Napa Valley Drifters — Attraction in Napa

Don’t go ballooning if you have a tight schedule.

We (like many other customers) got canceled on the morning of.

We were just in Napa for a day trip, and our reservations had us leaving our home in the city at 3am to make take-off. I called to confirm the night before, and they said it looked great!....and then canceled an hour before take off when we were already halfway to Napa.....the man on the phone barely apologized and told me I should have called before we left (I didn’t want to call at 3am, as I feel that is rude). So we continued to Napa....The balloon excursion was supposed to be a surprise for my partners birthday, but after it was canceled (delayed) I had to spoil my secret. I understand cancelations because of the weather—I’m not a wind expert, but it’s a little frustrating to only have one day, and find yourself tired and frustrated with nothing to do in Napa at 5am. As we were trying to find a breakfast place we looked up and saw at least 4 other balloons flying over us....while ours was canceled. We called the other companies and all of them confirmed that the wind was great, and that they had gone up. I have a feeling our balloon basket wasn’t fully booked, so they pushed us to the next day to merge reservations, and blamed the weather. Super super frustrating. We ended up having to move our schedules around and book a hotel in town for the night...I REALLY wanted to go in the balloon, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to get my money back if we didn’t hold out to see if we’d go up. My partner was not pleased with me. He said the whole thing felt like a sketchy craigslist deal, that I didn’t do enough research, and that I was getting ripped off. I’m happy they followed through and made it up the next day....even though there was no apology, no discount, and no sort of compensation for our EXTREME inconvenience. The whole administrative process was a disaster.

The only reason I am giving 3 stars is because the balloon ride itself was phenomenal. Mark was an exceptional pilot, he knew lots about the area, was quick with take off (so we caught the sunrise, while other companies balloons didn’t) Mark was quick to answer questions about the area, was extremely informative, and was overall just a pleasant person to be around.

I would not use this company again. The whole “rescheduling” ended up costing US $400 (our hotel room) which is almost the same as our balloon cost....if they hold their customers to a 48 hour cancellation fee/deposit, they should have a similar cancellation fee if they cancel on their early-rising customers. It...

Terry (the owner) really screwed us over. I talked to him several times on the phone leading up to our reservation day. He informed me that my husband and I were the only two people signed up to go on that particular day (it was a Tuesday) but that he would still take us up. I called him the day before the flight like he instructed me. He told me that he hadn't gotten much information on the weather for the next day, but our plan was still on, and for me to call him at 5am to do a last check-in. I called him Tuesday morning at 5am on the dot. The phone rang and rang without him answering....this hadn't happened before on our calls. Finally he answered and sounded really groggy, like I had woken him up. I told him that it was me calling about our balloon ride. He asked me my name 3 times...seemed weird since we had established multiple times that I was his only reservation that day. He then said, "oh ya sorry we have to cancel." That was it. No explanation. So I asked him if it was the weather and he said that yes, the winds were too strong. I immediately thought it was weird because the weather report looked incredible for the morning, nice and clear and very low winds. He tells me that we can try to go again on Thursday. I remind him that Thursday's weather looked terrible. He says that he can't do Wednesday because it was already all full. I then ask permission to cancel our reservation all together so we can try to find another company to use Wednesday. I end up booking on Napa Valley Aloft (highly recommend!) for Wednesday morning. I ask my pilot as we are floating along if they flew on Tuesday. His exact words: "yep sure did, it was a beautiful morning, just like this one." Vacations are short. Luckily we found another company to take us up, but what if we hadn't? Don't let Terry ruin your plans because he doesn't feel like...

Worst customer service I've ever had! A gift cerficate from this company for my girlfriend's birthday turned out to be the worst decision I could've made. The owner, Terry, has the worst business practices and his staff is not much better. Specifically, two couples showed up at Starbucks at 5am and we waited 30 minutes without the appearance of any employee. We ended up calling Terry only to find out that we couldn't fly that morning. He knew that we were confirmed for that date. How difficult is it to let your customers know that you aren't flying? Turns out his staff did not send an email stating we should call to check the status the night before. We weren't the only group that were misinformed and disappointed. Terry talked negatively about his staff and offered to pay for our hotel and refund our balloon ride. Instead of apologizing for the inconvenience, he ending up talking rudely to my girlfriend. Ultimately, he took back his promise to refund us. Subsequentely, her birthday weekend was ruined... Therefore, I will never support this business. The owner and staff are unprofessional and don't understand how to run a company. Listening to Terry on the phone, I realized how unorganized he really is. I would strongly recommend another...