I have always wanted to try an escape room. For those of you who don’t know what it is you pay someone to lock you in a room with a bunch of clues and you have an hour to figure out how to get out. It just seemed like something fun to make my brain work in new ways and have a great time with my friends!
I heard about them a few years ago in bigger cities and they finally made their way to my home in 2015. So naturally I have been watching for deals (these things are NOT cheap). If I had employees I would totally make them do it and write it off on my taxes but since it’s just me I needed to get it on a budget!
So I was THRILLED when this deal popped up on Pilotonline’s Daily Deal. For $59 up to four of my friends and I could play at “The Room” in Virginia Beach. That’s only $12 a person. I GRABBED that deal! Normally it’s twice that price.
The Room is a live escape room game located in Virginia Beach. You are locked in a room with friends, family or work colleagues for an hour and have to solve a series of puzzles and mysteries to escape. You will have to search high and low for clues and work together if you want to escape. You have 60 minutes to escape by using your brain, some common sense, and a little luck!
You can use your voucher toward the Classified Blacklist or Classified Whitelist challenge. The Classified room follows players sitting through their final entrance exam to become a secret agent. You must escape from the room to pass the exam. This is The Room’s most explosive and technologically advanced room. The Blacklist and Whitelist challenges are the same – the name refers to the room’s decor!
So last night three friends and I met to see if we could succeed. As they walked us back through the hallway the walls were covered with hilarious pictures of celebrities (yes that is Christopher Walken and Patrick Swayze in those pictures). We waited in the back in a beautiful room full of games to play and really comfy furniture. Once we filled out the paperwork and got a few instructions the four of us were locked in the room.
(BTW being locked in a room sounds very ominous. I am claustrophobic and had no issues whatsoever- it’s a big, well lit room. Nice and safe. And there is a door you can exit at any time if something happens).
I won’t get into what the room looks like too much (why ruin the fun?) but there are a couple fun features. Firstly at The Room they actually watch you the entire time in the game and have a screen to communicate with you. When you find clues and open things you hear the sound of applause, letting you know you are moving in the right direction. When you get REALLY stuck sometimes they will offer you a clue to help push you in the right direction. And the employees have a great sense of humor so it was almost like they were playing with us.
When you get in the room EVERYTHING is fair game. While we didn’t destroy things we were WAY too nice with the stuff in there. Next time I play we will know to be more thorough when we examine things for clues. Take stuff off the walls, look in corners- almost nothing is off limits.
When you choose who to take with you, be sure it’s pretty level headed people who can work together. The room was harder than I anticipated (although most of it was just due to us not being observant enough) and I have some friends I would NOT want to be in there with. You have to work together, you have to be flexible and you MUST be able to laugh at yourselves.
So did we make it out?
Kind of.
We were finishing up the VERY last clue when time ran out and they let us finish. So it took us about 61 minutes to get out of the room. I still consider it a victory because we managed to figure it all out.
I would ABSOLUTELY go again. No question about that. And now I think I would be better prepared for how the game is played so I think I would be even more successful!
So if you are looking for a fun night out check out this deal. It was SUCH a great time.
(Hopefully more pics will be coming soon. I just wanted to get this post up.)
