Balloon Fiesta Park and Ride — Attraction in Albuquerque

This was the single worst park and ride experience of my entire life - the organizers and the city of Albuquerque should be ashamed.

We arrived at the Coronado Center at 4 am for our 5:30 tickets, only to spend the full 1.5 hours in the line, which stretched though the line zig-zags, down the full length of the mall parking lot, turned back and went all the way back around to Macy’s. No staff helping to organize the line, etc. When we did get to the front, there were 2 guys with flashlights checking bags, ONE metal detector, and one guy with a metal detector wand. Wile E. Coyote could have gotten a weapon past this team. Then they were loading ONE bus at a time. This was the least efficient operation I’ve ever seen - there is no way that the people who came at 5 made it to the festival on time.

Once we got on the bus, it should have been smooth sailing, right? NO SUCH LUCK! It took forever (45 minutes) to get to the park, and our driver didn’t know where to go. All good, just ask one of the traffic coordinators, right? AGAIN, NO SUCH LUCK! They apparently didn’t know either and sent the bus in circles, making u turns, etc. Meanwhile, the woman in front of us is trying to cough up a lung without covering her mouth and the poor carsick toddler behind us starts puking. The driver gave up and let us off behind a building. We were approximately at the FURTHEST parking lot and had to walk another mile plus.

The second benefit of the bus is supposed to be hopping off and walking right into the park without having to do metal detectors or tickets again - I’ll give you one guess how that went…

On the way back, the joy continues. We were trying to use the QR codes to see where to go, but they were telling us to leave the park and walk around the outside. We got redirected by volunteers multiple times and finally made it to another long line that was not moving fast enough. We did eventually make it back to our car, but this is not an experience I want to repeat.

I understand that all large events that ABQ hosts are similarly well organized, and that this CF of a park and ride operation has been this bad for YEARS. Nothing says “mercenary tourist operation” quite as well as this entire experience. Do better, this...

What an absolute disaster. The Albuquerque Balloon Festival's park-and-ride was the most incompetent, disorganized mess I've ever experienced. I arrived at 4 AM and stood in a gigantic line for 90 minutes just to get on the bus. Then it took over an hour for the bus to arrive at the festival—thanks to a clueless driver who had no idea where they were going. The traffic was a nightmare, just as bad as if we had driven ourselves, with incompetent traffic directors who didn’t have a clue.

The boarding process was a joke. One line, one person scanning passes, and a single metal detector? Really? We had to go through that again when we arrived at the festival. This is utterly ridiculous!

And let’s talk about the fact that all these tickets were sold in advance! You knew exactly how many people would show up, yet you let us wait in line until we missed the sunrise balloon ascent. I barely made it just in time, and that was only due to a delay.

Here’s what needs to happen immediately:

Dedicated bus lanes enforced by police. It’s absurd that this wasn’t already in place.

Load multiple buses at once. One bus at a time is beyond stupid when you know how many people are coming.

Train your bus drivers. They need GPS and clear directions to get passengers where they need to go.

Staff security properly. One metal detector and two guys scanning tickets is a complete joke.

Whoever was in charge of this debacle should be fired. This is not just poor management; it's an embarrassment for the city. The mayor and chief of police need to step up and address this absolute chaos. For an event that brings in hundreds of millions of dollars, the incompetence surrounding logistics and traffic flow is absolutely unacceptable. Get...

If I could give it a lower score I would. Worst experience of any event/service of my life. It was complete chaos. Took an hr and a half of what should have been a 10min ride. I WILL NEVER VISIT THE BALLOON FIESTA AGAIN! I lived in New Mexico growing up and never did it then. Now, 30years later as an adult. I finally decided to try it. My 1st time. This is absolutely the most horrible nightmare you will ever experience. I'd rather be in a torture chamber. They advertise it as the expedited route to the Balloon Fiesta. It was ANYTHING BUT that. I'm imagining that there will be no stop lights for the buses, and police at every turn making sure we make that turn without any slow downs. Like a limosine motorcade for a funeral. We literally were going about 1-2mph the entire way. We could literally have walk there faster, and in fact people that were walking were passing us. It was full of stops and traffic of every kind. ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE FOR THE TOUISM INDUSTRY IN NEW MEXICO. DO NOT COME HERE. YOU WILL BE VERY DISSAPPOINTED. I WILL UPDATE IF THIS EVER CHANGES. I hear that this is how it's ALWAYS been since I was a kid, and the reason why we never attended as kids. There is more bad to describe, but the 1.5hrs on a bus is plenty (5:30am to 7am on a bus). I will say this though, bring all the guns you want/need because the security is absolutely lacking and the medal detectors go off for every individual and there are NO WANDS to detect for which is a belt, which is a gun, or which is a pressure cooker. You may need the protection also, with such terrible crime here. Everybody is waived in, and no one/item is searched. RECIPE FOR DISASTER! THIS SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL. FBI...