I planned a private zombie escape adventure for my birthday. When emailing the company, I usually got a response the next day. A date and time was reserved for my birthday and they provided us with a group discount code. I was told that I needed 8 people signed up (12 total are allowed) in order to keep it a private event. However, only 7 tickets were purchased (6 people came, one couldn't make it) but the time I had reserved did not appear to be opened back up to the public. I enjoyed that it was just my friends, and to be honest, more than 6 people in the room would have been too many in my opinion.
This is in a warehouse suite seemingly in the middle of nowhere. My boyfriend said it looked like the kind of place you'd go for a drug deal. That being said, the 107 (suite number) in blood on the side of the building let us know we were in the right place. We showed up exactly 15 minutes early as instructed. One of the warnings when you purchase a ticket is that if you are late and the room is already locked, you do not get in! The sign on the front door says it will be opened 15 minutes before show time, but it was still locked at that time. We waited for about 10 minutes, then knocked on the door because one in our group needed to use the restroom. We heard a "Just a minute" and the door was opened maybe 5-10 minutes later. Our host/facilitator "Lethal Injection" apologized and explained that she was putting the room back together after the last group. She asked us to put on a nametag, sign the waiver and use the restroom before she told us about the rules. They only have one restroom, so it took a while waiting for each person to use it. She advised we go then because more than one person has peed themselves while in the room with the zombie!
Lethal Injection had a great attitude and was obviously very happy to be there. She had lots of stories and hints for how our experience would go. She went over the rules, which did seem to go on a little long, but finally we were ready to go. Just outside the room, she told us a little more about the clues we were looking for, but looking back, that did not give me an idea of what I was really looking for.
I won't give any spoilers about the room. The host does go in with you to make sure everyone stays safe and plays by the rules. She also removed items that we'd already figured out so they did not get in our way. We noticed many of the items were taped together and pretty beat up and there were holes in the walls. I understand some groups are probably rough with things, but some clues needed to be replaced. I can't imagine fitting 12 people in what was a pretty small room, 6 was plenty and we still ran into each other often. The host did give subtle hints if we needed a little help progressing, and told us about half way through that we were right on track with other groups. Also, she did say we played "extreme mode" (not sure if she was kidding) but there was a lot more running than I anticipated. Also, if you're scared at haunted houses, probably not the best adventure for you. Our zombie was funny and really played the role well. He didn't "eat" anyone right away and made sure we had fun as well.
I am pretty intelligent, but I found some of the clues to be difficult. I'm not sure how anyone under 16 would have any chance of figuring them out. I think it would be much harder with a group of strangers too. We got very close to solving them all at the end but did not escape in time and were all eaten by the zombie. Apparently the escape rate is only 25%.. my advice would be to make it slightly less complicated so more people have a chance of being successful!
After time was up, the host explained to us all the clues we hadn't figured out or what we needed to do differently. Once we figured everything out together, we found the key and let ourselves out of the room. I'm sure this was possible because there were no groups scheduled after us. Then we took group photos with funny signs and with the zombie, when we asked. The time we were supposed to start was 8:30, and we only had an hour to escape, but we did not end up leaving until at least 10:15 or so! Both employees that were there seemed to love their jobs and talked to us about it for a while afterward.
To sum up, everyone had a great time and really enjoyed the experience. I think it would behoove the company to change the room/clues up more regularly, because then you could have repeat customers. I did have two friends who did not come because they had already done it and the clues would have been the same. read more