Speaking about healthier, the Texas air was sooooooooo much cleaner than NJ air, I felt my life expectancy being extended another 5 years. Then I got real sick cause the air was too clean. Once our team returned home from the nationals, good ol' NJ polluted air filled my lungs...then I remembered how much NJ sucked...

Experimental Prototype Community Of Tommarrow is so much better because it's really close and I know the venue well. And because if it was at Epcot this year I woulda got to go. But NOOOOO... FIRST had to go and get all selfish and move it to the fattest city in the US. Do they want us to be a bunch of fat engineers or something? They weren't very gracious to me when they moved it. Shame on you FIRST.

Yet Disney could process those kids in less than 30 mins to their hotels, compare that to Houson....

WTF? You buy Coke at Disney and Reliant. Same size, same brand. Yet magicaly it costs over $1 more at Reliant.



Tell me of one location of stairs from the pits to the fields at Disney. How many? None?

I agree to, Disney had lax security, but when FIRST says they will have major security at Reliant, I shure hope not they didn't expect more.



Like the price of drinks after they just passed out from climbing 4 flights of ramps?



At least those were clean....



Yeah, my father and teams mates just imagined the huge wads of gum stuck to the walls in 'Serial Thriller', or the garbage in the que for Texas Cyclone, or the gum target on Dungeon Drop. :rolleyes:

But they atleast tried to make it special instead of just opening a party pavilion and set out food. Remeber the fireworks? The music? The partys?

amen to that, jersey sucks in many ways

coming out of the airport i had trouble breathing like it was wiered i honestly beleive it was due to the fact that the air was not a s polluted and i wasnt used to it

There is a reason for that... FIRST switched insurance providers this year and they had to have stricter party rules. No music, no dancing, no fireworks...not FIRST's rules, thats from the insurance company. Heh aren't insurance companies great? :p

I didn't go to Houston, but I heard there were fireworks in the closing ceremonies.

Here are my thoughts:

-- The distance from the pits to the stage was rediculous. It easily took 10 minutes to get from the pits to Archemedes, and multiply that by 7 matches, that is 140 minutes of walking. God forbid you forget anything in the pits!

-- Not having a screen at each field was a big mistake. From the stands having to look all the way to the other side of the stadium to find out how much time was remaining meant that I often missed crucial plays. Honestly, how much would four screens and projectors cost? 50k? FIRST can afford that.

-- The seating in the arena was great. Unlike EPCOT, there were never cameramen in the way, and everyone could get a good view. The air-conditioning was nice as well!

-- What was with the eye-level flags in the walkway from the pits to the arena? If you walked through there, you were constantly hit in the face! As Ken Stafford put it, the only reason people walked through there is because they felt guilty about all the trouble that FIRST went to put it up in the first place.

-- Security at the Reliant was a joke. I was asked to open my backpack when I walked in, but once it was open, I couldn't get anyone's attention to actually look in it, so I just walked in. Other times, simply opening a side pocket was enough. I even saw some guards just feeling the outside of bags, and not even looking inside. If someone wanted to get something inside and kill 40,000 high school students, they woudn't have any problem. Either have security or don't, but don't just waste our time and create bottlenecks without being even slightly effective.

-- The food wasn't that bad. The burgers were much larger than anything from McDonalds or Burger King, and considering the sheer quantity they made, they were rather good. Also, I never had to wait more than 30 seconds in line to be served, and many of the farther tables never had a line at all. It wasn't gourmet, but it was filling. Yes, there was the time I missed lunch, and nothing but Krispy Kreme was open in the Reliant, and I didn't feel like walking 10 minutes back to the 'dome, but it was still better than many regionals.

-- The closing ceremony format was very nice from what I saw (although I missed a great deal of it). The finale with the video and fireworks was a perfect wrap-up.

-- The city itself was rather dull. Around our hotel, there was literally nothing open after 8pm except the Hard Rock cafe a couple miles away. No comparison to Disney at all.

-- Six Flags wasn't as bad as I expected, and I was able to do everything there over the course of the two nights -- something that is impossible at EPCOT. My major complaint is that they didn't allow leathermen in, and wouldn't even let me put in in a locker or check it somewhere, so I had to walk all the way back to the Astrodome and convince the security guard to drop mine in our pit (apparently, I was the fifth or sixth person to do this). The funniest thing was leaving the park after it closed and seeing the dozens of kids searching the bushes for the leathermen they hid there.

-- In all, I think that in a few years, Houston could be just as good as EPCOT. Things need to change, but I'm sure that FIRST will listen to our comments and do their best to fix them.

EPCOT For Sure
 

While the arena seating was good. The negatives far outweighed that one positive.
All of the negatives have been outlined in previous posts, so I will not bore you with repetition.
In sort, EPCOT wins by a mile.

Many would complain that EPCOT had a lack of room, seating was often packed on the fields, the fields and the entire competiting tent was quite dark and loud. However I feel that the "openness" of Reliant Stadium, and the pits really took away from the feeling of competition. I had a lot of fun this year, however I didn't have the same feeling of nationals as I usually do. I didn't feel as excited and as "charged" as I usually am.

I would have to say that the Lunches that has been provided by EPCOT in past years was far superior to anything that I found in the Reliant complex or Six Flags. I was looking forward to the same type of lunches we always get, but alas it was nowhere to be found.

In past years at EPCOT we have stayed outside of DISNEY at the Days Inn Suites, and it is always very nice cause there were many things around to do, "Old Towne" and Checkers and thousands of other things. As well the buses would run up to AN HOUR AFTER the park closed. I understand that Disney is setup for the busses and Houston was not, but this is a plus for Disney, this makes Disney better for us.

You know how FIRST isn't just about the Robots? well thats why i liked Disney better than Six Flags, cause Disney isn't just about the rides. I live somewhat near the Best Six Flags in the Country (Six Flags Great Adventure), and I've read many places where Astroworld is the worst one, however I did Enjoy the rides there VERY VERY much. But I missed the enviroment of Disney very much.

As has been said: The bathrooms in the Astrodome were horrible, and though the trailors in EPCOT were hot and smelly, the bathrooms at the Astrodome were smelly and DIRTY. The ones at EPCOT were CLEAN, a big plus.

I never got to go to another team's pit and talk to them. I was always wasting 30 minutes going between the Dome and the Stadium. In past years I have met many teams and still gone between Einstein field and the others and even EPCOT itself. Somehow everyday many many hours got wasted, I believe it was being called to the field 45 minutes early due to having to take 20 minutes just to get there.

I enjoyed Nationals very much. However I think EPCOT is a better place for it. Epcot is setup for us better.

I was waiting for the announcement to evacuate the building.
I thought for sure the ceiling was going to light up. It looked like it was made of paper.

I say just be patient. by next year many things will be different in first and in houston. for one thing, the planning committee will have much more time to make a colorful, festive atmosphere(1 year compared to 4 months). also, many of houstons major projects will be finished. reliant park will be fully completed, and the park between the dome and the stadium wil make for a great team hangout (even better than the giant a/c unit hidden beind the trees for the dome ;) ). the metro light rail will be done, allowing teams to go from the competition to downtown or the mueseum district, which isn't too far from montrose where theres food, clubs, stores a just alot of fun. i know that im biased being from houston, but that just means i know the potential of the city. i think houston really wants first, and can turn this into a huge successful event. look at the rodeo, thats something several times bigger than first and is an event run very smoothly by the city. as for the people complaining about astroworld, the park sint even open to the public this time of year. be greatful. i like my theme parks to have quality rides; i dont need glitz and glamor. first is getting bigger every year, and they need room to grow. lord knows they have it in texas! so do go callin' my home sh**ty cuz you cant take a few ramps and a little walk like a man! sorry, texas pride got outta control there.

on a side note i'd like to say i loved chuck yeager's speech! best in the history of first(thousand times better than any disney exec.). it really is a shame we cant strap some bombs to our robots an blow the other guy up!

We're not calling your home town crap, we're just saying that it isn't suited for 25,000 + kids to roam around. Reliant and Astro just don't offer what we need. You should be glad we went this year.

And mabey you should check the Astroworld website, it's been open for atleast a month.

Are you on crack?

Seriously, that's probably the most disturbing thing I've ever read on these boards.

There was, but it was MINOR compared to the infamous propane tank lightings in 2001 and the massive fireworks that FIRST was able to use with the old provider

first of all the thing with the bombs is just quoting chuck yeager.
This was only my first year of being to the nationals and I have to admit it was fun. Yet, it didn't feel like a championship, it felt more like another regional. The vast emptiness of the dome swallowed any cheer that was started. It just didn't feel as lively as I thought it would be.
Another aspect was the ramps. After 6 sprints up them a day while pushing a 130 lb. robot it really kills your legs. Yet, when the drive team does get tired security wouldn't let anyone else push the robot. The ramps wouldn't be so bad if security would let other members of the team push the robot once in a while and give the drive team a break.
My major problem was the buses. Friday night there only seemed to be 1 blue bus for every 5 red. And when one of the members of my team decided to get on the blue bus that left before we has all gotten in line it took us an hour to find him. And, being the last stop on the way to the dome we would constantly have to get on a later bus because the earlier ones were full. We usually didn't arrive until 8:30 or so.
The medical center where we stayed wasn't so bad. There was a burger king and a pizza hut out in the parking lot, and the pizza hut was open until about 12. we didn't eat around there though. We mainly ended up going to places near the dome.
Finally, my favorite part of Houston was the fair that was going on in reliant park on Saturday. My team was able to ride the mechanical bull there for 3 dollars a ride. It was better than any ride at astroworld.