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If I go it will be by bike. Throw the bikes on the car, drive to Vista del Norte neighborhood on north side of Osuna and park. Bike up the North Diversion Channel bike trail, it takes about 10 minutes to get to Balloon Fiesta Park. The trail goes under Paseo del Norte and under Alameda so no worries about traffic. They have a bike valet with security guards at the Fiesta.
I haven't tried this so don't know if Vista del Norte has up some sign discouraging Fiesta parking. If so, try the business park off of Jefferson or anywhere with access to the bike trail. Even if it takes 30 minutes by bike, that's better than up to two hours by car or bus.
I've had good luck with the buses before, surprised to hear about these problems. I've never gone by car.
You should be ON the field by 6 am not waiting for the bus at that time.
When I saw this on the news, I thought it was the fault of the
organizers, but when I saw what time it was, it turned out to be
the fault of people wanting to sleep in.
Even better advice:
Quote:
Originally Posted by aries63
If I go it will be by bike.
There are lots of places to park along that bike route.
We just got back from the twinkle glow. It was canceled! The announcer said it was too late to continue at 7PM??? We took the bus from Coronado, no line in, no line out.
You should be ON the field by 6 am not waiting for the bus at that time.
When I saw this on the news, I thought it was the fault of the
organizers, but when I saw what time it was, it turned out to be
the fault of people wanting to sleep in.
A women was on the news tonight complaining that she bought her tickets, but didn't get to the field. She got to the park and ride at 6:45, whose fault was it that she didn't get to go? Not the park and ride people.
It's pretty clear now we should have gone earlier, but for someone who has never gone before, getting to the park & ride lot an hour before the last bus was scheduled to leave seemed plenty reasonable. We weren't dying to see the whole mass ascension, but we didn't think we would still be standing there an hour later. Now we know.
Aries, the bike idea is genius. Will definitely try that next time.
Wow. I've taken the Park N Ride option the last 2 years, always from the Coronado lot, and they had buses rolling in constantly both times. Worked great!
We just returned from using the Intel Park and Ride and everything went smoothly.
We arrived at about 5:20 and they had one bus leaving with 3 additional waiting. As each filled, it departed.
We returned to the tent for departure back at around 9 and there was again no line, with plenty of busses ready at each tent.
My only complaint about the event was the number of people who had a little trouble figuring out that a "non-smoking event" means that they can't smoke.
My only complaint about the event was the number of people who had a little trouble figuring out that a "non-smoking event" means that they can't smoke.
There is no smoking allowed on the Launch Field while balloons are present. Smoking is permitted in designated locations on Main Street. Please be considerate of our other guests.
I'll clarify. The smokers I saw were on the field, near the balloons and several just tossed their butts on the grass.
I did not see any smoking areas as I did not go looking for them, but the main part of the event is non-smoking and it was annoying that these people did not leave the launch area to go find the lung cancer area.
I tested my biking idea this afternoon. Drove with bike on car to Vista del Norte neighborhood just north of Osuna. Parked on Villa Corrales Rd. which connects to North Diversion Channel bike trail. Took the two bike trail underpasses (which are really cool) under Paseo and Alameda. The bike trail ends right at the Balloon Fiesta Park with a right turn over the arroyo bridge into the park. Follow signs to "bike valet" straight ahead, a booth where you check your bike in a security area. Took me 12 minutes to bike there, not enough for a workout.
Apparently on Saturday they just had too high a volume of people for the number of available buses. I think the opening day is the most popular, so maybe the bus option won't be a problem for the rest of Fiesta.
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