Description (from the company website but cleaned up a bit to make it readable): Welcome to the Cat Kingdom. The ruler, Austin Schrodinger, holds annual championship tournaments to select the wisest cat in the kingdom. Unexpectedly, you, as a human, accidentally set foot on their championship battlefield. According to the kingdom’s law, those in the battlefield must compete in the tournament or otherwise be imprisoned here forever. You have no choice but to accept the challenge and solve puzzles and riddles in the tournament.
Difficulty: 3 of 5
Time Limit: 60 minutes
Cost: $28 per person
Identifier: R1
Party Size: up to 8 people
Staging Area: The lobby is up a flight of stairs and has a small number of couches and tables. Also note that it’s above a restaurant, so be prepared for some…interesting…smells in the warmer weather.
Metro Access/Parking: Woodley Park / National Zoo and then walk .7 miles across the Calvert Street bridge into Adams Morgan. It’s Adams Morgan, so parking at night and on weekends can be really tricky. We suggest Uber or Lyft if that’s an option.
OUR EXPERIENCE
Logistics:
Description of the room: You start off in a parlor that is heavily decorated with cat art.
Understanding of the Mission: You are being forced to participate in the annual tournament to find the wisest cat and solve the riddles and puzzles to win the tournament… as humans… or be locked up in prison forever.
Did We Escape: Yes
Time Remaining: about 26 minutes
Our Suggested Party Size: 4
Did the room challenge the entire team? No
Members of our team (other than the ERG): Valerie, Heather, Mark, and Shannon
Worth the time and money? Maybe? If you have kids.
Description (from the company website) (Note: this is the most recent and differs from the original storyline we were told): Saint Temple Prison is one of the most infamous military prisons in history. No one has ever escaped it. Until one night, all the prisoners vanished. They were never seen or heard of again. Rumors say the incident was related to a rampage killer named Richard Ramirez, aka “The Night Stalker”. Another prisoner found a weird-looking machine in the cell of “The Night Stalker” and disappeared the next day…
You wake up one day and find yourself locked in a cramped cell. You are cold and alone. Silence surrounds and holds you. Suddenly, you realize this is the mysterious cell in which “The Night Stalker” died. Your heart is pounding. No matter if this is a game, you know your only goal is to escape.
Difficulty (1-10): 5/5
Time Limit: 60 minutes
Cost: $28
Identifier: R1
Party Size: 2-12
Staging Area: The lobby is up a flight of stairs and has a small number of couches and tables. Also note that it’s above a restaurant, so be prepared for some…interesting…smells in the warmer weather.
Metro Access/Parking: Woodley Park / National Zoo and then walk .7 miles across the Calvert Street bridge into Adams Morgan. It’s Adams Morgan, so parking at night and on weekends can be really tricky. We suggest Uber or Lyft if that’s an option.
OUR EXPERIENCE
This is the video we took before we entered the room:
Logistics:
Description of the room: This is supposed to be a prison, and as such you start off in cells that are opposite each other. There are 3 rooms (to start), including the 2 cells.
Understanding of the Mission: You wake up in the cell of an infamous prisoner and all you know is that everyone who stays in this cell disappears. So, you need to get the hell outta there!
Did We Escape: No; read on to find out why.
Time Remaining: :-/
Our Suggested Party Size: Minimum 6-8
Did the room challenge the entire team? Yes
Members of our team (other than the ERG): Valerie, Heather, Mark, Shannon
Description (from the company website): An extremely dangerous, criminal mastermind and his crew have stolen Johnny’s – my top client – very valuable diamonds, gold, and more. Johnny has given us the information necessary for you and your team to complete this operation…
Dimitri Chechenkov:
Wanted by all International Security Agencies
Considered Extremely Dangerous
Professional Thief/Assassin:
Historic Art & Jewelry
Precious stones, diamonds, and gold
Classified Documents
Beware:
Travels with highly trained bodyguards
Many connections
Security on Premises
WARNING! THERE HAVE BEEN MANY AGENTS BEFORE YOU THAT HAVE BEEN UNSUCCESSFUL. ALL HAVE FAILED THE OPERATION TO RETRIEVE MY CLIENT’S STOLEN ITEMS.
Protocol:
Assemble your team
Report to location
BE PREPARED • BE DILIGENT • BE FOCUSED
Be ready:
Find the clues
Solve the puzzles
Search all rooms
COMPLETE EACH TASK AS DIRECTED!
Don’t set off the silent alarm
Find all stolen items
Follow THE directions
Be careful of the lasers
Difficulty (1-10): not listed, but no one (to date) has ever successfully escaped with all 10 items
Time Limit: 55 minutes
Cost: $30 per person up to 4, and slight price breaks after that. We paid $22 each for 7 people this time vs. the $18 per person discounted rate that was offered. On your second attempt, if you pay $22 up to full price, you are eligible for the whole pot of prize money if your team is the first to complete the room. If you take the $18 per person discounted rate, you are only eligible to win back half of the prize money.
Identifier: R1 (but this room has the clues and puzzles reset every week, allowing you to come back and try again)
Party Size: up to 10 (max), but at least 6 is suggested
Staging Area: This is located in an indoor game room facility (indoor golf simulator, anyone?), and has plenty of seating on couches and chairs. Restroom is right next to the seating area. Food and libations are also available in the Bar-n-Lounge area.
Metro Access/Parking: Not metro-accessible, but it’s out near Dulles Airport and easy access from the Dulles Toll Road.
OUR EXPERIENCE
NOTE: We suggest you read about our first attempt on this room (Better “Safe” Than “Dead”) before continuing with this post.
This is the video we took before we entered the room:
This is the video we took just after we completed the room:
Logistics:
Description of the room: You start in your mission briefing area outside of Dimitri’s house with your handler (handlers for this mission, not Game Masters). After your briefing, you enter the first room…
Understanding of the Mission: Go through Dimitri’s house and accomplish the objectives for each room, solve the tasks assigned, avoid security, make your way to the safe room, and find and escape with all 10 of your boss’ stolen items within 55 minutes, PLUS two secret documents of Dimitri’s that your boss now wants because you didn’t complete the mission last time. So, now you have 12 items to find, and only three clues available to you (versus five on the first attempt).
If your time runs out, you get captured and executed (even if you have found some items). Otherwise, you can abort your mission and escape with what you recovered.
Did We Escape: Well, we escaped this time by the skin of our teeth (aborted said mission) with six items, so we definitely got better this time. And, we did make the leader board again because we recovered 50% of the stolen items and escaped with those.
Time Remaining: 1 second
Our Suggested Party Size: We had 7, and that worked pretty well, but 6 would work too.
Did the room challenge the entire team? Hell, f#$&ing yeah!
Members of our team (other than the ERG): Tara, Eric, Steph, Heather and Mark
Worth the time and money? Absolutely
Where to Eat/Drink Before/After: Try Google. This time, we headed back to Kingstowne for drinks at Fiona’s Irish Pub.
Play if… you’ve always wanted to re-enact that scene with Catherine Zeta Jones in Entrapment (get your mind out of the gutter… THIS scene… well, on second though… maybe not ALL the way out of the gutter).
Avoid if… you are claustrophobic or get freaked out by Russian criminal masterminds.
Description (from the company website): An extremely dangerous, criminal mastermind and his crew have stolen Johnny’s – my top client – very valuable diamonds, gold, and more. Johnny has given us the information necessary for you and your team to complete this operation…
Dimitri Chechenkov:
Wanted by all International Security Agencies
Considered Extremely Dangerous
Professional Thief/Assassin:
Historic Art & Jewelry
Precious stones, diamonds, and gold
Classified Documents
Beware:
Travels with highly trained bodyguards
Many connections
Security on Premises
WARNING! THERE HAVE BEEN MANY AGENTS BEFORE YOU THAT HAVE BEEN UNSUCCESSFUL. ALL HAVE FAILED THE OPERATION TO RETRIEVE MY CLIENT’S STOLEN ITEMS.
Protocol:
Assemble your team
Report to location
BE PREPARED • BE DILIGENT • BE FOCUSED
Be ready:
Find the clues
Solve the puzzles
Search all rooms
COMPLETE EACH TASK AS DIRECTED!
Don’t set off the silent alarm
Find all stolen items
Follow THE directions
Be careful of the lasers
Difficulty (1-10): not listed, but no one (to date) has ever successfully escaped with all 10 items
Time Limit: 55 minutes
Cost: $30 per person up to 4, and slight price breaks after that. We paid $26.88 each for 8 people. If you pay full price, you are eligible for the prize money if your team is the first to complete the room. Otherwise, you can search their website for a hidden code that will give you a discount off the price when booking the room (and, no, we didn’t find the code, but we didn’t really look, either). [Update: Jason found the code right after completing his part of the review.]
Identifier: R1 (but this room has the clues and puzzles reset every week, allowing you to come back and try again)
Party Size: up to 10 (max), but at least 6 is suggested
Staging Area: This is located in an indoor game room facility (indoor golf simulator, anyone?), and has plenty of seating on couches and chairs. Restroom is right next to the seating area. Food and libations are also available in the Bar-n-Lounge area.
Metro Access/Parking: Not metro-accessible, but it’s out near Dulles Airport and easy access from the Dulles Toll Road.
OUR EXPERIENCE
This is the video we took before we entered the room:
This is the video we took just after we completed the room:
Logistics:
Description of the room: You start in your mission briefing area outside of Dimitri’s house with your handler (handlers for this mission, not Game Masters). After your briefing, you enter the first room…
Understanding of the Mission: Go through Dimitri’s house and accomplish the objectives for each room, solve the tasks assigned, avoid security, make your way to the safe room, and find and escape with all 10 of your boss’ stolen items within 55 minutes. If your time runs out, you get captured and executed (even if you have found some items). Otherwise, you can abort your mission and escape with what you recovered.
Did We Escape: Well, we escaped (aborted said mission) with two items, so we didn’t exactly fail, but were told that the client was pissed that we didn’t recover everything. However, we did make the leader board in recovering 20% of the stolen items and escaped with those.
Time Remaining: 10 seconds
Our Suggested Party Size: We had 8, but we’d probably recommend 6 since it got a little crowded (and loud) at points.
Did the room challenge the entire team? Hell, f#$&ing yeah!
Members of our team (other than the ERG): Tasha, Tara, Mark, Eric, Matt, and Steph
Team Disturbed Friends (Tasha, Tara, Mark, Eric, Mike, Matt, Jason, and Steph) recovered only two stolen items, but escaped without being captured. The client was pissed, but at least we got him back something!
Worth the time and money? Absolutely
Where to Eat/Drink Before/After: Try Google. We headed back to Alexandria (our home base for most of the Disturbed Friends) for drinks at Portner Brewhouse.
Description (from the company website): Professor Stanley, known for his theory of time travel, disappeared inside his own office three days ago. His students said he was about to publish new findings on multiple time dimensions. As his closest friend, you’ve decided to find out the truth of Professor Stanley’s mysterious disappearance. Pay attention to any clues related to time, otherwise the same thing could happen to you…
Difficulty (1-10): 6/10
Time Limit: 60 minutes
Cost: $27.99 + tax per person
Identifier: R1
Party Size: Up to 8
Staging Area: The lobby is up a flight of stairs and has a small number of couches and tables.
Metro Access/Parking: Woodley Park / National Zoo and then walk .7 miles across the Calvert Street bridge into Adams Morgan. It’s Adams Morgan, so parking at night and on weekends can be really tricky. We suggest Uber or Lyft if that’s an option.
OUR EXPERIENCE
Logistics:
Description of the room: A small office… nothing too memorable.
Understanding of the Mission: Find out what happened to Professor Stanley before you disappear without a trace.
Did We Escape: yes
Time Remaining: don’t remember… 11 minutes?
Our Suggested Party Size: we had 6 and that was plenty.
Did the room challenge the entire team? No
Members of our team (other than the ERG): Melissa, Jess, and Jen.
Worth the time and money? Unfortunately, we had to give this one a “no,” and we had a Groupon to discount the price.
Where to Eat/Drink Before/After: It’s Adams Morgan, so there are plenty of places to eat and drink. Here’s where we went:
The Room – 13 Hours (temporarily replaced Double Crossed):
Description (from the company website): This room was a temporary room associated with the 13 Hours movie. As such, the description is no longer available on the site, but our military team was dropped behind enemy lines to complete a mission and find the target of an upcoming attack, radio the coordinates to base and then request an evacuation.
Difficulty (1-10): unlisted
Time Limit: 45 minutes
Cost: $28 + tax per person but use ERGUYS15 when booking to save 15% off per ticket.
Identifier: T1
Party Size: Up to 8
Staging Area: The lobby to this location was downstairs in what I believe is the basement level of the building. There were couches and some games to keep you busy.
Metro Access/Parking: Tenleytown and then the bus down Wisconsin Avenue, or Dupont Circle and the bus up Massachusetts are your best bets. There’s no metro right by, so you’ll have to drive and find a place to park. Probably better to Uber/Lyft.
OUR EXPERIENCE
Logistics:
Description of the room: The room itself was small but packed with goodies: Bookcases, maps, cigars.
Understanding of the Mission: We had to find the target for the attacks and then radio in the coordinates and request an evac.
Did We Escape: Yes
Time Remaining: 6:43
Our Suggested Party Size: Doesn’t matter anymore as this room has been replaced, but 6 people worked well.
Did the room challenge the entire team? Yes
Members of our team (other than the ERG): Dennis, Dennis’ wife, Chris and Dalia.
We completed the mission! Members of the elite squad were Dennis, Jason, Dennis’ wife, Chris, Mike and Dalia. Photo courtesy of Escape Room Live Glover Park’s Facebook page.
Worth the time and money? Yes
Where to Eat/Drink Before/After:
Old Europe. Authentic German food a few minutes walk. Been there twice.
