It’s Tina and Curt again! Sorry for the long delay between updates! We were visiting Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas and didn’t have internet access for several days. (No internet?! Time to bust out the escape room board games)
States Visited This Leg: Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma
Total Miles Traveled: 3,195
Total Escape Rooms Played: 18
We are currently camped in Bridgeport, OK, right on historic US Route 66. Oklahoma City is about 45 minutes away, where on Wednesday we will be playing all three games at The Sanctuary Escape: La Famiglia, The Lost Dutchman’s Mine and Seed of Hope. We have heard great things about this venue and are very excited to play. It’s an extra-special occasion, because Seed of Hope will be Tina’s 200th room! (cue the balloons and confetti)
We are traveling in a new-to-us 39’ 2019 Grand Design Momentum 349m 5th wheel toy hauler. The toy hauler garage is doing triple-duty as a laundry room/office/ebike storage. On one of our next stops we will take a video tour of it and post a link, so you can see how we’re living for the next 7.5 months. (We just need to tidy up a bit first).
One of the biggest lessons we have learned is that something always needs to be fixed when you live in an RV. While in Louisiana our microwave stopped working. (How’s Tina going to get her mac and cheese cup fix?) The next day, our water heater started leaking. Come to find out, we needed a new microwave and a new water heater! Luckily, the RV came with an extended warranty and we found an excellent mobile RV repair service who worked with the company to get us a new hot water heater and microwave covered under warranty. (happy dance). Fingers crossed those will be the last major repairs needed for a long time.
We were lucky enough to be able to play 11 games while staying in Louisiana! Here’s our list:
Let’s start with the mac-daddy of escape rooms in Louisiana, the world-famous 13th Gate…which, by the way, has a strict four person minimum to play. Even if you want to pay for four and play with two or three, you can’t. They have designed a puzzle or two in each room that requires at least four players. Thank you to Jeff, Nikki, and Richard for joining us! It was great to meet and play with you all!
If you’re an escape room enthusiast, chances are you have heard of 13th Gate. You also may have heard that the set design at 13th Gate is top notch, especially with Cutthroat Cavern! Cutthroat Cavern was amazing and the sheer size of it was awe inspiring! There was a reveal moment that was straight out of The Goonies and we felt like Lara Croft or Indiana Jones was going to show up at any time.
However, as you also may have heard, the puzzles and game play…well, they could be better. For example, one thing we really liked is that they give all the players flashlights (we love being able to see puzzles and locks), but even with the lights, one distant puzzle in Cutthroat Cavern was so hard to see that all five of us tried multiple times and failed. There is nothing that will break the flow of a game faster than asking the game master for the answer because you can’t see the puzzle. If you have played Cutthroat Cavern, you probably know what we're talking about, and if you haven’t played it yet, you will know it when you do! The hint system in this room was also very difficult to hear and understand. Nobody wants to constantly ask, “What did they say? Can you repeat that?!”
We enjoyed the puzzles and game flow in Spellbound much more. It was our favorite room here. The immersive atmosphere was fantastic. We especially loved the way they showed how much time you had left.
While we hope to return to Louisiana to play more rooms, we likely won’t be returning to 13th Gate. The strict four person minimum alone makes it difficult for just the two of us, and we simply liked the games at the other venues more. That said, we enjoyed our group and the amazing set designs and are glad we experienced the famous 13th Gate.
Next we have Escape My Room in New Orleans. First off, the lobby is AMAZING! Hands down the best we’ve ever experienced. We wish we had scheduled more time here to explore and play their lobby game. Both Jazz Parlor and Inventor’s Attic were a lot of fun and our Game Masters (who were in character) were great!
Inventor’s Attic was the more difficult room and another person or two in our group would have helped a lot. The two of us finished both games in time, but not without some nudging from our Game Masters. The whole place was very immersive and the puzzles and flow of both games were really good. We highly recommend this venue!
Let’s move on to Clue Carré. These games brought us joy. The two games we reserved ended up being so much fun that we added on a third game, the 45 minute Fright Before Christmas. The rooms are not as themed or immersive as any of the other venues we played in Louisiana, and the puzzles are on the easier side, but the gameplay in all the rooms flowed well and it was just a lot of fun. The Game Museum room was our favorite due to the nostalgia factor and some unique puzzles we hadn’t seen before.
Since we were so close to Mississippi, we made the drive to Hint Hunter in D'Iberville, so that we could add another state onto our Escape Room map (must.complete.map). We chose Wasted While, a gem mine themed room, since it had the best reviews. Unfortunately, neither of us enjoyed this room. The theming was good and it did feel very mine-like; however, many of the puzzles required searching in dim light, and one part in particular felt like a scavenger hunt in the dark. (Ever spent 15 minutes looking for a few well-hidden items as the clock quietly taunts you?) There were other issues with this room/game that ruined the fun for us. We’ll leave it at that.
Last, but certainly not least, our favorite venue overall for both immersion and game play was (drum roll, please) Escape Warehouse in Ponchatoula. This place just clicked with us in all the right ways. The rooms were well themed and the puzzle flow was amazing. Both rooms were creepy without being scary (just how we like it).
Hide and Seek (our favorite game we played in all of Louisiana) felt like we were in an actual two story house! Unidentified had one of the most unique beginnings that we’ve ever seen. You don’t hear as much about them as some of the other venues, but we HIGHLY recommend them. We will be back when they open more rooms!
And the adventure continues! Before arriving in Oklahoma, we stopped at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas and Lake Texoma in Texas. We were able to play some rooms in both places, and we’ll talk about those in our next article. We were also able to try mining for diamonds at Crater of Diamonds, and we’ll share a little about that, too! Did we find a diamond (or two)?
Until next time!
Enthusiasts, travelers, bloggers
Tina is a former city and transportation planner turned escape room owner and Curt is a podcaster/blogger/content creator for the summer camp industry. Their worlds collided when they were handcuffed next to each other in a pirate themed escape room while attending an escape room enthusiast meet up event.
Hey fellow escapists and adventure seekers! If you’ve been following along with our RV trip around North America, you know that we've just wrapped it up with a whopping 282 escape rooms played! You heard that right – 282!
On Saturday, December 16, the announcement of the top 100 rooms according to TERPECA took place. Escape rooms from all over the world kept their fingers crossed to be among the top 100. Where do the most outstanding rooms come from? How has the ranking changed from last year? What rooms do puzzle fans like to play in?
