The Escape Date is an escape room in Pleasant Grove, Utah. They specialize in group sizes down to 2 people. They have 6 rooms: Showtime Magic, The Escape Motel, The Sweet Escape, Tick Tock's Circus, Kraken Casino, and Christmas Catastrophe.
My parents, Tara, and I went to The Escape Date for our Christmas present to my parents. We did the Kraken Casino room. We finished in about 30 minutes despite wasting 10 minutes with a broken slot machine prop. We were quite disappointed that the space was very small (in half a trailer in the parking lot) and that there weren't enough puzzles for us to enjoy a full 1-hour experience.
Pros
Room decorating was very well done.
There weren't a bunch of random locks on things that wouldn't normally have locks on them.
Puzzles fit well with the theme.
The puzzles matched the story and didn't break immersion.
There was a lot of custom programming automation that went into the room.
Lighting was adequate.
Cons
Room was very small.
There were not nearly enough puzzles to keep players engaged for a full time slot. Walked away feeling cheated.
Slot machine puzzle was not working, and game master had to enter room to get it to work. Game master was a bit clueless how to make it work.
Tara and I went on a double date with Ondy and Jaren to The Escape Date. We played the room Showtime Magic and had a great time, even if our playtime was only 35 minutes because we're that good. We reserved the 5:00 timeslot because on past dates, we had gone out to dinner before the escape room, but our timing was always rushed. So this time we planned to do the activity first and dinner after. However, it ended up being quite stressful since Savannah was supposed to be babysitting Killian and Calliope but she didn't get home from Lagoon until after 5:00. Madi ended up babysitting until Savannah got home, but it was quite stressful for Tara to figure everything out. After the escape room, we went to dinner at Rumbi Island Grill.
Savannah and I went to The Escape Date for our daddy daughter date. We needed several hints to escape in time. Savannah loved it!
Pros
Room decorating was inexpensive but fit the theme perfectly.
There weren't a bunch of random locks on things that wouldn't normally have locks on them.
Everything in the room could plausibly be in a real hotel room. The puzzle designers were very creative to come up with puzzles that matched the contents of a hotel. This included the TV guide, Bible, TV, luggage stand, dresser, etc.
The puzzles matched the story and didn't break immersion.
There was a lot of custom programming and video creation that went into the room. For example, the radio clock on the nightstand is the countdown timer for how how much time you have left, and the TV has custom programming that gives you information.
Lighting was adequate.
The game master was very cheerful and in character.
The game master kept us on track and fed us hints when we needed them so that we didn't get stuck on any one problem for too long.
Cons
About half the puzzles were good, but about half the puzzles were poorly designed. The poorly designed puzzles included ones where you were supposed to guess what the designer was thinking. They made sense after you know what you're supposed to do, but when you're in the moment there is nothing to logically tell you what you are supposed to be doing next. It's like playing a card game when you don't know the rules.
When we finished, we didn't know it was the end until we read the card that said "the end". It would have been nice to be able to track our progress and to know when we were approaching the end.
Indoors | The Escape Date
Escape Rooms