Two weekends ago was the scheduled Prerelease events for the MtG set Fate Reforged. TO Rei scheduled our local prerelease to be on Saturday of that weekend with forty slots to accommodate more participants. I myself was excited to open some packs of this new set.

The Trouble

One major thing that happened was the delay of delivery. We expected the products to arrive Friday since they sent it to the courier Wednesday. I think their service was affected by the pope’s visit in the country because of the scheduled no-fly zone in NAIA. Anyhow, Rei called the courier Saturday morning regarding the update of the package status and they said that the first box already arrived and the next two boxes will on the next flight scheduled to arrive around 11:30 that morning. We then decided to go to the airport to fetch the boxes ourselves. Also, special mention and thanks to Emerson for lending us a service car.

We arrived at the Iloilo airport around 10:30am and went directly to the cargo bay to check the package. The staff told us that one of their delivery guys already picked up the first box to have it on delivery queue on that day. Rei was somewhat upset that time because he clearly instructed on the phone call that the box will be picked up by us. He just then told the staff to contact that person about the plan.

We waited around another hour and the PAL airplane arrived somewhat on time. Again it was another waiting period as the cargos are being unloaded into their drop zone and being checked one by one. The bad news though is that the two boxes are not there and they said it is probably on the next flight arriving at 2:30pm. At this time we were already in doubt if we’ll push through with the prerelease. People were already waiting at the announced venue at Lanai we were updating them through calls and text messages and Facebook posts. We then decided to again wait for that flight.

After a short lunch at a nearby canteen, we were just there outside the cargo bay talking about stuff to pass the time. The plane finally arrived past 2:30 and we were hoping our package will be there. After about another fifteen minutes, the staff called Rei for signing the release papers and paying the cargo fee. We left around 3pm and the next stop was at the courier’s office in Mandurriao to get the first box. It was another hour of travel but we’re happy that we’ll still hold the event even for that huge delay. We then checked with their office if their delivery guy has left the package there. There is still another delay as we had to wait for that person because he went out for lunch, at that late time already. In another thirty minutes or so, Rei was able to get the box and we immediately headed to his place as most of the players were already there waiting since lunch.

To be continued…