Scott Barronton (00:00)
Have you ever felt like the best travel deals slipped through your fingers before you really even knew that they existed? Well, in this episode, we're talking about some of the most exciting opportunities happening right now in the travel world and how you can be ready when the next one comes along. Whether you're planning the next big trip or just love the thrill of the hunt, this episode is for you.
Hey there, Sunshine Travelers. We've been hearing from a lot of you recently, and it seems like Italy and Spain are the top places on the list that you want to visit next year. But so many of you have also said, hey, we're just looking for somewhere, but we're waiting for a good deal to come along. And so that's what we want to talk about today.
Yeah. And the deals are there. And I have to be honest with you, Scott, you know that I love a good deal too, right? And seeing something and booking the deal and kind of watching that all come together. But the problem is like you could endlessly search for them, That's the thing. And so we personally subscribe to dozens of mailing lists. And then we also get dozens of messages that are directly for like travel agents. And so today we wanted to share a few of those deals with you.
and then help you hopefully find some great travel deals, especially if you haven't booked something for the summer and you're looking to plan a getaway. We've got several categories of deals that we want to talk about today. So let's just dig into some of the details on those. And I would say let's start with the cruises. Yeah. So Scott, did you know that there are...
more cruise ship passengers, more cruises and more cruise ships in the world than there have ever been. It's amazing because, you know, they're putting out these mega ships now that carry, I don't know, 55 million people on them at one time, I think. mean, it is literally a small city, you know, floating out there on the ocean. and they just keep putting more and more of these into
the mix and they don't seem to be taking any out. So they're adding more and more capacity all the time. Yeah. And because they are able to go in and refurbish those, right? And kind of bring them up to speed as a matter of fact, a years ago, we were on one when it was like actually coming out of and going straight into dry dock to get refurbished. And we are actually about to sail on that again later this summer. So excited to see how those refurbishments take place. But there are more people
believe it or not, who cruise in the world than they ever have before. so, you know, a lot of times we've looked at, you know, I've looked at these cruises and it's like, wow, these ships are completely filled up, but you still can honestly get some really great deals as well. So for the ones that, you know, that don't fill up or, you know, it works out with your itinerary or, you know, your timeframe. So let's just talk about a few that we have looked at recently.
for one reason or another. So, know, when we look at cruises, one of the things that's important to us is we don't want one of the mega cruise ships, right? We're literally, there are about five to six thousand passengers on them. And so when you go to port, you've got five to six thousand people who are getting off, and, going to port with you.
And so that's just not appealing to us. And it's mostly because we don't care about, water parks and amusement parks on the boats. pickleball, courses, know, everything else that these ships are trying to fit onto them these days. Those aren't things that interest us. we like the smaller ship, a little more intimate and
you know, easy to get around. And so that's what we tend to choose. But for someone who's going with the family, all of those other things really make a difference. because that's super attractive and super fun. We, when we were in Miami recently, we saw some of the new ships, right? And you see the waterpark roller coaster things and the swings on the side. mean, and it just, and it really does look.
you know, it looks really cool and that's especially appealing, you know, for families with kids, because the other thing that cruises allow families and people to do is like, kids to have like kids activities and kids clubs and stuff like that and as well. So it just kind of gives, a lot of different activities for a vacation too. And then also so much of the time, everything is like already included, right? So it's nice just to not have that and, and worry about that.
I will say the other thing that we like to look at for cruises, and we've mentioned this before on a couple of our cruise episodes, is where you can go and if you can really spend the time in the port and almost use it like as a hop on hop off sightseeing type of thing to get a feel for a place. But you know, the Caribbean is great too, to get to experience some different islands that you've never gone to. We're going to talk about Virgin Voyages in a minute and they're about to launch a new ship.
And they're about to go to a lot of new ports and new islands in the Caribbean that they've never gone to and just bring those offerings there. just keep an eye out for that because I think this is really going to grow
Well, let's start with one of our favorite cruise lines, which is Holland America. And we liked that one because it is smaller ships and you know, it's a little more quaint. I guess you could say they are doing some refurbishments. The one that we were just on, like when we got off the ship, they were taking it out of service. They took it down to Bahamas. They, refresh the entire ship and
So we're going to be back on it here in a few months when we go to Alaska, but they're having their up to 40 % off sale and the fairs include the prepaid crew appreciation or the tips.
So the thing about these cruise deals and we see them, know, cause like we mentioned before, you know, we get these emails and are just looking at the different things. And so typically about once a week, if you know, if not more, are seeing these different promotions So this particular one, like Scott mentioned, you know, up to 40 % off. And then a lot of times you'll see things like state room category upgrades, if they're available.
which can be a really great way to really save some money. The other thing I wanted to mention about Holland America, Holland America is actually the first cruise ship company that was allowed to go into that Glacier Bay. So that can be a really great option if you are looking at Alaska. We would also encourage you on Holland America to...
book early because a lot of times they offer really early booking and then you get the pick of the state rooms and I will say sometimes you can get some good last-minute cruise deals but especially for Alaska especially for verandas those book up but they are cruise and land tours can be a really great way to see a little bit of the inside of Alaska for way cheaper than you could book that on your own separate
So just keep that in mind if you're looking at some Alaska cruises as well.
And so then the next one is Princess Cruises. So Princess is actually a sister cruise line within the same parent company. And so right now they're having up to $700 instant savings up to 40 % off cabins. Also free room upgrades if those are available on the cruise that you were looking at. And here's the thing. Now, unless you have like...
small people, I think it would be really hard to get third and fourth passengers, you know, inside of a room because they are small. But princesses offering free third and fourth passengers, which can be really great as well.
So that's a good option if you have your kids traveling with you. They will be your free third and fourth passengers on this trip. One thing I will say about Princess and a lot of the other cruise lines is just be aware. They have a sense of urgency. So it's always, this still is gonna end in four hours, six hours, something like that.
and then sometimes it does get extended. So when we talk to you about these, or maybe we send something out and we're talking about that, you know, this still is going to end on a certain date. that's the plan and date for it. They may choose to extend that depending on whether they hit their targets or not. or they may end on that date. So you never can plan. And then also it's a availability of the state rooms that you want.
Yeah, and that's true because I do think a lot of times people who maybe have been like looking at it, looking at it, look at it and you have your heart set on an ocean view or a balcony And then, just like a lot of times when time's running out, people will book that. And the next sale that comes along could maybe not include the destinations that you're looking at. So it's best to, book it sooner rather than later and then look at some of the cancellation policies too and understand that. A lot of these offer
really great discounted deposits, you know, and then also that you can cancel it or change it or they offer, the price changes that kind of thing. So there's lots of things to consider. And sometimes we've also seen that you can kind of hold it for free as well for a few hours or a couple of days, especially through a travel agent.
We said that if you're taking your kids as those third and fourth passengers, you want to jump on this deal. But there's another deal that if you don't want to go on a cruise with the kiddos that you might want to consider. And that's through Virgin Voyages. And that would be with your kiddos or anybody else's kiddos, because there's nobody under 18, allowed on the Virgin ships. so they are actually launching a brand new ship, this year.
as well. So right now to kind of celebrate, you know, their big launch, they're doing up to 70 % off of second sailors, free balcony upgrades for some staterooms, up to $300 onboard credits. The thing that I also like about Virgin is that your gratuities are included in that fare. Your Wi-Fi is included.
So the only other thing that you would add and they cut like with drink packages, they have something different and they call it a bar tab, which is really neat. I would say probably with Virgin, the price you see is kind of the price you get. Whereas a lot of the other ones, if you want the premium internet, if you want the drink package, if you want all this other stuff, right, then it's gonna add up kind of after the fact. So that particular deal.
with Virgin Voyages ends on June 26th.
All right. Well, you know, a couple of things that we would add is that there are some really good deals. If you're shopping last minute, we did this a couple of years ago. We got an excellent trip, 12 days Mediterranean cruise for really good price.
And I want to say it was like $3,500 or something like that for both of us. Yeah. I think it was actually closer to 3000. I do want to say a couple of years has now turned into five years ago on this, believe it or not, but it was sorry. It's actually six. No, we went into, we did. Oh, you're right. It's six years ago. Wow. So two years turns into six years, but you're right. So I think we got it for $3,000.
now that didn't include gratuities. We actually opted to not do, drink package and, wifi and all that kind of stuff. We were off the ship a lot, on that particular cruise and that's the way we like to use a cruise. like to get into those destinations, get outside the port, a little while. And in the Mediterranean, it was great because you didn't have to be back on the ship by four o'clock.
like you do in the Caribbean. So we had some late nights that we were able to spend in ports. And matter of fact, in Barcelona, one of our favorite cities in the world, we were there, overnight. So we got to spend two days in Barcelona. Yeah. So, and that was something that we actually booked last minute and ended up being able to get a veranda and save a good bit of money on that.
So if you don't have something, your heart set on something like far in the distance, I would say Alaska is hard to do like that. Or you have an opportunity like we had that came up, just look and see what you could find as well. Scott, the other thing I wanted to mention is also look for repositioning cruises, especially if you have typically longer to spend or you don't care quite as much about the ports or you don't mind having a lot of at sea days.
because those can actually be a great value and give you just more cruising time, relaxation time as well. Because when you look at those typically when they have a lot of ports, you know, and it's the shorter amount of time that the price is up. But if you look at Transatlantic and, you know, going from... Transpacific. So for example, we just looked at one going from... hit a few places in Australia. It was actually interesting because you could get on
way down on Tasmania or you could get on a couple of days later in Sydney or in Brisbane. so it just depended on how much you wanted to hit, but then you had like five days at sea as it sailed up toward, Asia and the price on that was a really good deal. The thing was though, it wasn't like the Caribbean, where do you want to go or the Alaska where you do want to go this week or this week or the next week. It was, that was, that was the date, right? Because that's the only time they're going to reposition it. So that's kind of the, kind of the limitation on that.
say. So there's no flexibility on these repositioning cruises from a date perspective, but it is a good way to maybe avoid some long haul flight. for example, the repositioning that goes from California to, to Asia, right?
Trans Pacific cruise. It's going to stop in Hawaii. It's going to stop in Guam and Fiji and, eventually work its way to either Australia or somewhere in Asia. And, you can take some really long cruises on that if you're willing to and avoid those long haul flights. You still got to get back home. So you can't avoid it all the way, but, that's an option.
For sure. And so those are just, those can be super appealing if you have the time. Well, let's talk a little bit about flight deals then. We're seeing some really good flight deals in the market right now. And one of our favorite airlines, Delta, you just don't see flight deals from Delta often, but we are seeing those right now. Yeah, we've actually seen a lot and Delta and then a lot of other airlines go into Europe, but especially Delta. We actually booked ourselves
to go to Dublin also later on this summer for actually as cheap as we had gone to Pittsburgh a few weeks ago round trip to Dublin. And so that was 53,000 points. And so I know that sounds a lot for some people, but on Delta like that's phenomenal to be able to go, closer to Europe anyway, Yeah. And so
Also around 50,000 miles, 51,000 points to get to Australia. So that is a one-way flight. It's not a round trip, but that's an amazing Delta point conversion right there. Yeah, it really is. And the cool thing about that one is it wasn't just, know, a lot of times you see these and it's on this day, right? That one was pretty widespread, specifically going to Brisbane.
So you just kind of have to look, but you could see, okay, how inexpensively, kind of like in Europe, how inexpensively once I get there, could I fly to somewhere else compared to the price of going to, you know, Sydney or something like that, if you could, add a few days in to do something else. Because remember Australia is massive. It's like even more than trying to drive from place to place in the US. So a couple of the other ones that we're seeing specifically for Europe,
New York City to Venice for around $412 round trip. And that's on the Italian airlines, the ITA. And Venice and places like that, and especially Italy, I feel like sometimes can get really expensive as well. And then Atlanta to Athens, and that's a long way. $617 round trip in October, which would be a good time to do that. I think it wouldn't be quite so hot.
fight so crowded. Yeah. And we saw Orlando to Paris. saw it on two different airlines. So you can do it on Iceland air for $447 or here's another Delta one, $470 round trip on Delta. And so really good flight deals out there right now. And I would say jump on them. I think, you know, there's been some like
unease or whatever in the economy and people weren't sure. And so the airlines have had to put some of these really good deals in place, but I see some of that lifting with events that are happening. so we'll see, but I don't think these deals are going to last. So jump on that, especially if you're really looking at, the rest of the summer and the rest of this year.
So I would say probably typically, flights, especially if you have several people, right? That's kind of your biggest chunk of your budget. And then beyond that is next hotels, like where you're gonna stay. And so that's another one where you really kind of wanna keep an eye out for deals. And so one that I really like is to look at when these hotels offer like a points bonus. So like if you...
if you're buying some of the points, then you get some kind of bonus for it. And I really specifically, you need to kind of have something in mind to know that it's a good redemption, right? You don't want to buy a bunch of points at a high value and then use them for something that where the cash value would have been less. So you want to be able to like compare that hotel, the availability on those dates, but high it is one that's offering a promotion that's good until July 21st. You get a 25 % bonus on the points.
And then IHG is offering 30 % off their clubs and suites rooms when you stay two or more nights in Japan and Guam and Spain as well. So just keeping an eye out on some of those and seeing if you can kind of snag deals as well. Yeah. So if you're not using, points on that IHG, you're going to pay cash,
getting 30 % off this club and suites rooms, it's a great deal. And also we found often that in some of these places, for example, Spain, the IHG price per night at rack rate is a lot cheaper than an IHG hotel in the US. Yeah. And so that's one thing to keep in mind. You know, when you are redeeming points, we've mentioned that several times, but South Africa was another place, Cape Town specifically in the wine region.
where it just didn't make sense to use points because the cash price was a lot better. So just looking at that and seeing if they're offering some kind of, a lot of times these different hotels like the ones we've mentioned, they'll offer specials on certain hotels. And so always looking to see, okay, does that hotel have a specific deal? Does it include breakfast? Some kind of little.
You know weekend break or something like that. They just like to offer little deals like that So just always kind of be on the lookout When you're booking them And if you're into all-inclusives There are some deals going on right now promotions like Sandals has one going on where it's 65 % up to 65 % off the rack rate on stays of three plus nights So if you're gonna go somewhere and stay at least three nights
You can get a really good discount there. also have some last minute travel deals. And one of things that I wanted to point out there is if you're looking for somewhere kind of last minute and you want to go late summer, early fall, but you start worrying about hurricane season, let me just remind you that Curacao is below the hurricane belt. And so it's one of the places where they have some last minute.
Travel deals available right now and you might want to take a look at that one and that Sandals property on Curacao is a new one of their newest properties as well Yeah, and then some of the properties are even offering up to a thousand dollars of instant credit and so I think that's provided to you in the form of like a Resort credit where you can use it on own property
So take a look at those and you know, if you're interested in it, remember we can help you book those through sunshine travelers experiences. And we'd be happy to talk to you about that. Yeah.
In addition to the sandals, there's also a Hyatt Ziva. I think this is a new all-inclusive property. It's down in Riviera Maya. And this one, I was amazed the flight and hotel for this all-inclusive hotel is from $559 per person. So you get the flight there and your hotel, your all-inclusive stay for that.
You know, from five 59. Yeah. It's got looking at those really makes me kind of miss. used to go to Cancun a lot, right. And just hang out by the pool. and so there's a lot of places, especially all inclusives, down in that area of Mexico. so I need to, I'm going to start including, more of these, all inclusive deals, on what we're about to talk about. Yeah. So let's just, let's be honest.
These deals change all the time. So Melissa, how am I supposed to ever learn about all these deals so that I can jump on them? Yeah. So you can go in and, you know, sign up for the hundreds of emails that we get, delivered to our inboxes, just because we like to bring you, these deals here on the podcast and, know, in the newsletter and all kinds of different places, or you can let us do all that work.
for you and sign up for our Sunshine Travelers Insiders subscription email. And so let us take and curate those deals for you. So some of the things that we have talked about, these kind of breaking cruise deals, flight deals, all inclusives and sandals, because these deals, like we said, are changing like constantly. You'll get one email sent to you.
two or three times a week max, but if there's like a deal where it's like, okay, this is amazing and you got to know about it and it's going to expire like in a day, you're going to get another one too, because we can't let those go by the wayside. So you're going to get the benefit of learning about the deals that are advertised to, travel agents and then just people on the email list, but without having to have all these in your inbox and then also take the time to go through it.
So they're quick and easy like little bullet points and you can just kind of scan it and say, this is kind of what I'm looking for. Let me click and see if this works out for me.
so for about the cost of one cup of coffee at Starbucks, $7 a month, you could get these deals sent straight to you. And if you just book one of them, you could save hundreds or even thousands of dollars, would be more than pay for your subscription for a long, time.
All right, so go to sunshinetravelers.com slash deals. And that is where you can sign up to travel more, spin less, and skip the search. We're gonna make it so easy for you just to scan it, click it, book it. Yeah. And this is set up.
where if you want to book it yourself, you can. or if you see something in there and you're like, wow, this is something that I really want to do, but I don't want to go through all the headache and hassle of booking it. Just reach out to us. We can work with you through sunshine travelers experiences and get that booked for you
and help you with any of your other travel needs. Yeah, there's a link in each one of these emails that you can just click and you can copy the deal that you want, give us a little bit of information, and then we'll be able to just help you turn that right around.
So whether you're planning your next big adventure or you just want to travel smarter, there's never been a better time to jump on these offers. And if you scored a great deal recently, we would love to hear about it. Email us at scott at sunshinetravelers.com or message us on social media. The world is full of sunshine and surprises. Make this the year that you explore beyond the familiar.
