pic: Panoramic Pic from Nationals 2001

[Swan217]

Wear the free ponchos that Disney was handing out! (Then run around Epcot yelling "Free Ponchos! We got Free Ponchos!")

Actually, it never rained (from 1999-2002 at least) when we were all out on those stands. It usually rained Thurs-Fri, and took Saturday off. It's nice that Disney turned off the rain for finals!

[mtaman02]

Originally Posted by SwaDan

Wear the free ponchos that Disney was handing out! (Then run around Epcot yelling "Free Ponchos! We got Free Ponchos!")

Actually, it never rained (from 1999-2002 at least) when we were all out on those stands. It usually rained Thurs-Fri, and took Saturday off. It's nice that Disney turned off the rain for finals!

in 2002 the only time it actually rained / stormed was like only the afternoon hours (after the competitions) and night time. otherwise it was fairly hot that yr.

before graduating HS the one thing you MUST do is to at least attend 1 nationals. Its awesome. Your away from home for about a week and you spend that week with not only your team members but fellow teams as well. and depending where you stay you guys could like go to the nearest game room or be outside and play hacky sack while your teams competing.

my first yr for nationals even though i was a team leader still turned out to be the best competition for the simple fact that it was fun. espicially going to WDW. the only problem i had that year was that after the ceremonys saturday night by the time we got to go to WDW to have the last team celebration the park was getting ready to close :-( otherwise it was an experience i shall never forget. I even got a team picture from when i was in FL hanging above my bed post. goes to show how much i miss FL

[Swan217]

Park was ready to close? You didn't stay to watch Mandy Moore's concert, did you?
LOL, Best scene ever - thousands of FIRST geeks choosing to go to EPCOT over watching Mandy Moore.

[Stephen Kowski]

Originally Posted by SwaDan

Park was ready to close? You didn't stay to watch Mandy Moore's concert, did you?
LOL, Best scene ever - thousands of FIRST geeks choosing to go to EPCOT over watching Mandy Moore.

LOL i remember that....that was one of my favorite FIRST memories.....

I wish it would come back to disney....it would make our travel a lot cheaper again....

[Greg Perkins]

Originally Posted by Stephen Kowski

LOL i remember that....that was one of my favorite FIRST memories.....

I wish it would come back to disney....it would make our travel a lot cheaper again....

i think the best memory of the mandy moore concert was the fact her pants had to be constantly adjusted by her wardrobe personell on stage... that was it tho...

[mtaman02]

my team stayed for about a few minutes to the concert after that we retreated to WDW for the last team social in FIRST till the next season begins. The time just seemed so short between the speeches and the Social.

[Specialagentjim]

Originally Posted by SwaDan

Park was ready to close? You didn't stay to watch Mandy Moore's concert, did you?
LOL, Best scene ever - thousands of FIRST geeks choosing to go to EPCOT over watching Mandy Moore.

Don't you mean running in terror?

If I recall correctly, after "And now...musical sensation MANDY MOORE", the resulted movement was the biggest migration of 20,000 people i'd ever seen.
...Of course, I was nothing but a wee middle schooler back then. Ohh they days of ye old nationals. How we miss thee.

[Ryan Albright]

mm that is prob the funniest thing i have seen in awhile when they announced mandy moore and no one stayed. Ya i wish the nationals were still down here, nothign better then having them on your home turf

[Jay H 237]

[quote] mataman02
before graduating HS the one thing you MUST do is to at least attend 1 nationals. Its awesome. Your away from home for about a week and you spend that week with not only your team members but fellow teams as well. and depending where you stay you guys could like go to the nearest game room or be outside and play hacky sack while your teams competing.
[quote] mataman02

I've already graduated HS. The fact is I hate planes and scared of flying. That's why I've never gone to nationals. I'm not going with my team this year either. My team has gotten by without me at Nats so far.

I have actually flown before for business purposes but wasn't given much of a choice in the matter.

[J Flex 188]

Looking forward to my first nationals experience.. and I happen to be operating too! I am really pumped for this as I have heard from every older member on my team just how much fun it is. The only qualm I have is the length, I'd like to stay longer than wednesday to saturday night, but its a long bus ride back up to toronto from atl.. hehe

Originally Posted by mtaman02

before graduating HS the one thing you MUST do is to at least attend 1 nationals. Its awesome. Your away from home for about a week and you spend that week with not only your team members but fellow teams as well. and depending where you stay you guys could like go to the nearest game room or be outside and play hacky sack while your teams competing.

[Kyle Fenton]

Originally Posted by SwaDan

Wear the free ponchos that Disney was handing out! (Then run around Epcot yelling "Free Ponchos! We got Free Ponchos!")

Actually, it never rained (from 1999-2002 at least) when we were all out on those stands. It usually rained Thurs-Fri, and took Saturday off. It's nice that Disney turned off the rain for finals!

In the 2001 nationals, it was raining so hard that water was comming up from the floor.

[Swan217]

Yeah, 2001 was the year when we got the ponchos, which were of course a moot point by the time we got them, cuz we were already soaking.

And then in 2002, it was raining so hard that a few teams spent their free time making "rain-angels" in the parking lot (as opposed to snow-angels)

My point was that it never seemed to rain on Saturdays during opening or closing ceremonies.

[crazyone]

(with a tear in the cornor of an eye) Oh the memories, the long days screaming for teams, sweating over robots ,scouting ,cheering, going horse,getting tan. I just can't wait to do it all again this year. 2 weeks and 2 days away

[Andrew Rudolph]

Oh man i rember all of that, we left when it rained that night and we knew it was going to flood, we were in a parking lot. And put everything up on tables and we had our crate in the pit so in and on top of that. We came the next mronign and there was a line about 6 inches up on everything.

I fondly rember the awards ceremony that took like 3 hours, then when mandy moore came on we all left. I felt bad, i dont liek walking out of peoples concerts even if they are some big recording act, but i did anyways it just took waaaay to long. I also rember from that night when we were leaving the every lasting EEEEEEYYYY that was going on under the spaceship earth. i think i started it bye making fun of some guy out there who was trying to call someone, but then again i might be wrong. I just remeber how loud it was then being at the pits and still hearing the echos of the yells. I think there is a thread on it somewhere.

While nationals at Epcot were GREAT I'm happy we moved on it was just too expensive and being outside was not great. Thats why there are no more competitions out side. I hope that Atlanta is better than houston was, and houston was pretty awesome.

[gsensel]

I must admit, the only reason I saw any of the concert was because I was dsown by the stage getting the trophy for the animation award. Otherwise I would have been out of there.