Welcome And Show Preview

Todd Carlson 0:14

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

Patrick Wiscombe 0:49

From Phoenix, Arizona, welcome to the Inside Travel Talk Podcast, a radio show. My name is Patrick Wiscombe alongside Mark Faldmo. He is back from his travels. I am back from my travels. And can I just say how glorious Phoenix, Arizona was in March, early March, before the 100-degree temperature showed up? Awesome down there. Went to go see some spring baseball. Coming up on this show, Southwest saying goodbye to free luggage. And no, we're not making that up. That happened a little bit earlier this week. And a goodbye to carry-on luggage. Totally separate story. We'll give you the details on that coming up here in just a few minutes. But let's first get to the travel news headlines.

French Polynesia Cruise Crowds In Context

Patrick Wiscombe 1:36

I saw that French Polynesia. How many times have you been there, Mark? Been there, five or six. Okay. French Polynesia sets a new record for cruise visits last year, 2024.

Mark Faldmo 1:48

This is a record for them, but I want people to pay attention to these numbers. So in 2024, they set a record of 52,000 cruise passengers that embarked on a cruise from the island of Tahiti. And that's up 20% from 2023 and up 15% from pre-pandemic levels. And then also 62,000 passengers visited the island in transit, which is up 45% from 2023.

Patrick Wiscombe 2:19

When you say in transit, you mean literally going from one place to the other, but they stop there?

Mark Faldmo 2:24

Yes, like on a repositioning cruise or so a cruise that doesn't start or end in Tahiti. One thing that struck me was it's a record, but yet only 52,000 passengers. A port like Nassau Bahamas gets that number of cruise passengers in a week, probably. And so even with these record levels, French Polynesia is still a great place to sail. We are most likely going to be the only ship there, no matter what cruise line you decide to go on. Very rarely do ships overlap. You really get that laid back, less crowded fill when you are in French Polynesia on a cruise. And oh yeah.

Patrick Wiscombe 3:13

Speaking

Three Cost-Smart Tahiti Cruise Options

Patrick Wiscombe 3:14

of French Polynesia, Mark, what's the best way to cruise to French Polynesia?

Mark Faldmo 3:19

There are three cruise lines that are based there pretty much year-round. Windstar cruise line, which is uh one of the tall sailing ships that does French Polynesia. There's Paul Gogon cruise line, which is a small ship luxury cruise line. And then there's Aranui that we've talked about, which is more of a unique, it's half container ship and half cruise ship. And you've been on that. I've been on the Aranui. I have not been on WindStar or Paul Gogon. The best way, I think, if you want to see French Polynesia, is by a repositioning cruise or a type of specialty cruise that visits there but doesn't begin or end there. That'll help keep the expenses low. I did pick out three different itineraries that I think are a great way to see Tahiti and French Polynesia. Let's go option number one. This is a repositioning type cruise, and this is pretty close in. It goes from Hawaii to Papiete in uh French Polynesia. It's on Norwegian cruise line. It leaves May 12th of this year. They do this also in November, and then they do it again in 2026, May and November.

Patrick Wiscombe 4:32

Did you say May 12th or May 21st?

Mark Faldmo 4:35

May May 21st. Oh, okay. Yep. So this is a uh 14-day cruise. It starts in Papiete, goes to Morea, Rayatea, Bora Bora with an overnight in Bora Bora, and then it cruises up to Hawaii, goes to Hilo, Maui, Kauai, and then ends in Honolulu. Oh, wow. So it's it's a great way to kind of see that specific region, but particularly Tahiti. Now, this is a 14-day cruise. It starts at $1,640 per person for an inside cabin and for a balcony cabin, $2575 per person, which for a 14-day cruise, those are pretty good rates. Oh yeah. The next cruise that I found is this fall. This is one that I would jump on and do in a heartbeat if I had the time. It's a 20-day cruise, and this one sails from Honolulu down to French Polynesia. I'll go over the full Italian a minute, and then hits New Zealand and ends in Sydney, Australia. Oh wow. So this is on Celebrity Cruise Line on the Celebrity Solstice, leaves October 2nd. Again, leaves Honolulu, visits uh Papiete, Rayateia in French Polynesia, Morea, and then three ports, including Auckland in New Zealand, ending in Sydney. Wow. This yeah, it's amazing itinerary. So this 20-day cruise, an inside cabin starts at $23.99 per person, a balcony at $31.34 per person.

Patrick Wiscombe 6:07

Okay, so inside cabin about $100 a day and just a little bit more than that for a balcony. But you mentioned there are three ways. What's the third way?

Mark Faldmo 6:16

Now, this way is for people that don't like to fly. So you actually can get to French Polynesia without flying or without flying very long. So Princess Cruises has a 32-day cruise that is round trip Los Angeles. I'm curious about this one. This one leaves October 15th this fall, leaves from Los Angeles, cruises down, hits Kauai and Honolulu in Hawaii, then cruises to Pago Pago in Samoa, Apea, Samoa, then hits Fiji, has a couple ports in Fiji, and then across to Papiete and Morea in French Polynesia before returning to Los Angeles. How many sea days is that one? So that has lots of sea days. It has of the 32 days, it probably has. Let me just count them up quickly. Looks like there's about 16 C days. So literally half the cruise is just sea days. Half the cruise is just sea days.

Patrick Wiscombe 7:20

See, I love sea days. Absolutely love them.

Mark Faldmo 7:23

Yeah. I but I mean you do get to see fantastic parts of the world.

Patrick Wiscombe 7:27

Oh my goodness. You know, there's one thing that I just can't erase from my brain that I just never get tired of. And that's either being up on the aft of the ship or just sitting on a balcony or just being outside in general and just watching the horizon, the sunrise, the sunset. I just never get tired of it. Ever. Yeah. And that's why I love sea days so much.

Mark Faldmo 7:52

I love being at sea. This may be a little bit too long for me. The longest segment has eight sea days in a row. Okay, that's a lot. So, and that's that last from Tahiti back to Los Angeles that has those those long days at sea. Price-wise, that's 32 days, 2788 per person for an inside cabin, or 5847 for a balcony. What ship is that on? The Sapphire Princess on Princess Cruises.

Patrick Wiscombe 8:19

I'm getting to the point in life where I just want to live on cruise ships.

Mark Faldmo 8:23

Yes.

Patrick Wiscombe 8:23

And just sail the world. We can do the radio show via Starlink. I can work from wherever. This sounds I might be calling you after the show.

Best Wildlife Trips Around The World

Patrick Wiscombe 8:31

During this past week, you got a text from Susan asking the question: what are the best wildlife watching destinations in the world? So a big question, what would you say?

Mark Faldmo 8:44

Well, there's several places for wildlife viewing, and it also depends on the type of wildlife viewing that you want to do. The five places that come to mind right away are Kenya for safaris. One of the most wonderful trips I've ever taken was to Kenya to see that. The Galapagos Islands, where you get to see a lot of the rare wildlife. I have a really good contact, and every time I talk to them about the Galapagos Islands, I just go crazy. Want to go there. Alaska, again, for different types of wildlife. You have the whales, the bears, the moose, the elk. Another one is the Okavongo Delta in Botswana, similar to Kenya, but it's less visited. And so you get a little bit more intimate experience when you do that. And then Costa Rica. Costa Rica is going to be our travel deal of the week. So we will talk about that next segment a little bit more. The monkeys, the crocodiles, the two cams, the macaws, just everything you see in that area of the world is quite interesting and amazing. So if you're looking for wildlife watching destinations, those would be my top five.

Patrick Wiscombe 9:57

You realize that we could do an entire segment on each one of those. Kenya, Galapagos Islands, which I do want to go visit. Well, actually, all of them. Susan, if you have follow-up questions, just call Mark in his office. Or just call him during the break. He will answer the phone. 888-718-7717-888. Just get the conversation started. Man, you came out swinging hard today with uh the infamous just cruising segment. I didn't know we were going to go that heavy. Take advantage of those offers from Mark, the NCL Repositioning Cruise, Francis Round Trip Cruise Los Angeles, and Honolulu to Sydney. Awesome. You will never be disappointed when you go on vacation. Call him in his office, 888-718-7717, or you can see all of this on BluePlanetVacations.com. When we come back, we've got the hot travel deal of the week, as Mark mentioned, and we've got additional travel news headlines, and you can pick up your marriage license right at the airport. We'll tell you where. That is next. When the Inside Travel Talk Podcast or radio show continues, alongside Mark Faldmo, my name is Patrick Whiskb. Thank you so much for listening. We will be right back.

Todd Carlson 11:18

Helping you get out and see the world. You're listening to the Inside Travel Talk Podcast and Radio Show with Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo. Presented by Blue PlanetVacations.com. America's Best Travel Advisors. Book your vacation now. 888-718-7717. 888-718-7717. The show will continue after this.com. America's Best Travel Advisors. Call or text the show now. 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. And check out the podcast at Inside TravelTalk.com. Here's Patrick and Mark.

Why Southwest Travelers Are Upset

Patrick Wiscombe 12:24

Welcome back inside of the Inside Travel Talk Podcast and radio show. Alongside Mark Faldmo, my name is Patrick Wiscombe. And if you are just tuning into the show this very moment, the entire purpose of our radio show and podcast is to help you plan and book your next vacation. And if you have no idea where you want to go, our job is simple as to give you ideas of where you should consider next. And this show is presented by BluePlanetVacations.com. And uh just a genuine thank you for taking the time to stop and listen. Coming up in this segment, big news, big news. I need some kind of sound effect. Should I call it the furious meter? Big news or furious meter? Oh boy. Mark is locked and loaded for this one. And let's just start with Southwest Airlines. So this happened a little bit earlier this week. Mark is not happy. Anyone who travels on Southwest should not be happy.

Mark Faldmo 13:25

Southwest actually this week made five major changes to its customer policies. And the first and biggest one being no more bags fly free on Southwest. Man, that's been a staple for literally decades. And that's been a differentiator for Southwest. Southwest was different, and that's what made them fun to fly on. Right. And now they're gonna be just like the rest of them starting on May 28th. So any ticket booked after May 28th, no more free checked bags unless you're a Rapid Rewards A list member, which is the highest status level. Or if you're traveling in business select fairs, it's one exception that they're kind of matching other airlines. If you do have the Rapid Rewards credit card, you do get a free checked bag. So a checked bag with a checked bag with the credit card. Four months ago, there were rumors about this, and the CEO said bags fly free is the number one reason why people choose Southwest. He said this is never going to change, and now it's four months later and it's changed.

Patrick Wiscombe 14:36

So it's a must-lie situation, is what I'm hearing you say.

Mark Faldmo 14:40

Yes.

Patrick Wiscombe 14:40

He knew it was coming, but he didn't want to rock the stock, basically.

Mark Faldmo 14:44

Yeah. And so the other big change they made was how you earn rapid rewards or the number of rapid rewards points you make for tickets. So if you buy Southwest one a get away, the very basic fares, you'll now only earn two rapid rewards points per dollar spent where it used to be five. Oh wow. Big changes. And then they've also lowered two of their other fare categories. But if you buy their business select, you actually earn two more rapid rewards than you used to. So on the higher end tickets, they're giving you more rewards, and on the lower end, they're giving you less rewards. That just makes me want to use all my rapid rewards up before they make it harder to redeem rapid rewards points. Well, you know, Shakespeare is the next. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they're rolling this out in phases. Yes. I've got about 600,000 rapid rewards points that I need to use in the next six months. So I'll be traveling a lot.

Patrick Wiscombe 15:40

So you and I, Heather, Nikki, will be taking off and going someplace. Perhaps French Polynesia. Oh, wait, maybe they don't fly. Actually, they don't fly there. One

Marriage Licenses At Las Vegas Airport

Patrick Wiscombe 15:50

place I know you can fly, I know you're married already to Heather. But if you want to get married, Las Vegas Airport is offering marriage licenses upon arrival. If you just have to have it immediately, they'll just give it to you upon arrival.

Mark Faldmo 16:05

It's a pop-up marriage license bureau, you know, in Las Vegas, the wedding capital of the world. The one thing is the airport is not a legal place to get married. So you you can't land, get a license and get married right there. You'll have to go to one of the wedding chapels. Or I think McDonald's has a drive-thru wedding chapel in Las Vegas.

Patrick Wiscombe 16:40

So I'll have my wife's hand in marriage and I'll have the quarter pounder, please. The U.S. State Department is issuing a warning about bringing guns and ammunition. Why do I see them wagging their finger and just getting a uh haughty look of derision?

Mark Faldmo 16:56

Yeah.

Don’t Pack Ammo By Accident

Mark Faldmo 16:56

Well, it's because of problems that they had last year, particularly to one destination, which is the Turks and Caicos. Because of this, they increased the travel warning to a level two. Oh, they did? Which is exercise increased caution. Sure. You know, that's the same as level as France and Sweden, United Kingdom, Italy, but they did have to raise the warning over this just so people will look at the warning. And the main bulk of the warning is don't travel with guns or ammunition, which I didn't think you could do anyway. Yeah, even in check bags. But what has happened, and I actually have a friend who was a retired police officer that this happened to, he used his shooting bag that he went to the gun range with, and a bullet had fallen down underneath the thing, and TSA found it for him. But if you're traveling to countries like Mexico, even if you have empty shell casings, some people have an empty shell casing on a necklace or something, and even that will get you in hot water. But in the Turks and Caicos, even the most minimum offenses can get you up to 12 years in prison. They've had a couple of American travelers detained for many months while it worked out. Oh boy. They just released them on time served. But that's a great way to ruin a vacation. That's a definite damper. If you go to a gun range, make sure you don't use that bag for travel or make sure it's all the nooks and crannies are searched thoroughly. Because there are a lot of countries where this can cause problems. Oh boy.

Patrick Wiscombe 18:28

Always in this segment of the show, segment number two is the hot travel deal of the week. And we talked about it, briefly touched on it in the first segment.

Costa Rica Seasons And When To Go

Patrick Wiscombe 18:37

Costa Rica.

Mark Faldmo 18:38

Yeah, Costa Rica is one of my favorite destinations in the world. And I love it particularly for that wildlife watching. I like the monkeys and sloths. When you spot a toucan in the wild, it's amazing. When is the best time to visit Costa Rica? Costa Rica has their dry season and their green season. Green is code word for rain. Wet. So the dry season is December through April. The green season is May through November. The Caribbean coast has a little bit of a different season. Even during the greener rain season, you can get sun. It's more of the tropical downpours that you'll see. And then if you want to avoid the crowds, the shoulder seasons, the best months to visit are May, June, and November. And you know, that's still putting you in the rainy season, but not quite in the rainiest part of the rainy season. And so those are good times to travel.

Patrick Wiscombe 19:39

What areas do you personally like to visit?

Mark Faldmo 19:43

So there are kind of four main areas. There's Guanacaste, which is known for its beaches, it's

Arenal And Manuel Antonio Game Plan

Mark Faldmo 19:48

in the northwestern part of the country. There's the Central Pacific, which is kind of in the center west on the Pacific side of the country. There's the Caribbean side. And then I didn't even think about the Caribbean side. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, it's not very well visited. Yeah, not very many people visit that. Um, but there are some interesting hotels there. There are some hotels on the Caribbean side where you have to boat into the hotels to get there. You just you have to take a canal, a waterway to get to them. So they're pretty remote and isolated. And then the fourth area is the volcano area. Which you like. Which I love.

Patrick Wiscombe 20:26

I know you've done the volcano. In fact, the volcano is woken you up when it's exploding. Not, I mean, not catastrophic exploding, just making noises. Just burping. Yeah. But it's loud. It had a die coke. Yeah. What do you suggest as an itinerary in Costa Rica then?

Mark Faldmo 20:46

In Costa Rica, I'd break it up into two different areas. I would spend some time in Arenal, which is the volcano area, and I'd spend some time in Manuel Antonio, which is in the central Pacific area. In Arenal, my three favorite things to do there are the hanging bridges, which are suspension bridges hung through the canopy of the forest. You walk through them, you see lots of wildlife, usually. Now, wildlife is wildlife, so sometimes it's not there, but you get to see the flora and fauna of Costa Rica. Um, the next one is the Sky Tram, which is a gondola that takes you up to the top of a mountain. You can either hike down from there, take the gondola back, or you can zip line down. And this zip line has amazing views of the volcano as you're going down. And then I like to also go to La Fortuna waterfall, which is just a nice waterfall area to go to. And then I guess one more thing is hot springs. Lots of hot springs around Costa Rica, around this area.

Patrick Wiscombe 21:49

Manuel Antonio, you brought that up. What do you like doing there?

Mark Faldmo 21:52

This is where you'll see lots of monkeys. Take a tour guide into the national park, they'll walk you to the beach area, and then you'll have the rest of the time free there, but they'll give you an explanation of everything. It's a very fun activity to do, and it's probably one of my most favorite beaches to visit. Although, as you mentioned earlier, this is a place, don't leave your stuff unattended. Monkeys will steal your stuff. And then there's other things to do in the area. There's Main Grove Adventure Tours. It's a great area to visit. So I would say do those two things.

Patrick Wiscombe 22:25

One thing that I remember you doing was the Was it a CIA plane that's basically been turned into a restaurant? Or it is a restaurant.

Mark Faldmo 22:34

Yeah, it it's a restaurant called El Avion, and the one of the CIA planes that was abandoned in Costa Rica after the Iran Contra scandal. Got it. They took it, hauled it up of a mountain, built a restaurant around it, some of the best sunsets you'll ever see, good food, and a very interesting atmosphere.

Patrick Wiscombe 22:53

El Avion. Nice. El Avion. Yeah. I've never been to Costa Rica, but I know that it's gonna happen.

Mark Faldmo 22:59

Do you have deals on this one? I do. So I actually just updated a new page on blueplanetvacations.com where you can go to see what these deals include.

Costa Rica Package Deals And Booking

Mark Faldmo 23:08

The first thing what I like to do is actually build a custom trip for people. I think that's the best way to get what you want out of it. But I also have put together some pre-set Costa Rica vacations. There's an eight-day volcanoes and beaches tour, or there's just a six-day volcano tour or a six-day beach escape. The eight-day volcano and beaches tour starts at $15.99 per person, plus airfare, and that includes Seven Nights Hotel, Hot Springs Tour, Emanuel Antonio tour, and all the transportation within the country and daily breakfast. But for the rest of the tours, I know we're running out of time here. Just go to blueplanetvacations.com and you can see the information on those three out-of-the-box tours, or I'd be happy to set up a custom vacation to other areas of the country as well.

Patrick Wiscombe 24:00

I am excited to get to Costa Rica. And you know that I'll do it. That sounds like a threat. And you know that I'll do it, Mark. Yes. I'm gonna

Wrap Up And Next Segment Tease

Patrick Wiscombe 24:09

go see the world. Call Mark in his office during the break. 888-718-7717-888-718-7717. When we come back, it is the infamous Just Cruising segment. It's only about cruise news and it's only about cruising, and we've got the cruise deal of the week. That is next. When the Inside Travel Talk Podcast or radio show continues, my name is Patrick Wiscombe. He is Mark Faldmo. Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your weekend. We will be right back.

Todd Carlson 24:44

They've literally traveled millions of miles to answer your travel related questions. Yeah, they really have. You're listening to the Inside Travel Talk Podcast and Radio Show, presented by Blue Planet Vacations.com. America's best travel advisors. Patrick and Mark will be back after these messages.