Sunday, February 26, 2017

Escapology Orlando - Shanghaied


We finished up our first room at Escapology and then got a notice that my flight home was delayed - and what better way to kill the time than to do another room! We had a blast in this room - things came together for us pretty quickly and we had a blast going through this room.

Price:$$$$35 per person

Theme:★★★Fun theme and the decorations and puzzles all fit in with it.

Quality:★★★In good shape, but struggled with a couple of the items inside.

Difficulty:★★★This was the perfect level of difficulty to be challenging and fun at the same time.

Fun:★★★★This was super fun once we got started.

With:2 peopleEvan, Judy

Outcome:Win

Time Left:11:42

Escapology Orlando - Budapest Express


This room was fantastic and a great way for us to enjoy our time together. There was some new puzzles in here, as well as a few that were challenging and kept us on our toes. The layout of the room and the props inside were so perfect for this theme and were incorporated in a way that made this feel more real than we expected. Definitely would recommend this room to anyone in the area!

Price:$$$$35 per person

Theme:★★★★★This was very well done and how things were setup were perfect for the room. Some things we saw here fit in very well in this room, even though we've seen them in others.

Quality:★★★★In great shape and very well thought out.

Difficulty:★★★★★This room included a type of puzzle that really falls into the hard category for Evan and I, and we are glad we paid close attention to their instructions.

Fun:★★★★★We had a blast - there were plenty of surprises and unique twists.

With:2 peopleEvan, Judy

Outcome:Win

Time Left:3:19

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Breakout - Hostage


We did hostages and found it to be well themed, progressive and fairly challenging. There was one little thing a little out of alignment, but a quick question to the hostess solved it. We've done several other rooms and this one is very high in our list due to the creativity and unique use of props. Its not super showy fancy, but just a well done room. The only downside to this room was it basically being an oven in there. A box fan in the corner didn't really do anything to help 6 people in a small room for an hour. We didn't see any AC vents anywhere, but they are new and we assume they plan to resolve that before summer, hopefully.

Price:$$$26 per person

Theme:★★★This was well themed and some of the decor seemed so authentic that it was somewhat scary at first.

Quality:★★★★This was good - all but one puzzle was clear once we understood it, and as noted above, we were able to figure that one out by asking when the alignment seemed odd.

Difficulty:★★★There were some great puzzles here - some took us a bit to figure out but once we took the time to get them, the next step was clear.

Fun:★★★★This was very fun - some great creative puzzles and some good pairing with others (which was oddly appropriate for this scenario) made this a great time.

With:6 peopleEvan, Judy (and 4 others)

Outcome:Win

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Ultimate Escape Game Dallas - Dallas

After this room, we've escaped all but one of the current rooms available at this location. Today we got there a bit earlier and were happy to see some corn hole setup in the parking lot to keep us busy while waiting. Once all signed in and ready to go, we were paired up with seven others (who we later found out attend the same college we did). It was a good thing we had so many people, as we really did need all of the different ideas everyone presented to solve the puzzles. As the name of the room suggests, there were a lot of things that make you think about Dallas as you go through the experience, which was neat as we thought through things. If only we'd had some experience in the areas that were highlighted, I suspect this would have been easier, but there was enough context to figure things out and escape.

Price:$$$28 per person

Theme:★★This experience had some good decor that just kept getting better the longer you were in it.

Quality:★★There were a couple of puzzles in here that didn't work and we had to get help to make them work or to get the clue that was meant to come from them.

Difficulty:★★★We didn't solve a puzzle for the first 12 minutes, and there were a few times we all looked at each other like "what do we do now", but there were also some easier puzzles mixed in.

Fun:★★We had fun, especially as my mother- and brother-in-law got to escape a room this time.

With:11 peopleEvan, Judy, Justin, Pat (and 7 others - UTD students)

Outcome:Win

Saturday, February 4, 2017

Escape Expert - Dead End (Second Try)


I do not think frustrating is a good enough word for this room. We really wanted to beat it, but even the second attempt with more people was futile. I feel quite bad about this, as it was the first time for one in the group and perhaps this wasn't the best place for that (some of their other rooms would be great). Some day maybe we will make it happen. And it isn't just us - check out this review from Escape Authority.

Price:$$$28 per person

Theme:★★★★Again, this was very immersive and probably one of the scariest rooms we've ever been in.

Quality:★★★★Things worked great and seemed to all be in working order.

Difficulty:★★★★★This room was so hard - even with eight people this time, we didn't get much farther (maybe one more puzzle) than last time.

Fun:★★★We had more fun with more people, but it was still quite frustrating.

With:8 peopleCJ, Ellie, Evan, Fred, Judy, Lesley, Nicole, Tony

Outcome:Loss