I’ve been to the Championship wrap-up parties for the past 4 years, and I think this year’s party was great! It was an excellent chance to meet with other teams in a beautiful park, with all sorts of things to do, from laser tag, to inflatable bouncing things, to the hypnotist (who also performed at UTC), to pretty good food! And it was right accross the street from my hotel, so it was an easy walk. I had a great time! What are everyone else’s thoughts on the party?
I had an AMAZING time with another member of my team and at least 7 other people from different teams. I think that this social was the best I had been to. It gave different students and coaches from different teams to interact more, rather than running around in their own teams at something like Epcot. This party was what SOCIAL meant. I had the best time of my life.
Completely awsome party, It had everything I needed to have a good time.
-Food
-Video Games
-Bouncy Stuff
and a bit of frisbee on the side
I love it!
-Aaron
I had a great time the Fireworks were great and the DJ’s were pretty good (even thought first did not want any dancing there still was some).
The food was really good, but other than that, I was rather dissapointed. After the first 10 or 15 minutes, the lines for most of the activities had grown to around 45 minutes. There was not nearly enough capacity for the number of people, and very little gracious professionalism was shown in term of things like line cutting. When we decided to make our own fun by hitting a beach ball around, FIRST staff told us that that wasn’t allowed and made us stop.
We has purchased the package deal from THS, but if we had payed $90 a person for the team social, we would’ve been pretty upset.
I have to agree in saying that my feelings were mixed. yes, there were some fabulous aspects to it, and yes I really enjoyed the party at the time I was there, but looking back I realize that there were some aspects both positive and negative that could use thoughts.
To be on the proside, yes there was food, video games, hypnotism and other things. It was a great way to interact with other teams and do things and meet people and enjoy myself.
However, as mentioned earlier, the lines were horrible. I really think that a larger site would have been an advantage so that they could spread things out and have less lines. Gracious Professionalism was definitly an issue, from cutting in lines to leaving a mess (or at least it looked a bit trashed to me near the end, who knows).
My main dissapointment was the exclusiveness of it all. There are teams that I’m very fond of who didn’t find out if they qualified for Nationals until right after their last regional. Then there are area teams who don’t need to buy a package cause they’re at a hotel. Personally I have to say I’m kinda confused about how much trying to charge $90 a pop for non-packages really got. The teams that couldn’t afford it didn’t go, so FIRST doesn’t really make money. I think a price change would have been more reasonalbe so all teams could go and socialize cause it’s an “all teams socialize” not an “all teams who afford it” social right? I have nothing against them, i just think this is an aspect of the event itself that could be reorganized. Any thoughts?
I got the impression that the ninety dollars paid for lunch (and breakfast??) ticket for the events too. So like 30 dollars for lunch (don’t talk about high prices. They weren’t horrible. You could get a hot dog for 2 dollars) and this would mean the party was 60 dollars per person at most.
My only suggestions would be to set the fireworks off a the same time (they were great) and then leave the social open until 11. 10 was too early.
And double up on the popular games( aka boxing, gladiator thing,).
Oh yeah, use the screen to play something else other than the rotating cube FIRST logo. That would be nice like…just something else.
I liked it a lot otherwise. It was definitely a great way to finish the FIRST year.
It would be cool if a couple camera crews walked around and they put a live feed up every once in a while.
I must say that it was a great time… I had so much fun at the wrap up party and met so many people… I thought everything there was great… Plus I loved the fact that the games were free…
All the $90 covered was the wrap party and “Event support and Administration.” See 2004_FRC_Championship_Hotel_Package_Update.pdf.
At the beginning, they did have camera crews filming the people walking in, but other than that it was pretty pointless. I assume that the screens were the same ones used on Archimedes and Newton, and they were moved over during the finals. Can anyone confirm or deny this?
I wasn’t there but i’m guessing these games would be free since you did pay $90 or purchased a package to get in.
I thought it was an excellent party in a great location. While I agree that the AV was alittle lacking and the lines were alittle long the venue was spectacular and the fireworks were quite good.
It certainly sure beat that POS team party at Astroworld last year. Not only were the lines horrible, but food wasn’t provided, etc. This was definatly better.
So… to sum up the Championship this year… FIRST teams have trashed:
- Several Atlanta, GA Metro area Hotels
- A worldclass football stadium
- A worldclass convention center
and… to top it off - A park where the olympics were held.
You can’t top that.
-Jamie
There were two nights at Astroworld last year, and food was provided on one of them.
Our team was not able to go because of the $90 fee per person. We found out on Friday that admission was not automatically granted to each team and that it was instead going to be 90 per. We just couldn’t afford it.
Bill
You know… I felt pretty bad because right across the street (near the shooting fountain thing) there was a prom… hahaha It was funny because as people were taking pictures in front of the fountain you saw FIRST kids running in the fountain… hahahah
Overall, Epcot is still my favorite venue for the championships, but I liked the “things to do” aspect of this year’s wrap party. I seem to be kind of a kid for someone my age, because I really had fun racing people on the obstacle courses, even though I got beat by a girl, and the climping wall thing was fun. Unlike Houston, the food at the party was decent, but 90 bucks seems kind of pricey for such an event.
Did anyone else get hit with the sprinklers? We were playing mini-golf (which was fun even though it was on a hill) and got soaked.
We also thought the $90 covered food. That party was good, but not $90 good.
Also, dont they have triangle and square (and circle) fireworks? How could they miss this oppertunity?
My opinion was the party was a LOT of fun, but it REALLY needed to be longer, and have more of the popular items in it, b/c lines were horrendous. Also the lack of respect for property was slightly unnerving.
The fireworks were excellent, but I wish they had seriously choreographed it to music, not just play over it. Food was quite good for such an event.
I DID get soaked, courtesy of my friend pushing/dragging me in. Good times. 
Oh, and WHY WASN’T THERE A DDR MACHINE AT THE PARTY???
The hypnotist definitely made the entire party worth it. I can’t get over just how funny that was! I felt bad for the pregnant guys, though.
I felt the team party this year was awsome. I enjoyed sitting around and talking with the seniors for the last time at a FIRST event. I also enjoyd walking around, and talking to people on other teams. The park was very nice and the weather counldn’t have been any better. This was probably the best team party, at nationals any way, that I have ever been to.