Prison Island Maidstone — Attraction in Maidstone

My daughter and I visited Prison Island Maidstone in May 2019, and was extremely disappointed by the place in many ways. It gives the impression that its like a 'Crystal Maze', far from it...more like fairground attractions in rooms.

We both have travelled over 22 countries visiting many attractions and this one was by far the worst. Costing £25 each and we spent only 25 minutes inside. After 25 minutes we came out and asked for a refund, but was told nothing could be done!

Even after emailing the company was told 'no refund'. To prevent other people from wasting there money I have explained below what is actually involved in visiting Prison Island Maidstone, so no one else needs to feel like I did.

In my opinion go to a seaside arcade, and spend £50. It will last a lot longer than 25 minutes, and you will enjoy it! Look from the outside at the two rooms you can see through the window, they don't give a good impression. The video shows a prison like experience, with railings and doors facing each other. Reality is just a corridor with doors either side.

What's involved? As you enter the corridor of rooms, you choose a room by opening it with your contactless key. The instructions are written on the door. There is no-one else around to help and give you a hint what to do, so if you don't understand, you just move to the next room.

A brief explanation of the rooms and what you need to to do: -

Shooting rock targets with mini red light lasers. Throw basketballs in three hoops. Kick balls in target holes. An empty room with 4 names on wall and a sink...(useless) Match the sound you heard by pushing buttons. If you get it wrong you have to exit room and reset. This took a long time to reset. Push 3 buttons on floor, by moving big gym balls out of way. On entering a screen says find around the room and push the button underneath that matches three playing cards. if you press wrong one it takes a while to go out reset room and go back in. Copy coloured buttons like Simon game. Again to reset the game took to long. Follow wires from one place to another. (Just wires attached to wall) Throw tennis balls through three small holes. Roll a ball down three wooden rails by balancing and transferring it from one rail to another, into a hole. Answer some questions on a video screen. Pointless room! Build up a tower with blocks, as we entered it was already completed by the last group. Was not going to waste time resetting room. Balance along wooden plank and press a button, or fall on the 2 inches of foam. (3 players only). Climb on wooden pyramid, press button at same time. (3 player only) Stay off floor and reach 3 buttons (3 player...

Had a pretty good evening at Prison Island as part of a large group. We split into teams of 3 or 4. The team leader gets an electronic tag which let's them into each room where challenges await. There's a brief description/clue outside each room which also gives a % for whether it is physically or mentally challenging and you score points for solving which are displayed on scoreboards. It's a bit like Crystal Maze but without Richard O'Brien/Richard Ayoade.

The puzzles are well designed and just challenging enough to make them interesting without making you feel like failures if you don't solve them completely 😉

Some require a good level of agility, others require your brain to be in gear and all require teamwork.

We booked for 90 minutes and the time flew by. Competition built when you me your other teams in the corridor to check progress.

Highly recommended as a good team building exercise - for groups that have been before, I can see a darker version along the lines of The Traitors where you plant a saboteur in each group and try to work out who, but this would require more...

Nothing like an escape room, it’s more like arcade games in multiple rooms with a 2-3 minute time limit - throwing basketballs in hoops, throwing balls into holes… there a couple of “logic” games but then the instructions weren’t remotely clear and the buttons weren’t labelled on the keypads.

A few of the rooms were very physical - the floor is lava type rooms. Impossible if you cant hold your own body weight really. Id say at least 3 were like this. Then a couple that require you to run around and press buttons. Another 2 or 3 (of the 20 working) required more than 2 players.

It wasn’t anything like Crystal maze or anything like an escape room. I think it was fun none-the-less, just expensive and not what I expected. We played for 1 hour and it was more than enough. We did about 19 rooms, a couple two or 3 times. £15 per adult and £10 per kid would really be a better price.

The golf was okay, really detailed on the theme but a lot of the holes were very difficult even with the easier route played. Fine for £12.50 and like many of these places can get...