Welcome And What’s Ahead

Todd Carlson 0:32

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

Patrick Wiscombe 1:07

We hope you are having an absolute terrific weekend. Welcome to the Inside Travel Talk Podcast, a radio show. My name is 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, then we're going to give you some ideas of where you should consider next. And we are presented, proudly presented, by Blue Planet Vacations.com. Thank you for taking the time to stop and listen. Coming up in this episode of the show, Mark is in Los Angeles, and he is broadcasting from Los Angeles right now. He's getting ready to board Royal Caribbean's ovation of the seas. We'll also be talking about Delta introducing all new fares and products. And I think something that every American should do, D-Day. We'll talk about how to get there, and we'll also talk about three ways to cruise to Hawaii. But let's bring in the co-host of this award-nominated show.

Speaker 2 2:14

It is. It's a good show.

Mark Checks In From Los Angeles

Patrick Wiscombe 2:15

A good show. Mark is in LA right now, getting ready to board ovation of the seas. And how are things in Los Angeles this morning? Things are good in Los Angeles. Where are you staying down there?

Speaker 2 2:25

And what have you been doing for the past few days? Heather and I came down, went to some baseball games, went to a Padres game. Oh, you went to San Diego. And then we drove back up. And last night we were at the Yankees Dodgers game.

Mark Faldmo 2:40

Then in a few hours, we are headed out to board the ship, ovation of the seas. This is a celebration. It's not a new ship, but it's an invite-only event to celebrate Real Caribbean adding a second ship to the West Coast.

Patrick Wiscombe 2:54

Okay, so this is the ad that we've been running for basically six months.

Mark Faldmo 2:58

Yes. So now they have two ships doing three, four, six, and seven-day cruises from Los Angeles area.

Delta Rebrands Fares And Refunds

Patrick Wiscombe 3:07

Let's get to the travel news headlines. Delta said that they're introducing all new fares and products. New fares, I get, I guess that will include different levels of service.

Mark Faldmo 3:17

Yeah, this is interesting because there really is not a change in how they operate. They've just rebranded this. So now they have five different products. They have Delta Main, Delta Comfort, Delta First, Delta Premium Select, and Delta One.

Patrick Wiscombe 3:37

Oh boy. Okay, now I've flown Delta One. That was delightful going over to Hawaii.

Mark Faldmo 3:42

Yes. I love Delta One. Some people might hear that and say, well, what happened to basic economy? No, they are not doing away with basic economy. They've just added it as a product within Delta Main. So now you have main basic, main classic, and main extra to choose from. So main basic is what we would have called economy, basic economy, which is it's the same. You can't cancel it. It's a user to lose it ticket. No sky miles, not eligible for upgrades, and no seat assignments. And then they have main classic, which is main cabin. And then they have main extra, which if you've purchased a delta ticket, if you go right now, it just says main refundable. So it's the same products, just renamed. And then they've added the extra, that refundable category to all of those five different products. So now you'll have first classic and first extra, Delta One, Delta One Extra. So they've added fully refundable, which if you buy that extra category, it gets you extra sky miles as well. You get two extra sky miles per dollar spent. So it's a rebrand. It's a rebrand, basically. Yeah.

Patrick Wiscombe 4:57

I would say that Delta's becoming a premium airline. Is that fair to say?

Mark Faldmo 5:02

Yes, they are. And they're really trying to push people towards those higher fares, the extra fares. I still don't know if it's worth buying the refundable fares because you still get a flight credit for the future. But I guess there are some circumstances where you you would want a fully refundable ticket. And then also if you really like those upgrades where that's the tiebreaker, it might be worth it to have that tiebreaker.

Patrick Wiscombe 5:24

Sea

Sea Life Florida Comes To Legoland

Patrick Wiscombe 5:25

Life Florida welcomes its first marine animals at Legoland ahead of their June 6th opening. I don't know that I've ever heard of Sea Life Florida, but I guess it's part of Legoland.

Mark Faldmo 5:37

Yeah, it's part of a brand new section of Legoland in Florida. And Legoland is a little bit south and kind of in between Orlando and Tampa. Oh. Where Legoland is. So they've added this new uh Sea Life Florida, which opens on June 6th next week. Probably not as grand as SeaWorld has. Right. So they'll have more than 25 interactive exhibits, including Stingray Bay, rock pools, and then they have 10 underwater themed galleries. It's officially a conservation park, and so they are working to rebuild sea life and study how sea life works in different exhibits and different conditions.

Patrick Wiscombe 6:20

So this is basically SeaWorld at Legoland.

Mark Faldmo 6:23

At Legoland, correct.

Explora Journeys Plans Luxury Alaska

Patrick Wiscombe 6:25

Yeah. Explora Journeys will be scheduling its first Alaska season.

Mark Faldmo 6:31

So it's actually owned by MSC Cruise Lines. And so first, a lot of people probably have not heard about Explora Journeys. So here's a little overview of Explora. It's a luxury cruise experience. They kind of frame themselves in ultra-luxury cruise focusing on intimate immersive voyages. They're boutique-style ships. They're smaller. They really try and get that personalized service destination-wise. They don't have set itineraries, although it looks like this Alaska will be a set itinerary. Right now they only have one ship sailing. Their second ship comes out this year.

Patrick Wiscombe 7:09

Oh, is this the uh the Explora and Explora 2?

Mark Faldmo 7:13

Yes. Okay, so it's that line. And this ship will actually be the Explora 3 when it sells to Alaska. And they've also announced an Explorer 4, and it's all inclusive service. So the pricing includes dining drinks, excursions, wellness activities. So it's kind of a seamless travel experience.

Patrick Wiscombe 7:34

Okay, so what you pay, you just get everything.

Mark Faldmo 7:36

Correct. Yeah. And so they are introducing, so this is not until 2027, but they are up for sale now. And they are north and southbound Alaska cruises between Vancouver and Seward, Alaska.

Patrick Wiscombe 7:50

Have you ever been on Explora?

Mark Faldmo 7:52

I have not been on Explora. They are such a new cruise line. They've been sailing for about two years now. So I have not had the chance. I did talk to Explora Journeys this past week at a convention I was at, and they actually have pretty good prices for being in that ultra-luxury small ship category.

Patrick Wiscombe 8:11

Well, that's kind of the niche that MSC is. You and I were on World America in April, and you would think that with

[Ad] The Best Mini Golden Doodle Breeders

Patrick Wiscombe 8:44

these big gigantic ships, icon of the seas-esque size ships, that they would charge a premium, but they really don't. You will literally pay two and three times on Royal Caribbean what you'll pay on MSC. Yeah. So there's following Explorer, that is. They are following that exact same model, it sounds like.

Mark Faldmo 9:02

Yes. Yeah, they are. So I do know several people that have been on Explorer and say it's just a wonderful experience.

Patrick Wiscombe 9:10

Memorial Day was this past Monday. Always in this first segment, we have the destination of the week, which is Normandy, and of course D-Day. This will be something

(Cont.) Explora Journeys Plans Luxury Alaska

Patrick Wiscombe 9:20

that Nikki and I will be doing for sure.

Mark Faldmo 9:22

Going to visit Normandy and the landing beaches of D-Day. I think every American should visit, go to the American Cemetery. It's such a special experience to go hear those stories and see where that happened. So we're coming up on it'll be 81 years ago this week. Oh my god. So June 6th, 1944, when D-Day happened. And so I I've actually had several people this past few months that have asked about D-Day tours and how to see Normandy. This is a good time to bring up how you can get to Normandy and see that D-Day history.

Patrick Wiscombe 10:00

Referring to sports, and let me just take a slight left turn here. We always talk about must-win situations in sports. You know, game seven, it's a must-win, blah, blah, blah. When it comes to the the shaping of this wonderful planet that we are on, Normandy was a must-win for everybody. That's why it's so incredible. What's the best way to go see? I would call it a sacred site.

Mark Faldmo 10:24

Yeah. So there are kind of three ways to do this. The first is a river cruise. Most cruise lines have a really good landing beaches of Norway program from Paris. Right now, we've talked about this the last few weeks. Avalon Waterways has a free airfare to Europe on select sailings. So you could see Normandy on that. Also, many of the tour providers, and I would absolutely do this in a tour of some sort. Oh, yeah. Because you need that expert guide, that person to give the insights to the sites that you're seeing. So Globus has several tours that do that northern France D-Day area. They also have a special $799 Airfare Europe or save up to $1,000 per trip. How I would recommend doing it is doing a custom private tour. This is how I've sent several of my customers the past few months to see Normandy. What I would do is fly into Paris, spend two or three days in the Paris area, seeing the sites there, and then taking the train or arrange a private car and go up to a city called Bayou. And this is a historic town. It has an old world historic city center. It's compared to more of a village than a city. You know, it's just that kind of setting that you're in. And the reason why I say go to Bayou is because it escaped much of the destruction that surrounding cities had in World War II. So it still has its old cathedral. It's you know, it still has all of the old world charm, whereas a lot of those cities have been rebuilt after World War II. It also has UNESCO-listed tapestry that's still there from the 11th century.

Patrick Wiscombe 12:15

Oh wow.

Mark Faldmo 12:16

It's a really good launching place to go see Normandy. Actually, in the city that we've talked about, there's the Tapestry Museum, the Cathedral, the old city center, which has a mill and half timbered homes. So it's really kind of a charming little city. Oh, yeah. Um, but from there, you can take, and I have good company that I work with that takes you on private tours out to the landing beaches. And you can even choose to go in the old World War II Jeeps. So you can hop in the Jeeps and your driver guide will take you around to the landing beaches.

Patrick Wiscombe 12:50

I would do that. Not that it's authentic, but it would at least put you in the right transportation mode.

Mark Faldmo 12:55

You go see several of the landing beaches. Definitely go to the American Cemetery, which is probably my favorite site to visit in Europe. Uh it's you know just so sacred, and everything that those people fought for that they did that for us. And then other things you can do, take a day trip to uh Mont Saint-Michel, which is the during high tide, it's an island. During low tide, it's not an island. It's the if you saw a picture of it, you'd probably recognize it. It's a pretty iconic island there. And it has a pretty interesting link to World War II. It was a German outpost. And after D-Day, it was actually liberated by one soldier and two reporters. The Germans were on such a losing streak, I guess, that one soldier and two reporters walked in and basically kicked all the Germans out. They fled when the the three people walked into uh Mont Saint-Michel. Pretty interesting World War II history there. And then when you're done in Bayeux, two to four days in Bayeux, and then you can go back to Paris for a night or two and fly back. Or you could continue on and go to London if you wanted to make a whole World War II trip out of it.

Patrick Wiscombe 14:08

Oh, I would.

Mark Faldmo 14:09

Um, go to London. You can see the Churchill war rooms, lots of World War II interesting things in London to visit.

Patrick Wiscombe 14:16

That sounds spectacular. And especially coming off Memorial Day, which was last Monday or this past Monday. Yeah. Go see it. Nikki and I will be seeing it. If you have any interest in paying respects to those who came before us in a truly must-win situation. Take the time. Call Mark in his office, 888-718-7717-8884 718-7717. And our thanks to the men and women who served in World War II. We'll be back after this.

Todd Carlson 15:11

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 15:40

Welcome back to the Insight Travel Talk Podcast and radio show. Alongside my very tan friend, because he's also back from Fiji, but

Alaska Airlines Premium Long Haul Push

Patrick Wiscombe 15:50

presently in Los Angeles, ready to take off and go to Mexico. My word, you are living in the sun. Yes. Coming up in this segment of the show, it's always the hot travel deal of the week. This week we're going to Hawaii. We're going to help you save about 250 bucks on packages to get to Hawaii. But before we talk about that travel deal of the week, let's get back to the travel news headlines. Alaska Airlines is planning a new long haul experience. What are the details on that?

Mark Faldmo 16:26

When Alaska Airlines purchased Hawaiian, they had already agreed to purchase several 787 Dreamliners. And so they're just trying to figure out what to do with these 787s. They just barely launched their first long haul flight to Asia a few weeks ago. And now with the 787, they really want to go and compete with Delta, which Seattle is a Delta hub as well as Alaska.

Patrick Wiscombe 16:52

I didn't know that.

Mark Faldmo 16:53

Yeah, on these international routes. Delta actually in the Northwest merger, that was Northwest Airlines Hub. They're planning an all-new premium cabin first class on these 787s. Said it's going to be better than anything any airline offers. And so they are really wanting to compete with Delta on the international routes, and they'll have the plane to do it now.

Patrick Wiscombe 17:16

Those 787s are just unbelievable. They're beautiful plane, they're huge.

Mark Faldmo 17:20

Although looking at the comments of this, they said please put standard window shades in them. Because the 787 actually just has a touch screen that dims it and it breaks sometimes. And so some seats you can't close the window shades.

Patrick Wiscombe 17:37

So you know, I'm a window shade open kind of guy, but I didn't realize that I was kind of in the minority. I didn't realize how many people close the window shades. Even on takeoff and landing.

Mark Faldmo 17:48

Yeah, I'm definitely a window shades person open as well. Although I look out all the time.

Patrick Wiscombe 17:53

Yeah, you do. Tickets for airlines are down four percent, which is the biggest drop since last year, June of 2024.

Mark Faldmo 18:02

Third straight month of declines

Airfares Drop And Why It Matters

Mark Faldmo 18:04

and the largest decrease in the past 10 months. What this means for the vacation traveler is better airfares. Airlines really haven't started reducing their flights yet, but with more capacity, the lower the airfares are going to go. Last week we talked about Mexico. This week we're gonna talk about Hawaii. Some of those deals we talked about last week to Mexico, five-star hotels for five-night packages less than a thousand dollars a person.

Patrick Wiscombe 18:32

Yeah, that's incredible.

Mark Faldmo 18:34

A good part of that drop in the price was the airfare because airlines are just finding those destinations and really putting those airfares on sale to fill the seats.

Patrick Wiscombe 18:45

But if you've never flown, now's a good time because you're gonna save money. Yes, yeah. I'm a little bit surprised how many people still have not flown, just within my own family. To you and I, it's just common, hey, you know, let's just go jump on an airplane. But to a lot of my family members, they've never flown. And I didn't know that. I just assumed that they had.

Mark Faldmo 19:03

And that's one of the purposes of the show to help show people that travel can be affordable and get affordable ways to do it. A lot of people do think flying is expensive, and to certain destinations it can be, but there are times when you can find a great deal and go out and explore the world. Go fly. Totally worth it. Yeah, there's gonna be some really good flight specials out there.

Patrick Wiscombe 19:25

The cruise industry has reached a deal with Mexico on a is this the standard passenger fee that was fluctuating all over the place?

Mexico Cruise Passenger Fee Deal

Mark Faldmo 19:34

Yeah, Mexico wanted to charge a new per person head fee for cruise passengers. Okay. It was going to be like forty to fifty dollars per person per port that they were charging.

Patrick Wiscombe 19:48

Per port per person?

Mark Faldmo 19:50

Yeah. Yeah. And so they came to an agreement where that passenger fee is going to be five dollars. Um, and it'll gradually increase over the next few years, but won't reach that initial proposed fee. Thanks to the cruise lines for really standing up for that, because it really would have been a big burden on cruise lines that visit Mexico.

Patrick Wiscombe 20:14

Let's get to the hot travel deal of the week, which is always in this segment, and we are talking about Hawaii. There are two vacations that everyone can go on that will

Hawaii Packages And Best Island Values

Patrick Wiscombe 20:23

always be successful. Number one is Alaska, number two is Hawaii. The hot travel deal of the week is to help our listeners save up to $250 on packages to Hawaii. What are the details?

Mark Faldmo 20:35

Right now we have save up to $250. This is from anywhere in the country, but I've chosen pricing from Salt Lake City since that's where most of our listeners are listening right now. We're seeing the prices drop about $150 per person to what they were a few weeks ago. And these are all for six days, five nights, include airfare from Salt Lake City, the Five Nights Hotel. Best prices is on the big island. So fly into Kona, and that package price starts at $999 per person, and that is staying at the Royal Kona. It's a three-star hotel, but I really enjoy that hotel for the location.

Patrick Wiscombe 21:17

Yeah.

Mark Faldmo 21:17

It's walking distance to lots of shops and restaurants. One of my favorite restaurants in the area is their Great Sunsets, just a good kind of basic hotel, but in a good location, right there in Kona.

Patrick Wiscombe 21:32

Is that the hotel that's kind of on that southwest corner of the island?

Mark Faldmo 21:36

It is.

Patrick Wiscombe 21:36

Okay.

Mark Faldmo 21:37

The next best island price-wise is a Wahoo, Waikiki area, starts at $1,019 per person. And I should say these are for early September dates. So midweek travel, early September. And that starts at the Outrigger Waikiki Paradise, which is a four-star hotel, newly renovated. For those that have listened to us for a long time, it used to be the Outrigger Waikiki East Hotel. They renovated it and rebranded it. It's in a great location about two blocks off the beach. And then uh Kauai starts at $1,129 per person. And that is at the Hilton Garden Inn, Wailua Bay. It's a three and a half star hotel right on the beach, though. Very good hotel for Kauai. And then Maui starts at $1,169 per person. And that is at the Royal Kahana Hotel. Hawaii is a really good value right now compared to what it was even four weeks ago.

Patrick Wiscombe 22:41

You can't go wrong with any of those islands. Just choose where you want to go. Probably the most popular is Oahu. If you want to guarantee yourself a great vacation, there's two places to go. As I mentioned at the beginning of this segment, Alaska and Hawaii. You cannot go wrong going to any of those places. Call Mark in his office to book your vacation. No obligation. Call him in his office at 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. And he'll also put all of this information on BluePlanetVacations.com. When we come back at the bottom of the hour, we've got the infamous Just Cruising segment where it's only about the cruise news and it is only about promotions if you want to go on a cruise. That is next when the Inside Travel Talk Podcast radio show continues. Alongside Mark Faldmo, my name is Patrick Wiscombe. Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your weekend. We will be right back.

Todd Carlson 23:48

You're listening to the Inside Travel Talk Podcast and Radio Show with Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo. Presented by Blue Planet Vacations.com. America's Best Travel Advisors. Call or text the show now. 801-649-3700. That's 801-649-3700. And check out the podcast at Insight Travel Talk.com. We'll be right back.