A complete play set is heavy freight. It arrives on a pallet, by truck, and it stops at the kerb. Small parts — seats, handles, brackets, a single slide — travel as ordinary parcels and land on the doorstep.
Before the truck
Clear a path wide enough for a pallet truck and decide where the crate will sit. A crate for a mid-size set is roughly the footprint of a double bed and far heavier than it looks. Two people and a hand truck will move it; one person and optimism will not.
Keep the crate off wet ground and under cover if you are not building immediately. Pre-cut lumber that sits in a puddle for a fortnight will not be as straight as it was.
Before you sign
Walk around the pallet. Look for crushed corners, a torn wrap or a slide section with a dent. Note anything visible on the delivery paperwork before the driver leaves — it is far easier to sort a problem that was written down at the kerb than one discovered on the Saturday.
Timing
Freight dates are estimated, not promised, and they vary by season: spring is the busy end of the year for everybody who builds outdoor play. The tracking information from the store you bought from is the live answer.