Since I am having such a hard time narrowing down my pictures and deciding how to edit some of them, I thought I would go ahead and give my review of the types of clubs and tickets we purchased while at the Balloon Fiesta.
The fiesta has regular admission tickets that cost $8 each for those 13 and older. General parking is $10. They have a few picnic tables and bleachers out on the edge of the field. There are numerous vendors set up selling anything and everything. We only bought a funnel cake while there but the most interesting thing was a giant burger only instead of on a bun it was sandwiched between two donuts, seriously, heart attack waiting to happen.
John gets kinda snotty when we go to events like this and wants to pay more for the exclusive tickets. The fiesta has two types of club tickets that can be bought. The first is the Gondola club. We had a special parking pass, a special tent area sitting place, complete with fire pits and a buffet. I am pretty sure we drank about $100 worth of hot chocolate. The Gondola club also has golf carts that will take you to the parking lot to get your car or anywhere on the field you want to go. This was a nice perk. We did this Thursday morning and Sunday morning (our first and last sessions). These tickets will run you $120 for each adult and $50 for each child, but then the second session is half price. So both of these sessions for tickets was $510. John says it was definitely worth it. I am probably on board with that though it is a lot of money when we could have just paid $8 each to get in. Of course no telling how much we would have spent on food if we had done that.They also sent us a package before our trip with two bags, two hats for the kids, four pins, and our parking pass.
Friday night we had Chasers club tickets. However it rained and they canceled the event so we got rainchecks to use whenever we wanted. We used them Saturday morning. This club cost $25 per person and you still have to pay $10 for general parking. You get a snack meal and drinks. For the morning we were there we had breakfast burritos, donuts, hot chocolate, and coffee. There is a special seating area for this club with tables and chairs as well. It is not secluded like the Gondola club area but still a nice area. John did think this club was worth it but I think if you are going you might as well get these club tickets because you would spend the difference on food. Like I said it was nice to have the hot chocolate and we drank a lot of that. It is $3 a cup out amongst the vendors.
They have a balloon museum on the fiesta park site that is open year round. During the fiesta the museum has Diamond club tickets. They have an indoors eating/viewing area (which also means indoor bathrooms, a huge plus in my book). We did this club on Saturday night. We had a buffet meal that was pretty good included, got a pin, and got to tour the museum with our admission ticket. We thought we were going to have a balcony view but found out once things got started there was a wedding reception being held upstairs (which would be totally cool by the way) so we could not go up to the balcony. I was highly disappointed and therefore did not think this club was worth it. I can't remember the exact price but I think it was about $180 for all 4 of us. If we were to go back we would not buy diamond club tickets again.
