The Great Escape Room

I have participated in two of the escape rooms here! The infirmary and the game room. I did the infirmary with a bunch of friends from school and we had a blast! I wasn’t sure what to expect when we first started and didn’t realize we literally had to/​could rip apart the whole room. I kind of stood there for a few minutes not really knowing what to do. So some initial direction on that would have been great. But once I realized I was looking everywhere for clues and pieces, it was really fun. We didn’t escape but it was a great bonding experience and brain exercise.
Last week my parents, fiancé and I did the game room and were joined by another group. This was the only downside of the room. The other group didn’t seem to want to work together and were kind of rude when you tried to help solve something. So I think if you can get a large group of your friends to go, it is a better experience. The game room was REALLY hard. We didn’t escape and we were shocked when the girl told us all of the things we had to do in order to escape (never would’ve happened lol).
Overall, really fun and unique experience. I definitely recommend getting a group together and trying to escape!

Our company had a team building trip to Orlando. We had a blast and almost escaped! I highly recommend doing «the infirmary» room. Thanks. We will be back to try the other rooms!!!

SO MUCH FUN!
If you’re a fan of puzzles, logic, or Sherlock Holmes then this place is a must-​visit.
The idea is that you are «locked» into a room that contains hidden puzzles and clues so that you can escape and beat Moriarty in his game.
Make sure to book your spot ahead of time because you have an hour to escape the room. Sounds like a lot of time, buuuuuut it really isn’t. There are records for escaping each room. We did the medium difficulty room which had a record of 37 minutes I think it was. My family, didn’t finish lol.
My family made the mistake of being extremely polite and delicate with everything which costs precious time and missed items.
There is an attendant with you in the room guiding you through the rules of the game. There are three rooms at this location.
Some key points:
1. Register ahead of time.
2. Turn the room upside down looking for clues! (Except for the items which say otherwise)
3. Stay focused!
4. Make sure not just see, but OBSERVE. Hehe.
Overall, the staff are extremely friendly and accommodating. The room was brilliantly done. I can’t wait to try the other rooms.
And easy ⁵⁄₅.

Fun! Good location in downtown, only 1 One Room escape but still fun.
Way better than MindQuest Live (the first puzzle room I’ve done).

We had a FANTASTIC experience at The Great Escape Room Orlando! Tori was extremely prompt and helpful in responding to my e-​mails about our reservation, and Sydney was such a fun and accommodating hostess for our 60 minutes in the Library/Sherlock’s Study. The puzzles were really challenging and creative. Such a fun way to kick off my 31^st birthday celebration. We will absolutely be returning to experience the other rooms! Thank you, Great Escape Room!

Some thoughts on THE INFIRMARY:
OPENING AUDIO — Awkward, though nothing is more out of place than seeing the room monitor plug in a portable speaker to an iPod and press play. For this whole set up to work at all, it really has to be implemented as a permanent piece of the room itself — perhaps a vintage looking hospital intercom system + speaker on the wall.
HOT WHEELS CAR PUZZLE — The puzzle itself makes no sense in a hospital operating room. I get the attempt to make the connection with the «patient parking» sign (or was it staff?) but it just doesn’t connect to the room. Something that’s a big deal for me that a *lot* of escape rooms do wrong is shoe-​horning puzzles in that make no sense or connection with the theme/​story. The room is a hospital. Everything in there should be truly hospital-​related. Why not cut the cars, and replace each of them with pill bottles that you need to match to a file grid of patient prescriptions? You can easily have the puzzle play out in the same spirit, but have it do so 100% in a sensible, connected story world.
There were also some logic stretches — putting it mildly — in the existing car puzzle, but they’d be difficult to address here without spoilers, which I’m adamantly against in my reviews.
POKER PUZZLE — This sort of works from a story sense by connecting the dots with an after hours hospital fundraiser. One issue I had here was the clues were misleading. For some reason, one clue sheet was in the book TWICE. As in two identical copies of it, side by side. Why? There’s no logical benefit to that. Several minutes were spent trying to have the monitor explain to me why logically this doesn’t add up to 6 instead of 3 — because clearly in front of me there were 6 used. Similarly, we ran into the same frustration where in it felt unclear that you’re not adding the like suits in general. Logical clarity is very important in puzzle steps, and this one was another that lacked it. My bigger point of contention is the math conversion step that was not an intuitive connection I would have comfortably made. There are ways to make that more clear based on how it’s presented on the poster — but that still brings up a bigger issue:
TOO MUCH MATH ISN’T FUN — There’s a fine line to how much math is ok to have in an escape room before it crosses from FUN GAME territory and enters MATH HOMEWORK territory. Between the several different math equations you’re forced through at different times in this game –it’s past the line of fun. Logic puzzles are good — but math is school work — and no one wants to pay $ 30 to do homework.
OPERATION PUZZLE — this was a fantastic gag, and frankly should be the new standard for TGER moving forward. It’s a highly interactive, physical, memorable moment that connects directly to the story while prompting major communication skills and team work as a group. If the rooms had four or five innovative, custom built gags like this mixed throughout each game — between low tech steps and logic puzzles, it would truly bring the entire presentation to a whole new level, though unfortunately this is the only shining star in their current repertoire. Using the machine was fun — evoking the spirit of a classic old school arcade game. For me, as importantly as the fun process is the fact that it makes 100% total story sense in the world that this game exists. Well done there.
TIMER — this room greatly needs one. Having the time solely on the game monitor’s cell phone feels cheap and unprofessional — as well as kills some of the game’s excitement. Who doesn’t love to glance back at the clock every 10 seconds towards the end to see how much you have left, and feel the intensity and pressure build? That’s lost in the Infirmary. It also creates /​encourages a bigger problem I witnessed–
STAFF — Our game monitor — Ava was very friendly and outgoing, so personality-​wise, she was great. There were quite a number of times during our game that she was on her phone, either reading /​responding to emails or texts messages. That’s impossibly unprofessional, and I’m certain it’s the type of action that would have never happened had management been in the room watching. The real problem here is that having the operator run the game time OFF their phone promotes them to continuously look at their phone, which encourages /​enables them to text /​email /​facebook /​internet /​etc while they’re on it. It’s human nature. We’re all obsessed with our phones. None of us wants to be parted from our phones — but I can tell you in a professional environment, you should never be pulling it out and even worse using it to text or email in front of a guest /​customer.
OVERALL– a baby step in the right direction for TGER. Clearly improved over THE STUDY, but not nearly enough to be viable competition with the rest of Orlando’s games. I believe they are trying, and I know they have some big plans moving forward. I truly hope they can up their «game» with their next rooms.

This was the first escape room i went to and it was alot of fun. I went with 3 people and we went in with a family of about 6. The room was a good size ant it was alot of fun. The game itself was difficult and we got very close but did not get out. This was probably the best ran escape room i have been to. They give you clues and there is a person that stays in the room with you the whole time. Other rooms your completly on your own and the clues did not really help. This one is well organized.
The location is in the city and not near international drive and other attractions. Its not a very far drive and there are a couple of parking garages nearby so its easy to get to.
Overall a very fun experience and good to go as a group or even just as a couple.

I went to 3 escape rooms at 3different locations this weekend. This one was the absolute BEST of them all!!! The staff were super friendly, helpful and excited with and for us. And the room was awesome!!! We had THE BEST TIME EVER!!!
Thank you so much Clarrisa and Chandler!!!

This was my third escape room experience, and even though we didn’t make it out in the allotted 1 hour (first time I haven’t escaped), we still had a good time. Of the escape rooms I have been to, some are more cerebral and puzzle based, and others have a large amount of physical manipulation components. The Great Escape Room is definitely weighted more towards puzzles and logic.
I went with a group of people I didn’t really know as kind of a team building exercise, and let me tell you– nothing forces you to get to know each other and work well together than being in a locked room looking for your way out! At various points throughout the hour, I had to work with everyone in my group (most of whom I had never met) to solve the various puzzles.
The puzzles themselves were definitely challenging but doable once you get a few brains working on them. Some of the things we had to do, though, to get the items needed to solve the puzzles were a little confusing. You really have to search through everything, up to completely disassembling things you don’t think you are supposed to. I know I spent the majority of the hour on one of the big puzzles, but once you figure it out, it is very rewarding.
It is a little strange to have an employee actually in the room with you– the other rooms I have been in have someone who is watching you on camera outside of the room. It can be a good and bad thing. They were really easy to get hints from (you can find items that entitle you to a hint from the employee) when you need them, but other wise they just kind of wander around the room and watch.
We had 6 people in our room, and I thought that was the perfect number. They said that 14 people could fit in the room at a time, but I would highly advise against that– you would just have people bumping into each other the entire time. We could have easily finished in time with just 6 people had we not got stuck a couple of times.
We were literally on the final part to escape the room when the timer went off, but we were allowed to finish and escape anyway, which was really appreciated. Another group in another room we were with didn’t escape either, and once the time was up, the worker showed them the solutions to the puzzles that they were stuck on.
Overall, while this was not my favor to escape room I have done, it was still fun and enjoyable (even though we didn’t make it), and I would recommend it to others for sure.

As a huge escape room freak, I had to try this one out. I was left more disappointed than impressed.
Upon walking in, there’s a horrible smell. It smells like sewage. It lingers the whole time. We also had 8 people from another party join us last minute and everyone was late so we were forced to wait awhile. This isn’t entirely the escape room people’s fault, but they let so many people into this tiny room that we were overpowered by 8 other super lame people that weren’t welcoming and who were no fun to work with. One of them was sick and kept touching everything and apologizing and that made me touch and explore less things. The library room should have no more than 6 people in my opinion unless everyone knows each other. If they let other people join your party, at least introduce everyone to make it a part of the experience like Americas Escape Game does. Otherwise everyone is just super awkward and they ostracize themselves from you.
The presence of an employee sitting in the room takes away from the whole experience. Our «guide» was sick and sniffling the whole time and was sarcastic and unenthusiastic when we had questions. Why was she even in there? She gave us answers we didn’t want. I’d suggest taking them out. It made the room even more crowded.
There is a huge lack of theming compared to any other escape room. Things are falling apart and it looks lackluster. Some of the puzzles made no sense and were so hard it was nearly impossible to figure out how to get to the bottom of how to go about solving them. One clue was up so high no short person would have ever been able to reach it on their own.
I am curious about the other rooms, especially the infirmary. I want to go back again and hopefully have a better experience.

I visited The Great Escape Room with my office for a team building event tonight. I had read reviews of other companies and had talked with my friends about their experiences but I still wasn’t sure what to expect when I visited.
The staff at TGER is incredibly nice and friendly. Our host in the room was very patient as we went to town on the room looking for clues. We were in The Library and without giving anything away, we had to solve various math, word, and logic puzzles to escape. I’m not going to lie, it was hard. We almost didn’t make it and we had a team of 11 in the room. The record was 32 minutes. Whoever did that must have been smokin’ fast.
Everyone agreed it was a good time and a different team building event that was really quite fun. If you work downtown, I would recommend giving this place a try with your office.

My friends and I are no first timers in an escape room. This was my 5^th escape room ever. I’ve been to other rooms in Orlando. This was our first time here. We did the Infirmary room. It is fairly new here. The theme is you are trapped in a Infirmary room with a patient undergoing a heart transplant. There was a virus that broke out in the hospital and it is up to you to complete the surgery process without a doctor. You must look for clues and solve puzzles to find keys that will unlock mechanisms to operate a crane to complete the heart transplant in under an hour.
We didn’t escape sadly. However, we only had 3 people total and this room can take up to 8 people. I strongly encourage having 8 people to complete this room. You need more minds to complete the puzzles in here. You must search everywhere and think outside the box here. Some clues I thought were a little too difficult to figure out. Also, some puzzles were not too satisfying in my opinion. I would like more hospital puzzles since this is a hospital theme. Some puzzles were a little too childish for me. Compared to other escape rooms, I thought this was lacking behind. I like clever puzzles that require completing certain tasks or doing certain actions to make things happen. This room had some, but some were like child games.
It’s hard to describe what I mean without spoiling the room. Think about imagery with saying words to figure out clues. Think about finding a sign that shows a rope and scissors. You must think what the translation is… cut the rope. Don’t worry; this clue is not in this room. I just wanted to provide an example. I just don’t think these riddles are unique in an escape room.
Overall we had fun. I just was not impressed with this escape room place as to other games we played. I love an escape room with strong themes, theatre action, sounds, different actions going on, suspense, lights, and a whole immersed experience. These factors provide a great deal of action as to trying to find a way out of a room. I would recommend this place for fun, but it is not the best overall though.
I would return to try the other rooms though. Also, there is no free parking here. You must park in the garage around the corner or find another place to park. I suggest parking in the neighborhood down Pine Street near the Abbey for free street parking. I parked in the street for free near the Abbey. It was like a 10 minute safe walk. This is just my opinion.

Their are so many reasons why The Great Escape Room is terrible. Most of which stem from it being very poorly managed. First I won a ticket from their facebook page. I was never given the ticket even after asking about it.
My fiancée always wanted to go a escape room and decided that The Great Escape Room was the place she wanted to go to the most due to the Sherlock Holmes theme. For her 30^th birthday I arranged some of her friends to all come and do the room with us. I bought our tickets online got my confirmation email and figured I was all set to go.
When I arrived at the Great Escape Room they told us that the manager who handles online tickets never marked that someone booked our time. They had already signed up 11 other people for it. A normal room holds 10. They offered to let my party of 6 join. Making the room cramped with 17 people. We said no thanks, they then said we could come back 5 hours later if we wanted. Some friends from out of town had to leave before that time, so we told them no thanks. I tried asking for a refund and they said that they cannot give a refund under any circumstances and I would have to talk to their manager who was not in at the time.
I contacted the manager later who did agree to give me a refund. That was about 3 weeks ago and the refund never came. I guess I will have to do a charge back on my credit card.
With so many choices for escape rooms in the Orlando area, you would be foolish to choose this one.

SO FUN! & FULL of mystery!
The Escape Room made a challenging puzzle really fun! & being locked in a room with strangers kinda makes it even more exciting! You have to all work together to search and find clues to puzzles, which leads to a part of an answer for another bigger puzzle.
The person in charge of monitoring the room, and the people in it, during the game has clues also, and the group collectively gets three free clues of they choose to use them. This was super helpful because there were a couple parts of the game we just couldn’t figure out and there was one clue we couldn’t find in the room.
Only about 20% of groups make it out of the room before the sixty minutes is up! & we made it!!! But, don’t ask me where the clues are because I will never tell!
Way fun, way creative and I would WAY recommend this place to anyone looking for a fun date night or night out with a friend.

I recently came here with a group of friends to celebrate a gf’s birthday. The Great Escape Room is perfectly positioned in the middle of downtown, so it’s easy to meet here and then enjoy dinner and drinks afterward.
We were put in a locked room and had to solve a series of challenging puzzles in order to escape. We solved the puzzles in about 45 minutes. If we had a smaller group, I’m not sure that we would have been successful.
This was a really fun experience and a great team-​builder. It was entertaining to see different strengths /​skills emerge from my friends.
It was $ 20 per person for the hour-​long experience… which may seem steep to some. However, I felt that we were thoroughly engaged and challenged, so it was $ 20 well spent.

The Good:
solid gameplay
complex puzzles
entertaining scenarios
The Bad:
lacks «pizazz»
The Review:
This place is a solid 4, and you will not be disappointed if you find yourself trying to escape from their room in the allotted hour. My wife and I have been here twice with friends of hours and had a blast both times. The puzzles are set up in such a way that you need to work together with your teammates to put all the clues together so that you can escape in the hour you are give. Sherlock Holmes keeps track of your time and sets up the scenario for you!
The downside to this place is that I’ve been to a more professionally put together escape room here in Orlando. It’s not that is place isn’t as fun as the other place, because it really is! It’s just that when you are searching the room you are in for clues, most of the time you are tearing apart of children’s toys to find the bits and pieces you need to solve the puzzles. It literally looks like you are trying to escape from your nephews play room, not from an associate of Sherlock Holmes’. However, don’t let this little bit sway you from checking this place out.
All-​in-​all, I know I’ll be back for more. With a solid puzzle solving experience, this place will not disappoint.

Just finished my second game with the Great Escape Room and I have to say this is my type of entertainment. I LOVE solving puzzles and I LOVE games so I was super excited when they started bringing these types of games to USA (these are very popular in Europe!)
It’s also a great team building exercise for co-​workers, family and friends. You find out people’s strengths and weaknesses very quickly. The puzzles aren’t easy so try and have a big group with you. Make sure you have people that are good at math! lol
The only down side is that there are only two rooms offered right now and it doesn’t look like they have much room for growth in the future. I hope I am wrong. I loved our time here!

Had a fun experience here with a group of five friends but not sure this type of game is for me. Would like to try a The Great Escape Room again maybe at a time when I am more relaxed, like a Saturday night. I really appreciate the staff staying with us in the room and guiding our group through the rules and instructions. The staff was great!
I spent most of my time at the event room trying to solve a visual puzzle and I think I missed out on some of the more fun activities, like collecting clues everywhere, and I mean *everywhere*. Don’t be shy when looking for clues!
Overall this was a positive experience, but here are some suggestions: I feel like the room is a little low tech and hopefully over time the owners will be able to make it look a little more professional and grown up. My first impression when entering the room was that I felt like I was in an elementary classroom setting, so it didn’t quite meet my mental expectations of what the challenge would look like. I think some mood lighting in the room and hallway areas would help make it feel like an atmosphere where guests are getting ready to embark on a mysterious quest. There needs to be a theme or more atmosphere to get the guests into the mood to «escape».
Overall I liked it and I would try it again, just think a bigger group would be better (we had five) to find all the clues and interact for more teamwork. This was a fun challenge to try and our group almost made it out of the room in time. The staff took some fun photos of our group at the end and there were cute props provided for photos. Think The Great Escape Room is a fun concept that just needs a little bit of a fine tuning.

This place is AWESOME! Definitely come check this out. My group was able to escape the room, but other groups today were not able to.
The staff here is very friendly and looking to expand into more escape rooms very soon. We were offered some yummy treats before going into the escape room.
Ia moderator or two are with you, so the team isn’t completely alone. And you’re allowed a limited number of hints to escape the room within 60 minutes. I wish I could say more about this place… but you must come check it out. Try not to read too many reviews. ;-)
I am absolutely coming back when new rooms are ready. Enjoy!!!

What a GREAT experience!!!
I’m a big fan of Sherlock and mystery movies, so I was stoked to get into the locked room and figure my way out. We were a group of 10 individuals, most of whom had never met before. In the end we did manage did get out (we were the first group to be able to escape in the 1 hour allotted time!) and more importantly, we got to work as a team.
I’m going to try and not give anything away, but suffice it to say this would be a FABULOUS team building exercise for a work retreat.
Things I LOVED:
— Working with people of all backgrounds whom I would probably never have had a chance to talk to, let alone work alongside. Also, ages ranged from 19 — 32 and I’m sure it will get even more diverse as more people find out about it.
— The location is KEY! It is at 23 ½ Magnolia (very Sherlock-​esque) and is located in Downtown Orlando as opposed to I-​Drive or some equally touristy area. Downtown Orlando is packed and it’s wonderful and encouraging to see unusual businesses like this one popping up in neat little spots around the city.
— How much ridiculous fun this was! I haven’t had a night where I just let go and felt like a giddy kid in a long time and this was one of those nights!
— I LOVE how open the team is to feedback after the challenge– they have you rate your experience and ask for any suggestions you may have.
A few suggestions I would make to enhance an already awesome experience:
— Have all of the staff dressed in something specific– possibly all black? And have them in character throughout the challenge.
— Include a reason why we need to get out of the room (there might have been a reason, but the intro recording malfunctioned for our group). Maybe there’s a bomb in the room that will go off in an hour? Maybe zombies are banging against the door, slowly breaking their way in (as suggested by one of my team members tonight!)? This would add a heightened sense of urgency and would feel more like we’re in a real life movie.
I can’t wait until there are more rooms so that I can go back. BUT, in the meantime, I’ll be recommending this to ALL of my friends!