Fantasy Tours Albuquerque Balloon Fest

We had a nice dinner last night and they had a combo playing some horrible music. IT was very loud in the tent so you could not hear them on the other side. THey had balloons up in the air early today, friday the 3rd and they floated right by the coach.

Did the FMCA tour a couple of years age. Best thing about the tour other than all the Balloons was that the tour included afternoon tours around the area including Santa Fe and some dinners with entertainment. Our days were busy. Getting up before day brake to catch the bus to the launch field got old so a couple of days we sacked in and had our morning coffee watching the balloons fly directly overhead only a couple of hundred feet.

Fantasy is the "official" tour operator for several organizations including Good Sam so it is applicable to general RV.

Hi John! Hubby and I are also at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. We're with the SKP Boomer group, over in standard parking. We've been here since Tuesday. I volunteered to crew a balloon, today was safety training over at the launch field.

I thought about that but there are fifth wheels here in our group too. Fantasy advertised it on FMCA but they do not restrict it to only Mothorhomes it seems.There is a fifth wheel next to me in fact and Good Sam and FMCA populate this tour.

John S. wrote:
I thought I would start a thread and chronicle my experiences on the first tour I have taken with Fantasy Tours thru FMCA.

Thursday, Oct 2. Parking and registration.
They were very efficient parking us. The lot is all dirt and a few pieces of gravel. It was sold as right on the Balloon Fest grounds overlooking the launch. I will post some pictures but that is a fail. It is facing the motorhome across from me. The registration was ok and a bit chaotic but it got done. You would think instead of 330 for snacks and questions, they would put out a few snacks and cold drinks when we are registering. I know that Foretravel does that and we did it at rallies we have run in the past.

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The balloon festival is "generic" (available to everyone), however "Fantasy Tours thru FMCA" is not.

Since FMCA is *exclusively* an organization for Motor Home owners, your post probably belongs in the Class A Motor Home forum - rather than - General RVing Issues.


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There is an RV show this weekend too. But you are right, it is a huge gathering and they charge for everything it seems.

We did the Balloon Festival a few years ago and we lucked out in our parking spot. If I were to do it again, I would research the heck out of it and book a year in advance.

We found there were only a few camping areas that had a good view of the sunken park, where the balloons lift off. We paid for general parking and got in late. Luckily, it worked out. We were suppose to be in a dirt area about 500 yards south of the launch area. It was full and they had just opened freshly paved spots around the large field where the balloons land. We were nose into the field with no one in front or behind us. Turned out to be a good spot.

The other thing we learned was that you can't just plan on a couple of days there. If the weather is bad, they don't launch. Luckily, our last day, the weather was beautiful and everyone launched. We even got to help land a few in front of the RV.

Lastly, the balloons launch early in the morning and then there are some activities in the evening when they inflate the balloons in the launch area. During the hours in between, NOTHING goes on. We found ourselves and thousands of others crowding into local towns for sightseeing.

The balloon festival was one of the largest RV gatherings I've seen in my lifetime. It seems that it would be smart business to have an RV show nearby with new RV's and products. They would make a killing.