"0"^^ . "12"^^ . "I know it's a long review, but I think you'll enjoy it:\n\nThis was a couple years ago, but the issues aren't anything that would have changed so I decided to write a review anyway so other people might know what they're getting into.\n\nBf at the time bought the ride for my bday. He paid full price & thought it was a private ride for 2. We ended up in a tiny balloon basket with a pilot & 2 young Asian girls. Lucky for him, he loved Asian girls...a LOT. I am not Asian. You can understand why this was an issue for me. I did not enjoy my bf smashing against 2 hot young Asian chicks in a basket for my birthday. Not the company's fault, but would be nice if they had informed him that there would be other people on our romantic champagne ride. He kept apologizing to me for this but it didn't help.\n\nTo make it worse, the girls kept complaining about having gotten up early & talking about how they only went on the ride bc their dad paid 1/2 price for the ride via Groupon. Nothing like knowing my bf spend the equivalent of more than half his menial paycheck on a gift when the other people paid half price. Again, I know it's not the company's fault that some people don't look at Groupon, but it was just another negative on our trip.\n\nThe pilot was...ok. Ex bf mentioned that I fly airplanes and from that point on the balloon pilot was very condescending toward me.\n\nAside from the questionable company, the ride was strange as well. There is no real launch site. We got up at like 3:30 or 4 a.m. on my bday, drove to a location where we met the crew, then rode around in a van while they tried to figure out where we would launch. I don't know anything about hot air balloons, but driving around for a couple hours was pretty annoying. Guess it's how hot air ballooning goes? So...expect that.\n\nGuess what you do after you wake up early and drive around with the crew and the hot Asian girls for a long time? You put together their hot air balloon! That's right...it's a very Tom Sawyer kind of trick where they're like \"Hey, you're going to ACTUALLY help us built the balloon you're gonna fly in! It's so fun!\" Uhhh...It's not fun. It's work. And the little Asian girls were Scottsdale snobs and refused to help so...for my bday, I got to assemble a hot air balloon at the crack of dawn while one Asian girl stood and watched rolling her eyes and complaining and the other slept in the van bc these 18 year old girls partied too hard the night before. Ugh...\n\nThe flight itself was fine. Uncomfortable for me bc of the weird situation being squished into a tiny basket with my boyfriend's Asian fantasy girls.\n\nI have never been in a hot air balloon before or after this, but the \"landing\" was pretty much a crash. We hit tree tops on the way down. We were told to brace for impact, and the touchdown was very violent. Dust and rocks flying everywhere while the ground crew tried to catch the ropes and help us to stop without tipping over.\n\nThe \"champagne breakfast\" was the crew throwing out a basket of packaged muffins on a tailgate...think Otis Spunkmeyer style and some Sunny Delight with the option of champagne to mix with the Sunny D. Well...for the two of us who were over 21. Fantasy Asian chicks were like 18 so no ghetto Sunny D mimosas for them. They got in the van and slept while the crew packed up the balloon.\n\nSo...it wasn't what he thought, wasn't what I thought, and we paid double the price of the other customers. It kinda sucked. Except for the Asian girls...their daddy bought them the ride and they got to sleep a lot and get checked out by my bf the whole time, so I guess it was ok for them. Hopefully they'll write a nicer review."^^ . "2015-01-08T00:00:00"^^ . . . "0"^^ . "1"^^ . .