The Travel Show: Best Beach in the world; Supersonic Travel?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another award winning edition of the Travel Show.
I'm Larry Gelwigs, your humble host. Yes, humility a character
trade I've never been accused of. We've got a great show.
Line up today is Supersonic Travel, returning as early as
next year. The regional key account director for Norwegian Cruise

(00:20):
Line will be joining us, and questions you should ask
yourself before you book your next ocean cruise. Travel scams
are hitting a new high and a new low. And
I'm going to take you home to my hometown, San
Francisco by the Bay and let you know where you
can find absolutely positively the best sour dough in town.

(00:43):
I want to welcome back to the Travel Show our
good friend and great travel advisor John Potter aka Pluto.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
John, Welcome to the Travel Show. Thank you. It's always
great to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Larry.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Great to have you.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
And again, I'm so disappointed in you. You're not wearing
your Pluto hat.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Oh were that at the October event we're having up
in Layton.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
You know that that's going to be a great event
in January. Morris Columbus Travel is the sponsor of the
Utah Travel Expo that's held both in Saint George and
in Salt Lake City at the Mountain America Event Center
convention Center here in Salt Lake. But for the first
time ever, Morris Columbus Travel will sponsor a Fall Travel Expo. Yeah,

(01:28):
October eighteenth, a Saturday, at the Davis Conference Center in Laighton.
What can we expect at the Fall Travel Expo.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Well, there's going to be discounts, there's going to be seminars.
You'll be able to talk to suppliers. Now, it's not
as large as one in January because of space. Yeah,
but there's going to be a lot of things there,
and of course there will be some discounts. You can
look into it exclusive discounts. Some fifty travel vendors, airlines,
cruise lines, tour companies, safari companies, hotels, resorts, everything in travel. Now,

(01:57):
the Salt Lake event has over a one hundred because we.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Have a convention center. Mark that on your calendar October eighteenth.
All the details at Utah Travel Expo dot com. That's
Utah Travelxpo dot com.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Now.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
One of the great experiences, John, that I've had in
my travel career was some years ago, I flew on
British Airways from London to JFK on the Concord.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
Oh no, I wish I would have done that. I've
seen I saw it in flight landing in Miami, but
oh wow, I'd love to flown on that.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Well. The the Concord Air France and British Air were
flying from Paris and London respectively to Washington Dulles Airport
and to JFK, and the first flight in nineteen sixty
nine as a test flight they beat. The Concord began

(02:56):
commercial service on January twenty first, nineteen Team seventy six.
Now this was a really interesting experience. So we're at
Heathrow Airport. It only holds one hundred people. There were
twenty five rows. The seating configuration was two to two
to two, so two an aisle two, and I would

(03:16):
say that the seats were comparable to Delta's Premium economy okay,
as not as big as the say a domestic first
class and certainly not business class with the lie flat
seats that we have now. Because it was space, it

(03:37):
was weight. The meal service was good, but not elaborate. Again,
space for everything. Dan rather, if you remember, the newscaster
fell out of favor for lying well it's true as
some people say was on the flight rates ran about

(03:58):
twenty percent higher than first class fare. It was not
a cheap venture. I was the guest of British Airways,
so that's how I got on board. Anyway, so we're
you know, we back away from the gate and we're
out on the runway and you know how planes they

(04:19):
put the brake on and start to power up the engines.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yes, there was a a I hate to call it
a shaking.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
There was a shimmer that was different than any other
airplane ever been on. You knew you were sitting on
a rocket. And then they let go of the break
and you are just screaming down the runway. And remember
that funny nose they had ye with the noses down, Yeah,
for a part of the flight. Now, once they're in

(04:51):
the air, it straightens outa anyway, we take off and
we're going subsonic, which is less than the speed of sound.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
It's interesting.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
The speed of sound at sea level is seven hundred
and sixty one miles At thirty thousand feet, it's six
hundred and seventy miles per hour at sixty thousand feet.
It dips down to six fifty nine so the captain
is saying we're subsonic, because the sonic boom would blow
out all the windows in.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
The south of England, in Ireland.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
Once we're far enough away, the captain says, we're gonna
go super sonic. Now there's no whiplash. But we are
traveling at about six hundred and fifty mile well about
six hundred miles an hour, just below the speed of sound,
and you feel a little pressure to go back in

(05:49):
your seat.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
It's the most amazing.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
At the front of the cabin was a large digital
readout and it had the speed in mock. Mock is
mock one is the speed of sound. Mock two is
twice the speed of sound. And we were traveling at
two point zero mock sixty thousand feet and from on

(06:15):
a clear day you can see a slight curvature of
the Earth and you look down at the cloud bank
below and there's no clouds. And people said, whether you
have to wear oxygen mask. No, No, it's like any
other plane pressure. But if you look up to the
sky through the window a window seat, the sky is

(06:39):
a different color. No, we're not in darkness, but there's
a dark steel blue that you can't see in a
regular pit, and you can't see on Earth. We're at
sixty thousand feet and we flew it three and a
half hours from push from door close to door open,

(07:00):
and that included the taxi time. Well, the legendary Concord
of the supersonic airliner is slated to make a commercial comeback.
In twenty twenty six, President Trump signed legislation that lifted
the previous ban on supersonic flights over land. Now, since
nineteen seventy three, the ban has been in effect and

(07:23):
freed our sky from sonic booms. Well, the rule has
changed because the technology has changed. The new rule, called
fly Concord Limited, plans to return supersonic flights from the US.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
The real need.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
Of SuperSonics on the Pacific, not the Atlantic, but they're
going to start on the Atlantic. The new Concord version
will keep that classic look, and that is a classic,
but it's been redesigned with modern engineering, making it a
very different aircraft. It will be fifty percent lighter thanks
to the advanced common pause materials, and a monumental leap

(08:04):
for the environmental responsibility. It will run on sustainable aviation fuel,
slashing emissions by eighty percent of a regular jetliner.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
Anyway, it's expected to fly at sixty thousand feet and
catch this flight time London to New York.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Two hours, Oh my goodness hours.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
Now I better get in the good graces of British
Airways to see if they invite me back. Anyway, it
will travel at two point zero four mock. That is
one thousand, three hundred and fifty four miles an hour. Wow,
that's incredible, I said, it's interesting the speed of sound

(08:52):
at sea level is seven hundred and sixty one miles
an hour. But I said this was mock two at
thirteen fifty four because the speed of sound at sixty
thousand feet is six hundred and fifty nine miles an hour.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
Well, that would be a great option to have to
go to Australia.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
Oh my gosh, Hey, if you lose your ID, can
you still fly?

Speaker 2 (09:14):
Oh? Absolutely? What do you do? Well?

Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yeah, I don't know all the particulars. I take my
passport with me so I've always got my drivers and passport.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
So if your ID was lost or stolen, it is possible,
not guaranteed, that you can still fly. So remain calm
and what you do is you go talk to TSA
at the airport, say I've been lost. They're looking for
other forms of identification. If you have something like global entry,
it's facial recognition. But if you have lost, what you

(09:47):
should do is simply go to TSA explain the situation.
They have information on public databases, including information about you.
They can pull you up your PI, sure your name.
They will do their best to get you on the flight.
But if you've lost it, don't get there shortly before
the flight. Get their hours and hours and hours before

(10:10):
the flight. Oh yes, but you know, I like credit cards,
maybe a work id bets. They don't want to kick
you off the flight. What they want to do is
get you on the flight, but verify who you are. Yes,
and you being a shady character. Often dressing is Goofy
or Mickey Mouse.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, they would have issues with me. They would.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
Hey, when we come back, we're gonna talk cruising like
you've never seen or experienced before. Yeah, right here on
the Travel Show. Welcome back to the Travel Show. I'm
Larry Gelwick's to Get Away Guru, joined in the studio

(10:56):
today by none other than John Potter Pluto from Morris
Columbus Travel The travel show is spoked by Morris Columbus
travel where you always travel more and pay less. Check
out their website Morriscolumbus dot com. That's Morriscolumbus dot com.
And if you'd like to speak to John direct eight
oh one four eight three fifty two fourteen. That's eight

(11:19):
oh one four eight three fifty two fourteen, or talk
to any of the great advisors at Morris Columbus Traveling
if you have their direct line, call them direct. If
not an easy toll free number to remember eight hundred
triple nine forty six forty six. That's eight hundred triple
nine forty six forty six. Now, John, I know that

(11:41):
you are jealous of me. Oh I've known that for years,
because just last week I got off one of my
favorite ships, the Norwegian Prima. We started in Iceland, we
visited Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and then to jolly old
England just last week, and.

Speaker 3 (11:58):
I would have loved to have taken your place.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
Thank you very very much.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
We'd like to welcome back to the show one of
my favorite people, Lisa Presley, Regional key account director for
Norwegian Cruise Line. Lisa, Welcome back to the travel show.

Speaker 4 (12:13):
Hey Larry, thank you so much for the invitation. And John,
I'm jealous of him too. I would have loved to
bet on their cruise with him last week.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
Next time, let us go.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
Thank I gotta tell you, Lisa, the Prima has to
be one of my favorite ships sailing the Seven Seas.
It's just everything about it is fantastic. The entertainment, the food,
the leya. I've got to tell you one of my
favorite aspects is a dining option called Indulge. You want

(12:42):
to explain that to our That's where I indulge.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
Believe me, I do.

Speaker 4 (12:48):
Also that is one of my favorite restaurants on the
ship too. This happens to be an area that is complimentary.
There's multiple different restaurants and guests can go in and
order through an iPad, and I always like to give
a little tidbit of information and tell them only order
two dishes out of time, because that food comes fast

(13:11):
and furious, and if you end up like me, you
have more food on your table than you have space
for all the place.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
Your eyes, your eyes were bigger than your appetite.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
I'll tell you the food was great.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
I don't even know they have six, seven, eight restaurants
down there and indulge folks think of a food court,
but you don't have to stand in one or two lines.
For example, they have a Texas Barbecue. The brisket is
as good as anything you'll find in Dallas. They have
an Indian restaurant, they have Asian foods, they have a

(13:44):
salad restaurant. So rather than I want one from this,
one from that, as Lisa pointed out, you have an
iPad at your table and you can pick one from
this restaurant, one from that.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
You don't have as much as you want.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
And right next to is kind of pub food, you know, yeah,
the local, the local.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
It is great.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
Anyway, Lisa, welcome to the travel Show. I got I've
got to book another group on the Prima or the Aqua.
Get myself back out there real real fast. So actually,
one of you know, one of our hottest sellers right
now is with Norwegian next May from Tahiti to Honolulu.

(14:31):
That has just been selling like hotcakes. Because you want
to explain the free airfare offer with Norwegian Cruise Line.

Speaker 4 (14:39):
Absolutely, it's a buy one, get one free for guests
one and two, so you pay for guests one and
guests two gets to travel for free.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
It is a wonderful deal.

Speaker 4 (14:51):
And Larry, you're not gonna believe this, but I just
happened to notice yesterday there was a airfare to Europe
and it was under one thousand dollars for both guests.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
Which really means, let's just say a thousand bucks. It
was under but it'll be easy math. The first person
paid under one thousand dollars, the second person goes free.
You're talking about an effective airfare to Europe for less
than five hundred dollars per person in sane. Here's been
my experience, folks, that the first person will pay a

(15:25):
discounted airfare, they don't jack it up a discounted airfare.
The second person flies free, including all taxes and fees.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Fantastic.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
You know one thing that's also selling very well, John
is Alaska.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
Oh yes, Lisa, what's going on in Alaska?

Speaker 4 (15:43):
Ooh, that's my favorite destination, aarrea. I just came back
from my fourteenth trip there. Alaska is one of those
destinations that you can be as active as you want,
or you can be as laid back as you want,
but the price points on an Alaska sailing right now,
believe it or not, you can save one thousand dollars
and it's under Some of the sailings that I've seen

(16:05):
are under eight hundred dollars a person. But what Alaska
really does is it opens up your eyes to the
wilderness and it allows you to be able to immerse
yourself in the destination.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
You see whales. You can go to the glacier and
you'll be able to, if you're.

Speaker 4 (16:20):
Lucky, see part of that glacier fall off, which is
called calving. And if you happen to be on the
ship and you're in one of the glacier areas. Let's
say you're in Hubbard Glacier and you're sitting on your
balcony and you hear what you think is thunder. That's
not thunder. That happens to be part of that glacier
getting ready. Yeah, that's a glacier getting ready to break

(16:41):
off and fall in the water.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
We're speaking with Lisa Pressley, regional key account director with
Norwegian Cruise Cruise Line, and Lisa, we got about two minutes.
I don't know where time flies. Could you quickly talk
about the more at sea and on select sailings, the
third and fourth patient sales. Ifay John's going to talk
about your current promotions later in the show, go oh perfect.

Speaker 4 (17:04):
Yes. The More at Sea promotion with that is that
allows our guests to have free unlimited beverages. There's dining
in our specialty restaurants, there's Wi Fi and short excursion credits.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
And short excursion credit.

Speaker 4 (17:18):
Is fifty dollars per short excursion for guests number one,
because we know when we go on these fabulous vacations,
we always want to immerse ourselves into the different areas
that we're visiting. But with the More at Sea it
also includes the buy one, get one free airfare that
we talked about, and currently until July seventh, we've got
one thousand dollars off all cruises and with the third

(17:42):
and the fourth guests sale for free. They don't have
to be children, so you might see on the address
as kids sail free, but it really means to your
third and fourth guests, you'll anybody in that same stateroom.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Many cruise lines it's twelve and under and that's a
good promotion.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
Hey, very quickly, we.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
Got about thirty seconds on NC how the third and
fource can be any age with so many good cruise choices.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
Why Norwegian.

Speaker 4 (18:07):
We're very family orientated. We have a very relaxed atmosphere.
We have no formal lights, which I thank you, thank you,
we have the opportunity.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
There you go, Lisa Presley with Norwegian Cruise and Lise Lisa,
thank you for joining us on the Travel Show. More
would we come back? Welcome back to the Travel Show.

(18:44):
Thank you for joining us every weekend on the Travel Show.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
Where we dream travel, we love travel, we eat to
sleep travel. I'm Larry Gelwiz, the getaway Guru.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
The Travel Show is sponsored by Morris Columbus Travel. Check
out their website Morris Columbus dot com and if you're
interested in any of the wonderful escorted tour programs on
the homepage Morris Columbus dot com, simply scroll down about
the third item on the homepage and you'll see Morris

(19:18):
Murdoch Escorted Tours.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
That's the brand name for our escorted programs.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
And what you do is you click on a geographic
area could be Africa, Asia, Europe, holy Land Cruise and
then if it's a cruise, you click on cruises and
all the offerings are right there. Well, John, how many
years I'm joined by John Potter, one of our Crack agents,

(19:44):
not our agent on Crack from Morris, Columbus Travel's Bountiful office.
How long have you been in the travel business?

Speaker 2 (19:53):
Twenty seven years? That's crazy.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
Yeah, I got you by twenty I'm forty seven years
I wish I was forty seven years old.

Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
And the next travel show you're going to be a
year older I am.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
I turn seventy five this month.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
Yeah, and just this week, next week, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (20:12):
Next week? Twenty fifth? Yeah? Twenty fifth? Yeah, coming up
real fast.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
You know, I'm still I'm working more now than I
have had because I love it. I love what I do.
I get to travel the world. We raised five wonderful children.
They're all married, they're all doing well. It's just Kathy
and I and we have this philosophy of life, John,
that whatever it is you want to do, it could

(20:38):
be education, service to your church, service to your community, community,
civic involvement, family history, health, education, travel, anything. Do it
while you can, absolutely go while you can. We all
know people who've had a life changing, a life altering event.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
I don't mean a bad day. I mean that.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
Everything changes now. It could be that person. It could
be the spous or partner. It could be family, children, grandchildren, business, income, investment,
it could be anything. Yeah, but it changes overnight.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
Oh yes, you know.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
I just yesterday I got a text from a dear,
dear friend who said he's been diagnosed with a serious
case of lung cancer. He's not a smoke he never
smoked a day in his life, but he has lung cancer.
And is he travels constantly. That's all been put on
hold right now. It's just you know, an international survey

(21:47):
in the UK and the United States was taken and
they interviewed tens of thousands of people when they hit
sixty five and one of the biggest regrets they said,
we didn't travel more.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Always wanted to travel. Nobody says I wish I'd spent
more time at the office.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
That's right, that's right. So anyway, you are a frontline agent.
You do such a good job. What are the most
popular destinations and vacations right now?

Speaker 3 (22:18):
Right now, Hawaii is starting to take off again.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
And I'll tell you why, because prices are starting. Hawaii's expensive.
It's expensive now, but it was ridiculous earlier. This year
and last year, and because the number of visitors are down,
not just from the mainland, from Asia, Australia way down. Yeah,

(22:43):
the hotellers are getting nervous.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
Yeah, so that's quite popular. All cruises are popular, and
I would say probably Italy is still right up there
with popularity.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
You know, if you look at Google searches some other
international destinations, I mean the UK, Paris, France, they're always
up there. Yeah, but Portugal has seen a big increase
in visitors, and based on Google searches for death stage,
Vietnam and of course Thailand is always off the charts

(23:17):
with that. What type of questions are people asking you
when they call?

Speaker 3 (23:22):
I think the very foremost one right now is everybody
is is it safe to go? A lot of people
think with the whole Iran situation, that they're targeting US
people and they don't want to abroad and they're not
a lot of people think that because of the tariffs
that President Trump has put out, that people abroad are

(23:42):
not treating Americans nicely, which they are not.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
They may not like the tariff, but they love Americans. Yeah, convisions.
I was in Europe earlier well, in the June and
the June I was in Europe and they roll out
to welcome mat Yeah, for Americans. One reason Americans spend
more money.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
They do.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
You know, they're not the titwads from some other countries.
But the travel is really good. Now, it's interesting that
the US State Department has a website that we've talked
about many times, travel dot State dot gov. Yes, And
on the homepage, click on international travel, and then on

(24:23):
the follow up page on the about halfway down on
the right side, you type in the country. Now, you
may be visiting three or four countries, but you only
type one country at a time, and a wealth of
information comes up.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
Everything on visas, on currency.

Speaker 1 (24:41):
They even have stuff on adopting children, LBGTQ issues, everything
that the Embassy Consulate General's passport information. But they rate
countries one, two, three, four out of all the countries
in the world, they're only nineteen or four.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
Now.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
A one is like Fiji, Thailand, Tahiti. I mean, it's
like Japan.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
Costa Rica.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
Yeah, it's like always exercise caution, but don't I mean,
this is a very safe place.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
A two is this is a safe place, just maybe
a hint more caution. A three is it's okay to go,
but you may want to be careful of where you're going,
like there are there are provinces in Mexico, Quintana, Ue,
you know, Sinaloa. It's not a good idea to go

(25:38):
to Hankun, Puerto Rio, Chicago, Mazitlan. Yeah, those are just fine. Yeah.
So A three is think about this. Do you may
want to put off travel but it's okay. A four
is are you out of your ever loving mind?

Speaker 2 (25:54):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (25:55):
Do you have stupid tattooed on your forehead? And there's
only nineteen countries places like Somalia, Iran, that Russia, the Ukraine. No,
you don't want to be going there? Yeah, right now?

Speaker 3 (26:08):
And I would say, you know, use that website travel
dot state, dot gov. Don't go buy what's on social media.
That is the biggest fake news out there.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
Can for that.

Speaker 3 (26:19):
Yeah, I mean on Facebook, I swear King Charles dies
at least once a week, and so you know they
want clicks, They get paid if you click, and so
it's fake news there.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
Don't buy everything on social media. You mentioned cruising.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
You know that cruising statistically is the safest form of
vacation travel. Cruising, and they measure this in passenger deaths
per billion passenger miles, not passenger people by passenger miles.
Cruising statistically is ten times safer.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
Than air travel. I believe it.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
Cruising is one hundred and thirty times safer than railroad,
and cruising is forty times safer than traveling in a
passenger car.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah, yeah, so I think, I don't I don't you
know I love cruising. Oh I do too, I go.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
I'm I got the best job in the world, John,
as you know, and you know you know your role
at Morris Columbus.

Speaker 2 (27:26):
Could you repeat it for our listeners? Yes, I work
hard so Larry can travel. Thank you very much. I
know you know. I'm so glad you know your place
in life. Yes, we both do it so well. Yes, sir, yes, sir.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
So what are some question if you're going to book
your next cruise, and you should book it with Morris
Columbus Travel, the largest seller of cruises in the entire
Inner Mountain area the states of Western America, as that
there are special promotions that you simply can't get elsewhere. Yeah,

(28:00):
what are some issues, topics questions that one should consider
before booking their next cruise?

Speaker 3 (28:08):
I would say, who's going with you? Is it going
to be an adults cruise? Is it going to be
like Viking? Is adults only eighteen years of age or older?
Or family friendly?

Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (28:18):
Or Virgin Virgin does a great job of adults only.
Are you taking your children? If you're taking your children,
you want a family friendly cruise ship going to destinations
that they will enjoy, not.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
Just history of the fourteenth century, which I enjoy. What activities?
The other thing you want to look at is what
for teens, tweens, twinks, kids, everybody? Yeah, what activities are available?
Is there obviously a swimming pool, but do they have
a water slides that the kids love and adults love too?

Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (28:51):
Absolutely so. Some of the ships on Norwegian have a
thing called walk the plank.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
Yes, they do.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
Well, you're in a harness and you're out over the
water walking a plank out X you off the ship.
Now you're not going to get hurt because you're in
the harness and I've never seen the plank is pretty
wide too, it is. I've never seen anybody fall. If
you and I were on a cruise, you would probably
push me.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
Well, yeah, thank you for cutting your lead. Here's some
questions I think I'd add to John's list. First, I say,
is the purpose of your cruise?

Speaker 1 (29:28):
Is it a destination cruise or an experienced cruise. Now
there's a big difference. An experienced cruise is. I want
to see Alaska, like Lisa was talking about. I'm not
going to book Mexico. I want to see Hawaiians. I
want to see the Mediterranean in the Norwegian Fjords. I
want to sail from Tahiti to Honolulu with Larry next year.

(29:50):
I want a good ship. I want a good experience.
But I'm being driven by the destination where an experienced
cruise is. Kathy and I have been married forty eight.
She hasn't kicked me out of the house yet. Believe me,
she's had cause.

Speaker 2 (30:04):
But tomorrow's another day. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
We're coming up on fifty in the year and a half.
But for our fortieth wedding anniversary, we just we didn't
want to stay home.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
We don't do that. We don't do stay home.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
We wanted to go on a cruise and I found
an Eastern Caribbean a great price with Norwegian Cruise Line.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
And that's what we did.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
I wanted a good ship, I wanted a good destination
and experience. But I was driven by I just want
a great experience and get away, and I found I
could have gone to Mexico, I could have gone to
the Western Caribbean. I could have gone to the Eastern Caribbean.
One of the important things is who is the target
audience of the cruise. Every product, every all goods and

(30:51):
services have a target audience. That's who they're appealing to.
How do you find this out Look at the photos
on their ship, cruise lines, website or brochure. That's who
they're appealing to. For example, Crystal Cruises, which is at deluxe,
you'll see kind of a country club atmosphere. They'll take kids,
but they don't target kids. Disney they got a lot

(31:14):
of kids. They'll take grandma and grandpa just by themselves
as a targets the kids. When we come back, Sir
Potter is going to tell us about a grand cruise
he's taking on the Send River in France and the
number one beach in the world. Welcome back to the

(31:34):
travel Show. I'm Larry Gelwicks.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
That get away a guru, and thank you again for
joining us. We have so much fun, don't we? On
this show, and of course you can.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
Catch it on the podcast if you go to Morris
Columbus dot com. And yeah, we have a lot of fun.
Glad to welcome my friend John Potter, one of our
agents advisors at Morris Columbus Travel. John's in the bound
Full office and if you want to talk to John direct,
you can call him on his direct line eight oh

(32:06):
one four eight three fifty two fourteen eight oh one
four three fifty two fourteen.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
Now.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
Last week Emily States, the director of marketing at Morris
Columbus Travel, and I talked about questions one should ask
before booking a river cruise, and here we just talked
about questions to ask before booking an ocean cruise.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
Very different questions.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
Yeah, what should one consider or think about when choosing
a river cruise?

Speaker 3 (32:40):
I would think of one, the itinerary and secondly the
time of year. There's times like for a Danube river
cruise where there's a possibility of low water that can
run issues with the cruise if they can't sail all
the way down the river.

Speaker 2 (32:55):
And that would be a problem, that would be a
problem you bottom out on the Danube.

Speaker 3 (33:00):
Only they can work around it and they've got some
real good workarounds, But I would say that the time
of year weatherwise, and the destination where you're wanting to go.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
You know, one of the things I love about river
cruising is that it is virtually an all inclusive. Some
cruise line include all your drinks twenty four to seven.
Most of them will have beer, wine, soft drinks included
at meal time and usually a happy hour about an
hour before dinner time. I love that you can visit

(33:34):
the big cities and the small villages, and most of
the European river cruise boats will hold one hundred and
fifty one hundred and sixty people. Some get as large
as two hundred, but most of them that one fifty
one sixty, so you don't overwhelm a village, and you
can go where the big ships simply can't go. Yeah,

(33:56):
all your shore excursions are included. Now the price is
higher on average than an ocean cruise, but ocean cruises
you're buying the short excursions. Yeah, once you add that in,
there's not a lot of difference. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:12):
Plus with the river cruises, the ships are narrow, they
don't offer inside cabins. You're going to have a view
of wherever you are, or a balcony. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
One of the terms you'll hear is full balcony, French balcony.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
What's the difference.

Speaker 3 (34:25):
French balcony is a Florida ceiling door that opens.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
But there's lights door.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
Yeah, slanting glass door, but there's a railing right there.
You stay inside your room, but you have the.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
Railing is about four to six inches from the side,
so you can get the fresh air. But a full
balcony is you have the French and a area that
you can sit down on.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yeah, walk outside, sit down with a chair. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
I would think for winter cruises like the Christmas Markets,
which is one of my three top experiences of a lifetime,
Christmas Markets of Europe on a on a waterways cruise, Yeah,
I think having paying extra for that sit down balcony

(35:09):
probably isn't something you want to do. It's wintertime, yeah,
but I still even the winter, I'll open those sliding
glass doors level.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
Let you get us some fresh air in.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
Now you have a cruise August of next year, I'd
like you to share with our listeners. That is one
of the great destinations.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
It really is.

Speaker 3 (35:29):
We're going to fly into Paris and I mean, who
does not like Paris. And I'm going to be going
two days early and doing a package with the cruise line,
and you're welcome to do that, or you can just
do the cruise. But we're standing with on the waterways
down the sin River. And the key point to this
one is Normandy D Day D Day and I looked

(35:52):
up some I've been to Normandy before and it is
one of the best experiences.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
It's very emotional experience, it is.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
It's very emotional. You shed tears. You just are in
awe of what those brave men did.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
Mostly young men too, yeah, mostly at just the start
of their life. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (36:13):
We're going to be visiting the US military cemetery and
it's great. You see the American flag flying on the
French soil. But there's nine three hundred eighty eight military
personnel buried there, all in a row. It's just so humbling,
and most of those nine thousand were killed on June sixth,

(36:37):
nineteen forty four, the initial landing. They have the Wall
of the Missing, and fifty seven names are inscribed on
that wall of people that are still missing from the day,
and there are three medal of honor recipients buried there
and it is just amazing. And we'll also be seeing

(36:58):
Omaha Beach all the D Day areas. They've got places
where they've still got the bunkers where the Germans were
there with their guns and they're viewing.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
Just crazy it is.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
It's just the most amazing experience. So I'd love to
have you join us at September twenty sixth through September
the fifth, and uh again we're and we're visiting other places.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
And Rowan are two of my favorite places.

Speaker 3 (37:23):
Yes, Joan of Arc Uh huh, Absolutely, it's great. And
of course all the short excursions are included. You have
a menu of things to choose from, not just one.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
One of the nice things about Alma Waterways is they
haven't what they call activity. Yeah, rate shore excursions one
to five. A five might be a bicycle group.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
A one is.

Speaker 1 (37:45):
People with limited mobility, even walkers or wheelchairs. How do
we get a hold of you.

Speaker 3 (37:51):
Eight o one four eight three five two one four
or you can email me Jaypotter at Morriscolumbus dot com and.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
Deal directly with Stay tuned for hour number two of
the travel show. I'll be talking about the best beach
in the world and travel scams.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
To watch out for Melwicks, the Getaway Guru.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
The Travel show is sponsored by Morris Columbus Travel for
five years running, the winner of the Best of State
Award as the number one top best incomparable travel agency
Morris Columbus Travel. And you know, one of the things
that I really love about Morris Columbus is the agents.

(38:35):
The travel advisors are speaking from experience rather than googling something.
I'm joined today by John Potter from the Bountiful office
of Morris Columbus Travel, and you can get a hold
of John at eight oh one for eight three fifty
two fourteen. Now last week, John, I know you are

(38:58):
glued to the Travel Show every Saturday.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
Oh yeah, we.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
Talked about according to trip Advisor subscribers, they get to vote.
They voted the beach in Cst. Key, Florida, as the
number one beach in America, and it was rated as
the number four best beach in the entire world. Oh wow,

(39:24):
if you get to the top twenty beaches in the world,
I don't know that there's.

Speaker 2 (39:28):
A lot of difference. They're all sandy. They're all sandy.

Speaker 1 (39:32):
You know, a complaint was filed not with us, but
with another travel company that a traveler said the beach
he was not warned that the beach was too sandy
and the water was salty. Oh, that's a true complaint.
That was file again not against us. Well so, folks,
for all of our beach activities. The beach is sandy

(39:53):
and the water is salty.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
Anyway.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
According to trip Advisor, with its iconic pink sand, the
Elafanisi Beach in Crete, I was in Crete two years ago.
The Elaphansi Beach in Crete, Greece was just named the
best beach in the world by trip Advisor. It's calm,
clear waters and unbelievable pink sand. You get pink sand

(40:19):
also in the Bahamas, Yes, and did you know what
n Bermuda?

Speaker 2 (40:22):
Yeah, and in.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
Hawaii on both you see him on Maui in the
Big Island.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
You know, we have black sand beaches. We have green
sand beaches, yes, and red sand beaches. Now the red
is more of a pink than the candy apple red. Anyway.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
The number two beach in the world close to my
heart is the Banana Beach in Thailand.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
Number three in the world Eagle Beach in Aruba.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
Aruba is kind of an interesting place because it's not jungles.
It's a very barren island, a wonderful island. Yeah, I
call it Phoenix with the ocean.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
There we go.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
Of course, as we mentioned number four, the Siesta Beach
in Florida and then the Sia Beach in Portugal in
at number five. So I think I should do a
trip to Elifanisi Beach in Are you a beach person.

Speaker 3 (41:16):
Yes, I am. Yeah, I've been to none of those beaches.
I need to get out there.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
I love going to the beach.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
You know, most people they always are looking at the
resort about what is the beach like? But most people
hang out by the pool. They're not laying out in
the sand, or maybe you wade into the ocean, but
most people I put more emphasis on what is the
pool facility at the hotel. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:41):
One of my favorite things to do is just walk
up and down the beach a couple of times a day,
usually morning and evening.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
As beautiful.

Speaker 1 (41:48):
You know, I'll give you an example of that. We
love Costa Rica. You mentioned that in the first hour. Yeah,
and one of my favorite resorts is the Marriott at
Haco beach. Yes, yes, it's just down there near Manuel Antonio.
One third of Costa Rica's national parks, and my favorite

(42:08):
is one of the smallest parks. It's on the Pacific side,
Manuel Antonio. You will hear people gasping when they get
out of their vehicle and look at it. You have jungle,
you have tropical birds and monkeys.

Speaker 3 (42:23):
You have the most mischievous monkeys I've ever seen.

Speaker 1 (42:28):
They are better pick pockets than the gypsies in Rome.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
They are, yes, anyway.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
But there the beach there is so so it's a
gray sand beach. Not a lot. I mean, there's nothing
wrong with it, but not a lot of people hanging
out on the beach. But they have one of the
finest pools in Central America. It's the best in Costa Rica,
absolute best pool there and it's massive, it's extensive, and

(42:57):
everybody's by the pool.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
Yeah. So that's that's what I look for.

Speaker 1 (43:00):
Okay, we're off to create again for that travel scams.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
Oh please, John, there are so many. This just pains me.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
I taught there was a lady that I spoke with
a couple of weeks ago that got totally scammed. One
of the biggest scams. Actually, there's legal and illegal scams,
and I call them scams meaning deception. Yeah, let's talk
about an illegal scam is be aware if you google

(43:33):
an airline telephone number, because scam travel agencies have corrupted
the results. You think you're calling that airline, but the
person on the other end is a scammer who will
answer it XYZ airline and they will say things like, oh,
you want a seat assignment, you want to make a change,

(43:54):
or there's been a change in your flight time, whatever
it is, and they get your credit card. They're scammers.

Speaker 2 (44:02):
Now.

Speaker 1 (44:02):
What they do is they will two ways with the
telephone numbers, toll free telephone numbers. One like Singapore Airlines
got nailed. Is they got in the US it was
eight hundred whatever. Will they changed their toll free number
to eight hundred something else And the scammers bought that

(44:25):
of the old Singapore Airlines telephone number, and so people
which is on if you google it the old number
came up, people think they're talking to Singapore Airlines.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
Yeah, but they're not.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
Same thing with cruises or the other one is they'll
just they'll have a number that's never been associated.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
With the cruise line.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
Or airline, but they'll have the logos, they'll have everything there,
and you think you're talking to Princess Cruises or NCL
or Crystal Cruises or did but it may be a scammer.
And what they often say is the port charges have increased,

(45:08):
so we can take care of that now. Just let's
reconfirm your credit card number and the port edition is
only another sixty five dollars or whatever. Yeah, and they
got you, and they're not the cruise line. So if
I want to make sure that I'm talking to the
cruise line, where do I go to the number?

Speaker 2 (45:30):
Go to the exact cruise lines website. Don't go through Google.

Speaker 3 (45:34):
Royalcribbean dot com, Norwegian dot com, Delta Bline dot com.

Speaker 1 (45:38):
Yeah, but if you are going to Google, put official site.
But even those I've seen phonies on it. The other
thing you can do is work with an experienced and
professional travel advisor and is it Princess or Royal Caribbean.
Now that you can establish a one word password Royal Caribbean,

(45:59):
Royal Caribbean, and you and your travel advisor are the
only ones that know that. So any time you want
to look at it or make a change, you have
to put the password in. But the best thing is
simply call your travel advisor any issue that you have.
He or she most likely can answer it, and if

(46:19):
they can't, they'll find out the answer exactly.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
You know.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
Another i'll call it a legal scam is VISA and
ETA services. ETA is not estimated time of arrival. But
many countries have an electronic travel authorization. I'll be in Kenya,
Africa this year. I have to fill out a form,

(46:43):
pay thirty dollars. It's an authorization to enter the country.
The UK has an ETA. It started January the eighth
and it costs sixteen British pounds about twenty three US dollars.
New Zealand Australia all have these ETAs.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
Well.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
There are companies. I'll give you an extreme example. The
Australia ETA cost about It was about fifteen to twenty
dollars US converted from ousie dollars. One of our tour
members on a previous tour, well, I've got to get this.
They googled it and this service came up. They thought
it was the real company. They got their ETA, but

(47:24):
this company charged them four hundred and fifty dollars and
they assumed, well, I guess that's the cost. So the
four hundred and fifty dollars they paid Australia ten bucks
and kept four hundred and forty. I was at a
departure meeting a couple of weeks ago, and the same
thing for even for Kenya, they went through a service

(47:45):
and paid ninety dollars where the actual ETA.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
Was thirty.

Speaker 1 (47:52):
Delta Airlines was offering also. I am told to process
the Kenya ETA and they were charging seventy dollars. Now,
if you want to use that service, to it, But
my goodness, you want put in there Kenya ETA official
site and find out what the fee is and if
this site is charging more than what it should be

(48:16):
for example Kenya, if they're charging more than thirty bucks,
then very interesting. On the Keny one, you know what
bugs the daylight's on. I mean you go to a theater,
buy a ticket, they have a convenience fee. Yes, Kenya
has like a convenience fee. It's thirty dollars, but another

(48:37):
four for the privilege of getting an ETA, which you
have to have and you have to buy it to lim.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
Yes, can we come back. John's going to be talking
to us about some certificates for river pieces. You're listing
to the travel show. What else would you.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
Be doing on the weekend but listening to the travel show.
I'm Larry Gelwick's Did They Getaway?

Speaker 2 (49:06):
Google?

Speaker 1 (49:07):
It's been my privilege to host the travel show for
going on thirty eight years now, a lot of fun.
I'm joined today by John Potter from Morris Columbus Travel's
bountiful office. John, again, it's not bragging if it's true,
but Morris Columbus Travel, I know, with Viking Cruises, is

(49:27):
the largest seller of any travel agency in the entire
Western United States. We're one of Almah Waterway's top accounts
in the entire country. Same with Viking too entire country.
And as a result of being such a purveyor of cruises,
both river cruises and ocean we do get promotions deals.

(49:51):
Some are exclusive, some are unique that are not available
across the board. For example, I have of the next
year in November the riches of the Maykon with Alma
Waterways from Anchor wat c and Re Cambodian Vietnam. In December,

(50:13):
I have the Christmas markets on the Rhine Switzerland, Germany,
France and the Netherlands. And what we did on those
is we bought half the ship, which means our prices.
You think you buy one pencil, you buy a truckload
of pencils, You're gonna get a different price depending on
your cabin choice. Your savings on those two cruises that's

(50:35):
November and December of next year. I'll be your host.
In some cases are over one thousand dollars per person
less than if you bought the same date, the same cruise,
because Alma is selling the other half of the ship,
same cruise, same dates, going to be one thousand dollars more. So,

(50:55):
it makes a difference in who you work with. Ye
tell me about out the exclusive discounts for this area
for Alma Waterways and Viking. By the way, on the
Alma one, it's not good on charters because you're already
saving over one thousand dollars. These are good on new
bookings only, individual bookings.

Speaker 3 (51:17):
Yes, yes, with Alma Waterways you're going to get a
five percent discount per cabin.

Speaker 1 (51:23):
But that's not the whole story. No, what's the whole story.

Speaker 3 (51:27):
The whole story with Alma is that's off any other
discount they've got going.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
So you get the best deal out there, could be
a discounted airfare, could be a big price discount. Your
cruise price is going to drop another five percent. Nobody
else can do that except Morris Columbus. Yes, and again
this is on select sailings. It doesn't work out every sailing,
but a lot of sailings on there. And then with Viking,
and this is both on Viking Ocean or River. They

(51:54):
have the two products. You can get up to a
two hundred dollars discount per cabin.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
It's a great deal.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
Now for ocean cruises, Norwegian Princess and Royal Caribbean are
very very popular. What are their current promotions? These are
ocean cruises, Just very quickly, what are the current promos
for these three?

Speaker 3 (52:17):
Royal Caribbean you get a sixty percent discount off the
second guest and on select cruises kids twelve and under
sale free.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
You know, I've often find this interesting, sixty percent off
the second guest. Why not just say thirty percent off everyone? Yeah,
I guess that sounds better. It's a legit deal. That's
Royal Caribbean. I love Royal Caribbean.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
Oh I do too.

Speaker 3 (52:42):
They are just a great cruise Line Norwegian Cruise Lines.
You get up to one thousand dollars off the cruise
on select sailing. Kids of any age, including people in
their eighties sale free as a third or fourth past
Norwegian Norwegian.

Speaker 1 (52:59):
When you say up to one thousand dollars, that's going
to be on the on the John Potters suites.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
No, that's off. It's raised on the type of cabgy
That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
Yes, if you're looking for one thousand dollars off, it's
gonna be off a suite and grand suite. If you're
looking for an inside cabin or an ocean view or
a balcony, you're gonna have a good saving. So it
won't be a thousand, right, but it'll usually be in
the hundreds or whatever it may be.

Speaker 2 (53:24):
So I mean it's free money, Yeah, it is. We're
about Princess.

Speaker 3 (53:28):
Princess up to a four hundred dollars instant savings plus
forty percent off and on select cruises, third and fourth
guest are free. They pay taxes only, plus a free
room upgrade. Now that isn't an insight to an ocean view,
then the same categories you'll buy the lost priced inside

(53:50):
and get a two or three category upgrade to another.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
It be a better location, maybe a larger size, something
like that. Yeah, I'll tell you what I love about Princess.
You want to guess. I think you know the answer
to this.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
And I agree with you. One hundredzza pizza. You know, I.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
Don't know why every other cruise line doesn't copy Princess.

Speaker 2 (54:09):
They all have good pizza, but Princesses is the best.

Speaker 1 (54:12):
Think of being on Broadway or East Village in New York.
You got an eighteen inch slice that they have a
real pizzeria. It's always out by one of the pool decks. Yeah,
and it's a real pizzeria. You think you're in New York.
But most other cruise lines, my I don't want. I

(54:33):
love pizza, but the pizza's kind of trashy. Yeah, it's
like Totino's brand or something like that.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:40):
Yeah, sometimes you'll get a nice But Princess I live
off the pizza.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
Yeah. And they're bread products.

Speaker 3 (54:47):
All their bread products products are the best made from
scratch on board the ship.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
You know.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
One of the things that I also like about Princess
is my experience.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
I love soft serve ice cream. Oh, yeah, they use
a good mix.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
I've been on some cruises where it's kind of icy
and it's like, what do you think? I'm three years
old and they'll think this is good and then I
just don't even have it.

Speaker 2 (55:11):
Yeah, you know, good stuff good.

Speaker 3 (55:13):
Yeah, But if you want ice cream, Disney is the
way to go there.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
If you could pick, everybody's choice is different. There's no
right or wrong to these questions. I'm about to grill
you with right. I know Disney is your favorite line,
so we got that. But if you could pick, for
John Potter alone a favorite cruise destination or itinerary, what

(55:39):
would it be?

Speaker 2 (55:39):
Oh, that's easy. South Pacific, you know.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
That's my Mine would be South Pacific or Southeast Asia.
You know, I maybe I should take out Thai citizenship.
Kathy was asking me just the other day what is
it about Southeast Asia Thailand in particular that just draws
you in? And I said, it's the people, the culture,

(56:05):
the food, everything about it is, the calmness, the safety.
It's a rated one by the State Department. And she
also says you are white on the outside and brown
on the inside with polynesia. I agree, you know, Okay,
see Bay, which means I didn't swear.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
That means I can speak enough Tondan to get about it.

Speaker 5 (56:31):
Hey more when we come back here on the travel show.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
You love to cruise as much as I do.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
And I'm not talking about State Street, John Potter, because
I swear you cruise.

Speaker 2 (56:51):
I cruised the Seven Seas.

Speaker 3 (56:53):
Yeah, you know I got them Mistak convertible.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
You know what God does have this bright yellow It's
a gorge just car. So if you're on a Friday
night with the top down, if you see a yellow
Mustang convertible, that's John.

Speaker 3 (57:09):
Yeah, or you know somebody stole it because I'm usually
in bed by ten.

Speaker 2 (57:12):
It happens when we get older.

Speaker 1 (57:14):
Yes, we've been talking cruising. You told me that it's
hard to even keep up with Alaska bookings, and of
course it's a shortened season. Basically it's September to excuse me,
May to September. Some are going as early as early April,
and then the first few weeks of October and you

(57:37):
can find some really good deals. I think the summer
months June, July August are the best for Alaska. Whale
watching is really good in June and July. You see
it year round, but they're starting to migrate back to
Hawaii as the summer comes to an end. Yet in

(57:57):
August or September more likely this bear getting ready for
the winner. Yeah, let's talk about shore excursions. Tell me
your favorite shore excursion in Juno.

Speaker 3 (58:12):
Juno would be the whill watching and Mindenhall Glacier mine too.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
Just you know, I've done river rafting. You can do
river rafting off the glacier there in Juno. That's a
lot of fun. They give you, you know, the suits
to keep you dry and all of that. But the
whale watching what we do on our Morris Columbus group
Alaska departures, which I will have one next month in

(58:37):
August I'll be taking a group and then next year
I'm taking I go every year.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
Do I have the best job or what? But we
charter our own boat.

Speaker 1 (58:46):
We go where we want to go, and I've never
been disappointed.

Speaker 2 (58:51):
Oh I haven't either, And.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
That's what I you know, one other thing I like.
Two other things I like in Juna. One on a
clear day, the Mount Roberts tram up to the top
of the mountain.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
Oh that's too scary, it's too high. Such a whip.
But I've done it, Yes, thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
It is fun, but only on a clear day I
see people whether it's shrouded in clouds and they're riding
the gondola up for what.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
The other thing is the Red Dog Saloon.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
Oh, that's a must. Yes, And now, don't be turned
off by saloon. Some may be turned on by saloon.
But it's a family friendly they it's an old time saloon.
Originally it has a sawdust on the floors, business cards
stapled into the wood.

Speaker 2 (59:34):
But it's it's it's family friendly. Have a nice lunch there, sogers.
They really do.

Speaker 3 (59:40):
Know.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
One of the things if you don't have the internet
package on a cruise line here Alaska is so easy
to have free internet in each port. Two places the
public library or McDonald's Starbucks or Starbucks that's right, and
and Juno. The public library is very close to the

(01:00:02):
where the ships tie up downtown.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
Let's move on. What do you like in Ketchikan? I
love the Lumberjack show so much.

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
You know, they have the Lumberjacks representing Canada and the USA,
and I think they change countries every other day.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Yes, I think so. It makes no difference, you know,
I also enjoy Creek Street. Yes, that's historic, it's beautiful.
It was a red light.

Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
District and now it's the greenback district as in US
dollars that you can. You gotta walk creek streets right
there on the creek, hence the name Creek Street.

Speaker 3 (01:00:37):
And real close to there there's the fish ladder.

Speaker 1 (01:00:41):
The fish jumping there. The other thing I like in
Ketcha Canada totem parks. Yes. Now there are two primary
totem parks, Sackman Village and Potlatch.

Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
Yes, and I.

Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
It's hard to say. They both have ause. But the
Sacman Village is not open to everybody. You have to
make a reservation to get in. Yes, But with the Potlatch,
which is much more scenic, and they're both outside of town.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
Yes, you have just in different directions.

Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
Dis but you have a clan house that anybody can
walk into.

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
I kind of lean towards Potman like Potlatch the best.
But they're both great. They're wonderful, wonderful Skagway.

Speaker 3 (01:01:27):
Oh the train white past Yukon railroad. Yeah, the last
time I did it, I switched it up. I took
the bus up into Canada and then and then took
the train back and that was the bass.

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
I like that, you know. There's also.

Speaker 1 (01:01:44):
Some think of a large airport hotel van where you
can actually stand up in it. Okay, you can also
do the whole round trip in a van for usually
about half the price of the train, but I go
for the t and you can take the train round
trip or one way with a vehicle the other.

Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
I like to stand out on the outside on the board.

Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
Yeah, and the wind blowing and it's just fantastic. You
want to be on the left side going up the
canyon on the right side coming back, and the seats switch,
so the back seat just flops the other way, and
they ask you to if the train is crowded, which

(01:02:32):
it is in the summertime, they ask you, if you've
been on the canyon side, which is left side facing
forward going up, switch to the other so everybody can
have a turn. If you have a family or stuff
like that, put half on one side, half on the
other and just let them switch so you can keep
those seats a lot of fun. One more, what do

(01:02:53):
you like to do? Oh, by the way, there's a
public library in Skagway that I always go to for
free internet.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
Victoria, BC Chart Gardens. Yes, even in the dark, it
is beautiful.

Speaker 1 (01:03:06):
It's tougher in the dark because you usually pull into
Victoria about six pm and you've got to get off,
which is very easy. You're not showing your passport or
anything like that. There's Canadian immigration officials there and they
can ask you for the passport if they want to
see it, but I've never been asked. It's about a

(01:03:28):
forty five minute drive from the marina to boot Chart
and it's just just fantastic.

Speaker 2 (01:03:35):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:03:36):
If you don't want to take the time to go
out to boot Chart, there are two walking trails from
the marina to the from the cruise piers to the
downtown marina, you have, of course, in the downtown you
have the iconic Empress Hotel, you haveament Parliament for the
provincial capital, and a short distance away you have Chinatown shops, boutiques, restaurant.

Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
There's two routes. The longer ride.

Speaker 1 (01:04:03):
Will take you about thirty minutes, and right there at
the visitors centers you get off the ship, you pick
up a map. The shorter route is about twenty minutes
and the longer round will take you through Fisherman's Wharf,
which isn't that big. I'd say skip it and just
head on down, but those those are things to do.
I'd love to have you join me next year on

(01:04:25):
an inside passage. We'll sail round trip from Seattle and
visit catch you can Skagway Juno Victoria, British Columbia. And
it's my goodness, it's July twelve to nineteen, perfect for
whale watching. And this is next year, twenty twenty six.

Speaker 3 (01:04:46):
So beating getting off the ship one year from today.

Speaker 1 (01:04:50):
That's right, Yes, that's right. Oh my gosh, you are
a mathematician. You can get all the details at morriscolumbus
dot com. Okay, you know that I grew up in
San Francisco at Alcatraz, right, thank you. I still have
a love affair with San Francisco. Although it's gotten some

(01:05:13):
bad press, much of it well deserved. With homelessness, some
parts of the city, frankly, are kind of dirty. But
if you stay in the areas that you're going to visit,
like Chinatown and from the Ferry Building down to Giri
Deli Square, Peer thirty nine, all.

Speaker 2 (01:05:32):
Of that, I love Union Square.

Speaker 1 (01:05:35):
Union Square Square is safe and down along again from
the ferry building. That's see, as a kid, we rowed
the ferry boats from Oakland to San Francisco or over
to Marin County. I remember as a kid, you just
drive your car on it, and at the back, for
a nickel you could buy a bag of chopped up

(01:05:57):
fish and the sea lions and sea would follow the
ferry boat as you throw and they would jump up
on the back part of it and we would feed
them when it was just great iconic memories of a
San Francisco in a bygone era.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
So that's why they're also fat.

Speaker 1 (01:06:15):
Thank you very much. Did you know that San Francisco
has a Utah connection?

Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
I didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:06:20):
It is Samuel Brannan. There was a clipper ship, the Brooklyn,
that on February fourth, eighteen forty six, sailed.

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
From New York.

Speaker 1 (01:06:32):
It was a four hundred and fifty ton three masted
Yankee trading ship that they sailed with a group of
Mormon pioneers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
day Saints. They set sail February fourth, eighteen forty six.

(01:06:53):
Now what's interesting is the pioneers hadn't even got to
the Great Basin yet hadn't got to Utah. But that
February fourth, eighteen forty six, coincidentally is the same day
that the Nauvoo Saints started to cross the Mississippi River.
And of course that wasn't planned that way, it was coincidentally.
But they sailed February fourth, arriving in San Francisco on

(01:07:21):
July thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:07:22):
First. They must not have gone through the Penamunt Canal.
They did.

Speaker 1 (01:07:26):
It was booked, but on this this sailing, it is
the longest sailing for this type of commercial purpose. So
they left New York, went down the coast through the Caribbean,
hugged the northern coast of South America, and then drifted
over purposely because of the currents over Africa, and then

(01:07:50):
back through the Straits of Magellan, which is rough up
to east the Robinson Crusoe Island, then into Chile, out
to Hawaii, and then into San Francisco.

Speaker 2 (01:08:05):
And one third.

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
One third of the ocean going Mormon pioneers actually made
it to Utah. Samuel Brannon and another man wrote east
to find Brigham Young and convince him to come to California.
They met Brigham Young in Green River Wyoming. Remember they
landed in eighteen forty six, not the days of forty seven.

Speaker 2 (01:08:32):
Anyway.

Speaker 1 (01:08:33):
On August ninth of eighteen forty six, they returned to
San Francisco. Samuel Brannon and Brigham Young had a big
falling out because he Brigham Young told him that if
he would stay in California, and he was, he became
the richest man in California in the first millionaire. He said,

(01:08:54):
if you stay there, Sam, you will die a pauper,
a poor man, and his providence proved true. His business
has failed and he died in the poorhouse in California. Well,
I was going to tell you about the best sourdough
and some things to do. We'll do that in the
next segment of my You know I'm addicted to soaradough, Yes,

(01:09:16):
I know that, I take it in an IV. I'm
going to give you the best San Francisco sarado and
where to find it when we come back.

Speaker 2 (01:09:36):
Welcome back to the travel Show. I'm Larry Gelwicks.

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
Then get Away Guru joined today by John Potter in studio,
one of our best agents at Morris Columbus Travel.

Speaker 2 (01:09:47):
If you want to talk to John.

Speaker 1 (01:09:48):
Direct eight oh one four eight three fifty two fourteen.
That's eight oh one four eight three fifty two fourteen,
including his August twenty twenty six, I'm a waterways group
on Send River, including the beaches of Normandy.

Speaker 2 (01:10:03):
John.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
We were talking about San Francisco and I still have
such a love affair. Kathy and I will fly down
there for a four day weekend just to eat. And
you know, sometimes we'll try a new restaurant if it
has been highly recommended, but it's like we can't take
a chance on a bad meal, so we end up
going to the same place as we've been going to

(01:10:24):
for decades. What's very interesting in San Francisco is, of
course dining is a a great pastime. There are in
the city itself, not the suburbs. There are four thousand,
four hundred and fifteen restaurants in San Francisco at four

(01:10:47):
with the Michelin Star. So if you were to dine
at one restaurant a day, it would take you twelve
years to go to all of them. Well should we
try it? No, thank you, Okay. I'm addicted to sour dough.
We grew up on sourdough, and you know, living now

(01:11:08):
in Utah. As I would get down to San Francisco
several times a year, I'd always go to the Safeway
store and ask them for empty apple or orange boxes
and I'd have some you know, like duct tape with
me and I would go right to the bakery and
fill it with you know, I'd come home with twelve

(01:11:29):
to fifteen loaves of sourdough bread.

Speaker 2 (01:11:32):
We'd put it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:33):
You slice them, you got a thick slice them for
French toast. Oh yeah, it's a little more narrow for
the toaster. But I'd like cut them in half and
then freeze them. So I'd take half a loaf out
at a time and then then cut it up. And
my kids grew up on sourdough bread, and every Saturday
morning we would have saradough French toast, thick cut with

(01:11:55):
real maple syrup and butter and then you know, some
bacer in her sausage eggs.

Speaker 2 (01:12:01):
It was a great breakfast. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:12:03):
Well, my daughter Jenny that you know, well very well,
she had a sleepover and she was probably I don't know,
twelve years old something like that, had a sleep over
the neighbor's house and that Saturday morning, the mother of
the you know, the neighbor house served him breakfast. And

(01:12:25):
you know how impetuous Jenny is. Oh yes, she will
tell you exactly. Yes, you never wonder where you stand
with Jenny. You know what she's thinking, Thank you very much.
She looked at it and said, what's this? What's this
we're having for breakfast?

Speaker 2 (01:12:39):
She didn't say it rudely, she just asking.

Speaker 1 (01:12:41):
And the mother said it's French toast. Jenny goes, it's
not French toast. The money was using like wonderbread, uh huh,
And she says, well, yes, no, it is French toast.
Has to be this thick, and she held up her
fingers about two inches thick. Has to be San Francisco Sarado.
That's and we still, well, that's how I feed my kids.

(01:13:03):
I feed sour dough now the grandkids saradough French toast.

Speaker 2 (01:13:08):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:13:10):
The best sour dough that I found in Utah is
baked by my daughter in law, Keaton's wife, Samantha. We
call her Sam. She does a Sarado to end all
Sara dosh. But here is my favorite San Francisco Sara
does available in San Francisco, the number one without a

(01:13:34):
doubt was called by The New York Times quote as
bread recipes go, it's nearly perfect.

Speaker 2 (01:13:40):
Close coat. This is the.

Speaker 1 (01:13:42):
Tartan Bakery out in Guerrero Street, six hundred Guerrero Street.
People and it's a bakery, you know, with pastries and cakes.
But the king is the sour dough bread. And people
are lined up out the door to get a loaf
of sour dough bread. Oh wow, other pastries. Two others
that I really like is the Acme Bread Company, who's

(01:14:06):
bakery is actually in Berkeley. What a travesty, but they
have us have stores right in the city of San
Francisco and in Berkeley.

Speaker 2 (01:14:14):
Never reminds me of wily coyote name. That's right.

Speaker 1 (01:14:19):
It's a very The inside's very dense and soft, and
it is a hearth baked rather than a rack bake.
Makes a big difference on the bottom crust. The other one,
of course, is Bodine, established in eighteen forty nine. They
got stores everywhere. You could have Bodine ship it to you,
but then it's day old brand. It's not quite the same. Yeah,
but they bake on a rack. I wish it was

(01:14:40):
a little bit different.

Speaker 2 (01:14:42):
Hey.

Speaker 1 (01:14:42):
One other thing cable cars. There's three ways of public
transportation in San Francisco. You have the cable cars, the
street cars, which are electric and different, and the Muni
Muni buses municipal buses. Well, y'all want to ride a
cable car eight dollars, one way, no on, and offer

(01:15:02):
transfer privileges. Originally there were twenty three cable car lines
in San Francisco. Today there are two, one North South
from Union Square to Fisherman's Wharf gear Deli Square, and
then the East West, which goes from the Business District
in California Street out to Vanis. It's a North South.
Don't buy a ticket, buy a pass. They have what

(01:15:26):
they call the Muni passport one, three, five and seven days,
and it's good on the cable cars, the street cars
which kind of follow the waterfront, and the municipal buses.
A one way cable cars eight bucks. A all day
Muni passport for one day is fifteen dollars, and if

(01:15:48):
you're going to take the cable car up and back,
you're into it sixteen Now you got it all. A
three day passes only thirty five dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:15:57):
Brings us to the end of another great and I'll
expect you, sour Dough, get a show, a part. Now
I'm craving sour Dough. Now there we go. Talk to
you next week. God bless you.