Scott Barronton (00:00)
If you're anything like us, you love a great deal.
Melissa (00:03)
especially when it comes to travel.
Scott Barronton (00:05)
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 found on cruises, flights, hotels, and all inclusives.
Melissa (00:19)
Happy Travel Thursday.
Scott Barronton (00:39)
Well, let's kick off this week with something adventurous. We've Ocean Voyages, they've got an Explorer's Choice deal right now. But Melissa, before we dig into the deal, let's talk a little bit about what Atlas Ocean Voyages is.
Melissa (00:55)
Yeah, so we are actually going to sail on Atlas Ocean Voyages to Antarctica, which we're super excited about. Atlas Ocean Voyages is basically taking the yachting experience and they've made a little bit larger ships, but they have these yachting experiences basically all over the world.
Scott Barronton (01:12)
Yeah, and so this is going to be, if you listen to our last episode on Alaska, and we talked about the sizes of the ships, this is going to be on that smaller end.
Melissa (01:24)
Yeah, absolutely. So less than 200 passengers. So I think like 196 to be exact.
Scott Barronton (01:30)
and they focus on very luxury experiences and so High-end luxury accommodation high-end luxury experience You know everything about this makes you feel like This this trip is made just for you
Melissa (01:45)
That's right. So this one is huge, Scott, because now you can get $500 onboard credit plus 30 % off bonus savings on all 2026 expeditions. So whether that's going to be Antarctica, the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, the Caribbean, even the Arctic.
Scott Barronton (02:01)
And on top of that, you're going to get a choice of a free perk. So you can either get up to $2,000 in air credit, you can get a pre or post cruise hotel or land package, or you can get unlimited premium Wi-Fi for two devices.
Melissa (02:18)
So basically it's a choose your own adventure bonus, but it does end September 9th. So you have a little bit, but you don't have that long to decide.
Scott Barronton (02:30)
Want even more exclusive travel deals emailed straight to your inbox? Join Travel Deal Insiders at sunshinetravelers.com slash deals and use code podcast to unlock your membership for just $50 a year.
Melissa (02:46)
Travel more, spin less, and skip the search.
All right, Scott, so this one is very interesting. So time actually may be running out if you wanna do an Hawaii cruise.
Scott Barronton (02:59)
Really? I hadn't read that.
Melissa (03:00)
Yeah, so I read that this week. So I don't know if that is gonna be something that actually comes to fruition, but with tourism and like the rise of like ecotourism and wanting to, you know, protect that environment and stuff like that, the state of Hawaii is actually considering this.
Scott Barronton (03:17)
Well, you know, a lot of those islands have had natural disasters and fires and things like that. So I could only imagine that limiting the number of cruise ships that come into port, it's probably where they're at on that.
Melissa (03:34)
Yeah, for sure. So that means if that Hawaiian cruise has been on your bucket list, now is the time to book that. So Holland America is having a Labor Day deal, which makes booking that even sweeter. And if you, like Scott mentioned, if you listen to our Alaska episode, you know that we sailed on Holland America, which gives you like a mid-size ship to have those experiences. And we really enjoy that about Holland America.
So their Labor Day deal is 45 % off select cruises, $99 deposits and up to $400 onboard credit per stateroom.
Scott Barronton (04:07)
well that's really a combo that doesn't come often maybe we should put this for ourselves
Melissa (04:13)
right? I really think it would be a great way to see Hawaii.
Scott Barronton (04:16)
Yeah, and a $99 deposit makes it a low risk way that you can lock something in before those restrictions kick in.
Melissa (04:23)
Yeah, when we went to Hawaii, even when we were just on the big island, we felt like we couldn't even see the whole island and it took you a long time to get from place to place. So I think Hawaii is another one of those places where you could really get a taste of lot of different places and some highlights of the islands as well. So that promo runs until September 8th. There are some Hawaii cruises that were on there as well.
And so this is another don't wait situation. Start looking at those. I'll put the link to those in the show notes.
Scott Barronton (04:51)
Well, let's switch gears a little bit to land and specifically vacation rentals.
Melissa (04:57)
Yeah, so a lot of people might be starting to think about like late fall travel, Thanksgiving, or even Christmas. And so Marriott Homes and Villas is running a promo where you can earn double Marriott points on stays of three nights or more if you book them by September 25th for travel through the end of the year. Now, that's double Marriott points, but if you have higher status, it's actually
even more than that.
Scott Barronton (05:26)
this is especially good for families or maybe groups of friends. So instead of going and renting two or three hotel rooms, you can rent one big house or cabin and everyone stay together and split those costs.
Melissa (05:39)
Yeah, because it can actually come out way cheaper.
We saw an example in the Spoky Mountains where you could get a cabin with a hot tub for seven or $800 a night. It was available for four nights for six people. Split that cost and it's cheaper than multiple hotel rooms. And then you also can have your food there and you can really have a way to spend time together instead of being split up in your separate rooms.
Scott Barronton (06:02)
And since the stays count toward Elite Knight credits, you're not losing ground in the Marriott program and you're actually earning more.
Melissa (06:10)
Yeah, sometimes that's a reason like you want to like look at using like Marriott so that you can like work toward your status and stuff like that. So that's a great reason to look at these. so I'm going to put a link to that too. You do have to go and apply for that. So if you're familiar with the Bonvoy program, a lot of times when these run these promotions, you need to go just log into your account. If you don't have one, it's free to sign up.
log into your account, just go opt into that program. And so that way when you book, you get those credits. And I'll also put the details about the extra bonuses you get if you have higher than just the basic status.
All right, so our three takeaways today is that Atlas Ocean Voyages have massive perks and savings. So go look at those 2026 voyages. They are absolutely incredible. Hawaii cruises, if that's on your bucket list and you want to know you want to do a cruise, I would go look at that now. And then again, Marriott Homes and Villas making group travel that much more rewarding.
Scott Barronton (07:13)
So if one of these deals really caught your attention, we're going to drop the links in the show notes so that you can go and check them out. But as always, you can find all our curated deals inside Travel Deals Insiders.
Melissa (07:27)
And if you need help booking one of these deals, visit sunextravel.com and let us take care of the details for your next trip. And until next time, happy travels.
