"If there was room for only 208 people for the Farewell Dinner at the Tapico Lodge, then cut off registration at 208 for the entire event. I've NEVER EVER attended a function like this that could not accommodate all the people for the final dinner ... big mistake ... you might as well hold a drawing .. and the winning numbers get to attend ...."

The dinner was a prepaid event. Tapoco Lodge can accomodate greater than 400 people but we had 208 registered and had extra for walk-ups. There was lots of parking left up the hill. The food line went fairly quickly and the food was good so I don't understand your complaints!

oh well, can't please everyone. All in all, I think everyone did a wonderful job at this year's Dragon! In fact, this was the first complaint I've heard! Feedback is what will make next year's Dragon even better so hearing the good and the bad is a good thing!

 

We never limited the number of registrants. I don't know where you got that information but its not correct. We had a cut off on when to purchase the tix (April 27th, BTW) because they needed to order the food ahead of time. I do appreciate feedback on our event, but what you have a problem with was never even in place. Tapoco did a wonderful job at getting folks thru the line quickly with hot food that I thought was really tasty, and could have easily handled double the crowd, parking and all.

I hope everyone else had a great time, I know I sure did.
Amanda

 

Yes, the Taxi won. Mr. Bean was 2nd.

There will definitely be a feedback poll posted when Mark gets home and has a chance to set it up. We discussed that and other things at a meeting on Sunday.

 

We had room for plenty more people for dinner and for parking (I should know since I organized and supervised the parking). The only limitation was that people pre-register for the dinner (just like every other dinner or drive all weekend). That was apparently clear to everyone but you. Perhaps you would like to organize an event next year and show us how it's done. We are always looking for someone to add a new event each year.

 

The Farewell Dinner was great!

Y'all really have your @#$% together in 'lanta.

Thanks for the great time.

 

well put t-rex. btw , thks for the sheep they loved the ride south,

 

When I first registered for the Dragon events, I thought I would have time to do and see everything...HAHAHA! Not a chance!!! This is NOT a gripe at all...merely a HUGE THANK YOU to the planners for providing so many different venues to enjoy. You can be usre that one of these years I WILL fit everything into a weekend's worth of fun...just not everything into 3 days in one year. BOTTOM LINE: IF YOU DIDN'T ENJOY YOURSELF, BLAME NO ONE BUT YOURSELF.

Just like in tour group travel, even the best laid plans often go astray...but that's what makes travel so fun---dealing with the unexpected and still wanting to do it all over again.

WELL DONE, ORGANIZERS AND PARTICIPANTS!!!

 

Pete,

I made a similar point to wheelspnr in my post earlier in this thread:

"Why don't you volunteer to help organize an event at the Dragon for 2006? You seem to have a lot to say...perhaps you also have a lot of time and energy to offer?"

I'd love to see more folks step up to the plate and create new events for MOTD-2006. Someone who has taken the time to dissect and critique MOTD-2005 really ought to get involved.

Clover

 

Here Here,
can't agree more loved every second of the Dragon Booked the Cabin for next year......

 

I for one had an awesome time and have zero complaints. I can only imagine how much hard work all of the groups had to do to pull this thing off. I want to go back in the fall and ride it again!! I really enjoyed meeting everyone and seeing all the MINI's. My favs had to be Mr Bean and Kermee. Too cute! Many kudos to MiniClo and all of the other MKOs, Smoky Mountain Minis, AtlantaMinis and my own crew for making this the best vacation I have had in a long time Thanks for working your booty off!

Kristie

 

You came back:smile: Wish I'd known so we could talk more. It was great of you to track me down. I had a great time and have met a lot of great people for the first time like Eric (Helix13), Aaron (OutMotoring), Richard (Octane Guy), SpyderX, Fastlanetuning, Royce, Bob, Peter, Mike, Doug (the mountain biker), Greatbear, Chris (CustomAV), and more Chris just to mention a few. Forgive me if I left you out but there were more people than I can remember (but would not forget). It was a pleasure to have met all of you and I definitely plan on being back next year

 

I agreed the food was not great: 1st night after helping with the check-in registrations I ended up with half of the food (yet paid for the full dinner menu)

The Friday Parade started in a confusing way.. I wasn't sure if I begun the Dragon or not... ( a few twists later I got the idea)

Be a witness to a Mini accident was sad and scary.

Farewell dinner : food so so, very so so.

Winning just a little tiny model car while other won big wans't fun

The bonfire was confusing no one knew when to start it ..


.... but having to be with bunch of Mini people it was FUN FUN FUN...

everybody worked hard, there were so many people and cars that things could have being very messy but everything happened and there were not cancellations.... so overall it was a success.. a BIG ONE.

I am looking forward to see some of the people complaining about this year event, working very hard next year to make absolutely a PERFECT MOTD


MD STREGA2

 

Some people wouldn't be happy if they were hung with a new rope as my old Grand Daddy would say
Thanks again everyone for doing a great job I would love to help out someway next year:smile:

Lois

 

I have a BIG complaint.

I didn't get to go this year.

 

Save the date: first full weekend next May! It is WORTH it to fully enjoy what our MINIs can do and see a beautiful part of the country at the same time!


Clover

 

While what you say may be true, this is a very young event. Our Minis have been around since 02 and this was only the third year. Please take your experience and help this event evolve.

 

So is it safe to say we can start putting in REservations for May 4th-7th 2006?? I didn't get to go at the last second because my 05' MCS didn't make it here in time so i'm itching to plan next year already!

 

Uh oh. Just discovered I left the ac adapter for my MP3 behind at Tapoco. Anyone want to go help me find it?

 

I believe the dates will be May 2 - 6, 2006. If you call Fontana Village, 800- 849-2258, they know the dates for MOTD-'06, and you can book a reservation. Go to their website and read about the lodging choices: http://www.fontanavillage.com/

Or go to the Tail of the Dragon site, scroll down the page and check out the various lodging links. Tapoco Lodge, the Robbinsville Microtel, and Fontana Village are closest to where all the MOTD events will take place: http://www.tailofthedragon.com/

See you there, Thameth! :smile:


Clover

 

The meeting that was held for next year's MOTD determined that May 4-7 would be the dates!

 

Let’s try to break your complaints down and find out what may have to change to make you happy.

“I'm comparing this event to several other car club events I've attended and these are my observations:”

Let’s start right there. This is not a club event. This is a very loose event put together by many organizations and individuals of the MINI community. Anyone who wished to sponsor a drive, dinner, creeper race or anything did it on there own but used NAM as the major contact and chat point.

“~ Organization was too loose. A central area needed to be manned at least during the day to direct, answer questions, etc. No one was around ever.”

I drove 1500 miles to run my MINI up and down an 11 mile stretch of road. I didn’t need anyone to point me in the direction of it, I didn’t need any questions answered about it and I didn’t need to have 1000 cars on it all at the same time.

But this is a great idea and can be your job next year; to sit at some booth all day and answer questions so I will have one less car on the road and reason I came.

“~ Nothing started on time.”

I thought everyone tried and did their best to start everything on time. If participants didn’t get to one event because something else ran long, what can I say?

Next year maybe you can also be the official holder of the stop watch too making sure everything starts and stops on time. You can do it fron your information booth.

“~Disappointed in vendor turnout .. I was planning on spending lots of money…”

All I can say is sorry if the vendors didn’t bring the things you wanted to buy. Being independent business people it was there decision to do what they did and not the events fault.

The only vendor I wanted to see was the Texaco station at Fontana and he had every product I needed which was gas.

“~ Never heard results of chili cookoff ... shiniest car -- nothing .... again.. reflects on first comment.”

Sorry again, but they were made. You get 300 plus people in a hall like that and things will be hard to hear. Results of other events were announced at different times.

“~ Welcome dinner was cold ..”

I don’t know what you mean by cold because mine was warm and I ate well after the serving started by at least an hour and a half. As for your comments about the food itself all I can say is you can’t please everyone and you seem to be the only complaint I’ve heard so far. Being one of the organizers of the Welcome Dinner I would like to hear what others thought.

“~ If there was room for only 208 people for the Farewell Dinner at the Tapico Lodge, then cut off registration at 208 for the entire event.”

I did not attend the Farewell Dinner so I can’t make any comment about what you say, but I have read posts from the Atlanta group that have addressed this point.


“~ Yes, the Dragon was fun ... but for round trip of over 1100 mi…”

So in a nutshell you had fun and the only basic problem was:

The origination of the event
Information while at the event
Announcements at the event
Nothing was on time
The Welcome Dinner
The food
The Farewell Dinner
The vendors
The cost of food
Having to drive 1100 miles
The events themselves

I see it’s a short list of things to be worked on to make you happy next year, but I’ve found in the past know matter how hard you try to please people, some will never be pleased what ever the cost.

 

I was about to say May 2nd is a Tuesday. 4th-7th is Thursday Through Sunday.

Looks like i'll be calling Fontana in the next week or so to reserve my 2 Bed Laurel again!

 

Thanks for the correction Minimom...LOL! Although some of us may get there early, again!


Clover

 

We Are DEFINITELY going to make next year's MOTD go from Thursday through MONDAY! If we would have stayed until Monday, we wouldn't be so tired! Hmmmmmmm, on Second thought, Maybe wait and leave on Tuesday?

There were so many local artisans I wanted to visit (we did visit a few on Saturday). An extra day of rest/ lazy stuff to do will definitely be in my plans next year.

 

A BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED MAKE THIS HAPPEN!

I helped so I know how much work went into this but you will never please everyone so I'm going to just try and restrain myself from commenting on people that have complaints about not hearing announcements

Also a very big thank you for everyone that helped contribute to the charity! If you bought a Dragon toy (I have two on my desk right now) from the M2C2 crowd, ate at the welcome dinner or just put cash in the jar you helped out, so thank you