Just booked an escape room...

...anybody ever done one? For our 25th anniversary (and DD#2's 20th birthday; coincidentally, the same day) I booked us into the National Treasure themed room here.

It looks like fun. Anybody done it before? Hints, tips, etc?

Looks like fun. I've never heard of this. So, you basically get the room for an hour to try to figure out the puzzle?

There's one here in Grand Rapids. I really think it would be fun, but can't convince the wife.

Dr. Boost. Royal Oak is close to you right? http://thegreatescaperoom.com/royal-oak/

No first hand experience, but I've had friends go and they had a blast. Their approach was to have some group members basically ransack the room looking for clues/keys/etc, while another group would focus on interpreting the clues that had been found. Also, I don't know how things work with that particular company, but I wouldn't go into it expecting there to be only one room that you have to escape from. Sometimes a locked door just leads to another room with more clues.

Thought by thread title it meant Champagne Room.

Nevermind

DrBoost wrote: Looks like fun. I've never heard of this. So, you basically get the room for an hour to try to figure out the puzzle?

Yeah, your party is locked in the room for an hour with no instructions except to get out. Basically, nothing larger than a footstool needs to be moved. You find clues that lead to more clues that eventually let you unlock the door.

They watch you remotely, and if you're totally floundering, they give you some hints.

Sounds fun! IIRC there was one set up locally, but I don't remember where I saw it.

That sounds like fun. And yes GRTech, that's maybe 45 minutes from me.

We have one locally. My brother recently did it and had a great time.

As a professional locksmith I'm not sure if I'd find it absurdly easy or too weird to get my head around.

I did one once. It was fun. Of course i didnt read all the rules, had my cell phone on me and was able to......alter some things that probably shouldn't have been altered.

I may have booked The Crystal Room at the Kew Motor Inn a time or two. They also charge by the hour.

I keep seeing advertisements as "Suggested Post" for a few of them here in Dayton. SWMBO says she's interested, should probably check them out.

I recently did a beta test on one that was being developed. They are very much a Team Building type activity. You do really need to calm down an read / interpret the clues properly (it's very easy to get rushed). A very good exercise in performance under stress.

I have also done a few Amazing Race's (now called The Fantastic Race). The guys claim they proposed it to CBS at some point and was rejected then CBS changed the idea slightly and made the show they have now. I think they may only be in LA, but it's a fun way to explore parts of a city (we did Hollywood / Downtown LA and Venice Beach). It's like the show, you find puzzles and clues to solve to send you to your next location (e.g. Mans Chinese Theater, Hollywood walk of fame, Disney Concert Hall). Some of the clues are rather creative and will be things you may not expect.

Thread revival. We did one of these last weekend and had a blast. (locksmithing skills weren't required ) We had 4 people in our room and that felt good. Many more would have been really crowded.

Our room was a truly creepy cell where people had been kidnapped and dismembered. We did get out in 55 minutes BTW

I suppose throwing a chair thru the sheetrock next to the door and walking out would be frowned upon?

So, what is a "clue?"

In our case, there was a video screen where they would update time, etc. If the proctor thought we were struggling, he would put things like "Read carefully" or "Check the Presidents" up on the screen to point us at the bookshelf or a picture, or something. Pretty generic and not too pointed.

This sounds a lot like what I do at work. They put a team of two or three of us into a room, we have to solve a problem and then find a way out. Of course, the problem that we have to solve is that the room is on fire. Without fire, it sounds kind of boring.

Not the helper/hint clue, but what's a a regular clue that you would find if you looked closely at the presidents? Something like a key taped to the back of the picture, or something that directs you to the key under something, or no keys or what?

Dr. Hess wrote: Not the helper/hint clue, but what's a a regular clue that you would find if you looked closely at the presidents? Something like a key taped to the back of the picture, or something that directs you to the key under something, or no keys or what?

The room we did was loosely "National Treasure" themed. There were a desk, a bookshelf full of books, a chest of drawers, a table, a globe, some portraits, and framed copies of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

On things with drawers, there were maybe 6 combination padlocks, ranging from 3 to 6 digits each. It was a few months ago, so I forget the details. But typically, they were things that, if noticed, pointed you to figure out the combinations.

For instance, we saw that there were 3 copies of The DaVinci Code right next to each other on the shelf. Each one had a number marked inside the front cover, which, when put together, gave the combination for one of the simple locks. That lock opened a drawer that had a morse code key inside. On the back of one of the portraits was a message in morse that decoded to give another lock combination. That revealed a cipher that depended on finding particular words in the Declaration to solve. Eventually, after 10 or 12 such steps, you unlocked a box that had the door key in it. Most were decoding puzzles rather than physical manipulation.

We made some mistakes that meant we didn't get out in our allotted hour, but we would have made it in about another 10 minutes. We also tried to split up and work independently, which was counterproductive. At least in this room, the puzzles were a little more linear than that.

Huh. Not too far away, and not wildly expensive.

The Foxtrapper family may well have to try this!

I want an escape pod

foxtrapper wrote: Huh. Not too far away, and not wildly expensive. The Foxtrapper family may well have to try this!

We had a lot of fun even though we "failed". It was me, DW, DD#1 (23), DD#1's boyfriend, and DD#2 (19). We plan to go back sometime.

we did something similar called 'breakout louisville'. it was a james bond kinda theme. it was alot of fun and we ended up with ~10 minutes left on the clock. i've seen people who had seconds left.