Show Open And What’s 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 InsideTravel Talk.com. And now, here are your hosts, Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.

Patrick Wiscombe 0:52

Welcome to the weekend. It is the Inside Travel Talk Podcast, a radio show. Hello there. I'm Patrick Wiscombe alongside Mark Faldmo. And if you are brand new to this show, we're going to help you plan and book your next vacation or just give you ideas of where you may want to 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. And coming up on today's show, we are going to be talking about picking your own seat on Southwest Airlines. After how many years, Mark? They've never done this before that I can recall.

Mark Faldmo 1:39

Nope, it's um just wherever, whenever they started, they've always had that open seat policy.

Patrick Wiscombe 1:46

No more. We'll tell you how you can take advantage of that. We've also got advanced reservations for the USS Arizona Memorial, which is in Pearl Harbor. We've got news regarding ticket sales being suspended. There's a little bit more to that story. We'll give you the details. This week we're headed to Cabo. We're going to do a little bit of whale watching. That will be the hot travel deal of the week. And we've got two cruise deals of the week that you'll want to stick around for. But let's get to the travel news headlines.

Southwest Adds Reserved Seat Assignments

Patrick Wiscombe 2:16

Let's start with the big headline. Mark, I think this is great news for anyone who doesn't want to crowd the gate. I'm going to say that this is probably where gate crowding started with Southwest.

Mark Faldmo 2:28

Yep, Southwest. And then they threw different measures, they kind of mitigated that where you line up in the order that you check in, basically. But now they are starting pre-reserved seat assignments. And that actually starts Tuesday. So July 29th. If you're booking a flight on that day for a flight that departs on January 27th or later, you will be able to choose seats on those flights. Wait, did you say January 27th? Yes. So reservations go on sale to choose your seats on July 29th, next Tuesday. Got it. For flights on January 27th or later. Okay, so basically six months from now, roughly. Six months. And and Southwest usually releases their schedules in six to eight month increments. So this is their regular release of their winter schedule.

Patrick Wiscombe 3:16

This will be welcome news that you can just pick your seat. Is there going to be any open seating, or is this just, hey, we're going to assign you a seat now for everyone?

Mark Faldmo 3:25

Well, everyone will assign a seat, but they do have kind of gone the way of other airlines. So they have a basic fare, which you do not get a complimentary seat until you check in or get to the gate. And then they have choice fare, which will be where you get to choose a seat, preferred, which will be seats closer to the front of the airplane. And then choice extra will be the extra leg room. So they have four different kinds of seat choices there.

Patrick Wiscombe 3:55

Such great news because it was chaotic around the gate. This is just a welcome change for anyone flying southwest.

Mark Faldmo 4:03

Unless you figure out how to game the system, like me. Hold on, how did you do it? Well, a few years ago with Southwest Vacations, kind of on a committee, there was some flight attendants, and we had them for like three months track all the empty seats on the airplane. And so we found out that the second to last row on the right side of the airplane, the middle seat, was the most likely to be empty. So that's where I would always sit. And it it it does work on occasion to get no one sitting there. Because when it starts getting full, people take all the empty seats ahead of that. And then if you're there going to the back of the plane, they always look to the right for a seat. So that's true. When you're on the on the left side of the seat, that you know, second or third row back, you're more likely to have you were more likely to have an empty seat. You know what? You're right.

Patrick Wiscombe 4:58

You always look to the right first. Yeah. So oh, how interesting. Okay, so it's not insider trading. This is inside seating. Seating. Yeah. So this is how you although although that trick is now gone.

Pearl Harbor USS Arizona Reservations Pause

Patrick Wiscombe 5:12

We do have some news about Pearl Harbor specifically for tickets for the USS Arizona Memorial, that the advanced reservations have been suspended. We've got details on that.

Mark Faldmo 5:24

Well, a few years ago, the Arizona Memorial actually had some damage due to shifting, and so it was closed for a long period of time. It's been open for several years now, but they do need to do some additional renovations, additional work on that. You used to could be able to go in 56 days in advance of when you wanted to go and reserve a time to go to the Arizona Memorial. So what they've done is suspended that reservation. They may open up 24 hours before. So if you want to go tomorrow, you could look on the site and see if it's there, or just take standby reservations as spaces available just when you're there that day. So they're not closing the memorial. They just don't know when it'll actually be open, which hours of the day. And so they're planning around that. So you now can't go in well in advance to reserve your Arizona memorial.

Patrick Wiscombe 6:17

Pearl Harbor itself is open. It's just to the USS Arizona, where you have the iconic, that white building over the platform over the viewing platform over the Arizona. Yeah, it that is special. It is. I was surprised at how alive the boat was. It was still leaking oil. I saw a little uh softball-sized drop of oil, if that's a drop, come up. And I was like, oh my word, this thing is still leaking oil. I was surprised how alive the ship was in that regard.

Mark Faldmo 6:50

It is a great place to visit.

Best US Airlines For 2025

Patrick Wiscombe 6:52

You had a list of the best domestic airlines for 2025. Who are the top airlines, domestic airlines in this particular news story?

Mark Faldmo 7:06

First of all, this is from a publication, uh The Point Sky, and they do this every year. They put out the top domestic airlines. What they look at is 30% reliability, 25% of the score is experience, 20% is cost and reach, and 25% is loyalty.

Patrick Wiscombe 7:24

When they talk about reach, are you talking about their network of where they fly?

Mark Faldmo 7:28

Correct. Yeah, so so pricing and where they fly. Okay. And so for the seventh year in a row, Delta Airlines was number one, uh, which is good for us here in the Salt Lake market, major hub for Delta. Number two was United Airlines, which is up one spot from last year. This one surprised me. Number three was Southwest Airlines, which is up two spots. And then Alaska Airlines was down two spots, came in at number four, and Hawaiian Airlines up two spots to number five. Delta, I'm glad to see there. That was no surprise. The jump that Southwest made with all of the talk and everything that's been happening. That was surprising to me.

Patrick Wiscombe 8:12

We want you to be part of the show. If you have travel-related questions while we are on the air right now, as you're listening to us, send us your travel-related questions, text them or call them to 801-649-3700, 801-649-3700.

Unique Private Tours In Rome

Patrick Wiscombe 8:30

Why do I bring that up? Well, the destination of the week, which is always in this segment, is a question that was texted to us from Marianne. In that text, she says, I want to do something unique in Rome. What are Mark's recommendations?

Mark Faldmo 8:45

There's several different ways you can do tours in Rome. I have a company I work with that I love to do. They have all local tour guides and they're all private tours. So the tours are just priced on usually like one to six people, maybe one to ten people. Um just priced for the whole tour. And so I really like these private tours because you get a little bit more one-on-one, you get a more in-depth and more localized tour. In Rome, a tour that I was looking at is called Ancient Rome, an underground experience. This is with a private tour. I mean, you can do this one for up to six people for about $600 total. Oh, wow. That's a it's a half-day tour, but it does a lot of the typical sites you would want to see in Rome, like the Forum, the Coliseum. But then it goes in to some places that not a lot of people go, you know, down into the underground, into the catacombs and some of the different parts of Rome that many tourists just don't go to.

Patrick Wiscombe 9:43

And so generally speaking, you skip all the lines too.

Mark Faldmo 9:46

You just go straight to the fronts with a lot of these, yes. And so, you know, this company, I I love working with them. I have actually they're in Rome too. I have a family going to Rome. And so I did a two-day tour in Rome for them. So they're with the tour guide the whole time, just doing different things before they go get on a cruise. And one thing I like about this is the tour guide, they're flying in actually to Rome on Christmas Day. Oh. And the tour guide knew that and said, you know, there's not a lot going on on Christmas Day. Do you want me to pick them up from the airport and take them to a private cooking class or something? Oh, wow. And so, you know, they'll just do unique things like this. And it's a really good way to see these destinations. I like touring of any way, but when you can do it with a a private guide, like that ancient Rome and Underground experience. It's like six hundred dollars. You can do that up to six people, so about a hundred dollars a person to do that, uh, which is as much as a a bus tour with 40 other people.

Patrick Wiscombe 10:49

Yeah, you might as well just do it by yourself or you know, minimal number.

Mark Faldmo 10:53

Do a uh private with a private local

Cabo Fishing Seasons And Price Drops

Mark Faldmo 10:55

guide.

Patrick Wiscombe 10:56

Let me give you out the text in the studio line right now. We're getting a text from is this Jacob? Yeah, it is. 801-649-3700, 801-649-3700 is how you get a hold of the show either during the week or while we're on the air. Jacob wants to go fishing and whale watching in Cabo, and he also wants to see Sammy Hagar at his bar. Yes. Okay, I made that part up. Patrick wants to go to uh Sammy Hagar's bar. When is the uh best time to go? Is his question.

Mark Faldmo 11:28

He had two different parts, fishing and whale watching. Fishing in Cabo, the best time to go is September through November, and whale watching is December through April. So you'll see whales starting in October. Uh the fishing does go down. Uh so when we talk about the deal, I actually looked at a mid-October date for Jacob fishing in Cabo. I've not been much for kind of that outdoors fishing thing, but I did go fishing in Cabo once. We had a company that had a fishing and golf tournament, but by day four, all of their people were fished out. So we had all these fishing boats sitting there. So I went out by myself with a boat crew. They had four lines in the water. I caught 20 Mahi Mahi in about two hours. I was so tired. And I was like, let's go back. And like, but you still have three hours left. Uh so I was like, no, let's go back. And you know, Cabo is a really good place for fishing because you know, right there at Land's End, it's is the continental shelf that gets deep. And so as the current comes in, it stirs up all the food right there, just right outside of Cabo. So a great place for fishing. Also, about Cabo is the last few months it's really dropped in prices. So what I looked at was October 15th for five nights for Jacob. So this is more in the fishing season than the well-watching season, but at a four-star at the Vela Dell Palmer is $999 a person. And that includes airfare, right? Yeah, that's airfare. Um, that was on United Airlines and the five nights hotel and transfers. And that also does include that standing promotion we've been talking about, up to $200 off per reservation. Okay, and this includes the $200 off, correct? This includes the $200 off, correct. Okay. Yeah, and so you know, but overall, this is about $300 lower than what we've seen the same thing in Cabo previously. Oh, yeah. Yep. And then, you know, jumping up to five-star hotels, the the Ryu Palace Cabo is $1279. Probably my pick is the Grand Fiesta Americana, which is $16.89 per person. That one is kind of up on a cliff and the hotel terraces down to the beach. I love the views from there. I just remember during whale season, sitting in my room, I could just look out and watch the whales just right out there from that Grand Fiesta Americana. Those are all three really good choices in Cabo.

Patrick Wiscombe 14:18

Take advantage of those offers. Jacob, if you haven't booked it already, call Mark in his office during the break or when you get a second. No obligation. 888-718-7717-888-718-7717. And also take advantage, Mary Ann, about the uh private tours in Rome. You won't be disappointed. 888-718-7717. When we come back, it is the segment of the show that we are famous for. We just simply call it the infamous just cruising segment, where it's only about the cruise news and it's only about cruise deals. That is next. When the Inside Travel Talk Podcast or radio show continues, alongside Mark Faldmo, I am Patrick Wiscombe. Thank you so much for listening. We will be right back.

Todd Carlson 15:11

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 Inside 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 Inside Travel Talk.com. Here's Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.

Patrick Wiscombe 16:32

Coming up in this segment of the Inside Travel Talk podcast, a radio show, we will be talking about camping and kayaking

Cruise Segment Starts With New Ships

Patrick Wiscombe 16:41

in Antarctica. What has that got to do with cruising? Because HX is offering it. And I saw this headline that Margaritaville at sea has details on their new flagship. So you and I were on Margaritaville at sea. What was it? It was the um Paradise. Paradise. And then they came out with a new flagship called the Islander, if I've got that correct. That's correct. And then so these are details on their new flagship. I don't know when it comes out. In fact, let's start there. What is the name of their new flagship and what details do we have?

Mark Faldmo 17:18

Their new ship is going to be the Margaritaville Beach Comer. It'll be a refurbished ship. It was formerly the Costa Fortuna, which is a 100,000 gross ton ship. Oh, bitch! Yeah, holds about 2,700 passengers. Right now, we just know the name of it. We don't know where it's gonna sail or what it's going to do. But it will have many of the iconic Margaritaville venues like five o'clock somewhere bar, Cheeseburger in Paradise. There we go. Which is awesome. License to chill nightclub. So I'm interested to see where that ship is going to sail. HX, refresh my memory. Isn't that the more expedition portion of the company? So it's Expedition Cruising. HX is now its own company. It used to be Hertagruten,

Antarctica Camping And Kayaking Upgrades

Mark Faldmo 18:07

and they are now two fully separate companies. They have some really interesting shore excursion options in their Antarctica season. They are increasing their kayaking capacity by 188%, and they're doubling their camping capacity. One of the excursions you can do on Hertragruten in an Antarctica cruise is they take you ashore by Zodiac with camping equipment, and you actually spend the night on Antarctica. Oh, see that I would do in a second. Yeah, and so you know that's you know, really for the adventure, but they provide all of the equipment for that. A tent, insulated sleeping mat. So they include everything you need. They do advise if you're going to to do that, to just make sure you you are responsible for your own warm clothing. That's just a unique experience that I would love to do. Camp for a night. And they've offered this, but they've not had the capacity. It used to be on a lottery system. So you would you know put in your name and you get drawn from a hat. They still don't have enough for the whole ship to do it, but it's now not a lottery. So it's just on a first come, first serve because the ship's like 200 people and they have like 90 spots for this. So they have plenty of space for generally anyone who wants to do it.

Patrick Wiscombe 19:27

Let's get to the world's best cruise line awards for 2025. Where do you want to start? Five?

Mark Faldmo 19:34

Let's go backwards. This is from travel and

Best Cruise Lines For 2025

Mark Faldmo 19:36

leisure. They have a whole bunch of different categories, but we're just gonna take cruise line overall. Number five is Royal Caribbean. Really? There are only five. I would have thought they were up there. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Number four is Princess Cruises. You're a big fan of Princess, too. I love Princess. Number three, and this is a surprise, is Costa Cruise Line, which is an Italian cruise company owned by Carnival Corporation. Yeah, that is a little surprising. Have you ever sailed Costa? I have sailed Costa to the Norwegian fjords. Yeah. Number two is celebrity. Oh, dude. I love celebrity. And number one is Virgin Voyages. This is their first time on this list as number one. We've talked about Virgin Voyages quite a bit. I think that's a well-deserved number one spot. There are a couple surprises on this list. The first surprise was Costa. They typically don't even show up on this list. Right. They weren't in the top ten last year. So they've done quite a bit to get up there. And they're very Italian. And so that's what you know, a lot of Americans cruise on it, and it's too European for them. Number two surprise is that Norwegian didn't make the top five. That's surprising.

Patrick Wiscombe 20:58

Yeah.

Mark Faldmo 20:59

In a different part of this survey where they rated all the small ships, and even on this overall, Viking has always been on that list. So Viking for like 10 years in a row has been the number one small to mid-size cruise line, and they dropped to number three behind Crystal Cruises and Explorer Journeys.

Patrick Wiscombe 21:20

Cruise deal of the week, which is always in this segment of the show. We just simply call this the infamous just cruising segment. And during the

Fall Panama Canal Cruise Deals

Patrick Wiscombe 21:28

break, we received a text from who is this? Rachel? It is Rachel. Rachel. 801-649-3700-801-649-3700 is how you get a hold of the show when we're on the air and even when we're off the air to ask your travel-related questions. Rachel is asking, are there any good Panama Canal cruises in the fall? And the answer is yes, absolutely. Availability really isn't an issue. So it's a matter of pretty much when you want to go.

Mark Faldmo 22:01

October is the best time. It's when all the ships, all the cruise lines are sending their ships from Alaska into the Caribbean. And so there's a lot of these would be called repositioning cruises, although it is a true Panama Canal, but they are repositioning the ships. So the first one is sailing on October 11th. It's a 16-day cruise on uh Carnival cruise lines on the Carnival Spirit. It goes from Seattle to New Orleans. It has stops in Cabo San Lucas, Punta Renas, uh, which is in Costa Rica, and goes through the Panama Canal to Cartagena, Colombia, and ends in New Orleans. This one starts at $1,079 per person for an inside cabin or $19.99 for a balcony cabin. And that's 16 days, you say? 16 days. Yeah. So so that is, you know, for the inside, that's less than $100 a day. And for a balcony, it's a little bit over $100 a day. The next cruise is also a Panama Canal cruise. This is probably the one I would choose just because of the ports. It's Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale. It's also 16 days. But it visits Porto Vallarta, Watuco in Mexico, which is one of my favorite places. Yeah. Goes to Chiapas in Mexico, and then goes to Puntainas in Costa Rica, then goes to Fort Amador, which is on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal. So it has a full day there. And then the next day it goes through the Panama Canal, goes to Curacao, and then ends in Fort Lauderdale. Actually, the balcony cabin is where the deal is on this. So we'll just go with that. The balcony cabin is $19.49 per person. The inside cabin is way expensive on this. So I I didn't check that, but the balcony is actually a little bit less than that carnival cruise. So but that's the one I would choose. Again, October 27th, Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale. And the Panama Canal is a fascinating cruise itinerary. You've raved about it for years. Those places in southern Mexico, I think, are just great to visit.

Patrick Wiscombe 24:25

Rachel, I hope that answers your question. If you have follow-up questions, call Mark in his office as soon as we get off the air. But if you need to call now for whatever reason, he'll he will return your call. 888-718-7717-888-718-7717. Take advantage of those offers. Going to Rome, going to Cabo, going to go see the fishing and the whale watching. That's for

How To Book And Final Takeaways

Patrick Wiscombe 24:54

Jacob. And you can stream, download, and subscribe to the podcast at inside travel talk.com. We are on all of the major podcast platforms, and you can just go to the website inside travel talk.com to get all the links. Or just do a search for Inside Travel Talk. Well, our job is done. 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. We say this each and every week. Live your life deliberately and live your life intentionally. Don't let life push you around. Thank you so much for listening. We will talk to you again next week.

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. 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.