Intro

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Welcome to the Travel Agent Disney and Yamond, your Canadian connection to theme park news, travel information, practical tips, and vacation savings. I'm your host, Stephen Hayne. On today's episode, learn about upcoming Lower and Garden Festival that is coming in the spring of 2027. Then again, all you need to know about Halloween Humphrey and Canada's Wonderland to help you plan. In cruise contemplations, we will learn about the Disney Belief, Disney's new cruise ship, just in time, before Disney announced his itineraries, home ports, and when to make a reservation. Near the end of the show, we'll offer another Canadian Compass travel tip and talk about the latest deal in Deal Stitch. If you want more information about cruising and travel, including the latest cruise promotions and limited time offers, subscribe to my Expedia Cruises Personalized Email Newsletters. Simply click on the fan mail and send me your name and email address, and I'll add you to my mailing list for the newsletter as well as for show updates and information. You can also email your name and email address to the following email stephen at the travelagent.ca. Stephen is spelt S-T-E-P-H-E-N. And make sure you spell Agent with an E H. Because of course this podcast is Canadian. That email once again is stephenathetravelagent.ca. This information will also appear in the show notes. If you've been following my podcast, you will know that I was in a car accident. I mentioned it last week. And today I picked up a new car. Of course, it's temporary. It's a car paid for by my insurance company as they repair my old car or my Honda Civic. But this new car, well, there wasn't a lot left on the lot in the Enterprise Rental Store. And they asked, would I mind driving a Jeep Rubicon? So I have a really nice 2026 Jeep Rubicon for the next week and a half. Same color as my other car. And uh it just kind of makes me laugh because I I don't think my wife's noticed it yet, and I can hardly wait till she looks out the window into the driveway and sees this mammoth vehicle sitting in the driveway with big huge tires. It looks like I'm ready to go off-roading. But hey, maybe I will. I don't know. It's probably something the rental company wouldn't want me to do, but it looks like it's all ready to go off-roading, to go in the mud, to tow things out of the mud or out of a ditch. You know, I'm ready to do some really manly stuff. By the way, that was a stereotype, of course. I had a good weekend, and I thought I would mention that. I spent some time at the Halloween haunt in Canada's Wonderland. I mentioned that I was going last week and I did. And I'm gonna tell you a little bit about that in the Park Pulse segment of the show. But I also went to Halton Radial Railway Museum. It's up north in the Milton area in Ontario, and that was fun too. Now that's uh that's a museum. I think it was originally started as a club and then just kept growing. But the people who are volunteers for this railway museum um love trains, I think. And this railway museum has a whole bunch of restored cars. Many of them are train cars, but they especially seem to really like streetcars. And so there's quite a few TTC style, TTC being the Toronto Transit Commission. There's plenty of TTC style streetcars, and they have a working railway. It's not a very long one, but it takes you through the forest and around a loop. And there are three different streetcars. There's one maybe dated from the 20s, there's one perhaps dated from the 50s and 60s, and then there's a little more modern one. And you can ride all three of these things on the railway as much as you want through the whole day. And they have like a roundhouse with a whole bunch of different restored uh vehicles, cars, train cars, and streetcars. And they have, of course, information about each of the cars and where they came from and when they were built and so on, and what was their purpose. And they have a railway station that's been restored and they've turned into a little bit of a museum. And of course, a snack bar and a gift shop and things like that. But for those of you who live in the area of Milton, Burlington, Toronto, Hamilton, that area, which is where I live. I live in Hamilton, it could be pretty interesting for you to go have a visit. And I think particularly it might be good for families with younger children, because children love to go on the railway and ride the railway vehicle around. I think it would make a nice outing. It certainly was a nice outing on the Sunday when I went. It was very sunny, and of course fall is hitting us, and so there are leaves turning. And as the trains went through the forest, it was quite spectacular, sunny weather and colored leaves strewn on the ground. I'd love to put a picture in the show notes, but for some reason it seems as though images don't show up in my show notes. I'll have to figure that out someday. Anyway, I thought I would just mention it in case there are people out there who are interested in railroads, railways, or who have young families. I think it might be an interesting outing. So check their website, I'll put it in the show notes. The Halton Radial Railway Museum. Might make for a nice outing for those of you in the region.

Mouse Minutes: Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Now let's move to Mouse Minutes. For Mouse Minutes, I wanted to tell you a little bit about Epcot Flower and Garden Festival. This is a springtime event, so it'll be coming up in 2027, from March the 10th to May 31st. And it takes place at Walt Disney World in the Epcot theme park. Now there are three ways that Epcot is different during this time, this time of the event, and I thought I would tell you about that. So first of all, the whole area is adorned with topiaries, gardens, and exhibits. So you have eye-catching topiaries of popular Disney characters. There are vibrant gardens scattered throughout. There are floral displays also throughout the park. And this means that you've got some material for your Insta or Snapchat feeds or your photographs. Especially if you have memory maker and you can catch one of the Disney photographers to take a picture of your family in front of one of the displays. I've been there during Epcot Flower and Garden, and definitely the displays are very pretty and make for great photographs and backdrops. So yeah, you can take some pictures in front of the displays and you can save them on your phone, or you can have them saved to your memory maker, which we talked about, I think, last week. I highly recommend having memory maker when you're at Disney World. So there's topiaries, gardens, and exhibits. That's the first difference of three. The next thing they do during this festival is they have the Garden Rocks concert series. So this is the music. There is a specific location for these concerts, and it is the America Gardens Theater. There is no admission cost to the concerts because they are included with your Epcot ticket, and it's first come, first served seating. Unless you get a Garden Rocks dining package, which is available, in which case you pay for a package and you get dining at a restaurant in Epcot, and with that dining, you get reserved, guaranteed seating at the event. This incidentally is a pretty good technique that I've used as well. There are a number of dining packages available in different parks at Disney World, and getting the dining package allows you to have seating in some event. For example, when I was in Hollywood Studios, I bought a package that allowed me to get reserved seating for Phantasmic, a nighttime show at Hollywood Studios. It's been there for a long time and people love it. So this is a pretty good idea if you don't want to worry about lining up and finding a good seat for a particular show. Anyway, you can get this package and you can watch the concert. Who are the performers, you ask? Well, they are usually recognizable names, but they're not A-list status performers. But you'll recognize the names. Now I'll give you some examples from 2026. I have no idea they haven't announced the lineup for Garden Rocks this year. But last year they had names like Simple Plan, Billy Ocean, Chubby Checker, Rick Springfield, Berlin, The Spinners, Queens Reich, Air Supply. Those are the ones I noted down, but of course there were others. Those are some notable ones. There's also the music of ABBA, which of course is not ABBA, but uh a cover band that plays all kinds of ABBA hits, which I think some people would probably really enjoy. And by the way, it didn't escape me. When I looked at the list for last year and I saw Chubby Checker, I was a little taken aback. I didn't realize Chubby Checker was still playing music. Of course, he's a famous rocker from the 1950s. So I thought that was pretty interesting. But that's what I mean by the fact that these aren't necessarily front runners in terms of music, but they're very recognizable names. People that have been around for a while, bands from the eighties and the fifties as well, apparently, and the seventies and so on. But you're not going to see Harry Styles at this uh particular event. So that's two of the things. Now the third thing is outdoor kitchens. And this is pretty interesting, especially if you like food. And who doesn't really like food? Most people do. There are outdoor kitchens, and uh they advertise fresh garden-inspired flavors from around the world. And as you know, Epcot has the World Showcase. There are various pavilions representing different countries, and so that's that's the vibe of World Showcase. So these outdoor kitchens present to you foods from around the world. And Disney says you're gonna get some returning favorites. So if you've been to the Flower and Garden Festival in the past, favorites are coming back again, but there's also brand new dishes. Basically, what you're dealing with is there's a whole bunch of food booths scattered around the World Showcase. And so these food booths are gonna present to you the food that's likely represented in the area that the booths are located. Although I noticed that they do go beyond the 12 countries that are represented in Epcot. There are other areas that are represented in some of these booths. It's one of the great things about World Showcase. I really enjoy the variety there and how you can go from area to area and sample foods from different countries and look at the uh kinds of souvenirs or artifacts that they might sell, and you can see different films and information booths about the countries. It's it's very cool. Now there are at least 20 booths available around the property, and at each booth you get usually about somewhere between three to five selections that you can order, along with beverages that are on offer. Here are a couple of examples just so you understand what this might look like. So there's the Magnolia Terrace, and that serves golf-inspired food. So on the menu are the following items blackened shrimp po-boy, grilled golf oysters, spicy chicken gumbo, and bananas foster bread pudding. And I'm not going to go through the drinks, but there are various drinks offered as well: alcoholic and non-alcoholic. Another example would be the Primavera kitchen, and that serves insulata di pasta, arancini, and raspberry swirl cheesecake. Various offerings again linked to the culture represented at the booth. So that kind of sums up what's on offer during this festival. Three different things the outdoor kitchens, the garden rocks concert series, and various topiaries, gardens, and exhibits around the property. So if you're planning a trip to Disney World next spring, maybe you should take some time to enjoy the spring in Epcot with its gardens and flower displays, its music and its food sampling. So you could plan around the dates once again, just before I move along to the next segment of our show. The dates for this festival are March the 10th to May 31st. Happy planning.

Park Pulse: Canada's Wonderland's Halloween Haunt

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Now in Park Pulse, I wanted to bring some information to you about Halloween haunt at Canada's Wonderland that is going on currently. You'll be hearing this on October the 6th. That leaves you with several weekends before Halloween. And so this event is running during the first two weekends of October, Friday through Sunday. And then for the rest of the month, it is open from Thursday to Sunday. On Thursdays, the hours are from 6 o'clock to 11 o'clock p.m. of course. On Fridays, the hours are 6 p.m. to midnight. On Saturday, the hours of the park are 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. But the haunt itself starts at 6 p.m. So the haunt is 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. And in fact, there is a kids celebration called Trick or Treats that goes on from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. So something for the younger set. And that includes trick-or-treating opportunities for kids, some kids' shows that are Halloween oriented, and a family corn maze, as well as entertainment and a spooky haunted manor. So if you want to take younger kids, you can go to that. But the Halloween haunt that happens in the evenings is definitely meant for adults. I think that the park says it's recommended for 13 and up. Because there's some scary stuff going on. That's what the Halloween haunt is all about. Finally, on Sunday, the park is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Again, the Halloween haunt starts at 6 p.m. and runs till 11 p.m. The rest of the day the park is running as per a normal park day. I should mention too that on Thanksgiving Monday, the park is also open during the day from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. And the only thing happening on Thanksgiving Day is the trick or treats for the kids. The Halloween haunt does not take place on the Thanksgiving Monday. Now, if you've never been to Halloween Haunt, you might be wondering what that's all about. Well, the whole park is decorated with Halloween-oriented displays and decorations. But there are basically I think I said three things for the last segment, and now there's three things in this one. You've basically got mazes, you've got scare zones, and you've got entertainment offerings. So let's just run through those. Now, the mazes are an additional cost, so you have to buy a ticket to get into the park as you normally would. But that is not enough if you want to do the mazes. The mazes are an additional cost, and to get a maze pass, it's gonna cost you starting at $15, with $25 being the maximum. Now I went on a Saturday and the price was $25 per person to get a maze pass. And that pass allows you to enter all the mazes. You get a wristband, and you can enter the mazes, they check to see you got the wristband on, and there are six mazes altogether. Pricing is adjusted based on the day you're there. So you can decide if you want to try and get cheaper pricing than $25. And if you do, the trick is to go out early in October, and also I guess to avoid Fridays and Saturdays. So if you went on a Thursday later in the month, you're probably gonna get the $15 passes. But if you're going on Friday or Saturday, or you're going late, or you're going on Halloween itself, well then you're gonna pay $25 for the passes. Here are the various mazes that are on offer. And many people will ask, hey, is there something new this year as far as mazes go? Actually, no. And it's a complaint that some fans of Canada's Wonderland have, and they blame it on Six Flags, the organization that now has taken ownership of the park. Some people call them cheap. I don't know what it is. I wonder if maybe they just took it over and they haven't had time to really organize properly and bring some new things to the park. But if you attended last year, and then you're coming this year, expect to see exactly the same mazes, because that's what I experienced when I went. Here are the mazes. First of all, there's corn stalkers. That's Howell's haunted corn maze with scarecrows and dark legends emerging from the corn or lurking around corners. So you're literally walking through the maze and to your sides on each side are walls of, I guess, corn stalks. And of course there's these creepy things hiding in the walls. Another maze is Dark Ride, where you explore an abandoned carnival ride taken over by twisted performers who want you to become part of their dark world. There is a maze called Demons of the Deep, where you enter a lab full of failed sea experiments where nightmarish creatures stalk the depths. There is also Spirit Manor, and by the way, those two, you basically line up for both of those at the same time. You go through Spirit Manor first, and then you immediately go through Demons of the Deep afterwards. So one lineup, two mazes. So that's pretty good. I like that. Spirit Manor, you enter a cursed manor where demons prowl the halls, waiting in every shadow for their victim's approach. And then another maze is called the Crypt. In that one, you're descending into the city's catacombs, where you'll encounter forgotten bones and spirits who have been evading the tourist lights. And then there's the ruins. In the ancient ruins, you'll find haunted creatures and curses eager to trap explorers in the darkness forever. Those are the six mazes that you can get with your maze pass. Now, if you're looking for tips or whatever, I mean I think basically you want to go on all the six mazes. If you're paying for the pass, you want to see all the six. And it's quite doable. When I went on a Saturday night, which I tend to avoid, I try to avoid big crowds, but this year we went on Saturday night, and it was crowded. There were a lot of people in the park. I don't think I've ever seen it so busy. And I was wondering when I saw that, I'm like, whoa, I don't know how long are the waits gonna be, right? But it turns out that we did all six mazes in the evening. I mean we got there a little after six. We were probably in the park around 6.30, maybe 6.15. But then we ate first, and so we took our time having something to eat before we started doing the mazes, and we were able to finish all the mazes and have time at the end for some rides as well. Maybe just a couple of rides, I suppose, and a fun old cake. So there's time to do all the mazes. So, you know, for me to recommend my favorite, I I think you should try them all. But just for interest's sake, I think we all agreed in our party that Spirit Manor was our favorite. That is in an old building that they don't use for attractions during the year. Um, it used to house a 4D movie theater and things like that. But anyway, it's housed inside this building, and you go in there and it's like you're in an old haunted house with, you know, bookshelves and tables and displays, and it's like you're walking through a manor. And that one we really liked. And we do like Demons of the Deep. It's a little uh what's the word? Um it's a little B movie-like, but it's fun, and uh, you know, all of these mazes are decorated and they're interesting to look at and interesting to walk through, but do be prepared for things and people to jump out at you and come out of windows and holes and come around corners and so on. Of course, their whole job is to scare you and give you a jump scare, so be prepared for that kind of thing. The crypt is good. The ruins is in the side of Wonder Mountain, and Darkride is also pretty good. I really don't want to say too much about these things, I guess. Um, just go and explore yourself. But each of the descriptions I gave you do describe what you would experience. Now there is one other, what I would call maze experience, and that is the conjuring beyond fear. That is an upcharge, it's an added cost. So not everyone is going to do that. It's not covered by your bracelet. You have to pay anywhere from $20 to $40, depending on what day you're visiting, to experience the conjuring beyond fear. This year, we didn't do it because we did that attraction last year. And we tried to find out whether it was any different. We didn't go through to find out, but based on our research, it sounds like it might be different. And the only difference is they're actually leaving out a couple of the experiences we had last year. And the two that, and I can't verify this, but the two that were supposedly left out of the experience were two of the best parts. Whatever. The maze is not like the other mazes, because the other mazes you walk through. You just walk through them and you navigate the hallways and the rooms on your own at your own pace. Although you have to keep moving because, of course, they don't want you to be standing around in the attraction. They want to keep people moving through. But in this conjuring Beyond Fear, it is more of a guided tour, I suppose. It's a little bit like an escape room, a little bit like a guided tour. They direct you from room to room and everything's timed out. And in each room, what you're basically doing is collecting artifacts to do something with them at the end. You're like a paranormal investigator, that's the idea in a role-playing, and you're searching for these artifacts. But while you're searching for them, of course, you encounter malevolent entities, including the famous Annabelle. Although Annabelle's a doll, Annabelle is actually one of the artifacts that you have to pick up and move. The idea is that by the end of this thing, you're going to lock all these artifacts away before they can harm anyone else. That's the concept. And again, you're being guided through and you're being asked to do certain things, and sometimes specific people in your group, because you're traveling through in a group of, say, 10 to 15, there are certain people in the group who are designated with certain jobs. It's a lot of fun. It's really good. I really enjoy the experience. It's billed as an immersive terror experience. So if you've never done it before and you're okay with spending the money, I say do it. It's definitely worth going and experiencing it at least one time anyway. And then you just have to make up your mind about when you're going. So uh when we were there on Saturday, this is Saturday in early October, the Saturday prior to when this is being broadcast, it was $20 a person. But if you're getting closer to Halloween or you're going on a Saturday night right before Halloween, it's probably going to cost you $40 per person, which is a bit steep if you ask me. I think $20, $25 is probably what I'd be comfortable paying for it. Although we have no choice. We're at the mercy of Canada's Wonderland when it comes to this. So you can decide, but I don't think you'll be disappointed going through, particularly if you're a fan of the Conjuring movie series. So those are the mazes. Oh, and I was talking about how it was very busy on Saturday, but we made it through all the mazes. And honestly, the longest wait that we had for a maze was about 20 minutes, maybe 25. That's pushing it a bit. It looked like a long line. It was the line for dark ride. And when we saw the line, some people in my party kind of balked and said, well, maybe we shouldn't do this. And I said, Well, no, let's try it because the line keeps moving. And once we got in line, you know, 15, 20 minutes was the maximum amount of time that we were waiting. The line was moving along, and it really wasn't a long wait. And especially if you have some interesting people you're hanging around with, you can have a conversation, and the next thing you know, you're going through the attraction. All the other uh lineups that we were in, again, they might scare you when you look at them, but they move because the lines are constantly moving through the mazes, and we didn't wait longer than 20 minutes in any other line. And as I say, we managed to get through all six of these mazes through the whole evening. There are also scare zones. This is the second element that you encounter in Halloween haunt. So these are open areas in the park. They're not really bounded by walls like the mazes are. You don't have an entry point. Well, you do have an entry point, I guess, but you just kind of walk through it as you're walking through the park. It's in the open air. There's usually fog and sounds all over the place, and it's themed appropriately according to the scare zone. Here are the scare zones. You have carn evil. It's a carnival mayhem with freak show characters, performers, and wicked clowns reveling in the night, creating terror. You have gates of terror, and behind the gates you will encounter monsters and things lurking in the shadows to create nightmares for you. You have the Kingdom of Carnage, a brutal siege where peasants are battling a dark king's forces where he unleases some dark magic. You have necropolis. This is an underworld of tombs and crypts where the dead rise in search of new recruits to join their ranks. There's streets of the undead, where you must navigate a zombie infested street where barricades trap both the living and the unrelenting the dead. And there's Trick or Treat Street, a haunted party on a twisted street with eerie ghosts, ghoulish games, and delightfully haunted vibes. And there's Wicked Hollow. This is a cursed forest, where fairies turn to evil lure you deeper into with dark magic and twisted tricks. So we saw most of these zones, and there are scare actors in all of these zones representing the kind of creatures you might find in that zone. There was a particularly good one in the Trick or Treat Street, who just stood in the middle of the pathway, staring, not moving, just staring at people as they walked by, and she was very good. They have quite a variety of different scare actors with a variety of different styles. And so that makes it pretty interesting. And you can find these scare actors scattered throughout the park, definitely in these scare zones, and then even walking through the various pathways that aren't designated as scare zones, you will encounter scare actors. The scare zones aren't necessarily huge in area, but they each have their unique elements and interesting things to look at. Lots of props and displays and scare actors. And tons and tons of fog. There was one time when we were pushing through the fog, and yeah, we would run into people because you couldn't see anything because it was so foggy. The third element in Halloween haunt are entertainment offerings. And I gotta be honest, like I don't pay much attention to the entertainment offerings because I like the mazes and I like the scare zones. And if I'm not doing that, I'm probably doing the rides. So I don't take the time to watch the entertainment offerings, but some people really enjoy them. There are three things listed by Canada's Wonderland that are entertainment offerings. You've got Inferno, which is a show with fire demons performing daring stunts and wicked contortions. And of course, fire is rampant in this show, kind of like a stunt show, I guess. There is a show called Headbangers, with LED drummers mixing techno beats, water drumming, and electrifying guest interactions. And then the last entertainment option they talk about is live bands with a variety of wicked music throughout the weekends. That's kind of vague, but that's exactly why, because there'll be different bands at different times throughout the night. So it depends what day you go, and they I think make appearances in various locations. And that's it for the evening entertainment. Like I said, it's not much different than last year. That could be a disappointment to some people when they they go to the park and you kind of want something new each year, right? If you're a frequent go or if you're a regular attender of Halloween haunt and you come back the next year and it's exactly the same thing. It's a bit of a letdown. I still enjoyed it, but it would be nice to see something new. So let's hope that Canada's Wonderland has some new offerings next year and changes it up. So maybe a new maze or two, and maybe look at replacing the conjuring because there'll still be two years that the conjuring's been running. So what else can they do in that space in the mountain that might be interesting? I'm sure they can get their most creative minds on it, and they could come up with something that people will then pay more money to see. Because you see what happened this year. I didn't pay money this year to go on that attraction because I'd seen it before. So if they want to make money, they've got to come up with some new stuff. That is Canada's Wonderland Halloween haunt. See if you can catch it before the season is over. And certainly if you'd like to offer your opinions about Halloween haunt, I'm always willing to listen and engage you in a conversation. I'm very eager to interact with my listeners, so drop me a line. You can use the fan mail button, or you can send me an email, and we can interact. And as I said, I'd be happy to bring some of these ideas up on the

Cruise Contemplations: The Disney Believe

SPEAKER_00 30:30

show. Alright, let's move into cruise contemplations. This week I want to talk about the Disney Believe. This is a new ship to be added to the Disney cruise line fleet in late 2027. It's promising some new one-of-a-kind venue concepts and entertainment experiences, and these experiences will be shaped by some very popular Disney stories, including Encanto, Frozen, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Moana, and The Little Mermaid. At this point in time, they finished the first gigablock of the ship. If you don't know what a gigablock is, it is an unusual term. But when they build these cruise ships, they build them in pieces. It's kind of like Lego almost. So they, I think there's like three or four, maybe three's too few, probably four or five pieces, and they're basically sections of the ship. They build them one at a time, and then as they finish up the ship, they're basically welding these pieces together. So you might have five pieces that make up the complete ship, and they put them together and they weld it all together. It's very interesting. The first gigablock of the ship has been completed, and they will continue working on it so that they can get it in the water and sailing by late 2027. Like its sister ships, Disney Wish, Disney Treasure, and the Disney Destiny, Disney Believe will have a grand hall area that's a common space for the guests to gather, and this space will be themed to Disney's Moana. There will be a bronze cast statue of Moana accompanied by Pua and Heihe as a focal point in this hall. And the statue will be surrounded by Polynesian-inspired finishing touches to accent the fixture. Also, we have some information about the design details of the exterior of the hall. There will be sculptures of Whitty and Buzz Lightyear on the stern of the hull, and it will look like they are etching the name of the ship on the stern using yellow crayons. The playful lettering of the word believe will be in a Toy Story style font, appropriately, of course. And on the bow of the ship, there will be a hand-painted filigree of Tinkerbell as she appeared in the 1953 film Peter Pan. And there will be silhouettes of Peter, Wendy, Captain Hook, and other characters on her flank amid the swirling design. So the theme of the ship is obviously the idea of believing. And Disney says that the ship celebrates the idea of belief in magic, family, the power of nature, and belief in yourself. Now there's a major Disney announcement scheduled for tomorrow, October the 7th at 4.30 p.m. Eastern Time. And at that announcement, it is expected that Disney will announce the itineraries, home ports, and when reservations will open up for this new ship. So if this intrigues you, if you'd like to try a cruise on a brand new Disney ship next year, pay attention and listen for when the reservations will open up and get ready to make a booking. And on this show, I will of course let you know when the dates are announced what those dates will be. So if you stay tuned and you keep listening to the podcast, you'll get the information you need to know because I'm always trying to provide you with information about these various things relating to theme parks and cruises. And other types of travel too.

Canadian Compass Travel Tip of the Week: Tracking Your Luggage

SPEAKER_00 33:52

The Canadian Compass Travel Tip of the Week, it's pretty simple this week. It's about tracking your luggage. It's not really complicated, and you may have thought of this before, but I know there are people who get very concerned about keeping track of their luggage. Because maybe you have a flight booked and it has two stopovers. And the concern, of course, is you get to your location and somehow your luggage didn't get to your location, and you're left with nothing, and you have a week or two planned at this location, and you don't have anything that you packed. That's not a great situation to be in. It's going to cost you some money, and you don't have your favorite things with you that you plan to take. Now, this travel tip doesn't really help get the stuff to you, but it does allow you a chance to keep track of your luggage and know where it is so that you can tell the cruise line, hey, my luggage is in Puerto Rico or wherever it might be. And could you please make arrangements to get my luggage to me as soon as possible? So the tip, of course, is to use air tags to track your luggage. Air tags are convenient little things that you can stick in your luggage, or even there's air tags you can stick in your wallet and this kind of thing. They're tracking devices that use Bluetooth and other networking features to broadcast a signal constantly so that at any given time you can track the item you attach the tag to. So if you're worried about where your luggage is going and you want to keep track of it, it's a great thing to buy one of these tags. They're not that expensive, and you can insert them into your luggage so that if by some chance your luggage goes a different direction than you, you'll at least know where the luggage is. Because back in the day when luggage got lost, sometimes the airline couldn't find it, and it would take them forever to track and find your luggage. With an air tag, you can track your luggage using your cell phone and an app, and you'll know where it is, and you'll be able to tell the airline, look, you guys might not know where it is, but I know where my luggage is because I've got an air tag in it. And I think that will expedite the process of relocating your luggage, and it avoids the risk of never ever finding your luggage, which has happened in the past. So, I mean, honestly, I don't actually use air tags in my luggage. I'm giving you this tip, but it's something I don't really do. Not that I don't think it's a good idea, I just I don't know, I guess I'm not that worried about what's in my suitcase. But maybe you are, and this would be a great tip for you.

Deals Dish: Expedia Exclusive Staterooms Highlights

SPEAKER_00 36:31

In Deals Dish, I wanted to talk about some Xpedia exclusive stateroom offers again. I've talked about these ones before. They can often get you a really good deal on a cruise. And here are two examples for you. First of all, there's a cruise on the Celebrity Beyond. It's sailing on February the 28th, 2027. It's a seven-night Western Caribbean round trip from Fort Lauderdale. And we have Expedia exclusive staterooms on this cruise. Now, the fit rate, which is the rate that the cruise line would charge you if you went online to book this rate or to book this cruise, you would be paying $3,452. But there's an Expedia exclusive stateroom waiting for you, and it will only cost you $2,595. That is $857 of savings. So why wouldn't you do that? So we wanted to let you know about that. And of course, with this Expedia exclusive stateroom, there are additional offers. So you can get a $50 onboard credit per stateroom that you book. And with all of these Expedia exclusive staterooms, you are going to get included some amenities. You're going to get a drink package and you're going to get Wi-Fi in the cabin. So these are really great deals. Because that fit rate that's $857 more doesn't include the Wi-Fi and drinks. So you're actually saving more money. But when you're looking to book a cruise, if you've got a little bit of flexibility, you can ask your travel agent about Expedia exclusive staterooms if you're booking with an Expedia cruises agent and see if they can find something that matches your dates. There are some really good deals out there. Another example is the Harmony of the Seas. It's a Royal Caribbean cruise. It's sailing on March the 20th, 2027. It's a seven-night Eastern Caribbean cruise, leaving from Port Canaveral and returning to Port Canaveral. You can get a 2D category balcony with a group rate, an Expedia exclusive stateroom rate of $2,097. The rate online with Royal Caribbean is $3,093, so you're saving $996. And you're getting $50 of onboard credit, and that's in USD funds. All the onboard credit is in USD funds. And you get that $50 per stateroom that you book. Now with Royal Caribbean, you don't get the extras that you do with Celebrity. You don't get the drinks and Wi-Fi. However, you're still saving, as I said, $996, plus you're getting a $50 of onboard credit when you book this exclusive stateroom. So again, look at the kind of money you can save, right? If you do a little bit of investigating and you look for those deals. In Deals Dish, I also wanted to talk about one other thing. So for those of you who live in the Toronto, Milton, Burlington, Hamilton area, and Oakville, I almost forgot Oakville. I wanted to tell you about a World Explorer event. Last week I told you about the World Explorer event and how there are special deals to be had from various cruise lines and some land suppliers. You can go back and listen to the last episode to find out what those deals are. But in conjunction with this World Explorer event, we're having a special event in downtown Oakville. It is at 2318 Lakeshore Road West in Oakville, and it goes from 5.45 to 8.30 p.m. And this takes place on Tuesday, October the 20th. So it's coming up. But if you come to the sale, you'll learn all about the offers that are available to you with the World Explorer sale. But you'll also get some unique presentations from Explora, Uniworld, and Princess Cruises. So one of those is a river cruise, and the other two are ocean cruises. If you like Princess, Uniworld or Explora and you're interested, it's a great chance to come and learn more about that product. And it's it's not a threatening thing. You come and somebody gives you a presentation, they show you nice slides and explain what their cruises are all about and the kind of itineraries that are available and so on. And there's an expert from the company who can answer questions. And as a bonus, there's appetizers and drinks served, alcoholic drinks as well. And it's free of charge. You just have to register. So if you want to register for this event, I will post the link in the show notes. So if you live within reach of Oakville within driving distance, consider coming to this event. And oh, by the way, usually we offer um prizes as well and special deals for people who come out to the show. So there's usually added bonuses because you attended the event. So it's a win all around. I had a client who attended the last event that we had, and he answered a trivia question that was based on the presentation we all saw, and he won $100 off his next cruise. Not too shabby. And you can't win that kind of thing if you're not at the event. So consider coming and see if you can win some prizes, you get valuable information, and you get show offers. It's a great thing to do. But of course, there are some of you who listen to my podcast where it's a really long drive to get to Oakville. Because this podcast is heard in over 15 different countries. So I think that it might be hard for some of you to get there. And that's okay. Just keep on listening to the show for basic information about travel and cruises and theme parks.

Outro

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Okay, so what about next week? Coming up for next week's episode? Well, I haven't necessarily decided yet, so I don't want to commit. I'm thinking of changing the format so that when I have an interview to share, we'll focus on the interview for that episode. And then the next week we'll resume our regular segments. Up until now, whenever I've had an interview, my episodes are particularly long because I have the interview, but then I also do all the segments. And I thought maybe it would be good just to keep the focus on the interview when I do an interview. So I think I'm gonna move into that mode. And so weeks where we have an interview, the focus will all be on that interview, which is great because I think usually the interviews are quite good. So if all goes as planned, I'll finally air that interview about the Pride of America's Hawaiian itinerary. As you know, one of my clients went on the Pride of America in August, and I've been eager to have that client share with us on the podcast what it was like to do the Hawaiian itinerary with Norwegian. I think she'll have some interesting things to say about that, she and possibly her husband as well. And that is in the works, and I'm hoping to air it next week. If we don't air that interview next week, well, we'll do the usual segments of Mouse Minutes, Park Pulse, Cruise Contemplations, the Canadian Cupus Travel Tip of the Week, and Deals Dish. But another exciting thing to look forward to is an interview with Susan Carvalho with Princess Cruises. I've been having a discussion with her. We're gonna set a date to have an interview, and that's coming up. So if you like Princess Cruises, that'll be fun to listen to. She works for Princess Cruises, so we'll get some insider insights. That's likely not going to air until December, but it's coming. And I'm hoping to bring on some other travel supplier reps as well. So keep listening to the show for these special interviews that I'm looking forward to doing, and of course for lots of other information and travel tips. I mean, I love to talk travel with all of you. It's one of my favorite topics. If you're enjoying the information and inspiration provided in this show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or any other podcast reviewing platform. Links to the show's page and to Apple Podcasts can be found in the show notes. Also, feel free to follow me on Instagram. Just search up at the travel agent. Now, I didn't take pictures of Halloween haunt. I don't know why. I guess I was just too engaged with it. But I do have some pictures of the Halton Radial Railway Museum. So I'll probably post those on that feed. And there's lots of other posts that you can see in that feed as well, all about travel. If you want to respond to anything I've talked about on the show, or if you want to offer topic suggestions or ideas, please, please send me an email at Steven. Or I want to say at Steven, but that's confusing. So send the email to stephen at the travelagent.ca. You can be a part of building the content for our community. And there are listeners, as I said, from around the world. Well, that's it for this week. It's time to move along. I will be hoping to get that interview ready for you for next week. And who knows what other exciting Halloween-themed adventures I'll get up to, but I'm sure you'll hear all about it on this podcast, and I'll update you on how it's going with my 2026 Jeep Rubicon. Alright. Well, until then, keep dreaming, keep planning, and keep exploring.