Escape rooms are pretty much everywhere now, as proven when Christina and I found one only a two minute walk away from the Cayman Islands cruise terminal – Locked Inn. I had known about this business ahead of time, but it was still surprising to see how close and accessible it was.
Christina and I were impressed by the venue. In addition to being right in the middle of things in a happening port town, Locked Inn had a very nice balcony overlooking the bustle below. It was one of only a few businesses to have this kind of view, and while not expected, it was a nice perk while waiting.
Locked Inn has four rooms, but three of them are creepy, and Christina doesn’t like spooky rooms, so we opted for the fourth room – the pirate cellar. The room was well-decorated and spacious enough for a handful of people to move around comfortably.
The downside of Locked Inn is that it commands a high price tag and a 45 minute deadline rather than the usual hour. For the two of us, the pricetag came out to over $90 (the site lists $38, but that’s in local currency) so it’s more than a dollar per minute per person. I was glad to have the novelty of solving an escape room in the Cayman Islands, but the bang for the buck is pretty weak.
Usually when I play a 45 minute room, I’m concerned that I don’t have enough time to get a feel for the space before needing to jump at puzzles, but we had plenty of time here. We finished the game in just about 25 minutes, and I don’t think we were doing absurdly well. While we enjoyed the puzzles we got, there weren’t that many compared to the average escape room.
Ultimately, the choice to pay a premium to attempt a short escape room depends on how much you want to experience an escape room at this particular destination. Given that my cruise came out of New Orleans, where I experienced some wonderful escape rooms at a lower price, I’d have a hard time recommending the activity over snorkeling, scuba, shopping, or anything else local, at least at this price. The room was fun and the balcony was great, but there’s a lot to do in the Cayman Islands. There’s even a Geocache right by the port for which players need to scour the area for details to get a code to open the cache, so puzzle enthusiasts in the area aren’t lacking for options.
The Cayman Islands were a blast, with friendly people, vendors who weren’t pushy, and gorgeous weather. I’m glad we could make this location part of our honeymoon.
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