In to the Desert: A Trip to Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest, pt. 1

So, I’ve never hidden that I’m hugely in to Final Fantasy XIV. It’s the only MMO that has easily engaged me and kept me still playing. I’m almost at the anniversary of joining my free company. I started playing Final Fantasy XIV before they relaunched the game as a part of the 2.0 beta. So, it’s a good game. It’s a game I truly enjoy.

The floor while waiting in line. I kinda dig this carpet pattern.

When I heard that there was a Fan Festival coming up, I was all over it. I bought badges for it when they first went on sale in July. I couldn’t help it. It’s a game that I enjoy. I enjoy it enough to keep playing it, even when I hit a wall and have a hard time getting past some content, I still love the game. Since Fan Fest was in Vegas, it was easier to get to. We didn’t have to hop a flight. We could drive there.

That’s precisely what we did, drive to Vegas.

Of course, the drive was largely uneventful. We even managed to miss all the traffic in San José (which can be a nightmare to get through).

We were 78 miles outside of Vegas when our car started steaming. It broke down just over the border of Nevada. So, we call AAA to see about getting us a tow. We were incredibly lucky. The third person that was with us had the upgraded AAA service that allows for tows up to 80 miles. We were at 78. So, we managed to get a tow in to Vegas. Our car was dropped off at the shop and our tow guy was awesome enough to drop us off at our hotel.

There’s nothing quite like being dropped off at a Vegas casino in a tow truck.

So, once we finally made it there (about 10 hours after we set out, 1.5 hours later than initially planned),

One of the standees, poolside.

we checked in. While our luggage was taken to our room by my travel mates, I went to pick up our badges. It was a process that at that point in the night was a 45 minute process. I was happy that it wasn’t lineagedeon and I had to sit there for 6 hours (which apparently was the case earlier in the day).

Picking up the badges was a two-stage process. We picked up our badge and raffle ticket (everyone got one for a raffle that was held during the closing ceremony on Sunday). Then we waited in another line that was also relatively quick to pick up our schwag. Overall, it wasn’t too bad at all. It ran nicely… and of all the things that could have gone wrong, nothing else did.

Once we had our stuff, we headed over to the meet-n-greet.

The meet-n-greet was held poolside at the Rio. Unfortunately, we got there towards the end of the evening and missed out on a lot of fun. There was a gathering from our server (for those who are curious I’m on Malboro), but we don’t know if it was there because we were all exhausted by the length of our trek to Vegas.

A very adorable Moogle cosplay.

There were a lot of people at the meet-n-greet. It was great to see so many other fans and players of the game.

We went to a bar inside to grab a stiff drink. After all, after the trek we had, I think having a drink to start unwinding was completely a thing that needed to happen. I managed to get a decent Hurricane. It was quite good.

After that we went back to the room to pass out and get ready for the first day of the fest.