Escape Manor — Attraction in Panama City

I am waiting for the owner to respond to this post saying I am a liar.

We made a reservation to celebrate my teen son’s birthday party at Escape Manor. It was to be him and a few friends. My wife had been in contact with someone both through email and over the phone weeks prior to finalize the time/date and to have any questions to ask. Because my son and his friends are minors, she explicitly asked over the phone on whether an adult had to pay and be in the room. My wife doesn’t do Escape Rooms. She was told “No” but their policy is that there are no unaccompanied minors and that an adult would need to stay on premise. She asked if she could stay in the Lobby and the person said “Yes”. A few years ago, we did a party there for my same son and this is what we did with no issues. The information that was given to her also agrees with what is on their website that an adult would need to be on premise. Upon arrival, the person said that an adult would have to pay and actually be in the room with them. My wife had our daughter with us who didn’t want to do the escape room. This absolutely contradicts what was told to my wife over the phone. Additionally, it does NOT state it having to be a paid adult in the room with the minor. When reaching out via email, they hinted at recent policy changes. They mentioned that in the past they have had issues with minors. I completely understand that some can run things for all and the necessity for updates to their policy. However, none of this information was conveyed to us the weeks prior when booking or in any correspondence my wife made with Escape Manor. When making the reservation, they knew the number of people and ages of those that would be in the room. At some point, if there was a policy change, it should have been brought up. So because of this oversight, my wife ended up paying for her and my daughter to be in the room with my son and his friends so his party would not be ruined.

I point to the fact that their website has incomplete information that seems to be dated around the COVID time. Additionally, it seems there was some miscommunication. I highly recommend this business that if their policies have changed to update this on their website and to properly train their staff on these policies so that future issues like this will not happen.

I will say that my son had a great and fun time at the Escape Manor and has always been a great place to go. I will update my rating once updates have been made to the website and/or other appropriate places with the correct information of these policy changes.

Addendum to Review (Response to Owner)

It seems that the business is pointing the finger at me for not understanding the policy! I would 100% admit fault if the policy was CLEARLY defined! However, I understood 100% of the information that the website said AND the information that was provided to my wife over the phone. If you cannot have CLEAR policies, then that is not on the customer. That is on the business! My son was accompanied and attended on premises. If there was any mention of what you actually meant - being unattended IN the room (this is different than just on premises), this would not be an issue…at all! On top of this, my wife explicitly asked about this. Whether the person misunderstood the question or not, the answer we recieved was very clear. Rather than acknowledging that the information may have been given may not have reflected the current policies and was inaccurate (I get it…mistakes happen) and the website is not up to date, you rather point fingers at the people that keep your business open! Own up to your mistakes rather than blaming your customers for everything. As I said in my review, my son and his friends had a great time! I have absolutely nothing against the actual experience. It was an overall pleasurable experience! However, this critical oversight must be pointed out publicly as awareness to warn others so they do not fall in the same trap and can understand your unclear policies. I stand by my review until...

TL:DR The BEST VALUE, the BEST EXPERIENCE, WORTH REPEATING

Qualifying myself first, I have completed escape rooms in Atlanta, Pensacola, and now Panama City and Escape Manor is by far the BEST VALUE and the BEST EXPERIENCE.

Starting with the parking. It was easy to get within walking distance and not have to worry about panhandlers scaring my three teenage girls. Once inside the lobby the staff were immediately friendly and helpful with deciding what escape room we should challenge. It's all the same price the only differences were difficulty and theming.

Very IMPORTANT to NOTICE the THEMING of the whole place. Everything had a place and a purpose including the intentionally creaking wooden floor. Whether to add ambience or to directly affect the game pay attention to the story as well as the setting.

Now my three girls chose the CABIN, which has no clues at all, you get locked in and have to figure out the mystery as well as find your escape route. You get the standard hour and you can ask for help if you get stuck.

The environment was interactive with secrets popping out of every nook and shadow. The story was masterfully crafted, and spoilers for our LOVECRAFT fans... try to find the ELDER SIGN hidden in every escape...

The best part was definitely the ongoing story that connects all the escape rooms together. The Staff and Creators are masterful with their weaving of a good time with a challenging trial. You DO NOT want to MISS this...

I have done close to 60 escape rooms all across the US. The experience at Escape Manor was interesting to say the least.. We arrived 15 mins prior to the game (like instructed 3 times on the booking email) and were greeted by "you're here really early" and then when putting our belongings in the locker, the locker did not lock when closed. So we switched our belongings to another locker to which the staff's response was "we're not gonna steal your stuff". Overall the room "the attic" was good. We enjoyed the puzzles and the story line. There was only one puzzle where you needed to place an item in a certain location that was not clear unless you received a specific clue from the game master. Our game master was very unprofessional. She barged into the room multiple times. We asked to not give us clues unless we specifically asked for one, she seemed to struggle with that and hence why she needed to barge into the room to see where we were at in the room. She apologized for her rude comments at the end, but we were not even congratulated for completing the room. It was awkward but maybe my opinion is skewed from other amazing escape rooms that were well run. Seems like the other positive reviews had a different game master that probably made the experience more pleasant...

TLDR: Room was good but the staff lacked professionalism and enthusiasm. Probably...