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I'll mirror my comments from the EPCOT vs. Houston poll:
-- 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.
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Zan Hecht
Scorekeeper: '05 Championship DaVinci Field/'10 WPI Regional
Co-Founder: WPI-EBOT Educational Robotics Program
Alumnus: WPI/Mass Academy Team #190
Alumnus (and founder): Oakwood Robotics Team #992
"Life is an odd numbered problem — the answer isn't in the back of the book." — Anonymous WPI Student
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