Red Door Escape Room — Attraction in Gaithersburg

INITIAL REVIEW (3 STARS, BUT)

Okay first room experience and would have gotten 3 stars (read to the conclusion to see why). My wife and I have done many escape rooms (15+ this year alone) and have experienced different escape room companies, but this is our first time trying out Red Door Escape Room.

I made a booking for our first room online a few weeks prior, I noticed upon booking that there is a $7 option for booking protection (refunds/rescheduling) which applies only to changes made outside 24 hours of the booking

Day of we ran into some scheduling conflicts, but did not purchase the booking protection (which technically would not have mattered since it was well outside of that 24 hour window) I figured I’d go ahead and call anyways to see if the could accommodate my situation. Luckily enough they were generous enough to change both my booking time and party size without hassle. Mileage may vary so don’t rely on my review if you get yourself into a booking pickle.

Upon arrival that evening staff was very welcoming and were interacting with us while we waited.

Once our game master was ready we were brought to the briefing room where the rules were explained to us and they showed us a video explaining our room scenario. We were then escorted to our room to begin our game. Room Review (Once Upon A Time)

NO SPOILERS: Room decor was great! Pretty immersive for the given scenario. Lighting was a bit too dim even with the provided light/torch that is given to you. This made the room a little frustrating since some of the item/props needed are small and aren’t a color that would stand out from all of the room decor . This made the room a little frustrating and even cut down a majority of our rooms remaining time at the end.

One of the best and worst parts of this room was the sounds, this is because when you complete a puzzle or put proper pieces together it would trigger a sound indicating you did something right, but it also seemed like sounds would just trigger randomly as well. I’m not sure if they were sounds in our room or sounds that may have been triggered in other rooms, but I just happened to over hear them.

The puzzles in the room flowed pretty well for the most part besides some of the puzzles not having been setup as intended. The puzzles also weren’t random like some other escape rooms we’ve completed, there was a rhyme and reason to all puzzles and clues. About 5 minutes into our game, another game master knocks on the door and comes in informing us of a mistake that was made when the room was reset for our game. This made the rest of the game experience pretty confusing because we had access to another section of the room earlier than anticipated and did not know whether or not we had to use items and clues in other portions of the room. Upon inspecting other puzzles, we found another puzzle that did not have the item that was required to complete a lock. At this point after finding out our room wasn’t setup as intended and one of the puzzles were not complete the immersion and fun kind of ended for me, I was just looking to finish our room as fast as possible.

Conclusion: My overall experience was mostly positive at the end of the day. I’m the kind of person who enjoys an escape rooms immersivenss as much (if not a little more) as it’s puzzles. I feel that if our room was setup properly and as intended my review would have been at least a 4 if not 5/5. Luckily enough due to the steep booking discount and the staff being hassle-free and working with me and my change in booking it earned them an extra star. At the end of the day I understand that this was opening weekend for Red Door Escape Rooms in Gaithersburg and they are still working to iron out all bumps and kinks so I can’t be too hard on them. We have already pre-booked 3 more rooms and looking to see if it’ll be worth it to book the last two rooms once we complete these. Im looking forward to coming back next week and even possibly updating my review...

Great escape room but definitely some kinks to figure out. I've escaped four out of six of their rooms and I'd like to start by saying their game masters are amazing! Special shout out to Brent & Delano, ya'll were awesome. That being said, I've done a lot of escape rooms in other places, and I feel for some of these rooms have issues that should be fixed and you really do need hints in order to escape. If the game masters weren't so great, it'd be hard to have a good time here. I don't want to give any of the puzzles away, so I'll keep things as vague as possible, but I noticed a common theme with the issues. In Captain Maniacal's Lair, there was a part at the end that involved pressure plates that didn't want to go off even though everything was correct. In Prison Break there was an issue with something opening even though everything was correct, and an issue with a flashlight not working correctly that made something that would've been very simple, complicated instead. In The Gift (hardest room) there was also an issue with their flashlights, where we were correct in what we were doing and sounds activated but we didn't "fully" do it so what we needed to happen didn't happen. Outside of the technical issues, we were able to escape by randomly guessing at the end, but in order to do the room correctly without hints, I'm not sure anyone would be able to complete The Gift. The clues weren't very intuitive. Another issue throughout the rooms is that when you activate or complete something, other things will randomly open or a key will drop and you spend a few minutes searching trying to figure out what opened or where the key is. Finally Fair Game was my favorite of the bunch, we were able to escape this one with minimal help and no technical issues. It's extremely cooperative which is different than most escape rooms, and it really requires teamwork which made it great. I am yet to play Once Upon a Time or Confinement, but I will eventually! Despite all of the technical issues I mentioned, and lack of intuition with some of the puzzles, because the staff are so amazing they make sure to give you hints as needed to ensure you get out and have a great time. Overall, I would say if you are the type of person that wants to escape on your own without any hints, this may not be the best place to go. However, if you don't mind the occasional technical issue or hint to get you moving along then you will definitely have a great time! I know they're new so I hope with time they'll solve the issues with pressure plates and flashlights, but the puzzles themselves are definitely less intuitive than you would expect, so with some luck and a well-placed hint you'll be able to escape!

Edit: I have now done the Once Upon A Time room and it was great! It’s mostly magnetic and our room master Zach was amazing! The only issue was that there was one part that was broken but Zach did an amazing job at steering us away from the broken part and we were still able to escape. Great room for beginners, and I’ve heard they’ve replaced the flashlight for prison escape so it should be a great...

I would give no stars but I can’t if I want to post a review.

We went to the Red Door Escape Room in Gaithersburg MD. The check in process was not smooth - despite checking in all 5 kids ages 9-12 together on one tablet with one adult email address as we were directed to do, one of the forms was assigned to San Mateo location?

The game master took us to a room to see the opening video and then to the escape room Prison Break. The one clue we asked for was delivered on a screen in the room. No personal interaction.

Then the kids used the wrench provided and their hands to loosen a bolt on a panel to move from the second to third room. When they removed the panel, the nut on the back came out with the panel - they didn’t do anything more than pull the panel forward. The panel was wood and the nut on the back of the bolt pulled out with the panel. Kids moved the panel and didn’t yank on it.

About 10 minutes later a different employee came in to tell us we used excessive force and we had to leave. At first we thought it was part of the experience because we were struggling with the clues in the third room. But no, we were told to leave. The kids absolutely did not use excessive force to remove the panel, they were very careful when they moved the panel forward. We looked at what the employee said we damaged and it looked like the hole in the wood panel have been worn to a larger hole on the side the employee claimed was damaged.

It was a disappointing experience for kids who were so excited to have this escape room so close to home. I would not recommend this experience to others. Try the escape rooms in Frederick MD. Clue IQ and Surelocked are much better experiences. We have been to both and would recommend them hands down before Red Door in...