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You know that moment when travel stops being a checklist and turns into a story you can’t wait to tell? That’s what happens when you cross the International Date Line to Fiji and suddenly Saturday vanishes. We break down exactly how Mark’s flights created the “case of the missing Saturday,” why he felt almost no jet lag, and how you can plan your own Fiji arrival so day one feels like vacation instead of recovery.
From there, we get practical about Fiji vacation planning for families. We talk through the two main island chains travelers ask about most, the Mamanuca Islands versus the Yasawa Islands, and what the ferry and boat transfers are really like once you land. If you’ve ever wondered whether a smaller island resort can work with kids, we share a standout option: Likuri Island Resort. The details are what make it special, including a kids club built around Fijian culture and outdoor activities like hermit crab races and coral and mangrove planting rather than screens.
We also hit the week’s travel headlines and deals: American Airlines testing automated holds for tight connections, the renewed push to modernize US air traffic control, Southwest making moves that could expand international flying, and a Universal Epic Universe package perk. Finally, we lay out a Cancun deal roundup with five-star and all-inclusive resort pricing that makes a fall escape feel doable again.
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Thank you for taking the time to listen to the show. There are literally thousands of podcasts from which you can choose, yet you listened to this show.
The entire purpose of this podcast is to help people plan and book their next vacation or give listeners ideas of where they might consider going on vacation next. Our goal is to help our listeners live their lives deliberately and intentionally. You only get one shot at life so you might as well make it count. Make memories with those that matter most to you.
TAKE ACTION: Quit talking about going on vacation, just do it. If you want more information about any of the destinations we discussed during the show, or have your own custom vacation in mind, I can help you. Please call, text, or email me.
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.
The great Faldino is back from Fiji. Welcome to the Inside Travel Talk Podcast, a radio show. My name is Patrick Wiscombe. Mark is back from Fiji. He's gonna give us all of the details about his travels to and from the island. And he has a mystery, the case of the missing Saturday. We'll explain in just a few minutes. If you are brand new to the show, the entire purpose of this show is to help you plan and book your next vacation or just give you ideas of where you want to vacation next. And we are presented, proudly presented, by Blue PlanetVacations.com. And thank you for taking the time to stop and listen. Coming up on today's show, we've got, of course, the travel news headlines and we've got the destination of the week, which is predictably since he just got back there. Fiji, welcome home. It's good to see you, even though we were broadcasting quite literally half a world away.
Mark Faldmo
Yeah, last week from Fiji, and our conversation actually fueled a couple of caller questions. So we're gonna answer those today about
But before we do, we always start with the travel news headlines. And I thought this headline was kind of interesting, Mark, that American Airlines wants to hold your connecting flight. I like this idea.
Mark Faldmo
I like this idea too. All airlines kind of have this policy where if there's tight connections, they will hold flights for people. But what American Airlines has done is automated this process. Previously, it's been a gate agent at the gate you're arriving on that says we have passengers hold this. But airlines really have not automated this. And so American has introduced this new technology. They've tested it out at their hub in Dallas that will identify passengers on flights that are at risk of missing their connection flight, and it will automatically send a message to the gate agents of those flights and propose a short hold to allow travelers on this flight and that flight to make the connection. I like this idea. Usually it's been done manually, and I've shown up the gates before where they said we didn't get the message. Oh boy. Even though other people said they were gonna notify the gate. It makes that story of we didn't get the message a little bit harder to happen. As long as they are looking at their messages like they should be. They should know that there are flights with tight connection.
Patrick Wiscombe
Hopefully this will catch on.
Mark Faldmo
Yes. There's been this technology out there. I don't know why it's taken so long for airlines to adapt to some of these things.
The White House is proposing an overhaul of the U.S. air traffic control system. It feels like for our entire lifetime, they've been talking about this, but I think it really got traction. But a couple weeks ago, where pilots were flying blind, they literally have radio transmissions of air traffic control center saying, Hey, we're flying dark here, just stay at the elevation that you are and continue flying the way you are. That is absolutely terrifying to me.
Mark Faldmo
Yeah, yeah, it is. Most airports still have radar systems from the 1970s in operation, which is just crazy to me. One of the suggestions in this proposal is to put in fiber for the communication. And a lot of businesses, even homes, have been running on fiber for 10 years plus now. And so, you know, including this house. I do hope it happens so that we get a more modern system.
Patrick Wiscombe
I really think it's going to get done this time. Truly. For the first time in our lives, I actually have a little bit of faith that this will actually get done. Yep. American
Airlines has a 5,000 mile one-way promotion. What are the details on this?
Mark Faldmo
This is actually for redeeming advantage miles. They call it a million seat sale. If you book through May 28th, so you just have four days on this left and travel between August 1st and September 30th. You can find one-way prices using advantage miles for as low as 5,000 miles each direction. Okay. You get a round trip for 10,000 miles, where normally those are between 25 and 50,000 miles.
Patrick Wiscombe
You have American Airlines miles, do you not? I do. Okay.
Mark Faldmo
Are you going to take advantage of this?
Patrick Wiscombe
Yeah, I was going to say.
Mark Faldmo
Yeah, I should look into this. Yeah, I have about 250,000 American miles right now. I haven't used them in forever, but if I can get 5,000 miles, that's almost like not redeeming them and getting a ticket. That's such a low redemption rate.
case of the missing Saturday. Let's dive in depth into Fiji. Tell us how you got there and how you came home.
Mark Faldmo
The missing Saturday, just interesting because of the international dateline and also where Fiji lies in relation to the international dateline. The actual international dateline does run through Fiji. So we took off Friday night and landed Sunday morning. So we completely missed Saturday. We never saw Saturday. And then coming home, five minutes after you take off, you're already in the next day or in the previous day. So we left at 9 40 p.m. on Saturday, and we walked into our house at 8 40 p.m. on Saturday with how that works. So we walked into our house an hour before we left Fiji. So very interesting with the international dateline and how that works.
Patrick Wiscombe
You basically had a 48-hour Saturday.
Mark Faldmo
48 hour Saturday. Yep. Was that kind of weird? How jet lagged were you? Yeah, not jet lagged. And that kind of actually goes into our the caller's question that we're gonna get to in just a minute. Okay. That's one thing that's nice about Fiji. You leave just before midnight from Los Angeles, and then you arrive at 7 a.m. So as long as you can sleep on that 10-hour flight, you arrive perfect for the day. And then coming home again, like I said, we left at 9 40 p.m. and actually arrived home at 8 40 p.m. on the same day, but you're right about bedtime. And so you don't have the weird time zones, and you do have the 10-hour flight to sleep on. I've really not experienced jet lag.
Patrick Wiscombe
Well, let's get to the destination of the week. We promised that we would talk about Fiji, and this was a was this a caller or a tech? This is a caller, Riley. This was a caller, yes. Okay, so Riley had some questions about our conversation last week during the May 17th show. That Riley wants to take the family, and he is asking where to stay on one of the islands.
had lots of kids on our flight. As I said, with what time the flight leaves and arrives, it's really good for kids because they do have to put up with the long flight. But if they sleep that whole flight, the kids don't get jet lagged either. We've talked about the smaller islands in Fiji, and he wants to take his family to one of those smaller islands and asks, is that good for a family to do? I would say yes, it is. In Fiji, there are kind of two island chains off of the main island. One is the Mamanuku Islands, which we've talked about before. Those are the easier islands to get to. The others are the Yasawa Islands, which do take a little bit more coordination to get to because they are further away. How you'd get to those islands is you land in Fiji, like I said, about 7 a.m. on Fiji Airways, and then you're transferred over to the ferry terminal where a boat will take you to the Mamanuku Islands. And depending on which island you're at, that transfer is anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours. You can also take a private boat if you want that'll take you right to the island. The regular running ferry does stop at four or five islands along the way. So depending on where you're at, you may have to wait a little bit longer to get to your resort. The first time I did that was I'd say it's magical. Oh yeah. You're in this new tropical destination, you're on a boat going to a hotel in an island. And for the kids, I think they would be fascinated by that. The boat ride alone, I think, would be fantastic. I was kind of like a kid when I did it because I was just so fascinated with how everything worked and the scenery and all of that. These resorts are generally smaller. And you go to these islands and they generally have anywhere from 20 to 30 units. So they're very small. I want to talk about one that I learned about this last week when I was in Fiji.
It's called the Lakuri Island Resort. This one is not in the Mamanuka or Yasawa Islands, it's just an island off of the main coast. But getting there, I think, is kind of what makes the trip. So you drive on a transfer about 30 minutes or so from the airport. Okay, so you go from the airport on a road to a river. On a road to a river, where you get on a boat and you spend about 40 minutes going downriver. So kind of like the jungle cruise at Disney. And then once you reach the ocean, you have about 15 to 20 minutes to get out to this island called La Curie Island Resort. This resort has 15 units. Oh, small. It is designed for families. A couple of their units only allow two people, but then they have family units that hold four or six. And one thing that intrigued me is the kids' club. The kids' clubs in Fiji are different than any other hotels. There's no electronics, they don't sit them in front of a TV. They actually immerse them in the Fijian culture. They have hermit crab races where everyone goes and collects a hermit crab and then they have a race. They have kava ceremonies for the children to teach them that culture. Now they don't use real kava. They do it with chocolate milk for the uh children. And then they do things like coral planting and mangrove planting. They kind of teach the kids about the environment, the importance of mangroves and coral. And they actually go out on the reefs with coral they've planted, and then they have a a diver that goes and actually plants the the coral in the area. Oh, how cool. So even as adults, I would love to do all of those, you know, all of those things. So it's like kids' club, I want to do this. Yes, yep. So so there are lots of places like this in Fiji tailored towards families. But as adults, you can go to these places or other places that don't cater to families and children and get these experiences. The one thing I liked about this the Curry Island, I've been looking at its rates, and it ranges from 60 to $120 per night. Oh, that's very reasonable. So it's very reasonable. No, they do have a mandatory dining package that you have to purchase. You can either purchase it there or pre-purchase it. So adults are $125 per person per day, and children are $65 per person per day.
Patrick Wiscombe
Well, you're gonna spend that anyway going to a restaurant.
Mark Faldmo
Yeah, it's very affordable. The professional reviews give it a three-star review, but looking at it, it's a very nice resort.
Patrick Wiscombe
It sure is.
Mark Faldmo
I'm looking at it right now. All of the user-generated reviews, I think it's a 4.7 on strip advisor. So it gets very good customer reviews. These units have air conditioning. I know I was talking to a few other hotels and they say we underpromise and overdeliver. We're only a three-star, but that's because our rooms don't have air conditioning, just because of where they were located isolated and you know, to get the generators, everything to do the air conditioning, they just couldn't do it. But as long as the breeze is blowing, just open up your window and you don't need an air conditioner. Now I don't like the heat and humidity, but I've not had that problem as much in Fiji. Oh, really? I stayed in some bungalows on one of these
You and I like things pretty cool. Yes. And especially uh air conditioning. Sometimes it's like, okay, I don't want to feel the humidity. Let me just dry out for a second.
unknown
Yeah.
Patrick Wiscombe
What'd you say? $120 a night, and then the mandatory food package.
Mark Faldmo
Food package.
Patrick Wiscombe
Okay. All right. What other activities, if any, can you do there? Lacouri. By the way, in case you're wondering how to spell Lakori, it's L-I-K-U-R-I, Lakori Island Resort.
Mark Faldmo
Yeah. There are interesting things. A lot of these private islands actually have another island attached to them. So at this particular place, you can
get an island for the day. It's $250. They take you there by boat, leave you with a radio, and you just call them when you want to come back. They drop you off with beach umbrellas, a lunch, and you can just have the beach for the day that you want. They also have an optional where they'll set up a tent and you can sleep on the island. Oh my goodness. If you want to. So I would do that in a minute. Yeah, there's lots of interesting things and fun things to do in Fiji.
Patrick Wiscombe
Oh, that sounds amazing. You loved it there, right? Well, you always love it when you go there. Yes, I do. Yeah. If you are interested in going to Fiji, and I still am, Lakore Island Resort, that is a, you know, it's not the only option, but it's a really good starting place. Call Mark in his office. Just get the conversation started. No obligation, of course. 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. And he will also post this on BluePlanetVacations.com. When we come back, we're talking Cancun. Got a very island, tropical feel to this week's show. That is next with the Inside Travel Talk Podcast. A radio show continues, alongside my very tan friend, Mark Foldville. My name is Patrick Wiscombe. Thank you so much for listening. We will be right back. Give us about 90 seconds.
Todd Carlson
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. 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. 801-649-30700. And check out the podcast at InsightTravel Talk.com. Here's Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.
Patrick Wiscombe
Welcome back to the Insight Travel Talk Podcast Radio Show. Alongside Mark Faldmo, my name is Patrick Wiscombe. Thank you
so much for allowing us to be part of your weekend, whether you're listening to us live on the radio on Saturday and Sunday, or you're just podcasting us a little bit later. Which, by the way, if you want to listen to the show again, and who wouldn't, you can go to insight travel talk.com and you can stream the show from the website. You don't even have to be a podcast subscriber. But if you are a podcaster and you want to receive the show automatically, we are on all of the major podcast platforms. And you can get all the links at insight travel talk.com that will take you to all of the podcast platforms. Coming up in this segment, always in segment number two, is the hot travel deal of the week. This week we're going to Cancun, a very tropical theme so far. Last segment we were in Fiji. This week we're going to Cancun. But let's first get to the travel news headlines. Southwest Airlines has filed for approval to possibly start flying internationally. That's a big development for Southwest.
Yeah, that is. And you know, the airline is making lots of changes. You know, they've changed their seating, changed their bag policy. So it kind of makes sense that they are looking into these options. Now, Southwest has not announced anything. They simply made a filing to the DOT because they have streamlined the regulatory process, making it easier for airlines to apply for these routes and operate these routes. So they've applied for this to countries that are part of the open skies agreement with the US, which is an agreement where any airline can fly anywhere, basically. And so this could include Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. It'll be interesting to see if Southwest does decide to start operating international flights, other than what they currently operate to Mexico.
Patrick Wiscombe
It was two or three weeks ago that we were talking about four or five out of the top ten destinations worldwide, included theme
parks. Getting to that point, Universal Epic Universe opened this week. May 22nd is when they opened. I can't even imagine what complete chaos that park was. We've been talking about this for over a year.
Mark Faldmo
Yeah, and it's had a pretty big buildup. It's a park that I hope to visit soon. But it's pretty interesting because the Epic Universe is not near the other Universal Parks. It's not part of that main campus. Oh, I thought it was. No, it's actually four miles away. They do offer uh complementary transfers between the Universal Hotels and Universal Parks to Epic Universe. It's about a 15-minute transfer over to that park. They also do have a hotel that is at Epic Universe as well. It's open to a lot of fanfare. It's the biggest of Universal's parks there in Florida, and we have a special deal for that. This is book Epic Universe package, Orlando package by June 26th, and you'll receive $100 off any three plus day complete package, which is the theme park, hotel, and park tickets. I thought that you'd have to open up the wallet pretty wide. Yeah, you probably still do, but they do they do want to get a little perk for people coming, and it also gives a lot of promotion to the park.
Patrick Wiscombe
Universal Studios, Universal Parks, I really like. In some ways, I almost like them better than Disney parks. It's just a little bit different theme. Of course, I like movies and uh going to the Backlot Tour. I guess I'm speaking specifically about Universal Studios in Hollywood. That was terrific. I love that.
Mark Faldmo
I remember when I was a kid doing the tram tour. When Jobs breaks out of that water, the lady in front of me nearly jumped off the bus and ran the other way. I remember that as an eight-year-old. She was so terrified of that.
Patrick Wiscombe
You look at how dumb that that mechanical shark looks now. And you're just like, Really? Really? That's all it was? All right, let's get to the hot travel deal of the week. We're a little bit short on time because we went extra long on Fiji since you were there all of last week. We're talking
Cancun, what also one of your favorite places to go.
Mark Faldmo
It is, yeah. And there's some really good deals to Cancun right now. First of all, to anywhere in Mexico, we have a $250 off for packages of five nights or longer. Wow. But where this really comes in, book by May 29th, you can get five-star Cancun for under $1,000. Wow. This was a September 3rd departure date. Uh, you can stay at the Catalonia Yucatan Beach Resort, which is a five-star. So this includes round trip airfare from Salt Lake City, Five Nights Hotel, and transfers to and from the hotel and airport.
Patrick Wiscombe
For less than about a thousand dollars a person. Wow.
Mark Faldmo
$919 per person.
Patrick Wiscombe
And you get to stay at a five-star resort. And you love these places.
Mark Faldmo
Yeah, and this, and then one of my favorites is the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Maya. Yes. Um, this is only uh it's a four and a half star. It's I it's still a five-star in my mind, but professionally rated it's a four and a half star for $9.99. And then if you go to both Margarita Island Reserve and El Dorado Seaside Palms, both amazing five-star resorts, $12.19 per person for each of those. And that's about a five to six hundred dollar per person difference than it was a few weeks ago.
Patrick Wiscombe
Wow.
Mark Faldmo
So they need to fill some rooms. They are, you know, as we talked about, they're softening in travel right now. So there's some really good deals. So for that fall time frame, September 3rd for this, but other fall dates are similar in price.
Patrick Wiscombe
Oh, take advantage of that. That's a good deal. I might even book that one, Mark. Yes.
Mark Faldmo
It's worth it.
Patrick Wiscombe
You know, the Hyatt Ziva, that's interesting to me. Because you know that I'm a Hyatt fan. You're a Marriott guy. Well, I'm also a Married guy. But that Hyatt Ziva resort is beautiful. Yes. I don't know why I pronounced it that way, but it is very, very nice. Take advantage of that deal. September 3rd departure. Is that what you said? September 3rd. Okay. Take advantage of it. Call Mark in his office during the break. Just get the conversation started. 888 718-7717-888-718-7717. And you will also post this on Blue Planet Vacations.com, correct?
Mark Faldmo
That's correct. It is up there now.
Patrick Wiscombe
Oh, it is. Okay. When we come back, it is time for the infamous Just Cruising segment, where it's only about cruise news and it's only about cruise promotions.
That is next when the Inside Travel Talk podcast or radio show continues. Alongside Mark Faldmo, my name is Patrick Wiscombe. Thank you so much for listening. We will be back in about two minutes.
Todd Carlson
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 Inside Travel Talk.com. We'll be right back.
