The Escape Zone-Real life and VR escape games — Attraction in Miami

I’m sad to say this was an absolutely horrible experience and I’m embarrassed because I’ve done many escape rooms where I’m from in Orlando, and I brought a friend for their first time and this was a total bust. The service was terrible. There was one guy who works there, he answers the phones too, who was rude and cold from the moment we got there, despite how happy and enthusiastic we were upon arrival. The other guy normally works at the palmetto location, so he didn’t help much. Before starting the game, we went to the bar and were informed they don’t have their liquor license. So I ordered a Diet Coke and he gave me grief about drinking something before entering the game. I had to ensure him several times that I’d be ok … I’m an adult after all, I’m not going to have accidents inside their room … then we finally get into the room and it’s frankly a cheap, poorly put-together excuse of a game room. We tried doing the vampire room. It took us forever to get into the second room because the triggers in the first room weren’t functioning. They told us the first clue was in a painting. We eventually twisted it around and that did nothing. Then we had to crank some valves. We did for several minutes and nothing happened. We had to call them and ask for help and then they finally triggered the next thing which also did nothing. Then we had to get three balls through some tubes and light some lights all at once. I did this several times and nothing happened. Again, we had to ask for help. He made us do it again and then finally unlocked the door to the next room. In the next room, we worked our way across but got stuck. We started asking for help and nobody was responding for several minutes. We were stuck. I thought they’d left us in there and gone home. Finally, a clue told us to go through a fireplace. When the paneling wouldn’t budge, I thought maybe the fireplace had to be moved. So I pulled it from the wall. I’m a 5 foot tall woman and it took no effort to get this paper mache looking fireplace to come off the wall. I could see there was a device behind it and I thought I’d done the right thing. But suddenly, the employee came through the door and told us to get out for damaging their fireplace. We told him we’d been asking for help and he blamed us for taking our walkie talkie off the right channel. We were never instructed that 1. He couldn’t hear us in the room, 2. He couldn’t speak to us in the room, 3. That we needed to wave to the camera for help, or 4. That the ancient walkie talkie could possibly change channels. In every other escape room I’ve been to, once too much time is passing, the game master volunteers a clue and is helpful. But it felt like we were abandoned in there. They were just letting the clock tick on waiting for us to wrap up. And then, when I mistakingly moved the poorly secured fireplace, he became extremely rude and dismissive. The game ended early, they still charged us full price, and we left without as much of a thank you or apology. So - absolutely terrible customer service, poorly designed rooms with pointless triggers, a game master who ignores you, cheap setup, and a homeless man asleep outside the front door. Just don’t go. This place should shut down. Maybe the axe throwing is fun but I wouldn’t know since I could not fathom staying long enough to try and further support...

In general, I really love escape rooms. I very much did not like this one for the following reasons:

The lighting was terrible and gave me a headache. Worse, there was one room where the entire room was flickering bright red light (not A flickering light. The ENTIRE room was FULL of flickering light.) I thought I was going to have a seizure - and no I do not have a seizure disorder, let alone one that is generally triggered by light, but this was extreme. I pushed the call for help button and the attendant said they were unable to turn the lights on or off, it was all preset as part of the room and she had no access to any control. She guided my partner in entering the next couple of codes to get us to the next room while I covered my eyes.

There were too many red herrings. I am not afraid of hard escape rooms. I've done some really challenging ones. But in this one there was so little correlation between some of the hints and which puzzle they go to that it would be very unlikely that anyone would get it without asking for help. For example, I accidentally unlocked something that turns out to have been for a different clue without realizing that because it was so unclear what corresponded. So when I did get the clue for that lock, I was stuck trying to figure out what it went to (since I had ruled out the lock that was already opened.) I must have spent an extra 5 minutes just trying the code on every OTHER lock, then I called for a hint and she said it was the lock that was already open and there was no point in me figuring out that code at all. SMH.

Edited to add that the attendant was very nice.

Edit again in response to owner since I don't see an option to reply - I was not warned about the strobe lights, I am not sure where this warning was supposed to have been, but you should probably have the staff verbally confirm it at the time of admission. I did not see any such warning. It was the virus themed room. As far as I can tell, the blinking lights were absolutely not part of any code or puzzle, they were just for atmosphere, so it would be totally reasonable to give your staff a switch in case someone needs that...

DO NOT GO TO THIS ESCAPE ROOM!

This was hands down the WORST escape room experience we’ve ever had. One of the employees disappeared and completely ignored our walkie-talkie calls, leaving us trapped and clueless for almost TWO HOURS in the room (the escape room time was only supposed to be 1 hour). There was no timer in the room, and they locked up our phones, so we had no way of knowing how much time had passed.

Because of their unprofessionalism, we were extremely late to our next destination. Even worse, we could have received a $200 parking ticket because we went over our time—something that never would have happened if the staff had done their job. To make matters worse, when we realized the room wasn’t even locked, we had to let ourselves out because no one was monitoring us. This is beyond unacceptable.

When we spoke to the owner, Irene, she offered us a free game instead of the refund we rightfully deserved. We don’t even live in Miami, so this wasn’t a real solution. And her excuse? She claimed a "bad experience is subjective." Seriously?! Leaving paying customers stranded for two hours with no communication isn’t subjective—it’s just BAD SERVICE.

Save yourself the frustration and go to a real escape room where they actually care about...