I hope WOTC is listening!!!!
Ouch!!!
What a weekend. My son and I flew down Friday night and got stranded in Denver, had to take the first flight in to LA landing at 7:30am. We got our rental car and made it to the Queen Mary at 8:30am. The lines seemed reasonable when we arrived but I quickly realized they were not moving. Suddenly they decide to let in the general admission folks (Scheduled to open at NOON) while the rest of us waiting to register for the Tournament were waiting to register. My son and I made it onto the gangplank of the boat by 11:15 (By the way, my son was incredibly patient waiting in line). By this time some tempers were starting to flare but even as late as 11:30 we were assured that everyone in line would be registered for the tournament. Not five minutes later they start handing out 1 booster pack and a ticket for the Queen Mary and told us that the tournament was full and that they could not let anyone else in until some people left. As we were very close to the entrance we decided to stay in line and wait our turn. We were inside in short order and our three-hour wait finally came to an end.
Once inside it was a completely different story. Everything was organized and running smoothly. The lines were short for all of the activities and my son and I had a great time. We stayed until 4:00pm and cashed in our stamps for a total of 15 booster packs.
The problem seemed to be that the registration process had either too few people registering folks or that the registration process took too long per player. In any event, the killer was that they opened up the general admission prior to completing the registration for the tournament. This filled up the ship and meant that those waiting in line had to wait to get in while others were just showing up and walking on.
At the end of the day my son was very happy but I am pretty upset as we came down to win the tournament and were not even allowed to play. I am trying to get in touch with someone from WOTC to see if we can get some kind of guarantee that if we attend the East Coast Showdown that we will be able to enter the tournament.
I hope WOTC is listening!!!!
Scott
smallbeck@contactics.com