The Bureau Escape Rooms — Local services in Orlando

Was visiting Orlando from Salt Lake City, UT. When looking for things to do in Orlando, we stumbled upon The Bureau and loved their choices in escape rooms. We decided to book The Possession of Haddon Heights, a really interesting escape room where you try to rid an abandoned school of a strange paranormal entity. From the moment we stepped into The Bureau, we were amazed! The front waiting area is designed to appear as though you are in the office of a travel agency. There are cool little details around the waiting area that made you question if you had already started the game or not. Past that, we were greeted by some very wonderfully nice agents who showed us to a top secret waiting area, furnished with very comfy chairs and couches. While you wait for your mission to begin, you are given a mission briefing which details the point/story of the escape room. We were also able to order alcoholic or non alcoholic drinks while we waited. Once our mission was prepared for us, our agent, Shayne (who was very wonderful and I highly suggest talking with him), briefed us on the rules and mission. For our specific room we were given some cool head pieces that really made the whole experience immersive, allowing us to hear whispers and other noises that weren’t there. These headsets were only specific to this room I believe, so if you decide on another room you’d have a different prop. We were also given 2 flashlights and an iPad to request clues when needed. Once in the room, we were immediately surprised by how well thought out and detailed everything was. Nothing was obvious, everything could be a clue. The rooms don’t rely on finding keys, rather finding clues that move you forward in the mission. We loved this because it felt more immersive to look for clues rather than looking high and low for a tiny key. The Possession of Haddon Heights was thrilling and terrifying in all the best ways. I don’t easily scare with things like this where something is intentionally meant to be scary, but this room did really make me scared. I was constantly looking over my shoulder or worried that a door would slam shut, separating me from my group. So very thought out and interesting. Once our mission was finished, we were greeted once again by Shayne, our assigned agent. He was very kind, positive and personable, even offered to take our group photo. We enjoyed our first visit so much, we decided to squeeze in a second visit on the last night of our trip! The second time we decided to try our hand at Puppet Heist which was so fun and quirky. It was funny to be immersed in this experience of having to work with puppets in order to execute a successful heist. This visit we were again paired with Shayne who was still just as pleasant as the first time around, and also some new faces who seemed to be just as happy to be there. I myself had never been to an escape room, so I was a little worried about the difficulty and if I would be able to help complete them. However, I had no issues! The rooms, although difficult in some aspects, were so new comer friendly with the help of a clue iPad and even in room hints. Overall, the experience (both nights) were wonderful. The rooms were so unique with the different mission options available and each room required different sets of props. We were so happy with the experience of the rooms and the price they came at ($40 a person and we got a promo code on the second room). The Bureau was the star of our trip and left us wishing that they were located...

My party of 4 decided to go to the Bureau again to try "Robot Rebellion". We are locals to Orlando and had played "Puppet Heist" awhile back and thought it was a great game! It was much different than escape rooms we had completed prior and we loved the story that went along with the room. It was very immersive! I would consider myself an experienced escape room player having completed 30+ escape rooms.

Since we enjoyed Puppet Heist we decided to give Robot Rebellion a try. Robert Rebellion, on the other hand, was very disappointing. The puzzles felt very lazily put together and the technology felt outdated. The must frustrating thing was one of the puzzles involving temperature (don't want to give it away) we believe did not work as intended. When we asked for a clue the clue was describing exactly what were trying to do already. When we asked one of the workers at the end of the game what we were doing wrong we were told how to obtain the solution (which was EXACTLY what we had attempted). Another thing that was frustrating was we were pushed along into the next part of the room without accomplishing all puzzles finding out after the fact that there is another group that starts the first phase of the game while you are in the later phase.

I could get over the game being disappointing as sometimes technology doesn't work as intended and I'd be willing to try a different game, however, the customer service was subpar in my opinion. For starters, we asked our game master if we could utilize the lockers outside of the escape room to hold our jackets/belongings when we were informed that the lockers did not work and sometimes belongings got stuck inside the locker. I observed other guests use lockers in the lobby without issue. Due to not having lockers, my party and I took off our jackets (with cell phones/wallets) in the first part of the room and placed them on a table. Unbeknownst to us, you should bring your belongings with you as another party will be starting in that room before you have completed your mission. Once we completed our mission we informed one of the employees that we had left our belongings inside the first part of the room. The response was "well you should not have left your belongings in there" and "oh, well, you'll have to wait awhile". The employee then asked if we wanted a picture and then pointed us to the exit to which they replied we still needed our belongings. We were then directed to take a seat in the lobby and wait. Had we been informed we should not leave our belongings behind we would have brought them with us as we progressed through the room (again, this is why we wanted to utilize the lockers). We had to wait for probably 20-30 minutes before we could retrieve our belongings and leave.

Overall, for a $40+/person experience, I expect more as there are other escape rooms in the Orlando area that are less expensive that still provide a high quality experience. I think a lot of my dissatisfaction could have been avoided with better communication from the staff. I would not recommend booking...

I found the place searching on Groupon. I like that is a completely immersive and different experience than the ones I've done before. WARNING: When you enter the place you might be confused as if you are in the right place. It looks like a travel agency but you will notice that something is off. It looks like a 1970s-80s travel agency. They have a projection displaying, maps and decor from that time. You will see the symbol of the Bureau in several places and that is how you know you are in the right place. We almost left thinking we were in the wrong place but when I checked THEIR EMAIL and Google reviews, everything made sense. You will press the button on the speaker system and wait until they let you in.

Another important thing, fill out the waiver ahead of time. It makes the process seamless and you just have to read the game debrief instead of doing paperwork.

I like that it was kid-appropriate without surprises in the middle of the experience that will not be adequate for kids. I've been in other escape room where the theme is one thing and in the middle of it, changes to dark and morbid. I took my kids and they enjoyed every second. The game we play was challenging but not imposible. From our perspective is a little hard it you have only 2 people doing it. I like the experience lets you use the full hour and is not centered on only escape but on achieving a goal and doing the most you can. This is very different than others I've been to. They have riddles, puzzles, decoding, and patterns but, no keys to find. They also leave you in the rooms for an amount of time and then transition you in the next room but all in character. Example: We did the robot mission and the goal was to save as many as we could. They left us in each room (3 total) around 20 minutes (I think). If we were stuck, they moved us to the next room saying that radiation poisoning was leaking into the room. So we play all 3 rooms to save as many robots as we could.

The employees were really nice. They were very welcoming and explained everything. When we finished, we were not rushed to leave. The waiting room was really nice. I included pictures below. It gives Fallout vibes if you know the game or the series. We already talk to friend and we'll love...