Clue IQ: An Escape Room Experience — Attraction in Frederick

In short, Clue IQ was a lot of fun. The rooms were pretty cool, both decor and puzzles. Our host, Helen, was a lot of fun. Depending on the room, she came into character as our host/helper.

For those who have never done an escape room: I had heard recommendations that escape rooms were a lot of fun. Clue IQ was my first escape experience and it was AWESOME. Your host shows you a video giving you the story leading into your "escape experience". There is nothing you need to remember about this video, it is just a fun lead in to your escape. Your host shows you to your room and tells you how to get help (You can get as much help as you want; they want you to have fun and complete the escape). There is no starting clues or start point. You just start looking for puzzle pieces, but we didn't know what we were looking for. We started off pretty slow. You only have an hour and really don't have time to go too slow with only two people. (We found that out at the end) Some parts are easy and some are challenging. The puzzles don't require any special knowledge, but being observant to find clues and figure out what to do with the clues is key. For example, we were provided a code and had to use the code to decipher the message. You have to find numbers to put into a combination lock. You have to find puzzle pieces hidden around the room. I went with one friend and tried the Excalibur experience. We had to get to Excalibur behind a gate and get it unlocked so we could pull it out. With two of us, we only made it halfway to Excalibur in hour, trying not to ask for clues. We left having enjoyed the experience, but disappointed we didn't finish. We walked about a block away from Clue IQ and turned back to do another room. Having learned we needed to do things quickly and ask for hints when we were stuck, we finished the Blitzkrieg room. We weren't exhausted or mentally drained even after two rooms and only having two people. I have another room scheduled later this week and a plan to take my wife and kids in a few months....

How the Grinches at Clue IQ Stole Christmas

ClueIQ has so many “kid friendly” rooms and claims to be a family friendly escape room option. However, their policies ensure this could not be further from the truth. The no exception 48 hour cancellation window ensures it cannot be family friendly despite their claims because sicknesses don’t give 48 hours notice.

We were signed up for the Operation Jingle Bells room today, hoping for some pre-Christmas fun. We have been planning this since October, and officially signed up last week due to the cancellation policy. Then my daughter began vomiting and running a 102 degree fever. We called ClueIQ over a day in advance once it happened, and they refused to reschedule us knowing our daughter’s illness. The person we spoke with when we called openly encouraged us to leave our 9 year old daughter at home alone while me, her dad, and her brother were 2 1/2 hours away doing the escape room. When we called, they had PLENTY of time to re-book the room as it is the most popular one they have this time of year.

Do I understand the 48 cancellation policy? Yep. But is life black and white? No. Exceptions have to be made, or they are going to end up with kids actively contagious in their rooms because the company refuses to reschedule in times where it is truly unsafe for participants to be there. We are choosing to stay home because now both my son and daughter are running high fevers, but not all parents will choose to light money on fire to do so.

So if you want to catch the flu or Covid or any other illness right before Christmas, go to ClueIQ, where parents who tried to keep the germs away are guaranteed to be there anyway because of non family friendly policies and absolutely unprofessional...

The two stars are for the location and the rooms, as they are really well thought out and fun. My group did the Blitzkrieg room. We were impressed with how it was laid out and how detailed it was. This was our third escape room and we were so excited when we finished the room in a little over 30 minutes, becoming the fastest group to do the room. Our excitement quickly deflated when the person working there came in, gave a quick "great job", and that was it. She led us out of the room and didn't say another word to us. We were still pretty excited and stopped to look at the leader board, to see if we did beat the fastest time. It goes through a bunch of screens so we had to stand there a while looking, and the girl said, "you know that doesn't change until tomorrow. It's not instant." We said we knew, we just wanted to check the times to see if we beat it. She just smiled, went in the back employee room, and that was it. It was a pretty big let down and there was no fanfare at all. We've had better receptions at other rooms we've done when we DIDN'T beat the fastest time. One of our group even contacted the place, not to.complain, but just give a heads up about how disappointed we were so that hopefully they would do a better job congratulating high scorers. The response was very vague and defensive. Eh. We won't spend our...