Show Opening And How To Reach Us

Todd Carlson 0:17

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 InsightTravelTalk.com. And now, here are your hosts, Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.

Patrick Wiscombe 0:54

Oh, thank you so much for listening to the Inside Travel Talk podcast and radio show. Hello there. I am Patrick Wiscombe. The entire purpose of this radio show and podcast is to help you plan and book your next vacation. And if you have no idea where to go, well, we're going to give you some

What We Cover Today

Patrick Wiscombe 1:15

ideas of where you may want to vacation next. And we are presented, proudly presented, by my friend's company, BluePlanetVacations.com. This week we're talking about vacationing in Cancun. Now is the perfect time to go because their numbers are way down, which means they're going to be dropping prices. We're going to go in depth about traveling to Malta. Airlines have new rules about charging your devices when you're in the air or just bringing them on the plane. And we're going to tell you the airport with the worst flight delays. Mark was just there, and we've got five cruise deals of the week. And Mark Faldmo is back from Nashville. Have you had enough barbecue yet?

Mark Faldmo 1:57

I have. I had some of the best barbecue I've ever had. Oh, where'd you get it? Uh, it's called Hunt's Barbecue. Look them up on their Facebook page. It's amazing. Uh, it's a little food truck, and we stopped a tour bus with 50 people there. Um, they were prepared for us, they

Nashville Barbecue Detour

Mark Faldmo 2:15

knew we were coming, but it literally is a food truck just out in the middle of nowhere, Tennessee.

Patrick Wiscombe 2:20

Hey Hank, we're gonna need another side of beef in here.

Mark Faldmo 2:24

Yep. He has his own pits that he's built, and it was so good. We ate barbecue actually three of the seven nights with the group. Very good. You know what? Barbecue is one of my favorite foods. This Hunt's barbecue is one of the places that still does whole hog barbecue. So he's built his pits for whole hog. It was so good. It was amazing.

Patrick Wiscombe 2:47

Let's get to the travel news headlines. Let's start with the uh new rules for power banks on flights. I guess that would include not only in the air, but it would also include bringing the devices or the battery packs onto the plane.

Mark Faldmo 3:02

Southwest Airlines in May became the first airline to ban passengers from charging devices

New Power Bank Rules In Flight

Mark Faldmo 3:08

with a power bank inside your carry-on bags. So I flew Tennessee on Southwest, and one of the announcements they make now is if you have a power bank and you're charging your device, it has to be out of your carry-on bags and in plain sight. In July, a Delta Flight was forced to make an emergency landing because the power bank caught on fire. And so now they have to be out. But you know, a lot of international airlines, Lufthansa, Singapore, Thai Airways, China Airlines, each have a similar policy. The nation of South Korea has a nationwide ban on portable charging in flight and has also prohibited passengers from power banks in the overhead bins or underneath the plane. You just can't bring a power bank on board any flight in South Korea. And Emirates is also going to do the same thing in October.

Patrick Wiscombe 3:59

Isn't there a website that has what the amenities, I think that's the right word, for a particular seat?

Mark Faldmo 4:06

Yeah, you can go to uh seatmaps.com and it tells you what is in the seat. You put in your flight number, and so it'll tell you if it has charging, no charging, if it's a preferred seat for the location, or if it has no window, all sorts of different things like that that you don't always get on the airlines website.

Patrick Wiscombe 4:26

Let's talk about the airport that was just named the worst in the United States for flight delays. You were just there.

Mark Faldmo 4:33

It is Dallas Fort Worth. It has an average on-time rate of just 71%. That's a C minus. Pretty low. Yeah. Yeah, that is. You know, others, which I'll be going to this week, is Ronald

Worst Airports For Flight Delays

Mark Faldmo 4:48

Reagan DCA Airport. It is 72%, and Denver is 75%. So those are the airlines that are pretty low in the on-time departures. The opposite of that, Salt Lake City, where we are, is the best airport in the country for on-time performance.

Patrick Wiscombe 5:04

If we go with high school and college math, that would be a B. It's a solid B. In your face, Dallas. Yes. Delta is launching direct transatlantic flights to Malta.

Mark Faldmo 5:19

I'm really excited for this. Malta is probably one of my favorite destinations in that Mediterranean region to visit. It's just so unique, and we'll talk about it here in just a minute. But Delta is launching flights starting in

Delta Announces New Malta Route

Mark Faldmo 5:35

June from JFK to Malta. It's not every day, it's three weekly flights, and it'll be seasonal, running from June to October. So basically the peak season. It will be operated by a 767-300 aircraft, which is my favorite because the seating is just 232 of the seven seats. All but one of them is either a window or an aisle. So six of the seven seats on that are a window or an aisle.

Patrick Wiscombe 6:01

Yeah, I love those big wide planes. Even though you were in Nashville, Memphis this past week, I know that you and uh someone in your office was working on a trip to Malta for Jennifer. This will be the uh destination of the week, Malta, but let's just go over some of the options that you gave Jennifer during this past week.

Mark Faldmo 6:22

Malta is a small Mediterranean island, and it's just south of the island of Sicily. So it's kind of right there in between Sicily and Egypt. There are three main islands, but most would go to Malta,

Malta Highlights And Where To Stay

Mark Faldmo 6:36

which is the the main island. It's known for its history. It also has some of the best snorkel and scuba diving areas in the Mediterranean, and it's also known for its sunshine. More than 300 days a year of sunshine. Sounds like Florida. And it's been owned by the Romans, it's been owned by Arabs, it's been owned by the Knights of St. John, which are the hospital knights during the Crusades, it's been owned by the French, and it's in been owned by the British.

Patrick Wiscombe 7:08

And there is a lot of influencer.

Mark Faldmo 7:09

Yeah, so it is a real crossroads of civilizations. English is widely spoken, and it's the capital city, which is Valletta, is a UNESCO uh World Heritage City.

Patrick Wiscombe 7:21

Valletta is one of those places that a lot of cruise ships are uh flagged out of.

Mark Faldmo 7:26

Yes, they are. Yeah, a lot are flagged in Malta. And speaking of cruises, cruising into Valletta there in Malta is probably one of the top five best cities to cruise into just because the city is kind of up on a cliff and you're cruising in and you have all of that architecture to the buildings there, and it's just fascinating to cruise into Valletta.

Patrick Wiscombe 7:51

I know you've been to Malta how many times now? Three times. Okay, what did you cruise ship?

Mark Faldmo 7:56

But I would love to go back and spend a few days there. One thing I like is it's a small destination, it's not that big of an island. You could actually get around the whole island um of Malta in under an hour, but it is so packed with history and great beaches. It's known as a fortress nation. The three cities that are there in Valletta have massive city walls that kind of fortify and go around each city there. And then the other thing I like is the culture. Yeah, we talked about all of the different cultures that have run that. And the thing that I like is the history that ties back to the Knights of St. John and the Crusades. Go to some of their fortresses that they had, touring through those. It was just fascinating. What hotels did you recommend for Jennifer? The top three that I recommend there are the Phoenicia Malta. It's a five-star hotel right near the city's main gate. It's kind of classic Mediterranean luxury. And then the Zara Palace, and it is inside the old city walls, kind of romantic, quiet, and full of old world charm. Those are kind of the two that I recommend. There's also a Weston if you want kind of a more resort style that has coastline water views. And then there's another one called the Crew Grand Messina, which is a boutique fortress style hotel. So it looks like a fortress, but it's a small boutique hotel.

Patrick Wiscombe 9:30

Come stay in our castle.

Mark Faldmo 9:31

Yeah, so some pretty unique places to stay in Malta. It's just a wonderful destination. And now, as we talked about with Delta, starting up the non-stop flight from JFK, be a great time to go visit and see the island of Malta.

Patrick Wiscombe 9:48

Let's get to the travel deal of the week, which is not Malta. That was just for Jennifer. We're going to Cancun. We're going to help you save up to $550, but you have to pay in full when you book with Mark.

Mark Faldmo 10:03

This is a special. Save up to $550 when you pay in full. And we've mentioned this over the last few weeks.

Cancun Deal With Big Savings

Mark Faldmo 10:09

But listeners are really taking advantage of this. They are, yeah. And we actually haven't talked about this one in conjunction with Cancun yet. So I just wanted to point that out that that's a pretty big discount for Cancun. I just had one of the guides I work with down in Cancun. He asked me if I could do anything to get more visitors to Cancun. He drove through on Sunday afternoon, drove through Cancun and just had his video, took a video of him driving. And there's no one on the streets in Cancun. Oh, really? It's just looking at that, and he's like, please, please, please have people come to Cancun. And I don't know what it is. You know, September is usually a slower month for Cancun. Cancun had such a big boom during COVID. People went there two and three times. And I I think people might be a little bit cancuned out. But I would say if you're wanting to go to a nice beach destination, look at Cancun with this discount of $550. And if you go to blueplanetvacations.com, there is a page on there that lists all of the prices for a cancun.

Patrick Wiscombe 11:15

Take advantage of that. Yep. That's a good deal. So save up to $550 when you pay in full. So meaning call mark, you have to pay for the entire vacation up front. And then of course travel. That is an awesome deal. Cancun, amazing. And uh, Mark, just quickly, what's your favorite place to stay down there? Just personally.

Mark Faldmo 11:39

The El Dorado Casita Suites.

Patrick Wiscombe 11:41

Yep. I love it. I knew you were gonna say that. Take advantage of that. Get the conversation started, whether it's for Malta, whether it's for Cancun Call Mark at the break. 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. And he'll put all of this information on blueplanetvacations.com. When we come back, it is time for the infamous Just Cruising segment, the segment of the show that has made us popular around the country and around the world. We've got five cruise deals of the week. We'll give you the details. That's next. When we continue on the Inside Travel Talk Podcast Radio Show, alongside Mark Faldmo, I am Patrick Wiscombe. Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your Saturday and Sunday. We will be right back. Give us about 60 seconds.

Todd Carlson 12:33

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.

Patrick Wiscombe 13:58

You're listening to the Inside Travel Talk Podcast, a radio show, alongside my friend and co-host, Mark Faldmo. I am Patrick Wiscombe. Coming up in this segment of the show, we are talking about five. Count them. One, two, three, four, five. Cruise deals of the week. We'll give you the details on that.

Just Cruising Segment Begins

Patrick Wiscombe 14:19

And we'll also be going over the cruise news headlines. In fact, Mark, let's just start there. Where do you want to go here? Do you want to go Carnival Cruise Lines or should we go AMA Waterways River Cruising? Let's do Carnival because that's that's an interesting story. Okay, Carnival Cruise line guests are already asking for a ban. It's a strong word. On a rumored edition. What rumored edition is that, Mark?

Mark Faldmo 14:50

I can't believe this. When I told Heather last night, she looked at me, her face said, Are you serious? They

Sunscreen Ice Cream Cruise Buzz

Mark Faldmo 14:59

are going to introduce sunscreen flavored ice cream.

Patrick Wiscombe 15:05

Okay.

Mark Faldmo 15:06

I I can see why people want that band. So I don't I don't know if that is something to just get a little bit of media buzz or what, but I I'm not sure. Sunscreen flavored ice cream is a good flavor.

Patrick Wiscombe 15:37

I'll have the copper tone SPF. It was giving a 75 on that one.

Mark Faldmo 15:42

Yeah.

Patrick Wiscombe 15:44

I love those artificial chemicals. Very tasty. Yeah.

Mark Faldmo 15:49

So, well, I don't know. Maybe it's the like what is that? The sunscreen, the sunbum that's coconut. So maybe it's just co it's coconut flavored ice cream in reality.

Patrick Wiscombe 16:00

That feels like a total carnival move right there. Yeah. Alma Waterways is offering complimentary nights on select New Year's Eve departures.

Mark Faldmo 16:12

Okay. And so they're offering a free pre-night and a free post-night on seven-day cruises around New Year's. And now some of these, it's one night in a hotel and one night extra on the cruise ship. But one that I really like, it's on the called the Melodies of the Danube. So it leaves December 24th. The cruise price on that is $3,039 per person. But that also comes with a one night pre-cruise stay. So the night of December

Free New Year Nights On River Cruises

Mark Faldmo 16:43

23rd in Budapest, Hungary, and a one night post-cruise hotel stay in Prague on December 31st. Okay, that's pretty good. So that is the one I would choose. Yeah. Most of the other ones are, you know, like one night in pre-cruise and then one night on the ship. But that one has two stays that are in a hotel. All of those are December 31st or January 1st are the dates of that extra night. So instead of flying home on New Year's Eve, you're experiencing New Year's in the destination, then flying home the next day. That's a good marketing piece right there.

Patrick Wiscombe 17:21

Stay here for an extra night and experience the city on New Year's. And that's a good call.

Mark Faldmo 17:25

That's two free nights you're basically getting either on the ship or in a hotel.

Patrick Wiscombe 17:29

So it's I'd probably go hotel in that case. In the in the cities.

Mark Faldmo 17:34

Yeah. Well, especially in Prague. I think that would be a fun place to experience New Year's Eve. Agreed.

Patrick Wiscombe 17:40

Solo travelers are set to get their own river cruise ship.

Mark Faldmo 17:43

Who's doing this? We've talked a few times about single and solo travel is becoming more and more popular. A lot of cruise lines make you pay double 200%.

Patrick Wiscombe 17:54

Ooh, yeah. Because you're paying for the other bed, basically. Yeah.

Mark Faldmo 17:57

Yeah, and some of them have discounts that they offer. But now Riviera cruise line is making a ship completely geared towards solo travelers. So all they'll sell are solo cabins.

A River Ship Built For Solo

Mark Faldmo 18:11

That is going to start in 2027. And I'm interested to see how that goes and if other river cruise lines decide to go with that and make some of their other ships exclusively for the single solo traveler.

Patrick Wiscombe 18:26

One of your favorite cruise companies, Aranui Cruises, will have two ships sailing French Polynesia in 2027.

Mark Faldmo 18:34

So yeah, they're adding a second ship to the Aranui brand. So they'll have the Aranui 5, which is the one that we've talked about on the show before.

Patrick Wiscombe 18:43

Yeah, how many times have you been on the Aranui 5? I've been on it just one time. Okay.

Mark Faldmo 18:48

But it probably is the best travel experience that I've ever had. It's so unique and so different. Now in 2027, they're going to

Aranui Adds A Second Ship

Mark Faldmo 18:57

introduce the Aranoa is the name of the ship. And it will do the same thing. It'll sail French Polynesia, including Bora Bora. The new ship is 198 guests, whereas Aranui 5 a little bit larger, 230 guests. The Aranoa will feature 18 itineraries in that maiden season. Right now, for that new ship, if you book any of those 2027 departure dates prior to December 31st, they have between a 10 and 15% discount, depending on the itinerary that you book. They have some special itineraries that go down to the Austral Islands and the Pitcarn Island Islands. The Pitcarn Islands is where a lot of the mutiny on the bounty crew fled to. You get down there and they're so isolated. They're just beautiful and isolated. So they also go to some of these places that no other cruise line goes to. It's just Arunui that goes to the Austral and the Pitcarn Islands.

Patrick Wiscombe 19:58

Let's get to the cruise deal of the week. Let's hammer out very quickly the five cruise deals of the week that we have for listeners.

Mark Faldmo 20:06

I just wanted to highlight on BluePlanet Vacations.com we do have, if you click on cruise deals, we have the top five cruise deals of the week. And it actually has 10 or 15 cruise deals listed there. I get going on this and I say, This is good, this is good, this is good. So so I add more than the top five, but I wanted to go through a couple of these because they are

Five Cruise Deals With Prices

Mark Faldmo 20:29

so good. Some of these are last minute, some of them are into 2027. But we'll first start with the seven-day Mexican Riviera cruise. This one is in November, November 15th, and it's on Princess Cruise Lines. The balcony cabins, and I'm just gonna go with that because it's so good. Balcony cabins start at $719 uh per person.

Patrick Wiscombe 20:53

Wow.

Mark Faldmo 20:53

The inside cabins are a good price too. But for that price, I'd go with the balcony because that's the cost of a normal seven-day cruise for an inside. So again, balcony cabin $719. Even better in January of 2026. This is a seven-day Western Caribbean cruise on MSc from Galveston. And I think two weeks ago we talked about Galveston cruises. Um, but a balcony cabin starts at $689 per person. So that's even that's even lower. Wow. Um just a great itinerary for the Western Caribbean. One that I really like, and I put this one in here just because of the uniqueness of the itinerary. This is a 12-day Western Caribbean cruise. It's on CUNAR cruise line. It's January 29th of 2026. An inside cabin starts at 11.99 per person, and a balcony cabin starts at 1529. But I chose this because it's a 12-day round trip from Miami. It goes to San Juan, Barbados, St. Martin, St. John. Wait, St. Martin. You go into Phillipsburg? Phillipsburg. And then it gets down into that deep Southern Caribbean.

Patrick Wiscombe 22:12

The Southern Caribbean doesn't get enough attention. It doesn't. Oh my goodness, it's amazing down there.

Mark Faldmo 22:18

Yeah. That definitely is an itinerary that I would choose. And that's a good price for CUNARD, which is kind of more of a premium cruise line. That's about a hundred bucks a day per person. Per person. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And then if we go early May, seven-day Norwegian fjords cruise on Holland, America. So this is a May 3rd date. 2026. 2026. Yeah. And I'm just going to go with the balcony cabin because it starts at $15.59 per person. Whoa, that's good. That's only about $40 more than the inside cabin. So just just get a balcony on that. And that one leaves from Rotterdam, goes to uh Kirkwall, which is way north in Scotland, and then goes to Bergen and two other stops in Norway. Wow. That's amazing. May 2026 on Norwegian cruise line. It's a 12-day Hawaii and Tahiti cruise. This one is all for the itinerary. The price is still pretty good, but it's more expensive than what we've talked about. It starts in Honolulu, cruises all of the Hawaiian Islands, so the Big Island, Maui, and Kauai. And then it sails down uh to Tahiti where you'll get Bora Bora, Rayatea, Morea, and Papiete. Inside cabin on that starts at 1879, and a balcony starts at 41.79. There's a 12-day cruise. And and actually that balcony cost of anything we've talked about, that's by far the most expensive. Oh, yeah. But I've seen this as high as about $5,500 on this itinerary. So it still is a pretty good deal for that itinerary. But again, just the experience of that. You know, there's nothing like after four days at sea, sailing into Bora Bora is a special experience.

Patrick Wiscombe 24:17

Man, you came fully prepared. Five cruise deals of the week that really kind of turned into 15 on uh Blue Planet Vacations.com. If you know anything about Mark, and we've been doing this show just a hair over uh two years right now. When he sees a good deal and he posts it, it's worth taking a look at. You can listen to this award-nominated podcast, a radio show, every Saturday and Sunday morning right here on the very radio station that you're listening to right now around the country at 11 a.m. local time, and you can listen to an encore presentation of this show by subscribing, downloading, or

Where To Find Deals And Listen

Patrick Wiscombe 25:01

streaming the show on Insidetraveltalk.com. We are on all of the major podcast platforms, and all of those links can be found on Insidetraveltalk.com. Okay, we're done. It is now your turn to get out and travel the world while you can because you never know what curveballs life is going to throw at you. And hopefully those curveballs didn't hit you this past week. Live your life deliberately, live your life intentionally. And a sincere thank you to all of you for listening. Make it a great week. We'll talk to you next Saturday and Sunday.

Todd Carlson 25:35

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.

Closing Thoughts And Sign Off

Todd Carlson 25:44

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.