Escape In Time — Local services in Spring

EDIT: Dave replied and also sentence a thoughtful email. He took ownership of our experience and invited us back for a complimentary play. I’ve positively adjusted my rating to the credit of good management. I hope we can return soon to give Escape in Time another chance. My original review is below:

“#1 Escape Room Experience in Texas” is a very bold claim. Our experience was not terrible but Escape in Time would not make my Top 5 in the Houston area… My wife and I are veterans with close to 40 rooms completed.

My wife and I completed Game Over by ourselves in 40 minutes. We were rebooked to this room because our original booking had a mechanical issue.

We enjoyed the theming and always love an escape experience with multiple chambers. One of the rooms included a puzzle guide that was frankly a distraction from classical puzzling. It didn’t quite seem like the jumbled words were intentionally meant to be hurtful or a frustrating aid or were just clues written by a first grader. Perhaps the distraction was the point but it was an awkward negative to the experience.

The second awkward issue was the unsolicited hints. We asked for none, received 3, two of which described things we had already figured out. This was also disappointing because, while we’re not too proud for hints, we prefer a chance to gain the satisfaction of solving puzzles on our own. The game master also started the room off by pointing out an intentionally placed distraction.

The biggest issue was that several puzzles were in poor shape. One involved repeated ducking through a small opening. There was no warning of this in the room description. Another puzzle we ended up brute forcing.

Maybe...

We celebrated my daughter’s 10th birthday at the escape room and did the Tri Wizard Quest. The kids had an absolute blast! The game was a lot of fun with just the right amount of challenge. Although they didn’t finish on time, the amazing team was kind enough to give them some extra time to complete the quest, which was so thoughtful.

The staff were exceptional—professional, proactive, and genuinely caring. From the very first call to inquire about the party to the end of the celebration, they went above and beyond to ensure everything went smoothly. They constantly checked in to see how they could help and made the entire process stress-free.

My 6-year-old was hesitant to join because she was scared after seeing dragons in Harry Potter, but our clue master took the time to give her a private preview of the room to reassure her it wasn’t scary. That was such a thoughtful gesture!

Overall, it was an incredible experience, and we’re so impressed with the professionalism and kindness of the team. We’ll definitely be coming back for another...

We did the Tri Wizard Tournament and completed it. The room was very pretty and the puzzles were a lot of fun. I didn't really mind the game master being in the room with us, but at one point another employee (I think) came in to talk to him about something. I'm not faulting them for it, since maybe it was an urgent situation that needed to be handled? But it definitely took away from the immersion of the room. I wish the puzzles had flowed a little smoother, but that could have been attributed to overthinking on my part. There were a few times we weren't sure which puzzle we should be working on. The only reason I docked a star was that some aspects of the room were not working correctly. It looked like around a third of the lights we were supposed to light up weren't working and we just got told that we had completed that part. Other than that, we really did have a good time and I think with a little finesse this could be a...