Scott Barronton (00:00)
If you're anything like us, you love a great deal. Especially when it comes to travel. Welcome to Travel Deals Thursday, where each week we dig through hundreds of emails, alerts, and travel sites to bring you a few of the best deals we've found on cruises, flights, hotels, and all-inclusives. So welcome to Travel Deals Thursday.
Let's start this week with a deal from Sandals.
You may have some reservations about going during this time of year, but Sandals has recently added free weather protection plan if you travel between August and October. Yeah, so this is actually a really great feature because then it's just, yeah, mean, it's just like worry free, which is really great. In addition to that, the deals are up to 75 % off
up to a $1,500 instant credit. And if you book online, you get an extra $100 off. And if you stay five plus nights, you also get a $250 spa credit. But one of the resorts in the Sandal properties that we had picked out from their deals that are going on, and I guess we do have to kind of admit here, Sandals does run a lot of specials continuously.
But one of the ones that's going on right now is for the Royal Curacao. And the good thing about Curacao is that it sits below the hurricane belt. So if you're worried about the hurricanes, you don't have to worry about that when going to Curacao. Yeah, and we absolutely love Curacao. We really think that it is a fantastic place to visit as well. So this particular one is 55 % off the rack rates, the $1,500 instant credit.
a $250 dining out credit, and then book online and get the $100 credit. And these start at $342 per person per night. And so we'll put the link to that in the show notes so you can check that out. and we love to cura-sail. So we think you're going to want to take advantage of that dining out credit. It was just a great place that we really enjoyed because it's so authentic.
It hasn't been commercialized in the way that say Aruba has. Yeah. And it's like a little touch of Europe, a European port almost in the Caribbean. So it's a really special place. Yeah. Great water. So we highly recommend this one. And hope that you will check this one out. Yeah. So use that link in the show notes to book that directly, or let us help you plan the perfect all-inclusive getaway.
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Well, let's jump into cruises. We are fresh back off of our Alaska cruise. So cruises stays top of mind. We've had so many conversations over the last week with people who have been on cruises all over the world, as well as the staff on the cruises that have traveled all over the world as part of the staff on these cruise ships.
And so cruises are really high on mind for us. And I think that we're probably going to do a lot more cruising in our future. We know we at least have a three week cruise and an Antarctica cruise coming up. So. Right. We just can't get over telling you how it makes it so easy to see so many different things. Right. And then if there's a place you really love, you can go back.
and explore that more, but it's just an easy way where you can just, like we've said, a hop on hop off almost of wherever the region it is. So let's talk about something new in the cruise world,
So, Celebrity has redefined ocean cruising and now they're bringing that same elevated experience to some of Europe's iconic rivers starting in 2027. So from locally inspired cuisine to breathtaking views from your room, every moment is designed to immerse you in this journey. Celebrity Cruises and you've been on multiple Celebrity Cruises,
This is your way to get into the river cruise without having to change out of the brand that you know and are familiar with.
Priority booking opens September 3rd, 2025 for those 2027 river cruises. You can secure your spot with a $500 refundable deposit per cabin for exclusive early access before the itineraries go public. And Melissa,
I've read that they have like 10 river cruise ships on order. So they're really doubling down on this river cruise space. Yeah. And I just, that's got to be a fantastic way, right? To be able to see these cities and immerse yourself all day and then just be able to relax without having to move around so much. Cause we've moved around a lot in Europe and that can be kind of tedious as well. So check out the link to check these out.
And while we're on Celebrity, they also have a couple of deals if you want to check the Galapagos off your bucket list. And this is one that we have done highly recommend. Okay, so there's two different deals that are being offered. The first one is
For a limited time when you book one of these cruises for 2025 or 2026, you get 20 % off of your cruise. Okay, so here's what they include. Flights between Quito and the Galapagos, if it's 10 or more nights. Twice daily guided excursion with certified naturalists, all your gratuities, park fees, daily briefings, unlimited Wi-Fi, which is great. We had no Wi-Fi on our ship. Drinks, locally inspired meals on board.
And if you want to plan out a little further in advance, here's the deal if you book a 2027 Galapagos cruise with them. It's 50 % off of the second guest round trip airfare between US and Canadian gateway cities. And that's per person. If you are already a captain's club elite or above, you get extra $1,500 savings plus all the other inclusions that I mentioned before.
These do need to be booked by September 22nd, 2025, again for the 2027 Galapagos. And these are valid on 7, 10, 11, and 16 night Galapagos packages. for basically all of 2027. Yeah. We love the Galapagos. We did a much smaller ship. So we weren't on Celebrity. I want to make that clear. We did a much smaller yacht.
Type experience, I think it had 18 passengers and, but I tell you, it's one of our favorite places that we've ever visited. And if this has been on your bucket list, celebrity is a really good way to cross that off.
And then we wanted to just share some kind of big travel news that has just come out. So if you are in a city where Alaskan and Hawaiian can get you to a of places, they have merged their rewards program into something called Atmos Rewards. And so the perks that with this that are rolling out starting in 2026, they're going to give you more ways to earn between distance
dollars or segments kind of based on what is going to work out for best for you. But this is really cool. They're going to do free Starlink Wi-Fi on all their flights, again, starting in 2026, complimentary global upgrades for top elites, new Atmos rewards. They have a credit card that they're announcing where you can get bonuses, which also includes like lounge passes and delay credits. So lots of benefits with this. But I think the biggest thing is
those kind of things being combined to be able to benefit from that program. So they fly a lot of places. And so if you, again, like I said, if you're in a city where they have a lot of flights, I would definitely take some time and look into this and just see how this could benefit you. Yeah. We, talked about this a lot while we were in Alaska and you know, obviously see the Alaskan airlines and it's like,
you know, how great would it be to be in a city where you could take advantage of this? Yeah, for sure. And we've flown Hawaiian too, amongst the Hawaiian islands and really always had great experience as well.
Well, we just got back from the Alaska cruise yesterday and we just want to close this out to say if you've never done an Alaska cruise, get that on your bucket list right away. They're currently booking 2027 sailings, which will give you plenty of time to save for this once in a lifetime trip. But we just can't say enough good things about our experience. And we definitely enjoyed our trip on Holland America.
Yeah. And so stay tuned. So if you're not following the show, go hit follow. We're going to have several episodes come out in the very near future, talking about lots of different aspects of booking a cruise and a land tour and all kinds of things to Alaska.
