@Nrdsb4 wrote
You say that like it’s a bad thing! 
We see them during the summer floating around our area; they’re beautiful to watch. It’s on our to-do list, and I’ll be making sure the pilot isn’t a drunk and that the wind is pretty calm.
I wouldn’t do it. Make sure your life insurance is up to date and that a hot air ballooning death wouldn’t preclude a payout.
I think she’s safer in a balloon than driving to the place where she’d get in the balloon. Updating your life insurance is kind of ridiculous and irrationally fear-driven.
“Sixteen people died while hot air ballooning from 2002 to 2012, the NTSB said.”
Don’t let fear make your life small.
That’s 16 more than needed to die! What about the injury stats!
Just remember that the wind is taking you. It’s not under total control of the operator. They just go up and down to hit different currents.
Kids and husband went in a balloon (I chose to ride in the chase car).
They had a great time but almost landed in power lines at one point. Never again.
I’ve never done it but have looked into it. If I’m not mistaken, you can’t just choose a day and go. Weather conditions have to be right. Perhaps the weather is more stable in some places and this is not so much of an issue.
When we were in Arizona once, we had signed up to do a balloon ride, but when we arrived that morning, they said conditions were not favorable, so we got a refund.
Did this in Kenya. 'Twas beautiful and ended with the champagne breakfast in the bush but we did have somewhat of a rough landing and were quickly surrounded by a number of baboons (what is a bunch of baboons called-- a herd, a flock, a gaggle? LOL). It was exciting. In more ways than one.
My husband and I did this once. It was absolutely wonderful. I have a fear of heights when edges are involved, but the basket was high enough that I rested my arms on it and to get out was more like scaling over the side, not stepping out. It was so cool to see an area that was familiar to me from a height. I’d love to do it again - anywhere!
We’ve done it twice, 30 years apart. The big difference was that the fist time the gondola was shorter/shallower - hit DH about at hip level, which made him feel less than safe. The second time the gondola was much deeper/taller. Chest high almost for me. Made it a little harder to get in and out of, but felt much safer for DH. That time we were with a couple of people who are a little squeamish with heights, but they didn’t feel unsafe.
The second time we also had a harder landing, a little rough on the knees, but not too bad. I’d do it again in a scenic location. The people in neighborhoods were delighted to see us. The farmer that owned the cow pasture where we landed not so much. Oh, in case you might land in a cow pasture, choose your footware carefully. Avoid sandals.
Well, if we go down in a bad way, all four of us will be together, so there won’t be anyone left to complain that a payout isn’t coming! 
We still have not made a decision and are still talking about what all we’re going to do. And yes, there are plenty of other things that we do that have a higher risk (like H riding his bike), so I’m not going to make a decision based on fear of death, only fear of major anxiety attacks the entire trip, which could ruin it for the others in the basket!
I would be perfectly fine if the morning we were scheduled, they canceled because of poor weather conditions; they have to make those judgment calls every morning I guess. I wouldn’t be complaining that it was my one and only shot and be angry. Maybe a bit disappointed, yes. There are plenty of other things to do in the area to keep us occupied and entertained.
My worst fear (doing this near Sedona) in a landing would be, what if we landed near a bunch of rattlesnakes!
There are rattlesnakes everywhere in the Southwest and West. So you will be near rattlesnakes in Sedona, regardless whether you go in a hot air ballooon!
Just as an example of how rattlesnakes are everywhere – I believe you visited Crystal Cove beach when you were in Laguna last year. This summer, a woman was bitten by a rattlesnake while lying on the sand on the beach next to the ocean!
http://m.ocregister.com/articles/beach-714778-rattlesnake-holmes.html?
And I almost stepped on one recently walking down the path to the beach in Point Dume in Malibu. But no one would avoid going to the beach in Southern California because of rattlesnakes.
There are rattlesnakes all over the place. They normally don’t bother people. But fear of rattlesnakes is not a reason to avoid a hot air balloon ride!
Thought I’d report in on our exciting adventure today. We were picked up from our hotel at 5:40 (the NOT so fun part) and got to the launch site, where we met up with two other vans and trailers hauling equipment. This company says most other companies have the passengers arrive after the balloons are already inflated, but they don’t do that so passengers get to watch the crew assemble the basket, attach the balloon to the basket and inflate the balloon. One thing we were NOT prepared for was how they determine wind patterns prior to doing all this. It was as simple as having a tank of helium attached to the trailer - they blew up a couple of small helium balloons, released them and watched them fly away - and that was the science they used to determine what the winds were doing this morning (not much of anything).
When it was time to board, H, D1, D2 and I were in one small compartment of the 16-person wicker basket… it was just a bit cramped, but it was OK as we were all family. The whole trip was so unexpectedly smooth it’s hard to describe. You just glide along so gently… no rocking of the basket, and the only sound we heard was the occasional whoosh of the heater above us. It was already light when we launched, but after about ten minutes in the air, we did see the sun come up over some of the red rocks of Sedona. We moved up and down as the pilot wanted to direct us, and also did a few 360° turns so we could all see everything across the horizon. There were also two other balloons from the same company at our launch site. The three of us all departed within maybe 5-7 minutes of each other, and it was so cool looking across the sky to see where they were at, too. We saw a pack of deer, but that was the only wildlife we saw (oh, there was one rabbit). The pilot said Point A to Point B was probably 2-3 miles, but as we flew around some of the larger rock formations, our trip ended up being about 6-7 miles. It was just incredible. I never saw one power line the entire time we were up in the air as we were pretty removed from much civilization.
Landing was way over-rated; I expected more of a jolt. They had us line up back-to-back in a straight line within each compartment we were standing in, and before we landed, we were to soften our knees a bit. But as we came down on the road (belonging to the forestry department), the crew were right there, grabbed the ropes, and I’ve been jolted more playing jump rope. After we got out of the basket, we got to watch the crew deflate the balloon, and roll it back up into the fabric pocket it had been in that morning when we arrived to the launch site. They loaded everything back up onto the trailer and took us to meet up with the other two balloon groups where they served us mimosas, fresh fruit and muffins. We heard a little casual lecture about the history of hot air ballooning, and were then taken back to our hotel. We were gone, from door-to-door about four hours. D2 and I (who are not morning people) came straight back to our rooms and took naps while H and D1 took off for a hike. After our naps, we all went out for lunch, then headed out for another hike.
We were just so glad we did it… the whole trip has been phenomenal so far - on our first night in the Grand Canyon, we unexpectedly got to see a full moon rise over the canyon within a half hour of the sun setting! It was just unbelievably surreal. Our timing was just so fortunate - it was not anything we deliberately planned! And even this morning during the balloon ride, we saw a mostly full moon in the sky the whole time. I am so glad we did it, and would highly recommend it to anyone who was thinking about it.
Thanks to everyone here who encouraged me to push myself on this one. One more item off the bucket list!
Great report!!! Im so happy it went well. We tried 2 mornings in a row in Napa and both flights were cancelled due to wind. Still on my bucket list.
There was a couple on our ride who had been originally scheduled to go out the morning before, and it had been cancelled due to weather conditions. I’m glad they were able to accommodate them the next day.