Escape Hunt Cheltenham: Alice in Puzzleland

This room had a really good set and should have been good, but the puzzles didn't really flow and the games master seemed quite distracted, which meant we waited a long time if we got stuck. 

Our favourite of the Escape Hunt games played so far. Gamesmaster was friendly and the Cheltenham venue is open and welcoming. Lovely props, decent puzzles and good links to the Alice in Wonderland story. Only complaint would be that there were some bits were a bit stiff or not in the best condition (one was sticky :->), which is surprising for such a newly opened venue.

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

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.

Hated the tablet clue design. One of the props was broken so had to be fixed when playing. Nice hosting though

Great theming and props. Some enjoyable puzzles. Extremely illogical, especially with certain puzzles.  

Excellent theming with some really good puzzles. A couple felt a bit obtuse / could have required further signposting but was still enjoyable. 

First time doing an escape room and we absolutely LOVED it. Very friendly and helpful staff, especially Nicole our games master. Can't wait to book another adventure!!!

Our host was very nice but admitted no one had watched our game for 18 minutes due to being too busy and they were surprised how well we did without help! Also hated the clue system of GM’s talking to you. And no music made no atmosphere. No padlocks but this just led to baby puzzles. I liked the roses puzzle and plant but overall…disappointing.

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.

This was my favourite of the Escape Hunt games I've played but I still wouldn't really recommend it to anyone with much escape room experience - okay for a new player maybe. Some of the tech was broken or just not clear (ie, coloured lights which were ambiguous). Just not great overall. 

Some original puzzles and a beautiful set let down by broken tech. We found the system of solving a puzzle, hearing a bing noise to say we were successful but then having to hunt throughout the room to find out what had opened a little frustrating. 

We had a problem with a chain sticking meaning we spent the whole game going through a small gap, we didn’t pull the chain hard as we all know the ‘no excessive force is needed’, the host came in at the end and pulled it really hard to free it, why didn’t they tell us during the game to do this instead of watching us struggle?!

This is not a well run Escape Hunt. The rooms were very tired and need maintenance. In this particular game, we were told to ring the bell if we needed help or a clue. There were several times where we were requesting a clue and we received no response. This was frustrating and ran down the clock. A lot of the tech was broken, one particular puzzle required us to line up several valves in the correct order. We did this correctly the First time and nothing happened, we requested help from the GM and they weren't able to override the puzzle so we were stuck for a significant amount of time. At this point we'd kind of given up. The experience here was poor. 

Great GM, room looks great, some good ideas but at least two puzzles were broken and one rather dangerous position of an opening cupboard which we hit our head on numerous times. Enjoyable but let down by broken elements and for the price of the game we felt disappointed

Firstly, our host was brilliant. Very in character as the Cheshire Cat - really entertained us. 

In terms of difficulty, this room wasn't that hard - a lot of the puzzles/tasks were clear. Although one task involved lying on the floor, which we definitely weren't expecting 😂

The theme was unmistakable - Alice in Wonderland (Puzzleland!). The whole room set up was completely on theme, as were the tasks/puzzles. 

We had a great time playing this room and can't wait to go back and play the others at Resorts World.

Not bad, good fun and challenging.

Hosting very good.

Shame about the pricing per person rather than room cost.

More than 3 people for this game probably not worth it. 

It was fun and the theming is very good.

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.

Have been to many escape rooms but this was awful by comparison. You turn up and there's noone there to great you for so long you wonder what on earth is going on. Eventually when they come they usher you into the room as fast as they can. So many parts were broken. 1 fell on my daughter's head causing a bump. The clues were Illogical & did not link together at all. All done in a tiny room with poor lighting.  Nothing to Wow you. Absolute rip off! 

Probably due to manhandling and overuse, a lot of the puzzles were broken. It was very frustrating to be told, "You're doing it right, just try again" multiple times. This game needs to be closed, repaired and reopened. The game itself isn't a bad concept, but the flaws drag the experience down.

Overview: Good looking game with easy, but illogically linked puzzles, some disrepair/fixes needed with poor lighting & temperature control.

Negatives:

- Hint system wasn't greatly integrated. An audio feed from the GM in character didn't fully translate. There wasn't much in the way of signposting to the next puzzle and we had to rely on asking for help whenever the next puzzle was unclear. The puzzles themselves were quite easy, so little sense of achievement.

- Way too hot (and unable to be adjusted), to the point where my throat went dry and I just wanted to get out to have a drink! The lighting was also so poor that it made reading or seeing any pattern/colour differences impossible for me.

- Quite a bit of disrepair: For example, at least 3 of these led to us wondering if we needed to use a broken piece, not use it or fix it somehow (distracting from the real puzzles) One puzzle was supposedly colour coded, but the paint was so dull and worn that it barely appeared coloured at all (especially in the very low light) Another had broken completely requiring narrower than most adult-sized hands areas to be accessed - not fun. For a company this size with people dedicated to upkeep of the rooms, this seems poor.

Positives:

- Our host, Grace was welcoming, helpful (before, during and after the game) and happy to discuss everything (without her, it possibly would have been a lower score)

- It was well themed, very clearly in Wonderland/Puzzleland. Visually very pleasant - Nice props & artwork throughout and soothing background audio throughout.

- Though the puzzles weren't that well linked, there were some good ideas and we enjoyed the wordy ones.

We played as a team of 4 to bring back the pies to the afternoon tea of Alice and her friends. the whole room looks superb and the design of the puzzles and props are absolutely amazing! Our host, Michael was purely amazing as well. Highly recommended.