Escape Room Entertainment — Local services in West Melbourne

Our group played at the West Melbourne location. The reception area of the venue itself is beautiful, and having the entry doors to some of the game spaces hidden behind bookshelves is a great touch! That, unfortunately, is where most of the positives end. Our game runner was so new she was not yet ready to be left alone to facilitate; the patter wasn't there, she was dreadfully forgetful, and at times it felt like we knew more about what we would be doing than she did, poor thing. We played The Witch's Attic, which was quite the fun concept. The execution of the game, however, was very rote and linear -- each puzzle had to be solved in a particular order (and often in an identical manner to the preceding puzzle), and many times where multiple items needed to be collected, there was little to no indication of how many items needed to be collected to complete the puzzle. There was also zero indication of which puzzle needed to be solved first to set up the rest, an absolute necessity in a linear design. We spent far too much of our time wondering what was a puzzle and what wasn't. Then there are the locks. I have never before played an escape room where all but one of the locks is magnetic, and while this could have been set up to add the extra air of magic this game called for, it very much wasn't. There was absolutely no benefit to using maglocks in this room where combination locks would have sufficed (and likely would have broken up some of the linearity, too!). Also, as anyone who has played rooms with maglocks knows, they are exceedingly prone to breaking down or being far too sensitive when it comes to positioning. Props to ERE for adding confirmation beeps when part of the lock is engaged, but this didn't fix the issue that many of the locks had to be enticed into working correctly; a less experienced group wouldn't necessarily know they had done everything right despite the lock not tripping. All in all, very underwhelming. Although the price is noticeably lower than many other venues, that fact just doesn't make up for the lack of enjoyment my group found in the experience. It's unlikely we'll be returning for...

Whenever I visit family in Melbourne, we love doing escape rooms together and typically visit the downtown location. We’ve had wonderful experiences at the downtown location and decided to try the West Melbourne location. Never again. We showed up 5 minutes early (not as early as we would have liked due to traffic), and no one was there to greet us, but we scanned the QR code and started working on our waivers. The game “master” came out a few minutes later and let us know where the restrooms and lockers were if we needed them. There was no sense of urgency conveyed, and she did not mention that there would be a bathroom penalty (I am pregnant but would have rather held it than lose 25% of my investment). After we had taken 5-7 minutes to complete the consent forms, use the restroom, and use the lockers, the game “master” tells us there will be a penalty for showing up late, and does not tell us what the penalty will be. We were never offered the option to have the rest of our party start on time, and those needing to use the restroom join later either. She then takes her sweet time telling us what not to do, how to open each lock, etc. and tells us not to start looking around the room until after the video has finished. Once the clock starts, she takes a 15 minute penalty, giving us only 45 minutes. During our welcome, the game “master” said she would nudge us throughout the experience and help guide us along the way. This did not happen. We didn’t escape, and when we asked if she could tell us what was missed or how close we were, she refused. We did Shipwrecked, which was advertised as “starts in the dark,” but the entire experience is lit by only Christmas lights and flashlights. We went with elderly relatives who are low vision & did not feel like they got $30+ out of their 45 minute experience. I work in customer service and all new employees have a learning curve. I highly recommend incorporating basic customer service principles and soft skills training into your new hire training program...

Let me start off by saying that this is a fantastic escape room establishment. Professionally run, well themed puzzles that are very challenging while not crossing the line into frustrating. And while I can safely say if you are looking for an escape room to visit in the Brevard area, this is the one you should pick, I can't give it the fifth star it probably deserves because of the experience I had.

There NEEDS to be an age minimum placed on these rooms. If parents want to take their five year olds into an escape room, more power to them, but they should be required to book the whole room. I went to Escape Room Entertainment with three adult friends and we were honestly sort of looking forward to solving the room with another group. We expected that we might be paired with a parent or two with a tween/teen, but we never imagined we'd be paired with a grandmother and her three kindergarten-aged grandkids. We tried to solve the puzzles with the grandmother, but with three 5 or 6 year-olds running around the place messing with everything in sight, it was honestly a nightmare.

I've solved escape rooms and had a great time with strangers over and over again. One time, a mother and son (around 11 years old) really had a super positive impact on my puzzle solving experience. That said, kindergarten-age is just way too young. If a group includes children under ten, they should be required to buy out the room. It really is that simple. I want to work together with others—I don't want to work around screaming,...