Escape Room NJ Madison — Attraction in Madison

My friends and I all booked the Wonka room on a random evening. All of us have done rooms, some in the hundreds. While we did intend to book it private, we were pretty sure there was an error with the checkout software as we always book private, we totally understood when they showed us the confirmation page that other people would be joining us.

They seemed really cool and had done rooms before and this was going to be fun.

But it was going to be well over 10 people and it seemed like a lot of people to put into a small space.

Also didn't have the greatest feeling because the hallway we were getting our instructions in was very small and did not seem like it was up to code.

The game guide was super nice to let us look briefly at the room and it was just way too small. I understand the point is to move forward but spending any sort of time with 10 people with 10 different ideas trying to move ahead was not our agenda that night.

So we checked with the game guide and there was a whole other room available and we thought great, we can do this room they can do that room and we're all set.

The game guide then went and called the owner/manager to get the approval and that's where it went downhill.

Unfortunately the game guide was not providing all the information as to what we were saying and made it sound like we were angry and wanted our money back etc and that couldn't have been farther from the truth.

It was in fact the game guide who had mentioned the other rooms at that location and we were merely taking this as a good idea.

The owner was put on speaker phone and began immediately to yell at us and criticize us. I won't go into details on that but the most absurd thing was that they said that by moving to a different room that was then making both rooms private which meant that both groups would have to pay extra fees.

Now look, there's literally no reason to make us pay extra considering we are all there, the room is about to start etc, but the group that had quite literally nothing to do with this, who showed up and thought they were just doing a room with strangers and had no issues doing it etc we're going to be forced to pay an extra fee because we decided to do a different room after the game guides recommendation? That's insanity. It's also fraud.

I tried reasoning with the screaming owner through speakerphone and explaining that we were not unhappy and had found an easy solve but they continued to yell more and then eventually hung up on us mid conversation with the game guide's arm stretched out holding the phone.

This was the point where we did not feel it was appropriate to do this room as we did not want to support a business owner like that as well as force another group to pay extra money for absolutely no reason nor should we all cram into a room which most definitely is not rated for that many people by the fire department. (And it turns out, dear readers, it's not.)

I decided a few days later to reach out to the owners once again after things had calmed down to seek a refund. At first there was actually a bit of sincerity from the other owner who offered us a credit but unfortunately I was just visiting and would be unable to use it.

Once I informed them of that, the conversation went sideways once again into a series of attacks and blatant false observations and by mid-September I had decided to file a charge back with my card provider.

A follow-up report shows the room itself should not be rated for that many people and the hallway where we were receiving our instructions is way too small and a fire risk with that many people.

After the horrific fire in Europe a few years ago which claimed several lives, escape room companies need to keep a better eye on things. and management/owners should not be so insanely rude and nickel and...

Genuinely the most awful venue I have ever been to. First of all, it's not an escape room. It's an escape box. Like, there are 5 little boxes on tables for you to solve. They each have clues, and little locks and parts for you to use. But they don't. Our game-master, who I'm pretty sure is named Totemi, and there is another one but I don't know her name, it might have been Tori, anyways, they had the most awful and unprofessional handling of the room. At least for our box, they first of all, forgot to "turn it on", so we wasted 10 minutes on that, and then put our clue to another team's box, wasting another 10 minutes. Oh, and notice how I said teams, because due to this awful whole design of boxes instead of one cohesive room, they had to separate us. I don't know about you, but I was under the impression that the point of an escape room was to work together as a one whole team of about 10 people, to solve a big room. Instead, they put us in 4 groups of 3-4 people and made us race to see who could solve the most boxes. And even with everything else, I still have more. Every escape room I've been to before this had a clear theme. It might be space, or prison, or the sea, they all have a theme. This one's theme was just being soulless, and not in a fun horror way. Absolutely no decoration whatsoever in the room, or in the dining space, except for really sad looking little painted on words, like Bam! or Kaboom! Except with like 3 of them in the whole room, it just made it look worse. Going back to the dining room, they didn't't have enough tables, chairs, or even plates for all of us. 13 people, that's it. I get it, it's a larger group than they're used to, but still, it's only 13 people. And the game-masters made us walk in groups of 5 to wash our hands, like we were preschoolers. Mind you, these are 12-13 year olds. And while doing that, they were saying stuff like, "you guys are acting like 5 year olds". Maybe we were being a bit rude, but that was just us pointing out the stuff earlier on in this, um, extensive review. Oh yeah, the employees. One word, rude. It was clear they hated their job. They didn't want to be there. They were glaring, groaning, sighing, on their phones and being awful. I get it, okay, no one likes working minimum wage, but still, at least don't be rude the whole time. To owners of this place, while I would give you advice, it is clear to that you already know. It would cost too much to fix it. And you'll still make money off of the million bots you have running your review section. So, to the owners of this place screw you. You greedy a-holes.

oh, btw, its not as if the whole experience was awful. I was still with my friends, and um, the whole essay I wrote above gave us some pretty good conversation...

Let's start with the positives: the location in Madison is nice, close to stores and restaurants and the Game Master was kind.

The escape room had no plot. We were put in the room and told nothing. All I knew was it was Willy Wonka-themed because my partner booked it for us. I've done about 15 escape rooms, never has the story been so disappointing, because there was no story. If you're planning on doing this room, you have to read what the story is because they will not tell you.

If you like Willy Wonka and are excited for zany antics that remind you of the character and a story that goes along with it, this isn't a good escape room for that. There are better, more affordable escape rooms nearby. I'm emphasizing affordable because this escape room is not worth the inflated price tag.

I didn't know the orange stickers meant it wasn't part of the game, my partner had to tell me that.

The place doesn't have AC so it can get warm. It felt dirty, especially the carpet. If things are near the floor, like locks, please clean the rooms more or consider moving the locks further from the carpet we were warned not to sit on.

No countdown clock, so you have no idea how long you've been in the room.

Some things opened soundlessly. That made things more difficult.

Locks were sticking. Clues were falling apart. It's clear there is no upkeep being done.

And the worst part, and this is disgusting, they want you to put YOUR MOUTH ON SOMETHING THAT HAS BEEN IN A DIRTY DRAWER. We were told it was switched out each game, but 1) there is no way to verify that, 2) the drawer itself has countless hands in it and wasn't clean, and 3) how does it get in the drawer? I assume someone uses their hands to put it in. Because we wouldn't put our mouth on something that has been rolling around in a dirty drawer, we didn't escape. We shouldn't need to put our mouth on anything in an escape room. To be clear, I did everything I was supposed to do with the clue except put my mouth directly on it. Which meant I had to put my mouth...