July 28, 2018 – Immediately after getting back to New York City from Connecticut, I set my sights on New Jersey. I headed immediately for Penn Station, only having a minute or two to stop and try New York style pizza (which I admit I prefer over Chicago style, sue me). One of the trains was canceled, so the station was in chaos and I had to fight my way onto the train for the privilege of standing on a crammed train car. With the little space I had, I slipped my phone out of my pocket and booked a room at Escape Room Woodbridge.
Thankfully, the crowd thinned after a few stops and I got to relax and plan my way to Escape Room Woodbridge. I grabbed a Lyft from the Metropark train station and made it to the escape room in good time.
Once more I was grouped in with a set of strangers, and yet again, the group was very welcoming. The four ladies had never done an escape room before and welcomed an addition to the group. For not having any experience, they did a great job identifying what kinds of details were relevant and helpful toward our goals.
The premise of the room was to steal a large diamond and escape from the room. The room had a high number of puzzles designed around spotting small details or elements that aren’t quite right. Attention to detail was critical- typically this is where I like having my dad with me, since he excels in this area, but our group did fine and used hints when we needed a nudge.
The art gallery was neat and the room did a good job with some things that might be art, might be puzzle. A few days later I nearly got in trouble by getting a little too close to a modern art exhibit in Washington DC- I blame my Museum Heist experience just a little for inspiring me to inspect all art carefully!
The Museum Heist had a good variety of puzzles especially toward the end. The final puzzle to escape the room was my favorite puzzle in the room and was very clever despite a simple design. It epitomized the idea of something which can be both art and puzzle and actually made for better art than many pieces I’ve seen in real museums.
My team proceeded steadily, completed our heist, and escaped. Good for us, bad for all the museum patrons who were hoping to be able to see a giant diamond on display.
The room was a good way to end my action-packed day, going three for three in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey. I’m blessed to have joined up with friendly groups in all three locations.
Also, I need to give a shout out to Eric, our game master at the escape room. Not only was he helpful starting us out and keeping us going when we got stuck, but he also chatted with me about Tokyo and all of the neat arcade machines there (elaborate Japanese arcade machines are a guilty pleasure of mine, and I’m glad we don’t have them here so I’m not tempted to waste all my time and money on them). It did get me nostalgic and eager to get out there again sometime, though- maybe on my 2019 world tour!
Leave a Reply