LaserQuest Fun

I really like to plan things. Now I am also quite ok with winging things and being spontaneous, but if I'm in charge of a bunch of people I like to have things planned out. So when our soccer team went to Edmonton this past weekend I planned a night of lasertag at LaserQuest. Now I phoned ahead on Wed to see if we needed to reserve a spot and they told me it was a good idea as it gets very busy on Sat night. So I booked a group for 15 people for 2 games at 8:00 and 8:40pm. I gave them my credit card number just to hold it and everything was great. The guy just told me to phone ahead if the number of people changes. No problem I figured.

Then came the call. I wasn't home but the answering machine message said that it was LaserQuest phoning to confirm my booking for games at 8:00 and 8:40pm on Sat evening. They said it's all booked and if something changes I need to phone. No problem I figured.

So Saturday around 5:30 pm I talk to my soccer team manager (I really love managers and Eastside soccer managers are the best, but that's a different post) and she gives me the final numbers for laser tag. So I phone them to let them know there will be 20 of us instead of 15. The girl asks me for which group and I tell her for Sheldon. She can't find it. Ummm...how about Mathies. Nope. Hmmm....how about Eastside Gold Eagles. Ahhh, there it is. But suddenly I'm put on hold. No problem I figured.

After being on hold for about 5 minutes while all the parents in the hotel room are staring at me wondering what I'm doing, a familiar voice comes over the phone. It's the guy I talked to on Wed when I booked the games. "Ah, we have a problem sir in that somebody erased your booking." "Really," I ask because I couldn't believe it. "Didn't I book it with my credit card?" I ask nicely. "Yes, you did." "OK, I also received a phone call from you guys confirming this booking." "Yes, you did." "OK, then how do I no longer have a booking." "We aren't sure exactly, but someone erased it." "So, what can we do?" I ask, really not knowing what the answer is.

This is where the story turns good. The guys says they are very booked but they have one opening at 8:20pm that they can get all 20 of us into. And to make up for the mistake, there will be no charge for this. WOW! I quickly agreed to this. We would only get 1 game instead of 2, but it would be FREE! When I told the parents that they were thrilled...everyone always likes free.

So we walk into LaserQuest at 8:00pm and the guys runs up to us and tells us that he can get 10 of us into a game right now, then all 20 of us can get into the next game, then the 10 that hadn't played 2 games can get into the 3rd game. And don't worry, there is not cost! Wowsers! I couldn't believe this! We were going to get 2 free games of lasertag each. We did have to play back to back which was a little tiring but not too bad.

Now I was in game mode. My nickname was "Gotcha". The first game I was in had all 20 of us including the 10 players I coach. I did ok until my players found me and it took me along time before I could shake them as they followed me around and kept shooting me. I only ended up in 6th place after game one, but there were a total of about 30 players so that was ok. But I wanted better.

The next game I decided to be abit stealthier and I stayed mostly in one area. I still got shot a lot but I did a lot of killing (not literally obviously) myself as a few people kept on coming around my area and I shot them over and over...some people just don't learn! The only bad part was when I was "moving quickly" (you aren't allowed to run) and I ran smack into a mirror! It didn't hurt but it sure was a shock. Needless to say when the game was over I ended up ranking in 1st place overall...beating out one of my players dads by 1 point! He was heartbroken. The funny part was that we didn't even see each other the entire game. However, when they were handing out the top 5 places they said "And in 1st place is Gotcha" and suddenly this lady I didn't know walked up and took the piece of paper. I was already walking up there too and I quickly informed her that I was Gotcha. She then looked at me and said "Gotcha!" and laughed. It was a good joke and I laughed (but if she had taken my paper I would have had to release a storm with thunder and lightning).

It ended up being a great night and due to the mixup it ended up costing us nothing (instead of the $260 it should have). So if you are ever in Edmonton (or Regina for that matter) go check out LaserQuest. It's a lot fun! Just watch out for "Gotcha"!