Phoenix Bondurant/Resorts/Hot Air Ballooning
Mar 12, 2009, 7:31 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Hong Kong
Programs: Most of them
Posts: 367
Phoenix Bondurant/Resorts/Hot Air Ballooning
Trip Report: Phoenix Bondurant/Resorts/Hot Air Ballooning
While my wife took the two oldest (pregnant) daughters and my two grandsons to Disneyland, my sixteen year old son once again took off on our own for Spring Break. Last year we went to Vienna and Prague; we stayed closer to home this Spring but didn’t spend much less. We flew out to Phoenix on US Airways (formerly America Worst) and were reminded of the mediocrity of that airline. Old beater 737-300 and surly flight attendants. No potable water means no ice and no flushing toilets. Oh well.
We rented a priceline Hertz car that went well enough. Even though I don’t get my name on the board my Hertz status means I don’t have to wait in the lines. We pricelined the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort. Good news. Large suites, friendly staff that gave me the Hilton upgrades, free internet etc. in spite of my 55$/night rate. But this resort is surely showing its age. We only pricelined 5 nights so we tried a different area of town for the end of our trip. I got up to 85$ a night before I landed the Hyatt Scottsdale resort. Well worth the difference (rack rate is 400$ and people I saw checking in for a conference were paying 325!). Very nice resort with great pools and (apparently) everything else you’d expect.
BONDURANT: My son enrolled in the 3 day “Advanced Teen Driving” class. This is the same class (exactly) as the “High Performance Driving Class” and emphasizes a lot of safety but also teaches plenty of high performance maneuvers and allows them time on the race track. If you don’t drive a manual you will primarily be in the Pontiac Solstice. Manual drivers get the Cadillac CTS-V. They gave my son some lessons in the Caddy and the “skid cars” are Caddies. The skid car exercises teach a lot of useful stuff and all the classes use them. I went on the Grand Prix Racing 3-day course and drove the hopped up Chevy C6. They have faster Corvettes available but realistically this car is everything the courses can handle. By the morning of the second day I was feeling like an idiot with the high speeds and racing maneuvers. But by the 3rd day I was hitting the lines and nailing the heel-toe downshifting. I was even thinking about trail braking not so much as a way to slow the car down but as a way to shift weight forward to improve the steering. By the time we did the full racing starts with Vettes side by side and a foot or two between us flooring it when the green flag came out it felt a bit like real racing. Maybe a little too much like real racing!
It was a great experience. I sort of wish I had done the 4-day version as the 4th day is spent in the Formula cars. Also consider doing a night time shifter cart course. We had a bunch of Navy Seals being trained in a parallel class. They train police, military, racing drivers and others at the course. I can really recommend it as a father son (or daughter) class. One man had his daughter and son with him. One guy in the High Performance course was trying to get a job as a policeman having failed the high speed part of the driving class. Not cheap. In fact, just about exactly what I paid for the super discounted round trip business class tickets to Munich last year.
After three days of driving we needed to wind down. Went on one of the nice morning hot air balloon rides. At 155$ apiece it was cheaper than Hawaii and much more than Mexico. It was good --- beautiful trip over the morning desert with light winds and cool temperatures. A big stag climbing the mountain, hawks, rabbits, etc. all plainly visible.
My son and I ate a lot of places but none remarkable. We went to the LDS Temple in Mesa which was very nice and they have a Visitor’s Center. All the trees were loaded with lemons, oranges and grapefruit.
While my wife took the two oldest (pregnant) daughters and my two grandsons to Disneyland, my sixteen year old son once again took off on our own for Spring Break. Last year we went to Vienna and Prague; we stayed closer to home this Spring but didn’t spend much less. We flew out to Phoenix on US Airways (formerly America Worst) and were reminded of the mediocrity of that airline. Old beater 737-300 and surly flight attendants. No potable water means no ice and no flushing toilets. Oh well.
We rented a priceline Hertz car that went well enough. Even though I don’t get my name on the board my Hertz status means I don’t have to wait in the lines. We pricelined the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort. Good news. Large suites, friendly staff that gave me the Hilton upgrades, free internet etc. in spite of my 55$/night rate. But this resort is surely showing its age. We only pricelined 5 nights so we tried a different area of town for the end of our trip. I got up to 85$ a night before I landed the Hyatt Scottsdale resort. Well worth the difference (rack rate is 400$ and people I saw checking in for a conference were paying 325!). Very nice resort with great pools and (apparently) everything else you’d expect.
BONDURANT: My son enrolled in the 3 day “Advanced Teen Driving” class. This is the same class (exactly) as the “High Performance Driving Class” and emphasizes a lot of safety but also teaches plenty of high performance maneuvers and allows them time on the race track. If you don’t drive a manual you will primarily be in the Pontiac Solstice. Manual drivers get the Cadillac CTS-V. They gave my son some lessons in the Caddy and the “skid cars” are Caddies. The skid car exercises teach a lot of useful stuff and all the classes use them. I went on the Grand Prix Racing 3-day course and drove the hopped up Chevy C6. They have faster Corvettes available but realistically this car is everything the courses can handle. By the morning of the second day I was feeling like an idiot with the high speeds and racing maneuvers. But by the 3rd day I was hitting the lines and nailing the heel-toe downshifting. I was even thinking about trail braking not so much as a way to slow the car down but as a way to shift weight forward to improve the steering. By the time we did the full racing starts with Vettes side by side and a foot or two between us flooring it when the green flag came out it felt a bit like real racing. Maybe a little too much like real racing!
It was a great experience. I sort of wish I had done the 4-day version as the 4th day is spent in the Formula cars. Also consider doing a night time shifter cart course. We had a bunch of Navy Seals being trained in a parallel class. They train police, military, racing drivers and others at the course. I can really recommend it as a father son (or daughter) class. One man had his daughter and son with him. One guy in the High Performance course was trying to get a job as a policeman having failed the high speed part of the driving class. Not cheap. In fact, just about exactly what I paid for the super discounted round trip business class tickets to Munich last year.
After three days of driving we needed to wind down. Went on one of the nice morning hot air balloon rides. At 155$ apiece it was cheaper than Hawaii and much more than Mexico. It was good --- beautiful trip over the morning desert with light winds and cool temperatures. A big stag climbing the mountain, hawks, rabbits, etc. all plainly visible.
My son and I ate a lot of places but none remarkable. We went to the LDS Temple in Mesa which was very nice and they have a Visitor’s Center. All the trees were loaded with lemons, oranges and grapefruit.
