whole thing.
I'll just call it a layawayplan.
Mark Faldmo (13:14):
Correct.
Patrick Wiscombe (13:14):
Okay, so just pay for the whole thing and get
another 10%, get an extra 10%off.
How many times have you sailedwith Virgin Voyages, Mark?
I've been on Virgin Voyages onetime and it was a good
experience for you.
Mark Faldmo (13:30):
It was very good, I would go again, and again.
Patrick Wiscombe (13:34):
Call Mark in his office if you are interested
in sailing with Virgin Voyages.
Call him in his office duringthe break 888-718-7717.
888-718-7717, 888-718-7717.
(13:55):
And he will also post this onblueplanetvacations.
com.
When we come back it is the hottravel deal of the week and
this week we're headed to PuertoVallarta.
So if that is on your bucketlist or someplace that you want
to return to, we've got a $300savings that you'll want to cash
in on.
That is next when the InsideTravel Talk podcast and radio
show continues Alongside MarkFaldmo, my name is Patrick
(14:18):
Wiscombe.
Thank you so much for allowingus to be part of your weekend.
Show Voice (14:22):
We'll be right back allowing us to be part of your
weekend.
We'll be right back.
If you have travel questions,they have the answers.
You're listening to the InsideTravel Talk podcast and radio
show with Patrick Wiscombe andMark Faldmo, presented by
BluePlanetVacations.
com.
Call or text the show right now801-649-3700.
(14:45):
801-649-3700.
We'll be right back.
Ad Voice (14:57):
This segment of Inside Travel Talk is sponsored by El
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Show Voice (15:21):
You're listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast
and radio show presented byBluePlanetVacations.
com, America's best traveladvisors.
Call or text the show now801-649-3700, 801-649-3700.
And check out the podcast atInsideTravelTalk.
com.
(15:42):
Here's Patrick and Mark.
Patrick Wiscombe (15:50):
Welcome back inside of the Inside Travel Talk
podcast and radio show.
We hope you are having anabsolutely terrific weekend and
thank you for allowing us to bepart of your weekend by allowing
us to be inside of your earsand hopefully entertain you and
give you ideas of where to go onvacation next.
(16:14):
Coming up in this segment ofthe show always segment two of
the show we have the hot traveldeal of the week and this week
we're going to Mexico, PuertoVallarta specifically.
But before we do, let's get tothe travel news headlines.
I thought this was kind ofinteresting, mark how Hawaii is
(16:36):
considering if I've got thisright an all-inclusive vacation
option on the Big Island.
Mark Faldmo (16:43):
I get lots of calls that say they want to go to
Hawaii and stay at anall-inclusive resort and there
really aren't any fullall-inclusive resorts like you
would think of in Mexico.
Yeah, I think there's one thattried it a few years ago.
It didn't go well, but theHilton Waikoloa Village on the
(17:03):
Big Island is offering anall-inclusive promotion.
What this includes is when youbook this room rate, so it's one
of the room rates you can book.
You can get just a regular roomor you can book the
all-inclusive promotion.
So it includes daily breakfastat their buffet and then it
includes dinner at one of theirrestaurants.
(17:24):
They have three restaurantsthat you can eat at or you can
upgrade to their Luau.
It includes drinks at mealtime.
It also includes one hour ofthe Lagoon Beach toy rental, so
you can rent a kayak, stand up,paddleboard, water tricycle or
paddle boat.
Patrick Wiscombe (17:44):
Have you ever done a tricycle?
I have Me too.
Mark Faldmo (17:49):
It's harder than it looks.
Also, one thing that thisoffers that I think is a good
perk is it includes dailyself-parking, which is $50 a day
if you pay for it, so it's areally good offer.
Again, it is going to be moreexpensive than just buying the
regular room rate, but if you dowant everything included and it
(18:09):
to work like an all-inclusivein Mexico, this is a good option
.
Patrick Wiscombe (18:13):
Where is Hilton Waikoloa?
I know it's the big island.
Is that Hilo or is that Kona?
Mark Faldmo (18:19):
It's in Kona.
That's what you would fly into,so it's about 20 minutes from
the airport.
I love the big island.
Patrick Wiscombe (18:25):
I saw that Venice and their day tripping
tourist tax has been extendedthrough 2025.
Mark Faldmo (18:40):
It is Yep, so it's extended through 2025 and
they've doubled the price, soit's now 10 euros.
It was five euros, it's now 10euro.
Anyone going into Venice forthe day will have to pay this
day tripper tourist tax.
If you are staying at a hotel,you do not have to pay it.
Patrick Wiscombe (18:53):
And you like staying in Venice instead of
trekking into Venice?
Mark Faldmo (18:57):
Correct.
If I were visiting Venice, Iwould stay on the island.
There's nothing like Venice inthe evening.
Patrick Wiscombe (19:03):
Let's get to the hot travel deal of the week,
which is Puerto Vallarta, inMexico.
Let's first talk about theareas of Puerto Vallarta that
you like to stay, and so whentraveling to Puerto Vallarta,
(19:24):
there are several that you canchoose from.
Mark Faldmo (19:27):
In Puerto Vallarta, the main area where people stay
is the hotel zone.
The hotel zone is kind of bestfor convenience and it's where
all of the all-inclusive resortsare.
It's kind of right in betweenthe airport and the downtown
zone.
And then the downtown zone iswhere I like to stay just
because I like going to theMalecon, I like everything there
(19:49):
is to do in the downtown zone.
I would say for first-timevisitors, the downtown zone is
probably the best place to stay.
Patrick Wiscombe (19:57):
So stay out of the hotel in this case to stay.
Mark Faldmo (20:03):
So stay out of the hotel in this case, yeah, out of
the hotel zone, yeah.
And then there's also theMarina Vallarta.
That's right next to theairports, where all the cruise
ships come into, but there aresome pretty nice all-inclusive
resorts there, and this is wherea lot of the resorts for
families are based.
The next zone is the ZonaRomantica, so the romantic zone,
which I don't necessarily liketo stay there, but I like to go
(20:26):
visit there because it'sprobably the most traditional.
You'll get there and just feellike you're in that colonial
Mexico Probably.
My next favorite place to stayis the I would call it the South
Beach area.
This is the area that's kind ofon the other side of downtown,
but it has the best beaches.
(20:47):
It has hotels, like the HyattZiva that we've talked about,
but it's just kind of on its ownlittle bay, its own little
secluded beach, and so this isthe area that has the best
beaches in Puerto Vallarta.
Patrick Wiscombe (21:01):
So let's get to the actual hot travel deal of
the week.
What are the promotions that wehave for listeners this?
Mark Faldmo (21:06):
week.
So right now, book by February27th and you can save up to $300
for trips to Mexico, PuertoVallarta in particular here that
we're talking about, and thisincludes Five Nights Hotel,
round-trip airfare from SaltLake City and this also includes
Roundtrip transfers from theairport to the hotel.
Lately I've kind of only beenlooking at four-star and above
(21:29):
hotels because those prices havebeen so good.
The Crystal Puerto Vallartastarts at $1,089 for Airfare,
five Nights Hotel from Salt LakeCity and the transfers between
the airport and hotel.
And then if we bump up to afive-star hotel, there's a few
that will go over here.
But the IberoStar selectionPlayamita starts at $1329 per
(21:54):
person.
Now this is an area that we didnot talk about.
It's about an hour kind ofnorth of the airport, so it's a
ways away from the airport, butit's kind of in the newer.
It's kind of an upscale areafor vacations in the Puerto
Vallarta area.
And then the Villa PremierBoutique Hotel, five-star
boutique.
(22:14):
There's 72 rooms, so it's small, located in the downtown area.
It's the closest hotel to theMalecan, which I really like.
It starts at $1739 per personand this date I can't remember
if we mentioned that or not it'sMay 7th, but we can also look
at other dates on that.
Patrick Wiscombe (22:31):
What was the first one where he had to book
by the?
Did you say February 27th?
Mark Faldmo (22:35):
Correct, yeah, booked by February 27th to get
the up to $300 off.
Patrick Wiscombe (22:40):
How many times have you actually physically
been in Puerto Vallarta?
Mark Faldmo (22:45):
So including times when I've stopped on the cruise,
probably 30 or 35.
Patrick Wiscombe (22:52):
I was expecting you to say, like I
don't know, five, 30 to 35.
Wow.
Mark Faldmo (22:59):
Yeah, quite a bit.
I love Puerto Vallarta.
Patrick Wiscombe (23:01):
Yeah, you do Take advantage of those offers.
Call Mark in his office duringthe break.
Just get the conversationstarted.
There's no obligation888-718-7717.
888-718-7717.
(23:22):
Or you can also go toblueplanetvacations.
com.
When we come back after thebreak, it is time for the
infamous Just Cruising segment,and this week we're going to the
Mediterranean.
Stick around, If you've alwayswanted to go to that part of the
world.
That's what we're talking aboutnext and we've got some awesome
deals for listeners this week.
Thank you so much for listening.
(23:44):
We will be right back.
Show Voice (23:51):
They've literally traveled millions of miles to
answer your travel relatedquestions.
Yeah, they really have.
You're listening to the InsideTravel Talk podcast and radio
show presented byBluePlanetVacations.
com.
America's best travel advisors,Patrick and Mark, will be back
after these messages.
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Patrick Wiscombe (25:00):
Okay, we're back.
Thank you so much for listeningto the Inside Travel Talk
podcast and radio show Coming up.
In the remaining 30 minutes wewill be talking about Royal
Caribbean having a new home portin San Diego, cruising in the
Mediterranean.
That will be the cruise deal ofthe week.
Let's get back to the show.
The Inside Travel Talk podcastand radio show presented by
(25:21):
blueplanetvacations.
com contains travel deals,promotions and offers that may
be time sensitive.
All offers and information wereaccurate when the show aired.
Travel deals and offers changeconstantly and are capacity
controlled and subject to changewithout notice.
Show Voice (25:43):
Now back to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and
radio show presented byBluePlanetVacations.
com America's best traveladvisors.
Hit us up right now801-649-3700, 801-649-3700.
And check out the podcast atInsideTravelTalk.
com.
(26:03):
Here's Patrick and Mark.
Patrick Wiscombe (26:17):
All aboard for the infamous Just Cruising
segment on the Inside TravelTalk podcast and radio show.
My name is Patrick Wiscombe, instudio with Mark Faldmo Coming
up.
In this final segment of theshow, we're going to be talking
about Royal Caribbean and theirbrand new ship that's going to
(26:39):
home port in San Diego.
That's good news.
Cruising in the Mediterraneanthat will be the cruise deal of
the week, and how to find themost popular cruise line in your
state.
That's coming up in thissegment, and it's only about
cruise news, so let's go aheadand start right there, mark.
Royal Caribbean has justannounced that they're going to
(27:00):
home port one of their ships inSan Diego.
What details do we have on that, though?
This?
Mark Faldmo (27:04):
will be the third ship on the West Coast for Royal
Caribbean 2026 and 2027 winterseason.
They will move the Serenade ofthe Seas to San Diego.
It will run three, four andseven night destinations and
include a new port for RoyalCaribbean, which will be La Paz,
Mexico.
So this won't be the typicalMexican Riviera cruise.
(27:25):
It'll have that additionalunique port of La Paz, Mexico.
This year Royal Caribbean addedthe Navigator of the Seas and
Ovation of the Seas, so thiswill be the addition of a third
ship on the West Coast for RoyalCaribbean.
Patrick Wiscombe (27:40):
A new Royal Caribbean ship, Legend of the
Seas, is now for sale to thepublic.
Do we know the itineraries?
Mark Faldmo (27:47):
Just a few days ago they put their brand new ship,
the Legend of the Seas,itineraries up for sale, and it
will spend the summer of 2026sailing the Mediterranean from
Barcelona, and then it will moveto Fort Lauderdale for the
winter season of 2026, where itwill do Caribbean cruises.
So if you're interested insailing on the newest, biggest
(28:08):
and best that Royal Caribbeanhas, this is a ship for you.
Patrick Wiscombe (28:12):
That is one of the things that you and I love
to do just to jump on new cruiseships.
Got that new cruise ship smell?
Yes, I thought this was kind ofcool, Mark, that you can track
all of your cruises in one placewith the Cruise Globe.
Mark Faldmo (28:26):
This is a unique app that someone's come up with
called thecruiseglobe.
com, and you can go in and putall of your past cruises back to
2015, in and it will show you amap on the world of every
cruise port and itinerary thatyou have.
All of these ships havesatellite data, so it actually
(28:47):
tracks the exact path that yourcruise ship went.
Patrick Wiscombe (28:51):
Did it really Okay.
I'm going to have to do thatthen, cause that sounds like a
lot of fun just to see the linesof where we went Sometimes.
Mark Faldmo (28:59):
You know Google has a thing everywhere you went
this year, and so Delta also hasa thing, so I like to see that
where I've been, but it doesn'ttrack any of the cruises
released.
So this is an interesting appto do that.
There are a lot of people thatactually do go out and purchase
professionally done, framedphotos of their cruise itinerary
, okay, and so this is kind ofan alternate to doing that.
(29:21):
I am going to do this and seewhat my map shows up.
Again, they have all data goingback 10 years to 2015.
So it will only have a smallportion of my cruises, but it'll
be interesting to see that.
Patrick Wiscombe (29:35):
This was kind of interesting that you can
actually find out what the mostpopular cruise line in your
state is, Because we'rebroadcasting from Salt Lake City
.
Let's start with Utah.
What is Utah's most popularcruise line?
Mark Faldmo (29:50):
As with most of the country, Utah's most popular
cruise line is Disney CruiseLine.
Patrick Wiscombe (29:55):
Okay, that makes sense.
Mark Faldmo (29:56):
This was actually a survey study done by USA Today.
West Coast, us US is PrincessCruises, and then you kind of
have the middle and northernpart of the US which is Disney
Cruise Line, and then Texas,Louisiana, Oklahoma, the
Carolinas is Carnival CruiseLine.
(30:16):
In Florida it's CelebrityCruise Line, whoa Celebrity.
Yeah, in New York it'sCelebrity Cruise Line, whoa
Celebrity.
In New York it's MSC CruiseLine, and then in Georgia, new
Jersey and Delaware it's VirginVoyages.
I know I left a couple statesout of that, but those cruise
lines cover the survey.
I find it interesting.
Ad Voice (30:36):
Royal Caribbean did not show up as a favorite in the
state as an all-out favorite.
Mark Faldmo (30:38):
Royal Caribbean did not show up as a favorite in
the state as an all out favorite.
Well, especially in Floridawith Icon of the Seas man,
there's a lot of Royal Caribbeanships down there Norwegian
didn't show up on thisno-transcript and a couple of
states that have VirginCelebrity and MSC.
Patrick Wiscombe (30:59):
Oh, interesting, that is not
anything that I thought you weregoing to say.
I guess you could say Celebrityis owned by Royal Caribbean.
Mark Faldmo (31:07):
Correct.
Yeah, but they are their owndistinct brand.
Yeah, they are.
Patrick Wiscombe (31:10):
Always in this segment of the show, at the
bottom of the hour, we alwayshave the cruise deal of the week
, and this week we're going tothe Mediterranean.
And what offer do we have forlisteners this week?
Mark Faldmo (31:23):
So this is on Princess Cruise Lines.
They have their standard 40%off the cruise fare, free cabin
upgrades and third and fourthguests free in the same cabin.
But on top of that, forMediterranean cruises booked by
February 28th, they're giving upto an additional $800 instant
saving discount and deposits of$99 on select voyages.
Patrick Wiscombe (31:49):
So you're saying that you're going to be
very busy this week?
Listeners have to takeadvantage of these offers
between now and like the 25ththrough the 28th.
Mark Faldmo (31:58):
Correct, so it's close in.
We have from today, SaturdayFebruary 22nd.
We do have a week left to bookthose.
So these are on Princess'snewest ships which are sailing
over in the Med right now.
You're not only getting prettymuch brand new ships, but you're
getting very interestingitineraries.
Patrick Wiscombe (32:18):
You, me and our wives.
We like cruising on the newestcruise ships.
I was looking at Sun Princess.
That's a nice ship.
That's a way nice ship.
Mark Faldmo (32:27):
It is, and in the Med it has some very good
pricing.
So on the Sun Princess theyhave a seven-day Western
Mediterranean cruise that sailsbetween Barcelona and Rome.
It visits Gibraltar, so that'sa stop I've not been to but then
it goes to Marseille, genoa,Italy port that'd be closest to
(32:49):
Florence and Pisa, and then endsin Rome, and on August 9th.
So this is in the summertimeand I'm just going to give the
balcony cabin on this starts at$1,609 per person for that
seven-day cruise.
Wow, the reason on that theinside cabin is only like $200 a
person less, and so for thatprice difference you might as
(33:11):
well go in a balcony.
Patrick Wiscombe (33:13):
But it is available, just in case.
Mark Faldmo (33:15):
It is available if you want that lower inside price
.
There's also an ocean viewprice in between that.
Patrick Wiscombe (33:21):
Now, when you talk about ocean view, I won't
say it's called a porthole, butbasically that's what you're
talking about Some kind of aporthole or pitcher window.
Mark Faldmo (33:28):
Or pitcher window, yeah, and that's an ocean view.
And then the cruise that Ithink I find most interesting is
on the Majestic Princess.
This is a 10-day Greece andTurkey cruise, so it sails
between Athens and Rome.
This one's a little bit closerin, it's on June 20th, but it
sails from Athens.
(33:50):
Goes to Mykonos in Greece, goesto Kusadasi in Turkey, so from
there you can go to Ephesus,which I think is one of the most
fascinating archaeologicalsites you can visit in that
whole region.
Then it goes to Rhodes inGreece, goes to Crete in Greece,
goes to Katoclone, which isnear Olympia, so that would be
(34:12):
the port where you can go seewhere the first Olympics were
held.
Goes to Valletta in Malta,which we've talked about before
that.
Patrick Wiscombe (34:20):
Yeah, you love .
Mark Faldmo (34:21):
One of the most fascinating ports.
Sailing into Valletta, Malta,is amazing.
That's probably one of the topfive cruise experiences that you
can have, I think, just becauseof the scenery and how Valletta
is laid out.
It goes to Naples, go to Capri,go to Pompeii.
You can go eat at therestaurant where the very first
(34:41):
pizza was made.
I would do that.
In Naples, Italy, and then endsin Rome, so it's a 10-day
cruise.
Balcony cabins start at $17.99per person.
Patrick Wiscombe (34:52):
This sounds like very, very port intensive.
Mark Faldmo (34:55):
It is yeah, so it only has two sea days in 10.
You're in port every other day.
Patrick Wiscombe (35:02):
How much was that again?
Did you say $1799?
Mark Faldmo (35:05):
Yeah $1799 for a balcony cabin.
Again, there are insidesavailable.
They're about $200 a personless than that, but for this
sailing into Malta I think thebalcony cabin is worth it, just
for that experience.
Patrick Wiscombe (35:25):
This might seem like a strange question,
but what side of the ship forthis cruise would you be?
On the port side, the left side, or starboard side, the right
side?
Mark Faldmo (35:29):
You would want to be on the starboard side for the
sail into Valletta, Malta.
Okay, that's where all thescenery is.
When they sail out, it'll be onthe other side of the ship.
All the scenery is when theysail out, it'll be on the other
side of the ship.
Patrick Wiscombe (35:44):
But you know, I think the sailing is the time
when it's I guess you'd say it'smost magical when you're
sailing in.
You have raved about Malta foras long as we've been doing this
show over a year and a half now.
Mark Faldmo (35:52):
Yeah, I think of all the cruise ports I've been
to, that is definitely in thetop five of my favorite cruise
ports.
Patrick Wiscombe (35:59):
Well, and I mentioned that you've done 150
cruises before and so, if itgets your attention, 150 plus
cruises is a lot for anybody.
But what I'm saying is, if itgot your attention, just do it
the way Mark did it, because ifhe was moved, just do it.
Mark Faldmo (36:15):
Yeah, and you know, in this itinerary again,
Kusadasi is also one of myfavorites.
Going to Ephesus I loved rightthere by the port in Kusadasi
they had a bazaar those Turkishbazaars are to, so it's a very
good itinerary.
And also starting in Athens,going a few days before and see
(36:44):
Athens.
My favorite experience there isjust going to a street café and
getting a euro.
Nothing like a good Greekauthentic euro.
Patrick Wiscombe (36:53):
Well, I know what we're going to do, Nicky
and I.
Man, we are loading up on thecruises.
Have you noticed that?
Mark Faldmo (36:58):
Yeah, this week has lots of cruises.
There's even a little bit moreto come in the next segment.
Patrick Wiscombe (37:05):
All right, more cruises coming up in the
next segment.
We've also got Mark's traveltips and we're going to talk
about NCL accepting PayPal forcruise payments.
That's kind of cool.
And we'll talk about the topfive cruise deals good Mexican
Riviera and Alaska cruises.
The goodness just continues inthe next segment.
(37:26):
Thank you so much for allowingus to be part of your weekend.
You're listening to the InsideTravel Talk podcast, a radio
show.
Call Mark in his office if youwant to book any of these
vacations 888-718-7717.
888-718-7717,.
888-718-7717.
Show Voice (37:45):
We will be right back.
Explore your world.
You're listening to the InsideTravel Talk podcast and radio
show presented byBluePlanetVacations.
com.
America's best travel advisors.
Call or text the show now801-649-3700, 801-649-3700.
(38:07):
We'll be right back.
Ad Voice (38:16):
This segment of Inside Travel Talk is sponsored by
Star Clippers.
For over 30 years, StarClippers has offered unique
authentic tall ship sailingexperiences featuring creative
itineraries throughout theMediterranean Caribbean and
Central America.
To book your unique StarClipper sailing adventure,
contact Blue Planet Vacations at888-718-7717 or
(38:37):
blueplanetvacations.
com.
Show Voice (38:46):
They'll help you plan and book your next vacation
.
Yeah, really, you're listeningto the.
Inside Travel Talk podcast andradio show presented by
blueplanetvacations.
com, America's best traveladvisors.
Call or text the show now801-649-3700, 801-649-3700.
Patrick Wiscombe (39:15):
And now here's Patrick Wiscombe and Mark
Faldmo.
Welcome back inside of theInside Travel Talk podcast and
radio show.
My name is Patrick Wiscombe,alongside Mark Faldmo, coming up
in this final segment of theshow, we have got the top five
cruise deals that we're justgoing to mention.
We're extending the cruise dealof the week, or the infamous
(39:41):
just cruising segment, into thissection of the show, and we're
also going to be talking aboutNCL.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdingis now going to accept PayPal
for cruise payments, so that isnot something that we have seen
quite yet.
In fact, mark, let's just goahead and start there.
As we come back from break, NCLhas announced that they are
going to take PayPal for cruisepayments.
(40:02):
When did that?
Mark Faldmo (40:02):
start.
That just barely started, andso that's for Norwegian Cruise
Line Holdings brands, which isNorwegian Cruise Line, Oceana
Cruises and Regent Seven Seas.
They did some testing on thisand found that customers using
PayPal get a 43% faster checkoutthan those using some of the
traditional methods of checkout.
Patrick Wiscombe (40:23):
So friction creates delay.
Mark Faldmo (40:26):
Yeah, and you know, I think last week or maybe the
week before we talked about Ithink it was JetBlue they're
starting to take Venmo.
A lot of travel companies don'ttake these kind of alternate
payment methods, so I think thisis a good thing for travel
brands to start taking PayPal,Venmo, Google Pay, Apple Pay,
things like that.
Just making it easier is a goodthing.
Patrick Wiscombe (40:47):
Apple Pay I'm a huge fan of.
There is just something magicalabout sending money through air
.
It's just amazing.
Mark Faldmo (40:53):
In the past and I guess this segment we talk about
travel tips.
I always would have Google Payor Apple Pay added to your phone
when you're traveling.
Make sure your phone is secureso it's behind a password or
some type of biometric ID.
I lost my wallet on an airplaneReally and I landed in New York
(41:16):
.
I don't know what happened.
I walked off the plane.
I did the airplane dance, whichI call it, which is check for
my keys, wallet and all of theimportant things, and I was
walking off.
I didn't see it.
I went back to my seat nowallet.
Patrick Wiscombe (41:30):
Really.
Mark Faldmo (41:31):
So I had no money, no credit cards.
I did have my phone.
Luckily, I knew my credit cardnumber and so I set up a Google
Pay account.
With that, I got that all takencare of.
I had the Uber app on my phoneso I could get to where I needed
to get, but Google Pay saved me.
I do like these alternativepayments.
(41:51):
Without that, I wouldn't havebeen able to check into my hotel
.
You would have been hosed, Iwould have.
Yeah, it would have not beenfun.
Patrick Wiscombe (41:59):
I saw a survey that Gen Z does not trust AI
for booking travel.
Gen Z is so tech savvy but Ican see that AI could go
horribly wrong.
Mark Faldmo (42:12):
And I've got some stories about this.
Ai is a great tool, especiallyfor travel advisors.
I use it every day.
I've had some interestingstories.
In fact.
Just two weeks ago, we had aperson come into the office and
they said we found this perfecttrip and here's what we want to
do.
And I looked at it and I waslike how did you come up with
(42:35):
this?
It's like oh, I just said I wantto do a trip to England and
Scotland in AI and I had itplanned me out.
I suppose I could put thattogether, but it would have been
a miserable vacation with theamount of travel AI had them
doing.
One of the things they told AIis they wanted to see lots of
castles.
I had like six differentcastles a day and it was the
(42:56):
craziest itinerary I've everseen.
It probably made logistic sense.
It didn't, and so there wasanother study done I think we
talked about this last yearwhere someone said I want to
take a family vacation to Mexico.
Plan it out.
Yeah, I remember this.
It was like to Mexico Cancunarea and it had them staying in
(43:16):
four different places and two ofthem were adult only hotels
that AI recommended.
So there is a place for AI andtravel.
It can give you some good ideas, but I would not rely on it.
That's another reason why touse a professional travel
advisor.
Some of these AI tools aregreat, but they don't.
(43:37):
I mean, AI has all of thisinformation and it just kind of
spits it out and hopes it's good.
Going back to that main story,the Gen Zs, which are, I think,
18 to 35 year old's right now,just don't trust AI for much
right now.
Patrick Wiscombe (43:54):
So call Mark yeah.
Mark Faldmo (43:56):
Call Mark is what we're saying.
Call Mark, no matter whatgeneration you're a part of and
we can help.
Patrick Wiscombe (44:01):
Let AI plan something for you, but let Mark
check your work.
If you've been listening to theshow for any amount of time,
you know that Mark and I lovetraveling on trains and we have
the biggest train travel trends.
Wow, say that 10 times For 2025, what are the train travel
(44:21):
trends?
Mark Faldmo (44:22):
The trend is there's more and more of these
train companies operating allaround the world.
There's a new train in UK, theBelmond Express, which operates
two to three night train tourswith sleeper cars.
It's a luxury train that goesaround the UK.
There's some new additions tothe Orient Express which we've
(44:44):
talked about.
Now.
Both of these first two optionsare in the luxury category, so
they're very, very luxurious.
In fact, off-air, we weretalking about this new car that
Orient Express has added, whichis where a person buys the whole
car and it has a bedroom, a bigbathroom, a sitting room with a
fireplace.
It's probably pretty pricey,but if you can afford it, it's
(45:07):
probably amazing.
That'd be awesome.
Also launching in 2025 thatwe've talked about the La Doce
Vita Orient Express, which is anItalian train tour.
I think last week we talkedabout the night train.
There's actually several ofthese night trains starting
around Europe.
There's one starting in Italycalled the Espresso train, which
(45:28):
is a night train to get peoplefrom Rome to the Italian Alps
and then further away outside ofEurope.
Most of what we've talked aboutis in Europe.
We've talked a lot about theRocky Mountaineer, which has
Canadian travel, as well asSouthern Utah train travel.
Patrick Wiscombe (45:46):
And you were on it in August of last year, 24
.
Mark Faldmo (45:50):
24.
Yeah.
Patrick Wiscombe (45:51):
And you loved it.
It was two days.
Mark Faldmo (45:53):
Yeah, I went from Denver to Moab.
I would do it again in aheartbeat.
And then there's two brand newtrains out there.
There's a train starting inSaudi Arabia, so it will be the
first rail service.
It's called Dream of the Desertand I don't have a lot of
details on this, but I thinkthat would be interesting to do.
And then there's a train calledthe Trans-Mongolian Railway,
(46:16):
which is an 11-day train fromChina to Mongolia.
So that starts in Beijing on abullet train to Inner Mongolia
and then you explore all ofMongolia, including the Gobi
Desert, some other interestingsites there in Mongolia.
That's kind of our train reportfor this, but lots of new and
(46:37):
exciting things when it comes totrain travel.
I like train travel becauseit's kind of a laid back way to
travel.
Patrick Wiscombe (46:43):
Yeah, and you don't have to watch the road.
Mark Faldmo (46:45):
You don't have to watch the road or the tracks
yeah, you get scenery.
I kind of like that slower paceof rail travel.
Patrick Wiscombe (46:54):
Okay, before we close up shop for the week,
let's mention the top fivecruise deals for this week.
This will just be an extensionof the infamous Just Cruising
segment from last segment.
What are the top five cruisedeals?
Mark Faldmo (47:06):
So I just wanted to point out on the
blueplanetvacations.
com, under cruise deals, thereis a link to the top five cruise
deals of the week.
As I was preparing for the show, I decided to add in these last
two cruise deals and I put themat the top of the top five
cruise deals just because theprices are so good.
One is a seven-day MexicanRiviera cruise.
(47:29):
This goes November 8th.
An inside cabin starts at $699per person and a balcony cabin
starts at $829 a person.
Patrick Wiscombe (47:39):
Wow, what ship is that on?
Do you remember?
Mark Faldmo (47:41):
That is, on the Royal Princess, which is one of
Princess Cruises' newer ships.
And then the next cruise deal Iwanted to point out and this
one is a little bit close in,but again the price point on
this is amazing it's a seven-dayAlaska cruise.
It's a northbound cruise onNorwegian Cruise Line, on the
(48:04):
Norwegian Jade, which is one ofNorwegian's older ships, but
it's also one that I really like.
I like the layout of it.
I think the ship interior flowsreally well.
This is a cruise that goes fromVancouver to Whittier, stops at
Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway,Hubbard Glacier, which is one of
my favorite glaciers.
(48:24):
Departure date is May 12th, soclose in.
Patrick Wiscombe (48:28):
Yeah, it is.
Mark Faldmo (48:29):
Inside cabin starts at $499 per person.
Balcony cabin starts at $799per person.
Patrick Wiscombe (48:36):
For Alaska.
How many days For an Alaskacruise?
Seven days.
Mark Faldmo (48:40):
That's the seven-day northbound cruise,
holy cow, may 12th.
Wow.
So again, both of those, alongwith about eight other cruise
deals, are on that top fivecruise deals on the
blueplanetvacations.
com website.
So just in the upper navigationarea click on cruise deals top
five and then click on the topfive cruise deals and that will
(49:03):
come up.
Patrick Wiscombe (49:03):
I'm going to give an unsolicited plug.
You have no idea I'm going todo this, but I have spent quite
a bit of time onblueplanetvacations.
com.
This is going to sound like apromo piece, it's not.
Mark doesn't even know.
I'm going to say this.
I don't know if you've noticedthat Patrick has spent a ton of
(49:27):
time looking at cruises thisweek on the site.
You probably have noticed a lotof time on the site from you
know, but, uh, you know some IPaddress.
It's me, yeah, and I will justsimply say that if you know what
you're looking for, go toblueplanetvacations.
com and then, in the right side,just do a cruise search and you
can book it online and it doesa phenomenal job explaining the
(49:47):
deck plans, what your cruise is,what your room is.
And I don't know if you'venoticed, but I did book some
cruises.
Did you get emails that Iactually booked?
I did.
Mark Faldmo (49:58):
Oh, I saw a reservation come through for you
, so only one.
No, you've been busy.
You've actually booked a few.
I was just only one yesterday,but before that there were two
others.
Okay.
Patrick Wiscombe (50:10):
So that's my point is, I was a little bit of
self-service there, just becauseI knew that you are in the
middle of wave season and Icould just do it myself.
You and I have not discussedthis, but your website in terms
of booking cruises is phenomenalBluePlanetVacations.
com yeah.
Mark Faldmo (50:29):
And you said that if you know what you're looking
for, go there.
Patrick Wiscombe (50:32):
But even if you don't know what you're
looking for.
Mark Faldmo (50:34):
You can go to some of the resources like the top
five cruise deals, or justsearch.
You can put in you want to lookfor a med cruise.
It'll tell you every ship andevery cruise line and all of
their prices for whatever timeperiod you put in.
Patrick Wiscombe (50:47):
So it was phenomenal.
And I'm not trying to talkabout the website.
All I'm saying is that I knowhow busy you were this week.
I'm glad that you goteverything then.
Yeah, all right, we'll wrap itup there thing then.
Yeah, all right, we'll wrap itup there.
In case I didn't make it clear,go to blue planet vacations dot
com for the deals that we havealready discussed.
But if you have additionalquestions and inevitably you
(51:13):
will, because even I have hadquestions I just happen to have
mark's cell phone so he was ableto respond even though he was
incredibly busy Call him in hisoffice.
Get the conversation started.
There's no obligation.
Call him 888-718-7717,888-718-7717.
(51:34):
And thank you so much forlistening.
You can listen to this showagain tomorrow morning, Sunday,
at 11 am, right here on thisradio station and around the
country, and you can stream,download and subscribe to the
podcast at InsideTravelTalk.
com.
Mark and I are on all of themajor podcast platforms.
(51:57):
We've done our job.
Now it is your turn to get outand explore the world while you
can, because you never know whatcurveballs life is going to
throw at you.
As we like to say here, liveyour life deliberately, live
your life intentionally.
And again, thank you so muchfor listening.
Have a great week.
Show Voice (52:20):
That's it.
That's the end of the showYou've been listening to the
Inside Travel Talk podcast andradio show with Patrick Wiscombe
and Mark Faldmo, presented byBluePlanetVacations.
com.
Book your adventure right now.
Call 888-718-7717.
That's 888-718-7717.
(52:41):
Thanks for listening.
Have a great week.
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