4 Escape Rooms In 5 Days
This is a photo blog of my escape room adventures in Toronto, Canada. For all four rooms, I signed up as a solo player and played with complete strangers. Initially, I felt uncertain of how it'd turn out as I typically do escape rooms with my friends. Surprisingly, we worked extremely well together; I believe this is due to everyone having experience with escape rooms. Strangers coming together and working like a well-oiled, calibrated machine; now that’s novel.
Game: Escape From The Tower
Location: In one of the towers of Casa Loma (an actual castle), Toronto, Ontario
https://www.secretcityadventures.com/in-person-games/tower
This was the first escape room I played on my adventure and I heard about it from a Canadian I met. I knew about Casa Loma, but not about escape rooms in the castle. I jumped on it without hesitation.
It started with a safety and room context video in a mini theatre. I played with an American couple. After the video, the live actor scared me by appearing out of nowhere in the doorway and asked for a team name. The couple and I exchanged glances, unsure of what to reply with. I don’t remember what our team name was.
Six flights of stairs later, we arrived at the game room. I stored my belongings (except my phone for group photos at the end) in a locked chest. The rooms spanned two floors of the tower (climbing up and down a small, spiral staircase). Puzzles included finding and connecting pipes, identifying coordinates, solving math equations to determine currents, tracking the path of a ship and arranging a puzzle map. The goal in the first room was to obtain four fuses to restore power. The goal of the second room was to identify the coordinates of the enemy ship to bomb. We ended up bombing ourselves and had to solve a few puzzles to safely escape the tower (including using Morse code)! I absolutely loved the experience of live actors bringing the story to life and interacting with them.
Hint for escape room: If you can’t solve a puzzle or unlock a lock, let your teammates try before trying a different approach; this applies vice versa too. In this game, my teammates thought there was a missing piece of the puzzle to connect the pipes, but I noticed the orientation was wrong. I corrected the orientation and the pipes connected perfectly; there was no missing piece. We would’ve wasted time finding non-existent pieces otherwise.
Game: Where Dark Things Dwell (it's an outdoor escape room set in a village)
Location: The Village At Black Creek, Toronto, Ontario
https://www.secretcityadventures.com/in-person-games/dark-things
I kept laughing at the “witches”.
This photo captures my genuine amusement at “the witches”, and instead of being terrified, I repeatedly attempted to get the live actors to break character. The game hosts instructed us to “keep your lanterns on to keep away the witches”. To amuse myself, I turned off the lantern and stood in place; the witches (live actors in the white masks as pictured) circled around me, hissing. While this side quest was unsuccessful, I had a blast nonetheless (and not just with “the witches”). There were also moments of unforeseen jump scares that sent shocks through my nerves; I loved the immersion. Aside from the witches, live actors played other villagers who needed help breaking the witch’s curse. My team and I (the underdog team with the least number of players) completed the game. Oh, and I played with complete strangers but teamwork was unbelievable!
Recommendation: If you want an even more immersive experience in summer, play the latest possible game as it's more dark. I was hoping to play it in total darkness but couldn't get a later time that fit in my travel plans. It was less terrifying with the daylight; a disappointment for me being a horror enthusiast.
Game: Escape The Ghost Ship
There are several locations in Canada, but I played in Toronto.
https://www.escapetheship.com/
This was a unique experience for me as it’s both a game and a boat cruise around Lake Ontario. It was also the first escape room where it was team-vs-team on the ship; both with identical puzzles to solve. Unfortunately, we didn’t unlock the final lock of the pirate chest since the puzzle stumbled us all, but we didn’t give up until time ran out. At first, my team gave up, but they saw me continuing to attempt it, so that encouraged them to join me. The other team successfully completed the game.
Though we didn’t complete the game, I felt proud of unlocking two of the six locks on the chest. We took a divide and conquer approach; that was the most efficient technique - everyone had something to do. I took the word based puzzles as this was my forte. One was solving a riddle. The other was deciphering missing letters from words using related words, then unscrambling the anagram.
The live actors on board (playing the role of pirates) set the scene for the story and provided support along the way where required. They enhanced the storytelling experience! Viewing the city from the lake was absolutely incredible. The CN Tower is also visible (as seen in the photo of me holding the sword).
Game: Station M
Location: Underground tunnels of Casa Loma, Toronto, Ontario
https://www.secretcityadventures.com/in-person-games/station-m
Once again, we couldn’t come up with a team name. The live actor played on this, calling us “Too Secret”, which was amusing. A memorable and unintentionally comedic moment for me was when I used my real name when asked for an agent name. “Wait, am I supposed to make up a name?” This got the crowd laughing, so did I. It’s nice to be able to laugh at myself at times; not everything needs to be taken seriously.
The objective of the mission was to discover who the mole is in the team of agents. It started with a walk through underground tunnels to the first room, which linked to a second room as the game progressed. After this, we walked deeper into the tunnels where the final two rooms lay. Puzzles included:
Finding films for X-ray illuminators to reveal a word.
Calculating correct measurements in a tailor shop.
Finding parts for a radio receiver.
Using maps and clocks in different time zones to determine time.
Wearing 3D glasses to decipher codes.
Finding written hints throughout the room to rule out the mole.
There were 11 of us in the game, and I felt concerned there wouldn’t be enough to do. However, we needed everyone - divide and conquer, to successfully complete the game. The game hosts told us we escaped with 2 seconds to spare. That’s a narrow gap!