Soon, instead of spending your weekend killing brain cells at the local bar (as per usual), you can give your brain a boost at The Great Escape Room -- a quizzical attraction designed to put your mental muscle to the test.
In this soon-to-open Coral Gables outpost, ten people will get locked in a room and given an hour to solve a puzzle, Sherlock-style.
But don't worry, you don't need the brainpower (or sex appeal) of Benedict Cumberbatch to make your way out of this one.
"This idea began when I read an article in the Wall Street Journal in December 2013. The article detailed how the online Escape the Room games were being brought to real life rooms in China," says co-founder Nelson Rodney. So he and his wife, attorneys; his brother in law, an ophthalmologist; and his son, a recent dental school graduate, decided to bring it to the U.S.
Basically, it's, "ten people locked in a room using their creative thinking to solve clues to escape," he says. The Orlando outpost opened in June, and 700 people went through in the first month, Rodney adds.
"The clues are hard and only about twenty percent of groups escape within the one hour time limit," Rodney adds. "But the experience is designed so that every group has some measure of success and comes close to solving all the puzzles. Everyone is let out of the room after one hour whether they solved the puzzles or not and a debriefing is conducted to explain the puzzles so no one goes home frustrated."
While he can't disclose what the clues entail, for obvious reasons, he did say that the experience is a scavenger hunt/puzzle solving mash-up.
Let's face it, in your friend group, the smarty-pants members of your crew will likely be pulling more than their fair share. But you'll make it up to them in Game of Thrones trivia answers and free beer.
While it's probably not the best way to spend an afternoon if you're claustrophobic, no one's freaked out from the confinement factor yet, Rodney assures us. "It is designed to be fun and is not scary or threatening," he says.
There you have it. Who's up for a brain-teasing good time?
The Great Escape Room officially opens on September 12th, and you can buy tickets online. They'll run $28 apiece, and there's a 10% discount if all 10 tickets for a time slot are purchased at the same time. They'll be open Thursday evenings and all day (and evening) Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and at other times for private events and corporate team building.
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