The Escape Ventures - "Outage: No Vacancy"

Cici Cao

Nov 16, 20213 min read

Updated: Nov 12, 2024

LOCATION:  Orlando, Florida, USA

Photo above is property of The Escape Ventures

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

📝 ETR DECODER

🔑 GAME: Outage: No Vacancy
📅 DATE PLAYED: November 16, 2021
🎬 GENRE: Mystery, Supernatural
🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 2 ppl): 5/10
👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: 2-4 ppl
🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 60 Mins.
💰 PRICE: $35.00-$42.00/ pp (pending on group size)
☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Private
🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: Yes

📖 THE STORY

The new owners of the Madame Locktane's Inn & Suites is preparing for the motel's grand reopening. You and your maintenance crew have been hired to provide some minor repairs to the building. While conducting some handywork, an outage occurs and suddenly the spirits awaken...

Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

🎯 HIT THE BULLSEYE

The decor of the start of the game definitely hit the spot on a haunted hotel feel.
The way we had to figure out the way into the room was a great add on to the experience along with great intro performance from the game master.
Since this room is played mostly in complete darkness, we had to throw out a lot of our traditional way of solving puzzles and rely a lot on our senses. Touch was incorporated in various puzzles that was sensational.
The size of the room is not large but the creators were able to utilize every inch of the space. Especially in the dark room, you can actually be fooled by the spatial dimension and think the room is bigger than it is.

🧩 MISSED THE MARK

One of the door designs was slightly awkward as it could potentially be a hazard to the players when playing in the dark.
It would be nice to incorporate a bit more variation in to the use of other senses like smell perhaps? Most of the puzzles were revolved on touch.

🏹 TAKE A SHOT?

This is our first full 60 minute escape room that we mostly played in the dark. We've done a 10 minute one at Red Vein Escape but this is a much larger scale. Not only do we have to solve puzzles but also have to face our fears. You have no idea what you're touching or what is around you. After playing this game, I realized how much we overlook our sight as a sense. But during the game, I also realized that our senses can adapt quickly so losing one sense actually made the other one a lot more sensitive. Spatial and object recognition was used a lot in this room and your brain really starts to form this imprint of everything you've touched. At the beginning, we had no idea where everything was but slowly a floor plan formed in our minds. This room is definitely going to memorable for us. I would recommend 2-3 people for the ultimate experience. I wish the creators had more space to build a much larger escape room for us to explore as this could easily become an immersive experience rather than just an escape room. If you've never tried playing puzzles in a complete darkness room, give this a go! This is definitely something to chat with your friends about. If you are just looking for a regular escape room experience, then by all means try their "Bros For Life: Fraternity Heist" and "The Satirical Miracle: A Jolly Tale of Granny's Blackmail" room. Both were excellent. Also, make sure to check out our interview with the owners above as they have a brand new room coming out soon!

ℹ️ ADDITIONAL INFO

There is a free parking lot right in front of the facility. Lobby area with seating. Merchandise available for purchase.

* NOTE: "Outage: No Vacancy" is played 60% of the time in COMPLETE AND TOTAL DARKNESS. For the safety purposes, The Escape Ventures requires all players to wear closed-toed shoes.

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

BOOK NOW

(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)

Disclosure: We thank The Escape Ventures for comping our tickets for this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.