Never, but really never had I heard of the term “escape challenge. I had heard of the Escape in Amsterdam and if I had drunk a little too much on a Saturday night it was a huge “challenge” to get out of there,…. but this was so not!

Birthday party in the escaperoom

My friend introduced this term on her ^31st birthday. She thought it would be fun to do an escape challenge with a group of friends and her birthday seemed like an excellent time to do so. It would be fun to do something different than drinking wine and eating cheese.

The seven of us headed for Delft. We walked up an iron spiral staircase to arrive at the building where the Escape Room was located. We were still full of laughter and goats and boldly exclaimed, “Well, we’ll solve that!” The moment I stood there inside that feeling quickly changed. I looked at some pictures on the walls and I didn’t like them. People with fear in their eyes and terms like heartbreak and the like.

Visiting the dentist

Staff member Roel explained that once we went into the waiting room we couldn’t get out. Ok…. Stop… Wait ….. Dentist, locked up, heartbreak?!!! Well he did say, “Should you really not pull it anymore, you can press the emergency button at any time then the doors will open and the game will end. Ok, I agree with my friends: “We are going to do this and not push an emergency button. We are not losers and can easily handle this.” (Did I really say that? I actually meant: who fancies wine and cheese?).

Fear sweating while knowing it’s not real

From the moment we enter the room the game starts and you get sucked into it. They have created an old-fashioned atmosphere made even more exciting by an old transistor radio, and the door behind us slams shut rock hard. In your head you know that everything is fake and that it is just a game, but it is very strange what such a situation does to you. You feel real fear and yet you are startled by everything that comes at you. Without wanting to reveal too much of what exactly happens, I will try to give you an impression of that hour.

From the waiting room a door opens to the dentist’s treatment room. Fluorescent light, blood on the wall, a huge freezer, a treatment chair with leather straps and a sink full of dark water give you the feeling of being on the set of PSYCHO 2. Together you try to find out as quickly as possible what exactly happened and more importantly, how to get the doors open again. Knowing that you only have an hour, and seeing that, because as soon as you step inside, time starts ticking, the pressure is even higher. “Ok, who goes into the sink with their hand? … who screams like that? ….. can the light come back on ??? … and why is that freezer there?!!!

Deeply impressed

After 54 minutes and 51 seconds the time had come the doors opened. With our hearts making 140 beats per minute we sort of fell out. We couldn’t quite grasp it all yet. In the room, it was all so real… And only outside do you realize again that it’s all game.

We are deeply impressed. I had never heard of it before, but now I can’t get out of being told about it. www.escapechallenge.nl

Love,

Naris

Have you also been to an escaperoom? We would love to hear how you experienced it! Let us know in a comment at the bottom of this blog.