Going to our first championship

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

From my knowledge, drivng/bussing (especially if you are going to split a coach) is almost always cheaper than flying (especially considering you have to coordinate transportation to and from the airport, in both Atl and NYC).

A bus is cheaper only if you have about 15 going, maybe more depending on what kind of cheaper advance airfares you can get. That's because the bus charter is the same price whether you put on 7 or 47 passengers.

Remarks about airport transportation, and others remarks about getting tools there, are valid concerns.

One way of reducing cost using a bus is to schedule the ride overnight, which saves on one night's hotel accomodations. Not a comfortable night's sleep though - don't plan on this if you're going to arrive Thursday morning. 1188 usually leaves Metro Detroit about 5:00 pm on Tuesday, gets to the Atlanta area for breakfast on Wednesday, spends a light day of sightseeing, and then crashes early (well, sorta early) in the hotel to prepare for Thursday. Our alternative is to leave really early Wednesday morning, say 4:00 am or so loading, in order to get to Atlanta in time for early robot uncrating Wed eve. With such an early morning, and the long drive, we'd be more tired than an overnight on the bus.

[RoboMom]

http://www.firstnemo.org/PDF/tips_for_travel.pdf

[Chris Fultz]

Try working woth some other area teams and split a bus.
Not only do you save some cash, but also get to build a relationship with another team. This lets you take tools on the bus and not have to ship them or take them on an airplane.

We have always stayed outside of downtown Atlanta. There are a few negatives to this - you are away from other teams and have to take the bus back and forth - but we stay at a nice hotel within walking distance to several stores and restaurants. This makes the trip much more affordable.

You can charter a bus and then have it at your disposal for the whole trip, or charter there and back, and then just rent bus time to get you to and from the dome to your hotel.

[BandChick]

I have to say, driving to Atlanta from New Jersey is a LONG trip. 1089 and 25 split a bus in 2005, drove overnight, and it was...not the most fun I've ever had...

Congratulations on being able to attend, however!

There is a new flight that will go from Trenton/Mercer Airport directly to Atlanta three times a day starting in December. It's supposed to be a sub-Delta airline at low cost. You should definitely look into that. It would probably be better for EVERYONE not to drive 18 hours if they don't have to. Besides, you could probably convince your district to let you have a school bus to drive to Jersey for a flight.