Escape Hunt Manchester: Alice In Puzzleland

By | March 20, 2019

by Escape Hunt Manchester (website)

Corn Exchange, Exchange Square, M4 3TR

Manchester

2-6 players

Languages: EN

60 minutes

Wheelchair suitable - contact the venue for details
The Mad Hatter is in trouble. Save him from the Queen of Hearts without losing your heads.
Step into Wonderland, where the Hatter has been accused of stealing the Queen’s Tarts. With Alice nowhere to be seen, it’s time for you to fill her shoes.
You find yourself at the Hatter’s cottage. The table is set but no one is around.
A sign on the lawn reads ‘Tea Party Cancelled by Royal Decree’. Curiouser and curiouser…
Find and return the Queen’s Tarts in 60 minutes, or it’s off with the Hatter’s head. Chop chop.
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Overall rating

Rated between 3 and 4 out of 5

based on ratings from 65 users
combined with 4 pro reviews

Your review

Player reviews

phudson2907 rated this:Rated between 3.5 and 3.5 out of 5
Team size: 2 Time taken: 47 Outcome: Successful escape!
originalimmersive
🔐SpontaneousIllusion expert rated this:Rated between 2.5 and 2.5 out of 5
Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
story-drivenillogicalbroken techquite difficult
Mighty Oaks experienced rated this:Rated between 4 and 4 out of 5
Played: 8 Sep 2019 Team size: 2 Time taken: 42:28 Outcome: Successful escape!
beautifulimmersivemagicalquite easy
Scotus0 expert rated this:Rated between 3.5 and 3.5 out of 5
Played: 21 Sep 2021 Team size: 4 Time taken: 45:30 Outcome: Successful escape!
funnyimmersivemagicalquite easy

Filling In for Alice

This was my first venture down the Rabbit Hole for an Alice in Wonderland-themed adventure. Escape Hunt offer concessions for students and seniors.

Story

Find and return the Queen’s tarts before it’s off with the Mad Hatter’s head, for he has been accused of stealing them.

Puzzles

Interactive, with a far bigger focus on magical mechanics rather than coded locks, which suited this particular room.

Mise-en-scene

Quirky and colourful, the scenery is artfully linked to Lewis Carrol’s novel. It’s compact but this adds to the immersion. An eccentric Hatter provided the odd verbal clue when needed.

Final Comments

We retrieved the Queen’s tarts with 15 minutes to spare. Take no more than 4 people to this challenge, otherwise it’d be too crowded.

Anonymous experienced rated this:Rated between 3.5 and 3.5 out of 5
Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
beautifulbroken techpoor hosting
Jen Wells (Get Wells Soon) expert rated this:Rated between 3.5 and 3.5 out of 5
Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
immersivestory-drivengreat hosting

This room is so much fun. We had lovely hosts at the Manchester Escape Hunt and all the tech in the game worked beautifully. It wasn't challenging so we powered through it, even as a two, but it was incredibly enjoyable.

Mark Greenhalgh expert rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Played: 07/04/19
Anonymous rated this:Rated between 1.5 and 1.5 out of 5
Played: 8 Aug 2024 Team size: 3 Time taken: 41:20
broken techoverpricedunoriginalvery easy

Basically just a ripoff of the old Time Trap game with similar theming, but done so much worse. 

Alwaysablast rated this:Rated between 2.5 and 2.5 out of 5
Played: 7 Jul 2024 Team size: 3 Time taken: 43.47 Outcome: Successful escape!
story-drivenbroken techoverpriced

This should have been a really good room, as it has potential, however a lot of the tech was either totally broken or flawed. A lot of time was wasted thinking a solution was wrong when actually it just hadn't triggered what it should and we ended up having to explain solutions to the GM over the tannoy so they could manually override catches when we did have the solution right, or just having to fiddle with putting the same thing into a the same place multiple times to get it to trigger. Real shame.

SupertrampEcho experienced rated this:Rated between 2.5 and 2.5 out of 5
Played: 21 Jul 2024 Time taken: 58 mins Outcome: Successful escape!
magicalillogicalbroken tech
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Reviews by escape room review sites

Whilst Alice in Puzzleland is available to play at multiple sites across the UK, we chose the closest to London: Reading. During our experience there, we were led by the Cheshire Cat (played by the awesome Games Master Hamish) through the rabbit hole and into the magical world of Wonderland.


Our GM declared we were the best team he had ever seen play this game. But actually...

Overall, a really good game with some lovely game play and well designed props. Escape Hunt Resorts World is based in the middle of a shopping centre which felt very unusual but means there are lots of people and passing trade.
We headed down to Puzzleland via Oxford to help save the Mad Hatter from Execution! Sinister stuff! See if we managed to find the Queen’s Tarts and what we thought about our Alice in Wonderland themed experience.

See also