The following is an announcement from the non-profit educational folks at the Georgia Aquarium…
We are excited to host your teams in Atlanta at The World’s Largest Aquarium!
Click to purchase tickets to this VERY special EXCLUSIVE EVENT just for FIRST @ the Georgia Aquarium!
http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/first.aspx
You will have the WHOLE Aquarium to yourself for only $13.00!
APRIL 18, 2008 / 5-9 pm
Safe Travels and Best Fishes!
**Aquarium Admission is regularly $27.00 **
This is a great deal at half the price of regular general admission with the added bonus of touring with only people involved with First. Some of us local people will have to jump on this opportunity.
Dave
We went here last year.
It is an unbelievable place.
Definitely a place you have to see at least once.
Agreed. I went last year. Ran into FIRSTers there…
It is pretty awesome. Our team went last year. I encourage any teams looking for things to do besides robots during their trip to ATL to take this good opportunity, I had a great time when it was public and crowded! 
I loved seeing it last year, the whole thing was amazing. Our team got a picture with the huge UPS shield there, that was awesome
(Someone should see if it’s still there and get a picture for us!)
Can’t wait to attend Championship, & now the team is going to the GA Aquarium too.
MARS purchased tickets last night from the website. No confirmation email was sent, so I called the Aquarium this afternoon. Good thing I had printed a copy of the invoice - they couldn’t locate our Order No. & info. Anyone else have invoice problems?
Should be fun seeing the fish with other FIRSTers. Who’s going this year?
So is this the official FIRST sponsored event? Are the costs of entry generally footed by teams, individuals, or FIRST like at the regional events?
FIRST and The Georgia Aquarium are non-profit educational/inspiration institutions. As such they cannot really ‘sponsor’ something but they can partner together. A little semantics here.
Both events are literally next to each other. There is a relationship between the two groups. For example the VIP dinner is at the aquarium. This is where the key FIRST people and the major sponsors can meet and greet and learn more about FIRST programs. Sponsor development is important not only to teams but to FIRST.
While the VIP dinner is going on the aquarium is having a special evening for FIRST students to attend at a much lower price. 13 versus the usual 27. Only 5,000 people will be admitted.
The costs of entry is paid by individuals or teams, not FIRST.
You can get your tickets here: http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/first.aspx
What teams are going so far?
Thank You for the information. I hope we make it!
I kinda wish this was on Thursday night instead of Friday.
Friday is a huge scouting recap night for teams, and between 5-9pm is the prime time to do that and still have time for food before the students’ curfew.
But that’s only if you care about scouting… and eating dinner.
For all the rest of you, have fun!
There is food in the aquarium… “Captive audience” prices, as I recall, but decent.
Has anyone else had trouble trying to order tickets online? We’ve tried 2 different people and 2 different credit cards, and when we hit submit order, it immediately comes back “Decline - Payment hasn’t been processed. Check your order contents before resubmitting”. Doesn’t appear to be any mistakes in the contents or billing info that I can see.
I called them - and first it took them 10min to find someone who knew what I was talking about, and then their IT verified the site was working. She also said to contact my credit card company - even though I highly doubt their system is checking authorization or limit on the card in the 1 second it takes to error out.
So all she could say was to refresh and try again (which i’ve done 5+ times). She also stressed again the only way to get this discount was online. Just my opinion, but it’s kinda saddening that there is no other way to do this, esp when there are issues.
Just wondering if anyone else has this issue. I noticed others said they ordered their tix already (successfully) so perhaps we’re missing something. Ideas?
Thanks,
Apparently after my rant above about missing out on scouting, and Friday being a key night for that, my team went ahead and got us tickets after all. HA!
So, I’ll see some of you there I guess. w00t! Finally gonna be able to make it to the aquarium after going to Atlanta for what will be my 4th time this year.
<— is excited! 
(Now to find a way to The World Of Coke in what little spare time I have as well…) lol
To those who have gone to the Aquarium before, what kind of food do they have (for dinner) there??
Amy,
I just ordered my ticket without any problems, so their system is working. Sorry I can’t give you any more information than that.
Mike
I have gone every year since it opened … the GA Aquarium is just awesome! If you and your team has the time, this is well worth it. Plus, at less than half the price, it just can’t go wrong!
Enjoy
A portion of our team went last year to the aquarium, and it IS fanastic- I reccomend that even if you don’t go Friday, that you try to get down there at one point or another. It’s a great experience. <3
John Walker at the GA Aquarium was very helpful. When I had trouble getting our order confirmation (even after a phone call to customer service), John responded quickly to my email & resolved all our issues. Here’s his info:
John Walker
Manager, Convention Sales
[email protected]
Georgia Aquarium
225 Baker Street
Atlanta, GA 30313
404-581-4125 -Direct
404-581-4303 -Fax
The Georgia Aquarium will be adding a $110 million dolphin exhibit hopefully by the time Championship’s roll around in 2010.
Dave