Quote:
Originally posted by Mike Norton
Some teams don't have the choice of having the money to pay for the better hotel or even the low price hotel.
The point is a group should be a group no matter what group you are with like the FIRST group.
the point is teams are paying $4,000 and getting very little. some team have only 10 people going to the nationals while some bring 100s. but they all pay the $4000 fee plus another fee disney is putting on them.
If disney want FIRST to be at disney they need to put in more.
in the past the shows and the food at disney were great. last year show was not the top ten on my list.
everything comes down to money. so tell these kids that if you want to make it in this world you better do what you can to get money because with out it you will not see the big show.
I can go on about this subject but I will bite my lip and move on.
|
A group is a group is a group. Booking through the FIRST package, we are being assessed group discount rates just as you might be if you booked outside of the package. The only reason we pay more than you is because our team is being charged an additional fee to cover the event costs. Your team is not being charged this same fee within the price of your package, so FIRST and Disney add an additional charge of $75. In effect, it seems similar to me, so I don't understand what the big deal is.
Your $4000 entry fee is assessed irrespective of the size of your team. Just as your initial $5000 does nothing to cover any travel costs that may be associated with attending a regional, the same is true of Nationals, of course. This, I believe, is the most fair way of handling this. I'd much prefer it over being charged an entry fee based on your team size. . . that would, after all, very effectively limit how many students this program involves.
I don't know FIRST's budget offhand, but I feel that I can pretty safely say that very, very little of the entry fees are passed on the regional developers. There are folks around here that know more about that than I, though. So, it's really up to those charged with planning the events that need to somehow gather enough funds to do it. If Disney chooses to cover those costs by assessing a small fee, that's fine with me.
Further, I have been quite satisfied with my experience at Nationals in both 2000, and 2001. If you and your team have not been as impressed, you always reserve the right to not attend. After all, money speaks, right?
Finally, I'd beg to differ about your final note. Everything does *not* come down to how much money you have. It's what you do with it (or without) that counts.