Class Review: Exhale Vinyasa Flow

A few months ago, my friend and I got a Lifebooker deal for 3 classes at Exhale spa for $45.  That's a great deal - their single classes are $37 for a core fusion and $26 for a yoga class.  Steep pricing for a girl on a teacher's salary.
We went to a Core Fusion class back in April (I can't believe it was that long ago) and haven't had the opportunity to use the other 2 classes since then.  SInce we had off on the 4th of July, but not the days around it, we were both in the city for a day off and we decided to try a yoga class.

The yoga studio was gorgeous (see left).  It had beautiful floors and was very large.  The door (the wooden piece in the forefront of the picture) was awkwardly heavy and oddly not sound proof given its weight.
There were only about 7 people in our class which was pretty cool - I guess not that many people go to Yoga classes on the 4th of July.
The class itself was pretty good.  I was surprised at how hard it was considering it was a not a hot yoga class.  I always except not hot yoga to be easy, but it really isn't.
The instructor was really good.  She was descriptive in her directions and provided corrective notes as needed.  I also really liked how she broke down the plank/upward dog/downward dog flow... she went through it painfully slowly, but it was very helpful for me because I never go from plank to upward dog correctly.
For those of you who know me, you will remember that a few years ago at Inner Strength, the owner actually stood on my hands in an attempt to get me to position into downward facing dog correctly.  He also manually guided me through the flow several times... but still I have struggled with this and usually just try my best.  I actually found it helpful the way the Exhale instructor verbally broke it down as it was easier for me to conceptualize and it also made me feel less frustrated (it was initially really embarrassing to have the owner of a studio manually guide you through half a class...but over time I've accepted that that happened...)
It was a pretty standard yoga class - there was not a balance series, which is always my favorite part, but I've found that a lot of studios in NYC don't regularly do all the different balance poses at once/in one class like Inner Strength did when I went there.

Pros:
1) I liked the instructor's descriptiveness
2) The 7 person class was nice, but probably not normal for Exhale Spa
3) It's always refreshing to do not-hot yoga once in a while

Cons:
1) I like more balance poses, also there were no shoulder stands which I like
2) Exhale is waaay too expensive
3) The door was not sound proof, which was annoying towards the end of the class when the next class was milling around outside.

Do you prefer Hot Yoga or Regular Yoga? What is your favorite part of a Yoga class?