Monday, December 19, 2016

Escape Rooms for Group Dates, Parties, and Team Building

I am going to tell you how to save thousands of dollars in future marriage therapy and divorce hearings. Are you ready? Take your fiancĂ© to an escape room; it's that simple. If you are the parents, send the engaged couple to an escape room as a pre-wedding gift. You will know by the end of the hour how well you solve problems together and what the next 50+ years of marriage will be like. If you are already married, go to an escape room and improve your teamwork skills. Escape rooms make or break couples. How do I know this? My son works at Escapes in Time in Orem, Utah and I get to hear all about it.

What's an escape room? From the Escapes in Time website: 
"An Escape Room is a fantastic new immersive entertainment adventure. It’s a race against the clock of heart-pounding fun! You and a small group of people will travel through time, to enter one of our themed game rooms. You will have 60 minutes to figure out how to escape and return to the present day. Find clues, solve puzzles, crack codes, and investigate everything to escape! But can you do it before the clock runs out? Time will tell."

A couple of months ago, my 18 year old son, Zak, went with his group of friends to an escape room and came home extremely excited and couldn't stop talking about it. He contacted the owners and got himself a part time job working there and loves his job so much, he feels guilty accepting a paycheck. Thank you to the wonderful owners of Escapes in Time, I am indebted to you for creating such a great business and hiring my son.

My husband's siblings and their spouses were up for the challenge, so we went to check out Escapes in Time in Orem and had a blast! 

Baker Street Mystery
(2-12 players recommended)

Our group did the Baker Street Mystery room (Sherlock) and made it out with 2 minutes to spare! We did struggle a little at the end and needed a clue, which my son sent us (that's part of his job). Overall, I think we worked well together and it was interesting to see who ended up teaming together to solve individual clues. My husband and his sister worked well together in one corner (too well, judging by the sounds of their chants and enthusiasm, lol). My sister-in-law was in charge of solving puzzles at the desk, I wandered around trying to keep everyone on the same page helping where I could, and everyone else found clues and worked on figuring them out. Having a large group made it challenging to work together and know which clues had been solved and where they were found, but by the end we started to figure out the whole teamwork concept. I can definitely see the benefit of having co-workers do this together.


Dressing up is optional, but adds to the fun. This is my husband in the photo above and he never misses a chance to dress up since he is an actor at heart. Every escape team needs an enthusiastic fun personality like this. I tend to hold all of my enthusiasm inside and enjoy watching others, which is one of the many reasons I married my super fun husband.


I'm a HUGE Doctor Who fan, so naturally I loved the escape room experience and plan to go back and check out the other rooms. I recently went to London and finding the Tardis was at the top of my bucket list. My son knows how much I love strategy games and time travel, so he was right when he said I would love Escapes in Time. It's as close to traveling with the Doctor as I will ever get, sigh.


Escape rooms are becoming popular and popping up in cities everywhere. What makes Escapes in Time especially great is their attention to detail that other escape rooms miss. My son tells me that the owners spare no expense from the antique furniture to all the small details and it shows. One of my son's jobs is to help make the experience even more authentic with automated speakers and sound effects. Escapes in Time keeps getting better every month as they add new effects and create new rooms to explore. They even have a time tunnel that you walk through to get to your destination. It's not the Tardis, but I was impressed.

Other escape rooms currently at Escapes in Time:
(check their website, since these will change over time)

Leonardo's Loot
(2-12 players recommended)

O.K. Corral Jailbreak
(4-8 players recommended)

Escapes in Time has a separate conference room for parties, corporate training, and other events. After doing the Sherlock room with a big group, I can see how great this would be in training employees to work together. I can also see how fun it would be for a family, bridging the divide between kids and parents while helping siblings learn how to work together. Too bad my son already knows all of the puzzles, because I think the two of us together would make a great team.

Escapes in Time charges $25 per person, but you can use my son's employee code to get 21% off.
Use code z101 at Escapes in Time and tell them Zak's mom sent you! (I'm not an affiliate and don't make any money for referrals, but I'm a big fan and love to see small businesses like this succeed).

Have you done an escape room? Leave a comment and tell me about it.




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