Travel Party of 5 | Points & Miles for Family Travel

Hyatt Regency Tamaya & the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta!

• Raya & Duane

Share episode

Thanks for finding our podcast! We are a family of 5 who does most of our travel using credit card points and miles and we share how we leverage credit card offers to earn a ton of points/miles so we can afford travel as a larger family.

Follow us on Instagram @TravelPartyof5

In this episode of the Travel Party of Five podcast, hosts Raya and Duane share all the details of their recent weekend getaway to New Mexico. They take you through their stay at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya and their very first visit to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. This episode is a must-listen if you’ve ever thought about experiencing the excitement of hundreds of colorful hot air balloons filling the sky.

The Hyatt Regency Tamaya is located just outside of Albuquerque, and it became the perfect home base for their trip. This family-friendly resort offers beautiful mountain views, plenty of activities, and a relaxing atmosphere. From horseback riding to cozy fireplaces, this property has something for everyone. Raya and Duane used their points to book a stay here, and they share tips on how you can do the same, especially if you're aiming to attend the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. With features like multiple pools, bike trails, and even s’mores nights, the Hyatt Regency Tamaya makes it easy for families to enjoy their stay while exploring the area.

The main highlight of their trip was attending the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. This world-famous event runs for nine days each October, with sessions in the early morning and evening. They describe the unforgettable experience of waking up at 2:30 AM to catch the first bus to the event, and the thrill of watching the mass ascension where hundreds of balloons take off together. Even with the early wake-up call, they agreed it was worth it. They explain the options for getting to the festival, including the convenience of using a park-and-ride system to avoid traffic.

During the episode, Raya and Duane also share practical advice for attending the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, like dressing warmly, packing patience for crowds, and booking everything in advance. They recommend at least one morning session and a night session if you want to experience all the magic the event has to offer.

Tune in to this episode to hear more about the Hyatt Regency Tamaya, the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, and tips on how to use points and miles to make the most of your family travels. Raya and Duane share all the highs and lows of their trip, from delicious New Mexican food and drone shows, to the chilly, early morning balloon launches. They hope this episode inspires you to plan your own adventure to New Mexico and discover the charm of the Hyatt Regency Tamaya and the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.

So, if you're planning a family trip or looking for your next destination to use points and miles, this episode will give you plenty of insights. Don’t miss their advice on how to make the most of a short weekend trip, tips on booking with points, and why the Hyatt Regency Tamaya is an ideal choice if you’re visiting the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.

Raya:

In today's episode we are sharing all the details of our recent weekend getaway to Albuquerque, new Mexico, including our stay at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya and our very first ever visit to the Albuquerque Balloon Festival. So if that's been on your list, listen in. Hi, I'm Raya.

Duane:

And.

Raya:

I'm Dwayne, and we are your hosts of the Travel Party of Five podcast, where we share how we travel as a family of five around the world.

Duane:

We will also share how we use points and miles to travel as affordably as possible and sometimes even completely free.

Raya:

So if you're wanting to travel as affordably as possible and sometimes even completely free, so if you're wanting to travel more with your family but you're not sure how, we'd love for you to listen in.

Duane:

So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn a thing or two to get you closer to your next trip.

Raya:

Hey guys, welcome back to Travel Party of Five podcast. Hope you're having a great Monday or whatever day you're listening.

Duane:

A great week. A great week yes.

Raya:

So before we jump into our main topic, which is our weekend getaway that we took a couple weeks ago to Albuquerque, I thought we could, just for a second, talk a little bit about life, because I don't know what is happening out there in the universe, but life for us has been pretty hard the last few weeks.

Duane:

Yes, we've had some issues, if you will.

Raya:

Since we got back from Hawaii, the kids and I have all been sick with some weird random virus that has affected us all differently, but one kid ended up getting pneumonia, and so that was stressful.

Duane:

And then, on top of that, we had we had a slab leak in our house, which Yep.

Raya:

We had to cut open walls, find the leak, reroute pipes and yeah, yeah, it was, um, not a cheap problem to fix, but fortunately, as of now, we haven't found any actual water damage that we can see, so we did a reroute for the leak and that has been fixed. Um, I guess it did help us meet a minimum spend on a credit card. Actually, you know what? That's not even true.

Duane:

It didn't yeah, because we didn't get the credit.

Raya:

It didn't because I didn't have the card in the mail yet and it didn't come for like two days after we paid it. I did consider calling them and asking if they would refund the card I used and then recharge the new card, but I decided against it.

Duane:

So, yes, that is why we had to do a little replay last week, because we were unable to record a podcast. Yeah, so apologies for that. To record a podcast yeah, it was just insane, so apologies for that.

Raya:

But if you are looking to get the Southwest Companion Pass, the reason we did that replay? My intention was to record a fully new episode with not only how you can earn one or two Companion Passes, but also the places that we have taken or, I'm sorry, the places that we have used our Companion Pass to visit. That was my intention, but everyone was sick and had fevers and coughing and it was just not. It wasn't going to work. So appreciate your your patience on that. Um, and we're back this week with a fresh new episode and everyone is feeling better. So if you are struggling too, hopefully it gets better for you soon.

Duane:

Yeah, Keep your head up.

Raya:

So, okay, we went to New Mexico.

Duane:

Albuquerque.

Raya:

Albuquerque, and the entire premise for this trip was on our path to reaching Hyatt Globalist status, which, as a side note, let me just really quickly tell you we're very close. We are at drum roll. We're at 53 nights and I have two more coming up, actually starting tomorrow for a work trip, and we've already. We have five qualifying nights coming from our Hyatt business credit card. So I think within a month we should have officially hit globalist status, which is exciting.

Duane:

Yes, very exciting.

Raya:

Um and so, on the path to getting globalist status, we earned a free night certificate that can be used at any category one through four Hyatt. What I didn't know is that that certificate has a six month expiration date.

Duane:

So so you had to quickly find somewhere to use it.

Raya:

Yeah, because it was going to expire in February and we didn't have any trips booked where we could use it between now and then, really. So I did a Google search of the best category one through four Hyatt's right, really you want a category four because you want to maximize your value that you're getting, and on the list was the Hyatt Regency Tamaya, which is in Albuquerque, and the Albuquerque Balloon Festival or Fiesta I think it's interchangeable has been on my list for a couple of years I've been wanting to go and so I looked up when the festival was and it's in October, and they had availability on the Saturday night, which was the last night before the end of the festival. So I think it goes for nine days or ten days every year.

Duane:

I think it's nine.

Raya:

It covers two weekends, and so they had a free night availability on the last night of the festival. So that would have cost us 18,000 points to book and instead it was free and so I booked it and then I figured I planned a trip around that one night.

Duane:

Yeah, we love free, so we jumped on it.

Raya:

Yeah, and so we used our companion pass. We flew on Southwest, obviously, and I used points for one way and I used cash for the return, because we didn't have enough Southwest points to do both and I didn't want to transfer any chase points. So it still only ended up being maybe $100, I think out of pocket it wasn't. Maybe it was $150. It wasn't too bad, yeah, not too bad, and we flew over early Saturday morning and flew back Sunday night, so we had, I don't know, would you say, 36 hours maybe? Yeah, something like that. What did we think of? Let's go in this order let's do Albuquerque itself and the stuff we did, albuquerque, then the hotel and then the balloon festival. Let's do that. So what did you think of Albuquerque?

Duane:

Well upon landing in Albuquerque the airport is what I imagined it would be.

Raya:

Yes.

Duane:

Tile floor, like Spanish style tile floors? Yeah, what are the colors?

Raya:

It's like greens and browns and reds?

Duane:

Is there a word for that? Oh, I don't know. Definitely Southwest, feel Albuquerque, feel for sure. Um, and I mean this in the nicest way, but the people there were a little odd, um, friendly but odd, would you say yeah, not odd, they're not odd.

Raya:

Duane thinks it's odd because because he's not like that. But I felt like, oh, all these people here are like me.

Duane:

So yes, odd.

Raya:

They talk to strangers and you know, just about random things, which I do pretty often, and Dwayne is always like they do not care about your story and I'm like I don't care if they care, I'm just being a human and talking to other humans.

Duane:

I mean I'll talk to other humans and strangers, but no, you, you like.

Raya:

You really don't more than not. You're like oh, I should have told this person this, but you never do.

Duane:

Somewhat true.

Raya:

Yeah, so yes, it was like people were just like, oh, like we we were, we had a camera, we were getting on the bus to go to the balloon festival and the guy was like, oh, look, that's so cute with your little home camera and blah, blah, blah and I was just laughing like I don't know. People were just talking to us about the most random things and I really enjoyed.

Duane:

It started at the rental car place when we landed. We had it started at the rental car place when we landed. We had to go pick up a rental car and when we got to the rental car place the guy helping us was like telling us how he was going to start a business by selling these little paper hot air balloons from his house and it was going to be a side hustle.

Raya:

That's. Yeah, that's right and I was all about it. I was was like you should. You should make a QR code. You should tell people. If they're interested, they can scan it and go to your website and then he said something about a spider which none of us got.

Raya:

I don't know we're off track here. But on the note though, we did have to rent a rental car, which originally I hadn't planned on doing. I was just going to take an Uber to the hotel and back to the airport, but then when I started researching into the balloon festival and kind of how it works, and I realized the hotel is about 45 minutes from the airport this particular hotel I was like, oh, that's going to be a very expensive Uber. So between what the Ubers would have cost to and from the airport plus we had to get to the balloon festival and back, it would have been more expensive to Uber. So we rented a car.

Duane:

We definitely saved money.

Raya:

And I think we paid $170 maybe, which isn't super cheap, but it was still cheaper than what it would have been had we used uber or lyft.

Duane:

Yeah, so we did rent a car, we used enterprise, I think, and it was it was easy, they didn't have the camry oh yeah they were gonna get us, so they upgraded us a free upgrade to suv yeah, it was a volkswagen, it was a nice little car, yeah.

Raya:

So, okay, let's do albuquerque. So we land in the morning, we go to downtown. I'm sorry, no, we go to look at the petroglyphs first. Yeah, which is a little bit of a national monument. I think it's called petroglyph national monument.

Raya:

Yeah, and there are a few different areas within this park that you can see petroglyphs, but a lot of them require hiking and we did not want to do that yeah, we weren't prepared to hike because some of the hikes are like a few miles and they're like make sure you bring a lot of water, and we didn't have any of that and we just got off the plane and we had all our luggage and it was hot it was hot and we didn't have a lot of time, so we just did the short little five minute, ten minute hikes and we saw some petroglyphs and we felt satisfied with what we saw.

Raya:

I think if you're a hiker, it would be cool to you know, do a little hike and maybe prepare a little bit more than we did. And then we went to Old Town, albuquerque, which was incredibly busy.

Duane:

Yes, super busy.

Raya:

But just think it's the last Saturday of the Balloon Festival and we'll talk more about this when we get to the Balloon Festival portion. But the festival is open in the morning and at night and it closes down in the middle of the day. So everyone you know, once they go to the balloon launch in the morning is then, you know, probably out and about in albuquerque and they had bands set up playing like what I think was traditional they were, yeah, hispanic.

Duane:

They're a mariachi band, yeah, um, yes, it was bustling with people and a lot of people, took us a bit to find parking.

Raya:

We wandered around for a bit. We put our name down for lunch at the church street cafe, which, if you want like authentic new mexican food in an authentic environment, I would recommend it. It was very like very albuquerque when you walked in. Yes, we did wait about an hour, but we just kind of wandered around and did some shopping, got some souvenirs. I got a christmas ornament and a magnet and yeah, it's.

Duane:

It's not very big so you can walk around and visit everywhere and it was.

Raya:

It's a cute little old town area and so we had lunch. Lunch was good. My tip there would be to get the sopapillas at the end.

Raya:

They were my favorite part, probably they're super yummy yeah, and if you don't know, sopapillas are kind of like a puffed fried dough and then they served it with honey and it was yummy. And what else did we do then? We just went to the hotel. Oh, we had to go find swim trunks, which we never ended up using. I just realized duane didn't bring swim trunks, so we went to a target and a walmart trying to find swim trunks for him, because we were going to. Our plan was to go back to the hotel and go to the pool and kind of relax before dinner. We got to the hotel, we checked in, but by the time we got out to the pool, the pool bar was closed, the bar was closed and it was like 5 pm.

Duane:

At this point I think, yeah, and the bar was closed 5 pm at this point, I think, and the bar was closed, so so then we just proceeded to the main bar um, where we had a couple drinks and appetizers.

Raya:

We were there for a good couple hours has a beautiful view of the mountains when you sit on the patio, and so it was very nice and relaxing and they had a very good lavender honey margarita.

Duane:

Yes, and their menu was pretty cheap for being a hotel.

Raya:

Yeah, so we'll talk about the hotel in a minute. So Sunday let's talk about the other activities we did Sunday in Albuquerque. Besides the Balloon Festival, we did the tram.

Duane:

Yeah, what mountain was that?

Raya:

The other must-do thing in Albuquerque that I could find was taking the Sandia Peak tram up to the top of Sandia Peak. I believe you can also drive up there, but I think that probably takes some time. We waited for the tram. You can also hike up there, oh yeah.

Duane:

We met a couple that did that. It took them four hours.

Raya:

Yeah, you can hike up and take the tram down, which is what they were doing. That would be a no for me. Yeah, no, thank you. But the tram is pretty cool and it's built by the same people who have built the trams in Switzerland and it goes a lot farther than you think it goes from when you're at the bottom, like we thought it just went up to this one peak, but that was just like Halfway point, maybe even the third way point. Yeah, yeah, because then it goes again and so, anyways, the views from the top were beautiful. Would would definitely recommend doing that. It was really busy when we went, but again, I think that's because of the, the balloon festival. I would bet it's not that busy most times.

Duane:

Yeah, yeah, but it was like the longest um what tram in north america, or second, I think. So, yeah, it was like over a mile long and it took like 15 minutes to get from the bottom to the top. And I mean you're yeah, you said we were what like 10,000 feet in there or something. By the time you got to the top, actually, I think you start off and you're you're at like 3,000 feet above sea level and then by the time you get to the top, it's like a little over 10 yeah, it was.

Duane:

It was really high up there yeah, so you get to the top. It's actually a ski resort in the winter. There's a restaurant up top which we didn't go to, Apparently.

Raya:

You said it was fine dining right, it's like a fine dining restaurant that requires reservations. I do think they also have a bar that you can go to without a reservation. We didn't do any of that, but, yes, you can make a reservation at this fine, this like fine dining restaurant, and you need to take the tram to get there. The only other thing we did on in Albuquerque on Sunday is we ate at Bob's Burgers, which we heard was a New Mexico staple, and so I got. They have a taco burger which is like a crispy taco shell, a burger, patty American cheese and then their chili sauce, and it was so good that I ordered two and ate them and then ordered a third one. It was delicious and Dwayne had a green chili burger. But like, this is fast food, like, think, like, did they have a drive through?

Duane:

I don't think this location did it almost had like a small diner type feel to it.

Raya:

Yeah, but it was like fast food for sure. Yeah, but I would recommend the taco burger. It was delicious. I really enjoyed it.

Duane:

Yeah, my burger was pretty good. It was a little greasy, but.

Raya:

Yeah, yeah, the tacos were greasy, too greasy, but yeah, yeah, the tacos were greasy too. Um, and so, as far as albuquerque itself, we did the petroglyphs, the tram, old town and ate at bob's burgers. Yeah, I don't know about you, but I felt like that was enough of albuquerque for me, like I felt like I got a feel for it yes, and if you haven't been to albuquerque, it's like, really, you can see one end of the city to the other.

Raya:

Yes, yes, you can see so far, which was really crazy to me. Okay, let's talk about the hotel. So the Hyatt Regency Tamiya is a category for Hyatt, so you can book. Book that means anywhere from 12 to 18,000 points a night, whether it's on peak, off peak or regular. Um, I tell me, if you agree, we kind of already talked about this when we were there, but I would not describe this as a luxury hotel by any means, but it was very family friendly and it was very nice yes, I would agree and the inside is like very new mexico.

Raya:

Yes, they have a lot of artifacts native artifacts yep um history. Around the whole resort there's like plaques and you can read about all sorts of things. They have cozy fireplaces in the lobby area fire pits on the property yep, you can do. I think they have free s'mores, which we didn't do because duane hates s'mores, but we would have done if we were there with our kids. Yeah, that would have been a fun thing.

Duane:

I hate them because they're messy.

Raya:

Yeah, dwayne is a very clean, clean person.

Duane:

So they have two pools, mm-hmm, well, three actually. They have an adult pool, main pool, kiddie pool.

Raya:

But the pools are pretty basic. Yeah, like it was giving me like a city pool vibe, like do you know what I'm talking about? Like you know, in the movie um Sandlot where they go to the pool, is it Sandlot, where they go to the pool and the kid, the kid fakes the drowning for the lifeguard. Is that Sand sandlot I believe so it was giving me that kind of pool vibes I mean it.

Duane:

I didn't get those vibes, but I mean it was. It was basic. I mean the adult pool was pretty blah. I mean it was just a circle with some chairs yeah, nothing too fancy, but I mean kids would enjoy it there was a water slide.

Raya:

There was a water slide, yep, yep. So, again, family friendly. They also have a horseback riding like I'm sorry a stable and like a horseback riding experience that you can book, and they're rescued horses. So we didn't make it down to the stable. We didn't have time. We were actually not at the hotel for very long, but that would a hundred percent be something that I would do if we go back, and we've discussed going back and taking our kids for a few nights, and we've discussed going back and taking our kids for a few nights. I don't know if our kids would be able to handle the balloon festival, but I do think that they would enjoy this property. There are also, because the hotel is kind of far outside the city. There are stunning mountain views everywhere you look. Yeah, we brought our drone and flew it up for a little bit and it was really beautiful.

Duane:

Yeah, the property also has these trails. You can ride bikes on walk if you'd like. While we were there, there was a wedding Apparently. There's a wedding venue on the property, but you have to take a bus there like a shuttle.

Raya:

We were watching people get shuttled to this wedding for a while while we were having our drinks and appetizers for dinner. Yes, we also thought that the food was really good and pretty cheap for like a hotel menu.

Duane:

We didn't eat a lot of food, but the food that we did get was pretty good.

Raya:

A lot of food, but the food that we did get was was good, yeah, yeah, um, there's also a fine dining restaurant at the hotel that is called corn maiden. We did not eat there, but we saw a lot of people eating there, yeah, and I would imagine that it's something where locals come and eat too. Um, I don't know, maybe we'll. We would try it if we went back, but probably not with kids, if I had to guess.

Duane:

Probably not.

Raya:

Yeah, our room was fine. We had a room with a king bed and when we checked in they said they upgraded us. But I'm not sure. Oh, I'm sorry. They said they upgraded us to a room with a balcony and our balcony looked over like this little interior, I'm sorry, exterior courtyard type thing yeah, and we can see the pool yeah, we could see the pools too. Yeah, um, what else about the hotel?

Duane:

again, we weren't there very long because I mean we got there at what late in the afternoon yeah, we checked in around. Saturday we had to get up early on Sunday morning.

Raya:

Yeah, we really didn't spend a ton of time there, but we're considering taking our kids back, so obviously we liked it enough to potentially return For us. We flew this time but we could drive and it's not that far. It's maybe it's the same distance as it is to California, so just in the other direction. Okay, let's talk about the Balloon Festival. So I did zero research on this until about a week prior when a friend of mine I saw on her Instagram that she was at the Balloon Festival and I was so excited because I said, oh my gosh, like we're doing this next weekend, like I'm so excited. And then I noticed that she had put that she had woken up at 230 in the morning and I went Wait what, you have to do what? And so she gave me the website and I started looking into it.

Raya:

And here let me just break this down for you if you want to attend the balloon festival in 2025, there are two sessions a morning session and a night session. The morning session goes from about 4 30 in the morning until maybe 9, maybe 10 am at the latest, and then they close down and then the night session is, I think, five ish or four ish until I don't know seven or eight. We didn't do a night session, we only did the one morning, and you have a few options. You can either drive yourself there and park or you can do a park and ride, which is we did, because everything that I read said that the park, if you do self-parking, it can be really stressful and if you're not there, like by a certain time, you won't get in the gates in time to watch all the festivities.

Duane:

So and traffic. I mean, if you self-park you, you're gonna be stuck in traffic for a while.

Raya:

Yes, the buses which is what we took have their own designated bus lanes so they don't have to wait in the traffic. Yeah, so we got up at 2.30 in the morning, which was, whew, yes, very early. We left the hotel by 3.15, and we were parking our car at about 3.40. Okay, in the we there's a bunch of different park and ride parking lots. We parked in the Intel lot. I'm sure that maybe they change every year, but that's where we parked and we got in line to wait for the bus. The other thing my friend told me is that it was going to be cold and so I was wearing a bunch of layers and I wasn't too cold. I was. I was okay. We thought it was fine waiting for the bus. We waited about 10, 15 minutes outside to get on the bus and when we got on the bus, it's maybe a 20 minute drive, you think.

Duane:

Yeah.

Raya:

To the park, so the bus drives us there, we get off and then we go wait in line to get in and that's where you have to show your your tickets. And when we get off the bus it is much colder. So I don't know. I mean I guess we were it must have been at a different elevation or something. It was much colder and windier, right it was just an open field.

Duane:

That's why the the breeze is what made it colder, I think, and, being that it was so open, you felt the breeze. You what made it colder, I think, and being that it was so open, you felt the breeze, you know.

Raya:

Well I was like uh-oh, Like I had been totally fine. I was like, oh yeah, this is manageable. And then I was like I am freezing, so we go. You know, we get through. There's a ton of people waiting to get in. And we later learned that it was actually not that busy the day we were there, because we were there the very last day of the festival, so they were, I think, only doing a morning session and there was no night session that day, and I think by then most people had left, because our bus driver told us that it was pretty slow yeah so we get finally into the area and everything is open.

Raya:

So they have tons of places serving coffee and breakfast burritos and donuts, and so we got coffee yeah, it was almost as if it was like a fair yes, it looked very much like a fair, except it's completely pitch dark and like you can't see except for where there's lights.

Raya:

So we got some coffee and donuts and then I bought a blanket to wrap around myself because I was shivering and it was the best $25 I've ever spent I would have spent more, quite frankly and then we just walked around, and so you can walk around all of the balloons. In fact, we almost stepped on a balloon because we thought it was dirt or sand and that's how dark it was.

Duane:

Yeah, I mean I didn't realize that you can just roam freely throughout the field, like I thought they were going to be, you know, sectioned off where the balloons would go, but I mean you can walk right up to a balloon.

Raya:

No one says anything to you. It was crazy. Yeah, it was really really interesting. And you, you know, they have the fire things where they, they test them and they light them up, and then you can stand right next to them while they're doing that and no one cares, and so we watched a bunch of balloons get blown up, and so the way it works is at 5 45 am, they have a drone show. The drone show was a very cool and it started right on time and I mean this, the stuff that they were doing with these drones.

Duane:

I was like wow crazy what they can do with drones nowadays Crazy.

Raya:

And then at 6.15 or 6.30 maybe, they do the dawn patrol, which is where there's like maybe four or five balloons that take off, and so those were the first balloons, and the sun is just starting to come up, and so the sky is still pretty dark, and that was exciting to see the first few balloons take off. It is entirely weather permitting, whether the balloons fly or not, and so in the mornings, right up until it's time to go, they will basically give you either a green flag, which means yes, or a red flag, which means it's not safe for the balloons to fly. Fortunately, we had a green flag the day that we were there. I would have been really sad if we had gotten up that early and then not been able to see it, you know yeah.

Duane:

So you know, my friends and co-workers found out we were going to this balloon festival and, you know, most of them asked if we were going to get in one, and my answer was, of course, not. Um yeah, because you get in a hot air balloon. You're at the the whim of the wind, you know the whim of the wind.

Raya:

Yes, you're the whim of my wind, yeah, so you get. Once you get in, you're going where the wind takes you, and and that's not for me so anyways, we did not fly in a hot air balloon. Just seems a little irresponsible, considering we have three little kids, you know know, to care for.

Duane:

Yeah.

Raya:

But we really enjoyed watching them and Dwayne was like pretty unhappy about waking up at 2.30 in the morning, but was it worth it to go there.

Duane:

It was worth it. Would I do it again? Probably not, I mean, unless the kids went. But I mean I don't see the kids getting up at two, 30 and heading out that early. But it was cool for for me and you to be there, um, and not have to worry about dragging three kids around. Yeah, I thought it was pretty cool, um, when she told me that there was going to be like 500 balloons, I thought that's a lot of balloons, but I, when she told me that there was going to be like 500 balloons, I thought that's a lot of balloons, but I mean I think there was more. Like the bus driver told us it was like 300 or something.

Duane:

But I mean, after the Dawn Patrol, like she said, that was at what 615? Then at 730. Seven or seven is when all the balloons go up. They call it the mass ascension, mass ascension, mass ascension. So I mean there were at one point balloons just hitting other balloons because they were all filling up their balloons with air to take off and I mean it was pretty crazy to see. I mean at one point there was probably 50 balloons going up at once, like, and then two minutes later 50 more it. It was pretty crazy to see.

Raya:

It was crazy to look around and just see so many balloons in the air and we saw some balloons get blown up that they ended up bringing down and they didn't fly them.

Raya:

Yeah, that was yeah, and so we asked our bus driver on the way back, who was very knowledgeable, very informative. We said why do some of them blow up and then not take off? And he said it's completely up to the driver of the or are they pilots? I don't know Pilots. Yes, it's completely up to the pilot of the hot air balloon, so they could get it blown up and then just not be feeling it, not feeling the vibes, and so then they can just take it back down.

Duane:

Yeah, yeah.

Raya:

And we saw several balloons do that.

Duane:

Yeah, I mean, I thought it was pretty windy while they were doing it and I thought for sure that's why they were taking it down. But yeah.

Raya:

So to learn that it was completely at the pilot's discretion was interesting because, excuse me, it kind of seems like there should be someone going around saying like yes, you're good to go, you know, kind of like air traffic control. But there's not. There's none of that. It's either you have the green flag like everyone has a green flag to go, and then like from there it's up to you. That just feels like the wild, wild west to me.

Duane:

So these balloons take off and again they're just floating in the wind and they have to find a place to land.

Raya:

Yeah. So when we were there until maybe I don't know, 8 something, yeah, and then we left, we walked back to the bus and then the bus drove us back to our car and while we were driving from our car, once we got in our car and we were driving back to the hotel, which again is about a 20, 30-minute drive we were seeing these balloons land in some really random places, like one landed in a residential neighborhood yeah, just someone's neighborhood, someone's front driveway.

Duane:

There was a couple fields. We saw some land in. Yeah, a couple businesses that they landed in. Yeah, yeah, so the bus driver was also telling us that. You know, they just look for a place that they feel is safe enough to land and they try and shoot for that landing yeah, yeah, so crazy, pretty crazy, but all in all, a super cool experience.

Raya:

Um, we may take our kids back I don't know if they need to be a little older, because it was very cold and I just think they would have been pretty miserable but I do think that at some point we will likely take them to see it, maybe just not right away, but I think, if the balloon festival is on your list, the other tip we learned from our bus driver is definitely go to at least one morning session and one night session. And there is a night session if you have kids, where they call it odd shapes or something like that, and it's when all the kids balloons are there, and so obviously that during the night session they don't take off but they do blow them up and you can see all the fun kids shapes and kids like balloons.

Duane:

So I do think that would be fun if you have kids yeah, I think he said it was thursdays and friday nights that they do that, but I mean, there's only one thursday and friday night, I think.

Raya:

Yeah, yeah so check the schedule if you're planning, but the schedule is already out for 2025. Hotels are already bookable.

Duane:

I mean yeah, didn't they already have merchandise out for 2025? Or they changed the website, the Facebook group.

Raya:

Yeah, so I joined the Facebook group for it, just to kind of get a feel, because that's generally where I find the best information these days is crowdsourcing through Facebook groups. And I mean, while we were still there at the festival, the Facebook group name changed from whatever the 2024 festival name was to the whatever the 2025 name will be. So they are on top of it and it is serious business, like it's. It's a huge festival and Albuquerque is not a huge town, so if you do go, just pack your patience, because I mean, we flew out what Sunday night and fortunately, southwest is so amazing. We had booked a later flight, like a 9 pm flight, but one of our kids got sick while we were there, so we were trying to get an earlier flight home and we were like we were on the standby list and we we made it, but like barely with the help of a southwest agent who helped us out tremendously actually.

Raya:

Yeah, shout out to him because it was challenging when you have a companion ticket and you're trying to get on a standby list.

Duane:

It was just a pain and yes, so he was fantastic but I mean I'm pretty sure I was like the second to the last person to get on the plane yeah, yeah, um, and our server at the airport too, because we had a couple hours to kill at the airport and she was just.

Raya:

she like thanked us for not yelling at her. Yeah, which is wild to me.

Duane:

Was pretty stressed out. You could, you could tell. But yeah, she thanked us for being cool and not yelling yeah. And we were just happy to have our drinks she was making drinks for someone else and I walked up to her and I said hey, excuse me, ma'am chance, I just need a forget a beer. And she was like here, you want this one just gave me that one, I was like sure, and went back and got another one for the person she was making it for me.

Raya:

It was pretty funny so, yeah, pack your patience, but I definitely think it was worth it. And like, yes, 100% would do, I would do it again.

Duane:

Yeah, I would wake up that early, doesn't bother me definitely wear warm clothes, because I'm usually typically pretty hot always, and I even asked her like do you think I could get away wearing shorts and like a sweater?

Raya:

and I said no so I didn't.

Duane:

so I wore sweatpants and a jacket and I was still pretty cold, so glad you didn't wear shorts.

Raya:

Yes.

Duane:

Yeah, definitely glad I wore shorts, because we would have bought like three blankets.

Raya:

That's why you should always listen to your wife, yep. Anyways, hope this episode was helpful If you've got the Balloon Festival on your radar for 2025. Thank you so much for listening. We appreciate it so much. We would love if you would subscribe or follow or leave us a review if you are so inclined, and we will catch you on the next episode.

Duane:

Thanks for tuning in. Have a good one.

Raya:

Bye.