Exit New Westminster Escape Room — Attraction in Downtown

We came in for the FNAF theme at 3:50PM on Aug 4th 2024. Pros: -decor was cute -puzzles were simple/fun -location is great -lockers for your personal items -one staff member was amazing

Cons: -one of the puzzles was already open when we came in -one of the hint's ink was very faded making it hard to read -timer was not paused during technical difficulties

Main issue: one staff member was rude What happened: We came in for our friend's birthday, that friend had solved a puzzle by doing what a sign told him not to do, because of this in the next room he did the exact same thing, which resulted in technical difficulties that did not allow us to progress further. When the staff came in to fix the issue the guy was very kind about it reassuring our friend that, "Oh it was dark you must have not seen the sign, it's okay" while the other staff member was visibly annoyed, wouldn't make much eye contact, and continued to repeat that we, "weren't supposed to do that," "there was a sign not to," and "we broke the system." After the issue was resolved, another issue came up and they came in to say it's because of that previous mistake. She continued to state that, "because of this we might have to close the whole room for the day." Though we knew there were no other bookings as we saw the sign for it when we entered the building, and we booked it a few minutes before entering, and all the slots were open. My other friend realizing our birthday boy was feeling uncomfortable with the staff's responses chimed in with a suggestion, "Hey I've been to some other escape rooms and it really helped to have colour coded signs/labels to tell the customers at the beginning that those specific colours are not part of the game" to which the female staff responded with, "Yeah well we had signs. You weren't supposed to touch that" The male staff tried to lighten the mood, and ended the discussion with, "hope you guys still had fun" After leaving, the female staff must have not known the other group was also our friends, and continued to discuss how annoyed she was that our group had broken the room.

TLDR: Game was cut short, staff was rude to the birthday boy, no birthday discount, no...

This location, to save time, was disappointing. We’ve been to multiple other Exit locations, and while many of them were very good, this locations quality just wasn’t up to their usual standard. And the disappointing part is that the themes have such amazing potential. We did the Toy Story and Jumanji rooms, and immediately on entering the rooms, it felt like you were in a child’s play room, but not in the way you would hope for the Toy Story adventure. The props were cheap (often duct taped to walls, or simply just laminated pictures stuck up with tacks or tape), and while the staff was very kind and helpful, they were being spread between three groups in three different rooms, requiring us to often wait precious minutes for them to assist us (which is not to blame them, they were excellent for what they could do!), This even resulted in us completing the room and waiting in the entry way for her to finish helping another group. Finally, a few of the puzzles were very tedious and felt like they were designed to waste time to keep you in the room. There were few enough puzzles that any group over 1 or 2 would have most of the team standing around waiting for their friends to finish said puzzles, and frustratingly some puzzles even went against the initially stated rules of the room. This all culminates in rooms that may be ok for beginners or those new to escape rooms, but anyone who’s been to other rooms (even other Exit locations) will find the experience lacking. One of the two stars are for the excellent (and overworked) staff and the other is for killing an hour...

I will be truthful, honest, fair and constructive in this review. The New Westminster’s Exit Escape Room is conveniently located. Their premise is clean, the staff is friendly and very helpful. They also provide guests with lockers at no extra costs. This place is ideal for corporate activity-building events or birthday parties for a small-group of people. However, I must admit my overall experience to be rather underwhelming. We chose the Jumanji theme. We were brought into a room that was extremely dark; where the clues were counterintuitive, the fonts on cue cards and sheets were written very small fonts; and some of the functionalities seemed defective (notably the key system at the end that had to be reset by one of the attendant probably due to a system glitch) Furthermore, the bird’s nest (or what it would supposedly be) where the eggs had to be placed into that would grant us access to the last key was a mere cheap Dollarama basket. (Who knew? I have myself never seen a bird’s nest to be of a rectangle shape) Was it worth the $28 per person? Absolutely not in my own opinion. It is worth $15 per adults at the very most. (This business is relatively new to the area) If I could give them tips for improvements, they would be the following: Print larger and easier-to-read fonts Brighten the lights a little bit Ensure that all room settings are functioning prior to letting another group in. $28 per person seems excessive, especially where the use of modern interactive technology...