Escape Artists Sanford — Attraction in Sanford

To preface this, the puzzles here were very inventive and were unlike any puzzle room I'd been to before. I will probably come back here again and try more rooms. My group enjoyed it a lot. That's not to say it didn't have some kinks to work out.

The rule video at the beginning is extremely misleading.

It said not to take anything off the wall, but that was one of the first clues you had to do.

It then instructed you to not use the expo markers on any of the props, but then one of the puzzles gave us an additional expo marker than the one you start the room with and you use it to draw on the props for another puzzle.

The video also says you're not supposed to take anything apart, however they then give you a wrench to take a panel off the wall.

They also tell you not to force any of puzzles, a portion has you pressing down on a spring loaded panel.

The GM stressed to us that none of the clues would be above eye level.

There was a mirror above one door to look at and a sign above the other door that prevented us from beginning a three puzzle set in a different room.we had players six feet and above, none had the puzzles at eye level.

One key fell on the floor for one of the puzzles. We could then not retrieve it for five minutes, with multiple members telling the gm we could not get it where it had fallen, but the GM insisted we had successfully retrieved the key. Eventually with two and a half minutes left he paused our time and opened the box the key went to.

I recommend making the key larger so that it can be seen when it lands on the floor, or that the surface area is larger to connect with the puzzle better. Tweak the video so it doesn't actively dissuade you from solving the puzzles in the way they're meant to be solved, or change the puzzles so they don't contradict the safety video. Once you leave a room, don't make the players go back into the previous room with clues from the current room. Try to have the GM not give too much instruction outside of the safety video. Don't have so many flavor (unnecessary) books that can be opened or leafed through that aren't relevant to the puzzles, seal...

A small group of friends and I decided to trek down from Jacksonville to Sanford and try out all of the escape rooms at this location. I had heard that the rooms were great by a friend, and wanted to see if they were worth a visit. It was risky booking all four rooms at once - I mean, if the first room is bad - we're pretty stuck - but any trepidation on our part was quickly taken care of after the first room.

Our group consisted of 5 seasoned Escape "veterans" and naturally we defeated the first room, Cat Burglar.. Or narrowly defeated it, without a single clue. Then we hit the Rest Easy Motel. And had a bit more challenging time. This was our toughest room and time ran out while we still had a few more steps to go.

We tried the third room Secret Society and again were very narrowly defeated on the last puzzle. The immersion level in this room especially was fantastic. All the rooms were great, but you can tell that much time was spent in adding lots of details to this room.

Finally we hit Protocol Zero and redeemed ourselves a bit by winning this room. Another awesome Space Themed room, with lots of cool electronicky things and off the charts immersion.

Our hosts throughout the day, Bobby, Nancy and the ever-reliable Carter (who hosted us through two rooms) were all fantastic, and were some of the most attentive hosts I've ever met, walking us through a few things after each room that we missed, or just pointing out different things about the rooms, and answering all our questions.

If you've done all the Escape Rooms in your local town, this place is well worth the visit. There are several local unique restaurants close by as well if you want to grab something between rooms.

Fantastic experience and a great way to...

After completing all four rooms that are currently offered (Cat Burglar, Secret Society, Rest Easy Motel, and Protocol Zero), I'd like to offer my thoughts:

So, the first escape room that I had ever done was Cat Burglar and it was an amazing room to start with. Even after one hiccup with one of the props, this room will always be one of my favorites of all time. 5/5

Now, the second escape room that I did was Secret Society and unfortunately, this remains my least favorite room ever; not only did we have an unpleasant experience regarding the attentiveness from our game master, but the plot was disjointed and I still don't really understand what was going on in that room. Also, one prop was not put back correctly so when one of my team members came upon it, the prop almost hit him in the face. I could have done without doing this one. 1/5

On the other hand, Rest Easy Motel was great. The plot was intriguing, the puzzles were fun, and the immersion was perfect. While my team and I did not escape, we had so much fun in this room. In my opinion, this is Escape Artists best room in their Sanford location. 5/5

Protocol Zero was also fun, but third in line behind Rest Easy Motel and Cat Burglar. This room is non-linear which I typically do not enjoy as much, but this room is one of the few exceptions. It was also the first escape room that my team and I were actually able to escape from, so that made us very happy. I do wish that this room was a little more difficult or had a little more to it since my team finished with about 20 minutes to spare. All in all, this was a good room. 4/5

I look forward to returning once one of the rooms...