Quote:
Originally posted by Mark Hamilton
As a resident of Florida I may be biased, but I hope to see FIRST stay at Disney as long as possible. True it is costlier then many other places, but on the other hand it provides a safe enviroment ideal for handling the thousands of students involved with FIRST.
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You're not biased, at least as far as I'm concerned. I am seriously considering moving from Indiana to Florida in the near future since I like warm better than cold, and I like beaches and the sea, and I recently accepted an early retirement offer from Delphi in Kokomo.
Regarding FIRST, there are a lot of places that could handle the competition, including former Olympic villages and cities with dome stadiums. Is there really a place as good as Disney, though, to keep 15,000 teenagers entertained and out of trouble in their free time. I doubt it. Also, it is a fun place, even for "old people" like myself.
If you stay on site at Disney, like at the not-terribly-expensive All Star Sports/Music/Movies, you have continuous easy to use transportation to anywhere you need to go. That is not likely to be the case in Lake Placid New York. Also, the early spring weather in Orlando is a refreshing change for most northerners.
I agree that Disney is not the cheapest place in the world, but I suspect that it is among the cheapest places in the US to get to by air. Even Indianapolis has, I think, three airlines running non-stop flights to Orlando. Our tickets were $180 round trip, and that was after the prices went up to near-normal after being cheaper for a time after 9-11.
All things considered, I think Disney is the ideal location for something like the FIRST National, as long as it doesn't get too much bigger than it is now.