Welcome And What’s Ahead

Todd Carlson 0:25

Explore your world. It's the Inside Travel Talk Podcast and Radio Show. Presented by Blue Planet Vacations.com. Call or text the show now. 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. And check out the podcast at Inside TravelTalk.com. And now, here are your hosts, Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.

Patrick Wiscombe 1:03

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

Mark Faldmo 2:45

Yes. One reason why they're doing this is because it was always so congested at the check-in gates. They're actually just doing away with the bag sizers. What? They're getting rid of it. And they are. That

American’s Bag Sizer Change

Mark Faldmo 2:55

does not change the rules for the size of a carry-on bag.

Speaker 4 3:00

Right.

Mark Faldmo 3:00

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

Patrick Wiscombe 3:35

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

Mark Faldmo 3:40

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

Patrick Wiscombe 3:48

Southwest has announced their first flights to Alaska.

Mark Faldmo 3:53

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

Southwest Adds Anchorage Flights

Mark Faldmo 4:09

add extra competition.

Patrick Wiscombe 4:11

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

Mark Faldmo 4:18

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

Patrick Wiscombe 4:26

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

Mark Faldmo 4:33

Yeah, this is by a company called Colette Tours. They do tours all over the world, but they've kind of really been focusing on Africa three times a year. It's a 25-day tour. You'll fly into Johannesburg, spend one night there, and then go to Kruger

Cape Town To Cairo Mega Tour

Mark Faldmo 4:49

National Park for a safari, and then fly down to Cape Town for three nights, then fly to Victoria Falls for three nights. And Victoria Falls is on my bucket list. I yeah, absolutely want to make it to Victoria Falls at some point. And then fly to Kenya, spend five nights total there between Nairobi and the Masimara. I'm doing a safari there. And then from there, you'll fly to Cairo, where you'll spend four nights in Cairo, plus do a river cruise between Oswan and Luxor.

Patrick Wiscombe 5:23

Wow.

Mark Faldmo 5:24

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

Patrick Wiscombe 5:41

That sounds like the way that I would want to see Africa. Just see the highlights and then come home. Yes. Yeah. 24, 20, what'd you say? 24, 25 days? 25 days. Yeah. That's pretty good.

Mark Faldmo 5:54

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

Patrick Wiscombe 6:07

Let's get to the travel deal of the week. And we received a text question from was this Jenny or Janae? I think it's Janae. Janae. Okay. Yeah. Janae. So if you have travel related questions, text or call the show. 801-649-3700-801-649-3700.

Germany Trip Ideas For One Week

Patrick Wiscombe 6:32

Janae wants to go to Germany. And she says, I have seven to eight days. What would you recommend? So it's kind of a wide open question.

Mark Faldmo 6:41

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

Patrick Wiscombe 7:21

You've seen it in person, right? A couple of times, yes. That is some breathtaking architecture.

Mark Faldmo 7:27

It actually still has an unexploded bomb from World War II in it. They didn't want to move it and risk damaging the cathedral, so it's just up there somewhere, which is interesting. Um and then it ends ends in Amsterdam, Holland. So that is one way to do it. If you kind of wanted to do Germany a little bit more on your own, I would recommend, and and this is a build your own package. And right now at Blue Planet Vacations, we have a $500 off, a build your own package to anywhere in the world. But I'd recommend doing Berlin and Munich. And probably

River Cruise Option On The Rhine

Mark Faldmo 8:08

spending four nights in each city, and then just you know, quickly what to do in that area in Berlin. I would do the hop on, hop off tour. It's a combination of bus and boat that you can do it, and you can buy a 48-hour pass to do that.

Patrick Wiscombe 8:25

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

Mark Faldmo 8:33

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

Patrick Wiscombe 8:49

It's gotta include something from World War II then.

Mark Faldmo 8:52

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

Patrick Wiscombe 9:01

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

Mark Faldmo 9:06

Yeah, Checkpoint. In fact, when I was in Berlin,

Berlin History Stops Worth Planning

Mark Faldmo 9:10

I went to Checkpoint Charlie, and they have guards there dressed up in each of the uniforms and you know, kind of make it as authentic as they can. I started talking to the guy that was playing the German guard, and turns out he was from Provo, Utah. So it is authentic, but maybe the actors are not authentic if if there's one from Provo, Utah. Germans are a warm-hearted people. Yes, yeah. And Provo and other things. The the Holocaust Museum in Berlin or memorial is actually quite moving there. That's probably one of the better ones I've seen around the world. And then from Berlin, you can go to Postom, which is where the Prussian Empire was based. There's a big palace and very interesting things there. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. So there's lots you can do in Berlin. And then you also for me it's very interesting to see the differences between East Berlin and West Berlin.

Patrick Wiscombe 10:11

Oh, yeah.

Mark Faldmo 10:12

They would still be very, very different at this point. It is. It is. There's still the you know, kind of communist department complexes in East Berlin, where West Berlin is a lot more developed. Although that was 12 years ago that I went, and there's been a lot of construction, so it's probably not quite as distinct, but it was still pretty distinct when I was there. And then from Berlin, you'd take the train down to Munich. By the high speed train, it's three and a half hours. I would stay right in the city center. I would start off with hop on hop off tour, spend time at the Merriamplatz, which is the main city square, home to the famous Glockenspiel, which occurs three times a day. It's a big clock, and the whole building

Munich Classics And Day Trips

Mark Faldmo 10:54

has little performances like cuckoo clocks, and pretty interesting to do that. And then from Munich, that's where you'd get to Neuschwinstein. So you can do Neuschwinstein, which is a castle that Walt Disney based Cinderella's castle on. Lindorf, which is another castle that was built by King Ludwig, who built lots of castles in the area. And one thing that I always love to do there is go to the Hofbraw house. Now I know there are some Hofbra houses around the world that you can go to, but this is the original one and have a German experience. Get a pretzel there. Have a picture with Heather that has a pretzel that's bigger than her head there. So just really good pretzels. And then also something you should do when in Munich is go to Dachau concentration camp, which is about an hour outside of town, and go and see that part of our world's history.

Patrick Wiscombe 11:53

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

Speaker 2 12:17

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

Patrick Wiscombe 12:21

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

Todd Carlson 13:16

Taking you to destinations around the world. The Inside Travel Talk Podcast and Radio Show is presented by Blue Planet Vacations.com. America's Best Travel Advisors. Call or text the show now. 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. Thanks for listening. We'll be right back. Now, back to the Insight Travel Talk Podcast and Radio Show. Presented by Blue Planet Vacations.com. America's best travel advisors. Call or text the show right now, 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. And check out the podcast at InsightTravel Talk.com. Here's Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.

Patrick Wiscombe 14:52

Ahoy. Just on a personal note. My son and his wife had a brand new baby on Thursday. So I am granddude now times two. Congratulations. Very exciting. They still haven't decided on a name, so I

Just Cruising And Family News

Patrick Wiscombe 15:13

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

Mark Faldmo 15:54

Yeah, sales have gone well. And if you're looking for

MSC Alaska Expansion And Ship Upgrades

Mark Faldmo 15:57

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

Patrick Wiscombe 16:28

Yeah.

Mark Faldmo 16:28

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

Patrick Wiscombe 16:52

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

Mark Faldmo 16:57

It is an ocean cruise. Before I go over the itinerary, I just want to go over some of the benefits of a Viking world cruise. Now, this cruise is a hundred and forty-two days long. So it goes to 31 countries and includes 61 tours. But some of the

Viking’s 142 Day World Cruise

Mark Faldmo 17:13

perks of this, free business class airfare and transfers, 4,000 per couple shipboard credit. 4,000? Yeah, 4,000. And then an additional 2,000 if you're a past guest. And then for a limited time, you get reduced deposit of 10%, complementary visa services, because you will need to get a visa to enter some of these countries.

Speaker 4 17:36

Oh, yeah.

Mark Faldmo 17:37

A free average package and free Wi-Fi. So if you book a world cruise before October 31st, you get all of those perks. Probably the big deal. Yeah.

Patrick Wiscombe 17:50

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

Mark Faldmo 17:53

It does.

Patrick Wiscombe 17:54

Yeah.

Mark Faldmo 17:55

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

Patrick Wiscombe 19:17

Could you stand being on a ship for 142 days? I think I could. Going to those ports, I could do it. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings is debuting a loyalty program across all three of their brands. Now, let's just go over the three brands quickly. Norwegian, NCL, that's probably the most well known. What are their other two brands?

Mark Faldmo 19:38

So they have Oceana, which is a luxury or just slightly below luxury cruise line, and then they

Norwegian’s New Shared Loyalty Program

Mark Faldmo 19:45

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

Patrick Wiscombe 20:10

That seems like a just a necessary move.

Mark Faldmo 20:13

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

Patrick Wiscombe 20:30

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

Mark Faldmo 21:14

Yeah, you are correct on that. And personally, I think the best overall time if you're trying to get weather

Best Time And Ports For Alaska

Mark Faldmo 21:20

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

Patrick Wiscombe 21:56

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

Mark Faldmo 21:59

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

Patrick Wiscombe 22:58

It really is amazing. Yeah. What about whale watching though?

Mark Faldmo 23:01

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

Patrick Wiscombe 23:38

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

Mark Faldmo 23:49

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

Patrick Wiscombe 23:57

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

Mark Faldmo 24:04

Yeah, so I just picked out two Alaska Cruise itineraries for next year 2026. One is for price and one is for the itinerary. And the first one is a seven-day Alaska cruise on Princess

Alaska Cruise Deals For 2026

Mark Faldmo 24:18

Cruises. This one is kind of a repositioning cruises. It's the very beginning of the season, May 2nd, and it starts in Vancouver and ends in Seattle. But it goes to Kachikan, Juneau, Skagway, and Glacier Bay. So this one is hitting all of those ports that we talked about. Yeah. I'm just going to give the balcony cabin because it's not that much more expensive than the inside. It starts at $12.99 per person, which for Alaska, that's you know, if you take this into June, you're up in the 2000s per person. So this is a great price for that. And then the next cruise, I chose this one for the ports. It's actually an 11-day Alaska cruise round trip Seattle. It's on Cunard cruise lines. So its ports are Seattle, Victoria, Ketchikan. Oh, so they actually stop in Victoria? In Victoria. Okay. And then Ketchikan, Rangal, Alaska, Sitka, Icy Strait, Glacier Bay, Skagway, and Hubbard Glacier. Whoa. And it is 11 days, but I it it hits all of the good ports in Alaska. Although I see it does not hit Juneau. So that's the one one port that we talked about that it doesn't include. But for 11-day cruise, insides start at $15.89 and balcony cabins start at $24.59. Whoa. So and that's mid-July. So that's right in the peak of summer at the perceived best time to go.

Patrick Wiscombe 25:55

You just can't go wrong with Alaska. Ever. And those are some great itineraries. Take advantage of that, David. Call Mark in his office. Just get the conversation started. No obligation. 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. And Mark will also post this and his contact information on Blue PlanetVacations.com. You can listen to this podcast, a radio show, every Saturday and Sunday morning right here on this radio station and all radio stations around the country starting at 11 a.m. local time. And you can listen to an encore presentation of the show by subscribing, downloading, or you can just stream the show right on

How To Listen And Final Takeaway

Patrick Wiscombe 26:46

inside travel talk.com and all podcast platform links can be found on inside travel talk.com. Well that's it. We're done. We've done our job. Now it's your turn to get out and see and travel the world while you can because you never know what curveballs life is going to throw at you. Live your life deliberately, live your life intentionally, and a sincere thank you for listening. Make it a great week. We'll talk to you next weekend.

Todd Carlson 27:21

That's it. That's the end of the show. You've been listening to the Inside Travel Talk Podcast and Radio Show with Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo. Presented by Blue Planet Vacations.com. Book your adventure right now. Call 888 718 7717. That's 888 718 7717. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.