Escape Room Family — Local services in Sharonville

More challenging than expected for a "family" escape room experience. Our family consisted of three children ages 8-13, two parents, and two grandparents. Five of the seven had done an escape room previously (at a different facility), so we anticipated being able to complete the North Pole Adventure within the allotted hour. We did not. It seemed as though too many of the puzzles required clues that were locked inside other components, so a lot of time was lost if the puzzles were not solved in the most efficient order--and of course, there was no way of knowing what order would be most efficient. The facility was clean, comfortable, and entertaining, and we had fun, but we also felt more frustration than expected. One nice feature at Escape Room Family is that each time you unlock a container, you release several small foam balls, and you earn points by tossing the balls into a chute. So even if you don't complete the entire challenge, the number of points you earned helps you assess how close you came. We earned 500 out of a possible 600; previous scores listed that day for the North Pole Adventure were 275 and 350, so other groups apparently found the room even more challenging--and maybe even more frustrating--than we did. The management probably hopes you will come back and try again--but at over $20 per person per experience, our family is unlikely to go back...

I enjoyed my visit to this escape room, but the rest of my family didn't. I like puzzles and brain teasers and I think I've impressed that enjoyment onto my children, however the difficulty of our chosen Christmas themed room was greater than my family expected or desired.

I only have two issues with my visit really:

One being that the room challenges aren't pointed out to customers, so for most of my group's very first foray into escape rooms made for children I expected something a lot less difficult not realizing I had booked the most complicated one they offered.

The second being we were given incorrect rules at the beginning that "all puzzles are ready to go, in any order" when in reality most of the puzzles in this room are reliant on at least understanding some of the other puzzles and one outright requiring four other puzzles to be completed. This leading my daughter to spend nearly the full hour struggling to solve an unsolvable riddle and mostly ruining her time in the game.

The points system however is clever and a very fun addition for kids to interact with.

Overall while I personally knew what I was getting into, the rest did not. While they did accept that some of the other rooms may be more fun I'm not sure I could convince them to want to risk a repeat of...

We went with a group for my niece's birthday - 3 adults, a 14 year old, and an 8 year old. I'm truly impressed that the Castle room (our choice) had things that everyone was able to participate in. Puzzles that are challenging enough for adults but also others that can be figured out with kids (especially with an adult present). What I really appreciated is the number of challenges that required teamwork. It really increased the interactivity and the communication. We really had a blast.

My only critique is that one of the puzzles in the room was broken - which, no worries - there are plenty of other puzzles to complete. I just wish we had been TOLD that one was broken ahead of time so we didn't spend as much time as we did trying to figure it out.

If you're planning on picking the castle room, the theming is great, but there was one puzzle we couldn't figure out - we asked the attendant when our time was up, and she told us it was the hardest puzzle in the building (there are 4 total rooms you can pick from). So if you're a newbie, maybe don't go for the Castle first.

We plan to go back to try the other rooms. Overall,...