Welcome And Travel Headlines Ahead

Todd Carlson 0:16

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 0:52

Welcome to the Inside Travel Talk Podcast and Radio Show. Hello there. I'm Patrick Wiscombe alongside Mark Foldmo. He'll be here in just a moment. He's in the other room printing some stuff off. And if you are brand new to this show, the entire purpose of this radio show and podcast is to help you, your friends, your family, whoever you want to go with, to book your next vacations or just give you ideas of where you may want to consider vacationing next. And we are presented, proudly presented, by my friend Mark Foldmose Company, Blue Planet Vacations.com. And again, just a sincere thank you for taking the time to stop and listen. Coming up on this show, Walt Disney is returning from the dead, and we have said for years and years that the family that screams together stays together. And we've got the game changer, or at least a potential game changer for Carnival. And good news if you are a fan of the Love Boat. Mark, when was the Love Boat on? Was that uh early 80s, mid-80s?

Mark Faldmo 2:00

No, I think it was mid-70s. Oh dear. So yeah, I I think it was like 1977-ish.

Patrick Wiscombe 2:09

Okay. Well, if you are an older listener of the show, then you will be happy to know that the Love Boat cast is getting back together. But first, let's get to the travel news headlines. And let me just at the top of the show here, let me give out the studio and text number. We want to answer your calls and take your questions during the show. 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. If you have a travel-related question, Mark, let's start with the travel news headlines.

TSA Family Screening Lanes

Patrick Wiscombe 2:41

TSA has unveiled a dedicated family screening lane.

Mark Faldmo 2:47

This I think is a great idea. I don't know why they didn't think of this earlier. They're rolling this out right now at Select Airports where there is a dedicated line that is built for and they're able to handle strollers, diaper bags, and everything else that comes with people along with families traveling together. I think it'll speed the process up for everybody. Where there's a line that is dedicated to some of those more specialty items is a great idea. And right now it is in kind of its test phases, and they chose a great airport for the testing of it. And it's Orlando International Airport. Uh-huh. So where you get lots of families traveling together. And the other one is uh Charlotte Airport. Charlotte? Yeah. Yep. Soon they hope to be rolling this out to Orange County, Honolulu, Charleston, Jacksonville, Providence, Rhode Island, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Tampa are the next airports that will get this family screening lane. And also another thing along with this, the TSA has announced there is a family discount for pre-check. So really the the family can apply, and it would be $85 per person to get pre-check instead of the hundred dollars it currently costs now on an individual basis. So 15% off basically. Yeah. Correct.

Patrick Wiscombe 4:09

Okay.

Europe ETIAS Border System Date

Patrick Wiscombe 4:09

Europe has set a new date for its new border system. This is the story that just won't go away because Europe can't pull its act together. The ETIAS, which is electronic travel initiative authorization system, I think is what that stands for. Or I'm real close to it. Anyway, they're tripling the fee to what 20 euro or euros.

Mark Faldmo 4:30

So yep. So that's about 27 dollars, almost 30 dollars a person that it'll cost to get this new. Um and basically it's an entry and exit system. Yeah. And so this does finally they have a date set October 12th. That's just here in a few weeks. So if you're traveling to Europe on October 12th or after, you will need to use this new entry and exit system.

Walt Disney Animatronic Debuts

Patrick Wiscombe 4:58

Walt Disney is back from the dead, Mark. Did you see that headline? I did see that. Wow. Let us clarify there is an animatronic version of Walt Disney, the founder of Disney World, Disneyland. He's gonna be in the Disneyland attraction, which I thought was great. It's good to see Walt back, at least in robotic form.

Mark Faldmo 5:19

Yes. This actually opened last week, and it's something for the 70th anniversary of Disneyland. So it's in the Main Street Opera House. It shows Walt in his office and it goes through the history of the animatronic figures. The animatronic Walt is the presenter. Disney always comes with up with interesting things, and I'm actually surprised they haven't done this sooner. In one of the stories I read, that they've been thinking about doing this for 20 years, but it finally came to fruition on the 70th anniversary of Disneyland.

Patrick Wiscombe 5:52

So they were thinking about doing it for the 50th anniversary, which kind of would have made more sense. Yes, yeah. You received was this a call or a text from James earlier?

Should You Arrive Early In Budapest

Patrick Wiscombe 6:04

It was actually both, but the specific question came by text. Okay. 801-649-3700 is the text number to get a hold of the show. He has booked a river cruise starting in Budapest with Julie, who is someone who works for you in your office. He wants to know if he should go to Budapest a few days early and where to stay. Should he go a few days early? The answer is yes.

Mark Faldmo 6:32

I would go at least two days, but probably three days early for the river cruise. There's lots of things to do in Budapest. Now, usually river cruises do have a tour included in Budapest, so part of some of the sight scene is already included, but there's so much to see in Budapest. I would go in a few days before. And as

Best Budapest Hotels To Book

Mark Faldmo 6:52

far as where to stay, my favorite hotel in Budapest is the Intercontinental Budapest. It's right on the river, it's across from Castle Hill. So at nighttime you see all the buildings and monuments lit up. There's a nice little kind of boardwalk there with lots of shops and restaurants. I think on the show before I've told the story of me just eating a bowl of goulash in a sidewalk cafe, and it was behind the Intercontinental Hotel. Oh. Just looking at the river and looking at all of the monuments, Castle Hill, the church is all lit up right at sunset time. It was amazing. I would suggest everybody do that once in their life.

Patrick Wiscombe 7:29

Okay, let me paint the picture for you. Mark has traveled literally almost four million miles. If something takes his breath away, it's probably pretty good.

Mark Faldmo 7:39

Yes, yeah, it's good. So that intercontinental Budapest is where the first place I would look at. And then there are two others. One is the Budapest Mariette. It is also on the river, but it's a little bit further down. I think the Intercontinental just has a prime location. The Intercontinental is also a short walk from a little square, which is called Urzbet Park, which is just a pedestrianized area with shops, restaurants, things to do. There is a hotel I recommend that's right in that Urzbet park as well, which is the Kapinski Hotel. Nice hotel? It's a very nice hotel. And these are all four and a half, five-star hotels. Nice hotel. One interesting thing about that Urzbet Park, there is a Michael Jackson memorial there. Um it's a tree, and every year at the anniversary of Michael Jackson's death, it gets decorated with pictures and memories and all of that. And the reason was is because Budapest, I think, was one of the last concerts that Michael Jackson played. And every time he was in Budapest, he did stay at that Kapinski hotel right in the park.

Patrick Wiscombe 8:51

Don't they have a room in there specifically for him? It's called the Tehey Suite.

Mark Faldmo 8:56

I think they do, yes.

Patrick Wiscombe 8:57

Yeah. What are some of the things that you like to do when you're there?

Must-See Budapest Architecture And Views

Mark Faldmo 9:02

If you're into architecture, Budapest is a great place. Oh, yeah. When talking about architecture, the Budapest Parliament is an architecture marvel. It was built in 1885, and it's the largest Gothic building in the world. You can just walk around it, or there are tours inside. I've taken the tour a few times, and it is amazing inside the building as well. The next place I would visit is Buddha Hill. And this is something that often the river cruises will include. But on Buddha Hill, it kind of overlooks the city. You have a great view of Parliament. It's on the opposite side of the river as Parliament. There's Fisherman's Bastion, St. Matthias Church, which we've talked about a few times on this show. It was a Christian church. And then when the Turks ruled it, it was a mosque. The thing that's nice about this, you know, a lot of the Turks and Muslims, they don't like the ornate. And so a lot of the churches, they just destroyed all of that ornateness. But I guess they were a little bit lazy, and they just covered a lot of it up. So when Christians took the church back over, when they took the walls down, they found hidden rooms that were not destroyed. So it has some really early Christian architecture in it, Gothic Christian architecture. And that's also another good place that I've had some Hungarian gulash. So that's how we bridge this show. Everything is bridged with food, with things to do.

Memorials, Markets, And The Jewish Quarter

Mark Faldmo 10:40

Another monument that is worth visiting, and this is near the parliament. It's called Shoes on the Danube. Oh, yeah. And it's a tribute to the Jews that were in Hungary and were taken away to the concentration camps. It is a really kind of moving memorial called Shoes on the Danube. Budapest has an amazing old town Jewish quarter that's kind of been renovated. I've gone and walked through those streets. It is one of the most amazing Jewish quarters in the world that you can visit. The Great Market Hall. Oh, yeah. Definitely worth a visit. It's a fish market and produce and food on the lower level, the upper level is souvenirs. And then one of my favorite things I've done all around the world, cooking classes are always great to do.

Strudel Class And Goulash Explained

Mark Faldmo 11:29

Oh yeah. But in Budapest, I did a strudel cooking class and it's called Stretch Strudel. And so you get this dough, and everyone gets around a table and stretches it out, and then they fill it up and roll it and make it. You make your own strudel. Strudel is one of the good desserts in that area of the world. Austria. If someone doesn't know what strudel is, how would you explain it? So strudel is a pastry with fruit in the middle, usually apple strudel. And so you roll it up and it's like a big log. You cook it and then slice it up, put some powdered sugar on it, and eat it. Kind of like a pie. Well, I can get behind that.

Patrick Wiscombe 12:04

Yeah. Apple pie, I'm okay with. Yes. Okay, now if someone doesn't know what goulash is, what is goulash? Because you've referenced it a couple times now.

Mark Faldmo 12:14

Goulash is a stew usually made with pork or beef. Has lots of paprika in it, and it's probably my favorite type of super stew in the whole world. I I love goulash. It has potatoes and carrots. Oh, there we go. It's a lot like stew we have here, but it's heavy and paprika.

Canyon Spirit Train Upgrade Deal

Patrick Wiscombe 12:30

Before we go to break, if you love trains, take advantage of this. This is on uh the Canyon Spirit, which is formerly Rocky Mountaineer hot travel deal of the week. What do we have for listeners this week, Mark? This is the route that goes between Denver and Moab. Oh, you did this a year ago. Literally a year ago.

Mark Faldmo 12:47

Yep. So right now they're having on their Silverleaf Plus service, they are giving complimentary upgrades to that service, which is a value of about $600 per person. What that gets you is your traditional seats on the rail route, but then they have Silverleaf Plus only viewing car and a lounge car where you can go sit and play cards and watch things. They have people that tell stories in there. So it's kind of an upgraded, exclusive, like lounge access type thing that you can get on that Canyon Spirit train. And this is only on their service that goes between Denver and Moab. Just I think last week they did just start bringing that train all the way to Salt Lake. Oh, they did. But this is only on the two-day service, not the three-day service. Okay. All right.

Patrick Wiscombe 13:35

So this is Denver to Moab or Moab. Yeah. The opposite direction.

Mark Faldmo 13:39

Yeah, and you have to book that by August 12th. Okay. And it's another thing I highly endorse. It I'm strange because I love trains so much, but it was a fabulous train through the Rockies and then down through that southern Utah area.

Patrick Wiscombe 13:53

Yeah. You absolutely loved it. Take advantage of the hot travel deal of the week, the Canyon Spirit, formerly Rocky Mountaineer. Call Mark 888-718-7717-888-718-7717. And he'll also post this information on BluePlanetVacations.com. When do we come back? We've got the game changer for Carnival and the Love Boat cast is reuniting, and we've got a Norwegian coastal voyages save up to $3,000. This is a very, very significant savings, not only from a monetary standpoint, but who you're going with. This is Herta Gruten. That is next. Plus, we've got the uh cruise news headlines. When the Inside Travel Talk podcast, a radio show continues. Alongside Mark Faldmo, my name is Patrick Wiscombe. Thank you so much for listening. We will be right back.

Todd Carlson 14:53

Taking you to destinations around the world. The Inside Travel Talk Podcast and Radio Show is presented by Blue PlanetVacations.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.

Norwegian 2027 Plans And Private Islands

Patrick Wiscombe 16:23

This is the infamous Just Cruising segment. This is the part of the show that has made us famous around the country and hopefully around the world, but certainly here in America. Coming up in this segment of the show, we've got the cruise deal of the week. And we've got a special deal for our listeners on Hertogruten. This is a promotion that you'll only hear on this show. We'll get to that here in just a second, but let's get to the cruise news headlines and the cruise news. Mark, where do you want to start here? Should we go Norwegian? Yeah, let's start there. Let's go with Norwegian. Yeah, okay. So Norwegian cruise line will be featuring some special things for the 2027 season. Didn't they just announce this? Was it earlier this week or late last week? I don't remember.

Mark Faldmo 17:11

It was late last week. It's actually their deployment for spring and summer of 2027. It's interesting how far out. I've actually seen some cruise lines already announce 2028 deployments. The best time to get in on a cruise if you're looking for price and the most amenities is to book right when the deployments are put out. So if you're looking to cruise in 2027, want to go on Norwegian, now is the time to go. What they've announced, they have over 500 voyages across their 20 ships, and they're really emphasizing the seven-day voyages and weekend departures. Some other cruise lines have gone to more of the longer cruises, but Norwegian is kind of really trying to stick more to that seven-day voyage. And also highlight their private island destinations of Great Stirrup K and Harvest K, which is in Belize.

Patrick Wiscombe 18:07

Have you seen that announcement from Norwegian? It was some massive construction going on on uh Great Stirrup Key, which is their private island. They're finally, finally, finally going to put in a pier, but they're also going to put in a uh kind of a beach club where the pool is just gonna be enormous.

Mark Faldmo 18:42

Yeah, it'll be the I think the largest swimming pool in the world, is what I heard. Something like that. It'll be a huge swimming pool. And then also a water park they're putting in at Great Stirrup Key.

Patrick Wiscombe 18:55

It's funny that you're in the middle of the ocean, literally on an island called Great Stirrup Key. How many miles off the coast are you? 60, 70 miles, something like that from off the coast of Miami? About approximately. It was so strange that when Nikki and I were there and we were vacationing, this was the month of April that we just lived on four cruises back to back to back to back. That the last day before we came home, we were sitting on the beach and you could hear construction like big heavy equipment. And it was kind of funny to like we're in the middle of the ocean and we're hearing construction going on. It was just kind of funny.

Mark Faldmo 19:33

Another thing that Norwegian announced is they're really trying to incorporate more overnights. Oh, in this deployment, they'll visit over 150 ports across 59 countries, and in that they'll have 170 overnight stays in destinations like Istanbul and Reykjavik. We talk about their Hawaii itinerary that has a couple of overnights in it, and they're also expanding to eight ships in Europe. That again will mostly do seven-day itineraries to begin and end on the weekends, which will allow guests to experience supports a little bit more.

Patrick Wiscombe 20:08

They gotta pay for those ships. They do. The Aqua, Prima, all of them. Yeah, the best time, period, across the board, no last-minute cruise deals, get on the list to be notified when these new deployments from all of the cruise companies, that is the best time to book your cruise. Period. It's not even close. It definitely is. A game changer for Carnival. This is their is this celebration key? This is celebration key. This could be very, very interesting.

Mark Faldmo 20:40

This is a new private beach destination for

Carnival Celebration Key Opens

Mark Faldmo 20:43

Carnival. And Carnival really hasn't been into the private island thing, or you know, they've they've kind of lagged behind other cruise lines. And so this is a beach destination. It's on Grand Bahama Island.

Patrick Wiscombe 20:56

Which I thought was interesting because it's not uh technically, it's not a private island.

Mark Faldmo 21:01

No, it's not. It's a and they're terming it as a private beach destination. So Carnival has invested $600 million in phase one of this new project. I mean, it's on 68 acres of land on the south side of Grand Bahama. It has freshwater lagoons, family areas, adult areas, 10-story water slide, and it's shaped like a sand castle. So they've really put a lot of thought into this. And eventually they're going to expand it at an additional 154 acres. And the pier will have capacity for two cruise ships at a time.

Patrick Wiscombe 21:39

It's open now, right? I think it is. It is, yeah. It opened about 10 days ago. Okay, that's what I thought. The Love Boat. If you're a fan of the uh the 70s TV show The Love Boat, the cast is gonna reunite on a themed cruise aboard Regal

Love Boat Cast Reunion Cruise

Patrick Wiscombe 21:56

Princess. What are the details? And how can people book that? Probably through you.

Mark Faldmo 22:00

Yeah, they can book it through me. And also, per our earlier conversation, the Love Boat ran from 1977 to 1987. Okay, so I'm not crazy. It wasn't crazy to think early 80s. Yeah. Okay, all right. So this Love Boat Reunion Cruise, they just announced it and it's for November 16th of this year. So just a few months away. And it sails from Galveston. It will have several of the original cast members, kind of the main Highlight will be Cynthia Twos, who was Julie McCoy, the cruise director, and the other kind of headlining was not a regular person on the love boat, but Sharo. Um will wait, she's still alive. She is, I guess. Yep. And so she'll be the main one, but other characters will be on there. Vicky Stubing, Gopher will be on there, Isaac will be on there. Oh man, I loved Isaac. He was hilarious. And so it's a seven-day cruise again from Galveston, November 16th. For being a specialty cruise like this, the prices are pretty good. An inside cabin starts at $608, and a balcony cabin starts at $839. Oh wow. Its ports are Cozumel with an overnight, so two full days in Cozumel and then Roatan Island with three days at sea.

Patrick Wiscombe 23:19

Gavin McLeod will not be making an appearance.

Mark Faldmo 23:22

He will not, unfortunately.

Patrick Wiscombe 23:23

No. That's too bad.

Mark Faldmo 23:25

I have been on four cruises with the cast of the love boat, and they're pretty fun to do. Wait, hold on. You've seen the cast that many times? All of the inaugural cruises, they invite a lot of the cast back. So I've seen a lot of performances and different things that the the cast does. Nowadays it's more of a meet and greet because they're all getting fairly old, but you know, but they it's fun to see those. And that's one thing I like about Princess Cruises. They always on the TV have the love boat channel that just plays the love boat episodes.

Patrick Wiscombe 23:57

When they leave the port, they always play the love boat theme on the uh ship's horn.

Mark Faldmo 24:02

Ship's horn, yeah, which is their ship horn.

Patrick Wiscombe 24:04

Yeah. Cruise deal of the week. If you want to save significant money with Hertogruten, we'll make this the cruise deal of the week. What details

Hurtigruten Norway Savings And Northern Lights

Patrick Wiscombe 24:15

do we have? I'm assuming it's Norway. Yeah, it's Norway.

Mark Faldmo 24:18

And you know, we've talked about Herta Gruten in the past. I think it's a great product, a great way to explore coastal Norway. And this is one of the companies I met with a few weeks ago and we're talking about GTM, the global travel marketplace. I've known about them, but I had a really good chat with one of the vice presidents there at Hertagruten. Just made me more excited for this product. And I've actually had a couple of requests for Hertagruten. Hertagruten actually has two different products. One is their original voyage, which is actually used for locals and mail. So they're contracted by the government to do a 12-day round trip that delivers mail, and locals can use it as a ferry. And they also have a signature voyage, which is more like a cruise, but it still has lots of little stops on there. And right now, Hertha Gruten is offering up to $3,000 off their original Coastal Express. So this is the one that operates like a ferry kind of. It's a 12-day round trip from Bergen. Bergen's beautiful. And you know, it does stop at places in the middle of the night, but what you miss on the way up, you get on the way back during daytime hours. And so you do get to see all of that. It has 34 different ports in 12 days. Whoa. They run shore excursions where you might get off at one port but get on the ship in another port. Because some of the stops are as short as 10 minutes. Oh, really? To as long as four hours, but they have a really good program to get you out to see the different things and back to connect with the ship. This deal is up to $3,000 on select sailings. Uh, most of these are fall sailings, so it'd be a good time if the northern lights are on your bucket list to do this Norwegian coastal voyage with Hertrakruten.

Patrick Wiscombe 26:10

Take advantage of the cruise deal of the week. That is absolutely worth doing. 888-718-7717.

How To Book And Final Takeaways

Patrick Wiscombe 26:19

888-718-7717 is how you get a hold of Mark and his company. You can also get their contact information on Blue PlanetVacations.com. You can listen to this show again tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. Mountain Time, right here on this radio station and around the country. Plus, you can stream, download, and subscribe to the podcast at Insidetraveltalk.com or on all of the major podcast platforms. When you go to the website inside travel talk.com, we've got links to all of those podcast platforms. Well, now it's your turn to get out and explore 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 just a sincere thank you for listening. Mark, have a good week. You too, Patrick. We'll talk to you again next Saturday and Sunday.

Todd Carlson 27:22

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