KEIKO.C ♡ BLOG : 2017

Survive The Night: Cursed of Crooked Creek - Hunter / Exorcist

	15 Kodiak Crescent #5, North York

	60 Minutes Each
	4-5 players
	$26.55 per person – $4 discount when playing 2 or more mission
	Unlimited hints
	Escape Game Canada
	(416) 633-6868

WE FINALLY GOT TO TRY THIS PLACE! Where do I even begin with this!? Let's start off by saying this isn't your typical escape rooms. If you're looking for your standard room escape this might not be your cup of tea. With that being said let me break it down for you all - because so far this facility has hit the number one spot!

Pre-Room Experience: As you guys may or may not know, Survive the Night has now been taking over by Escape Games Canada. Escape Games Canada was pretty much the one that started off my addict for these games. After a year of waiting we finally got a chance to try this facility out and of course we played both "paths" as the drive was way too long. The facility wasn't hard to find, but can be easily missed. As usual we pulled up to a sketchy looking empty plaza (from experience you know these are the good stuff). The lobby was spacious, but unfortunately they didn't have any board games or entertainment while waiting. We were an hour early so luckily one of us had a board game in his car. The staff were friendly and just like Escape Games Canada, when you play one or more games, you would get a discount.

Room Quality: Here is where it begins! When the time finally came my team and another group of people were led into an area where we watched the introduction video. Here's when I finally realized the whole concept of this facility was completely different from what I had in mind. I always pictured this facility to be a horror themed escape room, but boy was I wrong. Basically there were no rooms to escape from. Each team had a lantern and a path to follow. Each path had 4-5 quests (I can't remember the actual quest number). These quests were basically the "rooms", which I will get into later. So how it works, instead of a room it was more so like a maze in which we walk around to find our quests. Once we found our quest and enter that "room" we will have a certain time to finish it. The quality of it all was JUST AMAZING! The theme is a village being haunted and you're trying to cure it. There's a villager in this maze that's supposedly there to help you but OMG the terror he left me is a whole different story. You can really tell the amount of time and effort put into this place. A+ to them seriously!

Puzzle Design: Mind blown - that's how I would describe their puzzle design. Given the fact that this isn't your typical escape room their puzzles were just amazing. I have to say though I don't remember exactly which puzzle belonged to which path (as we played both one after another), but all the puzzles were top notch! I don't want to spoil too much but there are 3 quests that really stood out to me. The first one was our very first quest so it did take us a few minutes to figure out what we were doing as it was very different. I'm not sure how many of you have played RPG games. In those games there's always a blacksmith that equipped your weapons... well that's exactly our first quest. I'm not sure how they did it or how to explain this, but wow it was just so cool! I really don't know how to put this experience into words, but hopefully you can visualize an RPG game and how you're trying to make weapons. They had these brick looking things, a fake fire place and hammers for you to "craft" gold, silver or bronze. IT WAS SO FREAKEN COOL! Second quest that stood out to me was one that we've seen before BUT the quality of it completely topped the notch. As you may or may not experience a lot of escape rooms asking you to arrange something to a certain order but x cannot be before y and y is > z. (LOL does that make sense to any of you?). Basically it was a logic puzzle, but the only thing that caught my attention was the quality of the props! IT WAS SO HIGH END (trust). Last quest (my favourite one) was one that I personally found the most fun. I'm not sure how many of you have played "Cooking MaMa" before, but that was exactly the experience. It was a speed challenge and really needed teamwork!

Overall: This is probably the hardest review I have typed out! There's just so much to say about this facility, but at the same time I don't really know how to put it all into words. If I were to explain each and every quest this post will probably be crazy long. The experience was amazing, the quality was A+ and the staff were professional. As mentioned earlier there is a "villager" that wanders around the village and is there to help you when you are in need. Don't picture a friendly looking village. He's in a dark robe with a creepy mask. The village itself is very dark and creepy looking. There are a lot of dead corners and yes, he is also there to scare the shit out of you. In all honesty, he was probably having the time of his life scaring me as I pretty much got creeped out by him THE WHOLE NIGHT. However, with that being said, Thank You for making the experience so much more fun! I would definitely recommend this facility as it has ranked number 1 on my list at the moment.

Happy Escaping!

Omescape : The Red Admiral

	Upper Unit 1187 Kennedy Rd Scarborough, ON M1P 2L2

	60 Minutes
	4-8 players
	$28.20 per person – student/social media discount
	Unlimited hints
	Omescape
	647 800 8038

Hello everyone, I'm finally back! Talk about slacking. I promise there will be a lot more room reviews coming soon (yes, I have done A LOT during this blog mia). Before I start this review, I just want to thank everyone for the views and support! I can't believe there are actually so many people reading these reviews! Alright room addicts let's begin!

Pre-Room Experience: If you haven't read my Omescape series, please go ahead and read those first! Our pre-room experience with Omescape has always been a pleasant experience. Although their Scarborough location lobby is a lot quieter than their Markham location, there are still board games around for you to play! So we learned our lesson from last time and waited a bit before we tried out their newest room and compared to "Shut Down" there were no tech failures!

Room Quality: *SPOILER AHEAD* Let's be real when does Omescape ever disappoint?! I would say for their new location each room has gotten better and better! I'm not exactly sure how to put this into words without spoiling too much, but lets just say "WOW". One thing I love about these rooms designed by Omescape is how their rooms expand. The tech was VERY IMPRESSIVE in this room (then again when are they ever not lol). Ok, I'm going to spill the beans - there are lasers in this room!! Not going to go into details with that but I'm sure it's enough to get you wanting to play this room. The theme for this room is set place during the cold war era. Although, in comparison to Castle Loma's Station M this room was not as "old" looking. I wouldn't say that killed the theme as Omescape still did a very good job in designing it. I guess it just wasn't AS "authentic". Regardless with that being said there are so many aspects in this room that connected very well with it's theme.

Puzzle Design: Where do I even begin? I would say for this room there are a lot of abstract thinking and a lot of thinking outside of the box. Puzzles were unique and very different from what you would experience in a regular escape facility. Lockboxes were almost non-existent in this room, so if you are a fan of those you won't be seeing it in this room. Puzzles all connected to one another and although you needed to finish one puzzle to get to another, each puzzle was fun and entertaining. TEAMWORK is the key to this room. I love how Omescape made that the key factor to almost all their rooms, but especially to this room. Without wanting to spoil too much, this was probably the only room that gave me the suspense of wanting to finish a certain puzzle. The quality of each puzzle was also very well designed. With all this being said this room was a much more advanced room. I would say groups that have never experienced room escapes before might be lost, but for us we had a blast! I would say don't enter this room thinking it's another escape room, puzzles are much more advanced, much more high tech and much more fun than anything! TRUST.

Overall: Impressive like usual. The wow factor of Omescape is always there. I personally feel like the quality of Omescape rooms only get better and The Red Admiral has proven so. With a group of 5 people, I thought the size was perfect but even with the maximum group size (8) I wouldn't think this room will be too crowded. It was definitely spacious and no hovering over one puzzle. However, like I mentioned above, I wouldn't recommend this room for beginners as it was a bit challenging and a lot of puzzles were more advance. It wasn't impossible, but for beginners you can easily get confused on what o do. If you're an addict like us, 2 words: High Tech and Lasers! LOL

Happy Escaping!

4 comments

Mystery Room: Silent House

	52 W Beaver Creek Rd, unit 16&17 Richmond Hill, ON

	60 Minutes
	4-10 players
	$22.00 per person ($20 with discount)
	Unlimited hints
	Mystery Room
	905-707-5829

Sigh, I always tend to underestimate what Mystery Room can bring! Before I begin this review, I actually had a nightmare about this room the night I played this room (yes, continue reading if you want to know why). If you have followed my room escape adventures, you would probably know a lot of my favourite rooms are horror themed. We've been through a few that really got us scared shitless, but to have a nightmare seems rather intense (I mean maybe it was just the green tea I drank). Alright let's begin!

Pre-Room Experience: Once I received their email saying their new room - Silent House - was open I instantly wanted to go. Mystery Room is a lower end escape room facility, but it does not disappoint! I remember saying they had potential when I played their first room Pandemic and Silent House has proven it. This time around we went earlier in the day and I don't recall if I ever mentioned that there is actually board games in this facility! I love the fact that they remember me as the blogger haha - super friendly staff!

Room Quality: Alright, whenever I enter a "horror" themed escape room I tell myself or my team it can't get worst than that time we were handcuff in a pitch dark room... I WAS SO WRONG! Before entering the room we were led to the back of the facility and you would hear these weird sounds. We all thought it was the freezer at first, but boy were we wrong, it was coming straight from our room! To make this room even scarier, it was built right beside what looks like their storage room. I'm not too sure what it was but it was DARK! As we entered the room I was already terrified (no need for blindfolds). I was so impressed by the design because God knows how scary it was! Let me break it down for you. Once you walk into "the room" it's not exactly a room. It's designed so it looks like a long hallway of a house (it felt so realistic trust me). What made the experience so much worse was how dark it was and the creepy knocking we would hear every other minute. Yes, just thinking about it now gives me the shivers! That's not all, let me continue. If you all read my review for Osaka High at Mayze, you would have all remembered how I said the level of creepiness was high due to the dead corners. WELL, let me tell you this room was FILLED with dead corners. To begin, as we entered the "hallway" we stopped half way to realized we had to turn a corner to proceed - you can just imagine how terrifying this was. We were also told by the creepy girl voice to "never turn back" and to close all doors each time we entered a room (yeah - it was scary!). Each door that opened was SO creepy because well ... you don't know what's in there ok! I love the concept of this room! I don't want to spoil too much, but the way this room was designed definitely adds on to the creepy level. When I said this, it's not the props or jump scare and such, but the concept of the room itself was amazing. IT'S TRIPPY AS HELL!

Puzzle Design: Puzzles weren't too hard if you played enough escape rooms. In my opinion I think the level was just right as it usually takes a little bit longer for us to do anything in a horror themed room. My team and I pretty much made it around the whole experience without any hints - except for the last part. We pretty much knew how to solve the puzzle but weren't able to find the piece to it. A little hint for anyone playing this room - look EVERYWHERE. It's dark in the room and the flash light we had was red so it made it very hard to see things. Most puzzles were lockboxes - but honestly I don't think it was the puzzles that defined this room (you have to play it yourselves to understand what I mean by this). The tech for this room was limited but enough for a couple good screams (yes - at one point in this room I screamed so loud the girl confronted me about it afterwards).

Overall: I loved this room! The creepy level does die down afterwards - which is great because you can actually solve puzzles. If you're not into horror stuff this is not the room for you. The horror level in my opinion is quite high for this room. I personally found this a lot scarier than Osaka High because the constant dead ends and doors just creeps me out (and this was why I had a nightmare about it haha). Honestly, just thinking about it right now is giving me the creeps. I would recommend a party of 4 for this room if you are looking for a good creepy vibe, but if you are really scared then a party of 6 would also be great. Puzzles were not challenging for us but can be for beginners (especially given the fact that you are playing in dim lights). This room is definitely in the top 3 for horror themes for me!

Happy Escaping!

2 comments

Bradford Escape Academy: Alien Abduction

	Suite 306 - 3rd Floor Bradford Family Dentistry Building 76 Holland Street West Bradford-West Gwillimbury, Ontario

	60 Minutes
	2-8 players
	$25.00 per person
	Unlimited hints
	Bradford Escape Academy
	(905) 551-0189

Hello Everyone! I am finally back for an escape room update! Got too caught up with everything, but there will be 3 new updates coming this week! So let's begin!

Pre-Room Experience: Being the room addicts we are, my boyfriend and I were on a crave one night and stumbled along this place. I feel like up north are finally entering the escape world because there seems like they're opening up so many now. This escape facility is located on the third floor to a dental building. I gotta say, I would have thought those dark sketchy factory plaza were scary but this place was next level! You have to call the facility first as the doors downstairs are locked. We were then welcomed by the owner of the escape facility and was brought up by an old elevator into a narrow hallway. Yes, it was scary and to make it even better the ceiling lights were flashing like one of those horror movies. But hey, nothing was going to stop us from playing escape games even if it meant dying that night haha. The facility itself was small and cozy. Don't expect it to be like Omescape's lobby as the lobby was a very small area. The owner was super friendly and made us felt very welcomed!

Room Quality: On to the good stuff! I didn't expect too much entering the room. The theme of the room was clear as the title stated "Alien Abduction". I don't recall doing much space themed rooms so I didn't have much to expect. With that being said, the room was SO FUN! You would think coming from a facility so far north the quality would not be as high compared to the more popular facilities, but we were VERY impressed. The room quality was great! The props used for the rooms were a mixture of both high and low end, but nothing made the room feel cheap. In fact, they had a lot of props that caught us off guard as it was that impressive. The room fit very well with the theme as well - making us feel like we were actually abducted my aliens. I really want to give them a bonus points as there were retro props that totally made me excited (I know I am old LOL).

Puzzle Design: Puzzles start off alright but will gradually become harder. I would definitely recommend more than 2 players for this room! I wouldn't say it's impossible, but it was challenging for us near the end. I love the fact that the level gradually increased as the room progressed. Puzzles were a mixture of abstract thinking and maybe 1 or 2 lockboxes. There wasn't a lot of tech for this room but still enough to intrigue you. I actually had a lot of fun with the puzzles and thinking about it now it was such a fun room. I have to say though, every time you think you're about done - there's more! I was so impressed as the facility looks very small, but it really caught me off guard on what they did with their room!

Overall: I will be back! Looking forward to trying their other room for sure! It's quite impressive seeing what escape facility up north is bringing now and it seems like they're stepping up with their games. This facility is definitely worth a visit! In fact my boyfriend enjoyed it so much :D

(LOL seriously the best picture so far)

Happy Escaping!

1 COMMENT

Outbreak Escape Games: Beneath The Surface

	152 Avenue Road, Toronto, On., M5R 2H8com

	60 Minutes
	4-8 players
	$28.00 per person
	Unlimited hints
	Outbreak Escape Games
	(416) 700-7824

OMFG - where do I even start?! Alright, so I've heard about this place for a good while now, but because the location is downtown Toronto it was a lot harder to make a visit. We finally got the chance yesterday and let me just say - THIS IS NOW MY FAVOURITE ROOM!

Pre-Room Experience: We didn't get much pre-room experience as we were late! There's no parking outside the facility as it was downtown Toronto. So I would recommend going slightly earlier to find parking! The entrance of the facility was located in an alleyway. Yes, first impression = bonus points, if you have read my other reviews. +1 for them! I loved the yellow door with a lock on it! It totally created the immersive experience already! Remember to walk DOWN the stairs and not UP (or just read the sign) lol. Once we entered the facility +1 for them again. The lobby was so nicely put together! Unlike other escape room facilities, this one will make you feel like you travelled to some underground secret agent headquarter or something (it was REALLY nice). I think the only thing my team and I didn't like was how we had to make full payment when booking online. I guess it does save on time - but we always prefer paying in person. Not a huge problem though.

Room Quality: Alright, this is where I give them every single point I can give. I mean, if I can give them 6 stars I really would! We started off in a small room, but once the game begins and we start to unfold everything - just DAMN! I was so impressed the moment the door opened to one of the main rooms! They seriously did such an amazing job with their room design! Like a lot of reviews stated, the use of lights and audio just added to the whole theme! It was creepy... was it as creepy as the other rooms we have played? YES! I mean, the creepy level for this room was so high because it felt so realistic! I don't think I've experienced a room where it felt so real. I really don't want to spoil too much, but seriously THIS IS A MUST DO ROOM. I don't think anyone can express or describe the design of this room, without actually being there and experiencing it because wow I am mind blown still haha.

Puzzle Design: Ahh ~ puzzle designs were also very different, which I LOVED. I mean a lot of rooms we play were pretty straight forward, or because we've done so many it just seems like "oh just do that" and it works. This room was challenging. We weren't close to making it out - but we had so much fun because all the puzzles were different. I felt like the puzzles got harder and harder as we went on. It wasn't just lock boxes, but there were a fair amount. Was it high-tech? I think there was just the right amount of tech to make the room very entertaining. The puzzles weren't impossible, but... I think the only thing we personally found frustrating was we were stuck on one puzzle for the longest time. Turns out the clue was hidden in an object that we already tried opening but it apparently doesn't open until another puzzle was solved. Which caused us to lose to much time because we never thought of going back to open that object nor was there any indication that it opened.

Overall: We loved it - this room had us talking about it all the way until we got to our car. For a comparison, I would say this room quality is up to Escape Games Canada quality. As everyone that knows me, knows Unknown is both my boyfriend's and my favourite room, but this room has now successfully topped it. I would probably recommend a party of 5-6 to play this room or even 7-8 because there's a lot you can explore. The room was VERY spacious so it doesn't involve hovering over one another. There were also some puzzles that were specifically for 7-8 players only so that's also something to keep in mind. I would say though going into this room with 4 players made the creepy level so high, so if you're into the creepiness maybe book it with a smaller group! Overall, THIS IS A MUST TRY ROOM!!!!!

Happy Escaping!

Perplexity: The Last Laugh

	56 Bramsteele Rd #2, Brampton, ON L6W 3M7

	60 Minutes
	4-10 players
	$28.99 per person (without social media discount)
	Unlimited hints
	Perplexity
	(905) 595-8583

Alright, let's be honest. Being the room addicts my team and I are, how can we drive 45 minutes to Brampton and only play one room. So I also booked us in for a second room called The Last Laugh. This room is 75 minutes long, which we rarely find from escape facilities. Alright let's begin!

Room Quality: Skipping the pre-room experience as I already typed it out in my review "The Shortcut" - so if you are interested go ahead and read that post first. Where to begin... I find this facility very unique as it seems like there's never a physical door we see when we enter the "room". The theme of this room is a haunted circus (so creepy)! I have to say though after playing The Shortcut first this room was slightly less scary, but still creepy enough to make me turn my head a few times making sure no one's behind me. I love the props for this room. It was so nicely put together and right off the bat you get sucked into the whole theme. You're basically at a carnival - a very creepy one with clowns everywhere. They even had a replica carnival booth (the ones where you win plushies), which was super impressive to me! Definitely a very nicely designed room and all the props fit very well. Although I said this room was "less scary" - don't get me wrong it was still quite creepy to the point where it made me scream.. just saying.

Puzzle Design: Ahh ~ This is where I think lacked a little bit for this room. I'm not sure if we were getting tired as it was getting late or not but nothing clicked for us in this room. I mean now that I think about it the puzzles weren't too hard but for some reason nothing clicked! I would say the puzzles are a bit more scattered which made us a bit more confused. I personally thought this room was a little bit more challenging in comparison to The Shortcut, even though we were told The Shortcut is their hardest room. Most of the puzzles were lockboxes as well for this room. Even with that though, I thought the room was very nicely constructed. I would say there was slightly more tech for this room compared to The Shortcut, but just slightly.

Overall: We still found this room very entertaining. Creepiness was definitely still there for this room! I absolutely love the design and props used for this room. Everything in this room was very nicely put together and flowed well with the theme. I think the only thing that made this room half a star less was how the puzzles were connected. It definitely was a lot more scattered around and you really get confused on which puzzle belong to which lockbox (which wasted a bit of our time). Maybe it was just us though haha - Overall, it was still a very fun experience and a very nicely designed room!

Happy Escaping!

Perplexity: The Shortcut

	56 Bramsteele Rd #2, Brampton, ON L6W 3M7

	60 Minutes
	4-10 players
	$23.99 per person (without social media discount)
	Unlimited hints
	Perplexity
	(905) 595-8583

Taking a short break from my Disney Adventure post, but don't worry I am working on it! Seems like I haven't done an escape room review for a while. My blog seems to be filled with it and it's the most popular. So here's a treat for you room addicts like myself! My team and I once again took our adventure to Mississauga, actually more so Brampton this time. Yes, yes - there's seriously no more rooms around us so we need to travel far and wide to heal our addiction haha - Let's begin!

Like usual, I always do my fair research before going to a facility, especially given the fact that this facility was so far from us. There's so many escape room facility we have yet to try at Mississauga so why this one? First impressions count - I randomly stumbled onto their website and it looked pretty decent. But you can't judge a book by its cover so I went on to read a bit more about it. CREEPINESS - was what everyone said so that pretty much sold me. If you read all my previous escape room reviews, you know all my favorite rooms are the horror themes ones. I really think it adds to the whole experience. With that being said we booked two rooms and headed out to this facility.

Pre-Room Experience: We made our way to this facility after grabbing dinner nearby and this is where it all begins. Yes, it was once again in those sketchy looking buildings so I knew this would probably be something good from our experiences haha. It wasn't hard to find the facility but here's the catch, there's a gate in front of the facility blocking us from entering. We were so confused that we made a call to the facility and was told they had to give us a passcode to enter. Yes - testing out our lock decoding skills already was what we all thought - I give them bonus points for that as it made us very excited for some reason (well only me haha). As we entered the facility we were greeted by the friendly staff. The waiting room was huge and very nicely designed. As we were signing away our lives we heard screaming - which made us all look at each other. The staff of course said it was nothing and to not worry about it (but lets be honest I was pretty creeped out already). Ptior to entering the room, I had to make a trip to the washroom - and GOD I have to say the way to the washroom was one creepy way! Before even entering the room I was already pretty much creeped out by the design of the facility!

Room Quality: Alright here is the good stuff! Bonus points were already given as for some reason I found this facility super suspenseful, as if something would jump out at you anytime haha - After watching the introductory video we were asked to follow the staff upstairs. Yes, you heard me - upstairs. As we made our way up these creepy looking stairs, I realized it was getting darker. It felt as if we were walking up an old attic! Before entering the room we were split into two teams (which I already knew of due to reviews - so I was mind prepped for this haha). Now here's the thing that made this room experience start off super amazingly. Unlike most escape facilities where we enter a "door" to our room, this place had no door that we saw. The entrance was a dark hallway or something - basically it was pitch dark and we had no idea what to expect. We were all blind folded and was told we will get hand cuffed (which I also knew of so I was mind prepped for that as well). I think what made this room so scary was that we only had a party of 4 and we had to split up so basically 2 player per room. As the staff guided us to our room - it was just DARKNESS! We got hand cuffed to the wall and that's when I realized my other teammate was cuffed on the other side of the room! This was probably the ONLY escape room where I felt my heart being terrified! I was basically alone in my area, cuffed to the wall and it was pitch dark!! Creepy level was definitely on point!

Puzzle Design: Puzzle design wasn't too challenging for us. There wasa lot of abstract thinking, but I guess because we've played so many of these rooms before they were relatively straightforward for us. Nothing was impossible and left us feeling frustrated. I did notice that each puzzle was connected to one another, meaning you had to finish one puzzle to unlock the next. For a creepy room this concept doesn't bother me much. Given the fact that I was way too scared to even move around, I didn't mind us all hovering over one puzzle and solving it. There wasn't a lot of tech for this room and most puzzles were lockboxes. I personally LOVE lockboxes so it didn't lose any points for me and the I thought the creepiness of the room made up for the lack of tech.

Overall: From personal preference, this room scored a high mark because I love creepy themed rooms. How does it compared to the other horror rooms we have done? Hmm - this is a tough one. I would say the creepiness dies down a bit, but for sure the beginning of this experience was what made it count. The fact that you are hand cuffed to the wall in a pitch dark room blind folded wins it all. Puzzles weren't bad but if you're against lockboxes then you might find this room a bit disappointing. If you're also looking for high tech escape room this room will also disappoint you - but with all that being said, I still think the creepiness covers up all those factors. Give it a try and I recommend a smaller team for the extra creepiness factor.

Happy Escaping!

Seems like everyone is enjoying this Disney series! In today's chapter I will be going over Disney theme parks and tickets. I had a few questions about Universal Studios as well, but I will be making a separate post for that, so stay tuned!

Disney Parks (which one should I visit?):

As you all know, Disney World Orlando is divided into 4 theme parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. If you have a more flexible schedule I would say visit them all! If you're on a tight schedule or budget maybe this post will help you decide on which parks to visit! Let's begin.
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I don't think there's any doubt that Magic Kingdom is a must when visiting Disney. I mean come on, this is hands down a must visit! When I visited in August back in 2014, I went into this park with no preparation and it was a disaster! Magic Kingdom is probably the most crowded park at Disney World, but there are many ways to avoid the crowds. We found fast passes to be the key to avoiding long waits! Going to the park earlier will also reduce wait time on the more popular rides. This way you are able to save your fast passes for other rides (we did this and it worked like a charm). Character meetings are something I absolutely love when I visit Disney. These are super time consuming though! I would highly recommend everyone to arrive to the park 30-40 minutes earlier as they usually let you enter the park early. This way you can get priority to wait for any rides or characters you want to meet. For example meeting Mickey Mouse on Main Street took us almost 2.5 hours in August, but this time around we arrived 30 minutes earlier and we only had to queue in line for about 15 minutes. I would also recommend everyone to look up each character meeting time and location, this will save you a lot of time! If character meeting isn't your priority, you can use the same tips for rides.

TIP: If you have extra magic hours (resort benefit), I noticed the popular rides can also be quite a long wait - instead go on rides like Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, The Little Mermaid Ride or Pirates of the Caribbean. Save your fast passes for Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Seven Dwarfs rides.
(these are just examples choices, of course preference may vary depending on independents)

Oh and it's pretty much a given - if you decide to visit Magic Kingdom you can't leave the place without watching the firework shows! I swear I have never seen such magical and breathtaking fireworks in my life. It was pouring dogs and cats, but the show went on as if nothing happened and was perfect!

Enough of Magic Kingdom, let's move on to the other parks. Going down the list the second park I would recommend everyone to visit is Animal Kingdom! This is strictly due to their new Pandora - World of Avatar. This new section will blow your mind away! I never felt so overwhelmed by a theme park (beside Harry Potter but I'm biased on that one lol). Pandora - World of Avatar is park of Animal Kingdom, so you don't have to pay anything extra to visit. I would HIGHLY recommend everyone to do the rides there and if you do please get fast passes! Even if you have extra magic hours GET FAST PASSES! My boyfriend and I made a huge mistake thinking we can depend on extra magic hours to get a shorter queue time from 11:00pm - 1:00am, WRONG. We waited almost 3 hours for Flight of Passage. I have never been so cranky in my life waiting for a ride - with lots of tantrum throwing and being super tired at 12am - I have to say this ride was DAMN STRAIGHT AMAZING! Everyone that knows me knows the Harry Potter ride at Universal Studio is my number one, but ever since Flight of Passage... I am speechless! This ride is incredible! Even at 12am being super tired and running on 5 hours of sleep - this was worth every minute and second! Also give Pongu Pongu a try (a soft drink shop) - I highly recommend the Night Blossom! With all honestly I think Animal Kingdom is worth a visit strictly for Pandora World of Avatar!

Next I would pick Hollywood Studios! Hollywood Studios is a bit smaller in comparison to the other parks. I would actually suggest people to do a park hopper between Hollywood Studio and Epcot. Main reason why I would suggest Hollywood Studio is because of Fantasmic! I'm not sure if I had to rate Magic Kingdom fireworks with Fantasmic, which one would win. This is a must see no doubt! I would definitely suggest everyone to arrive 30-45 minutes earlier for this show as it will be full house! If you're a huge Star War fan this is without a doubt the theme park for you! Visit Backlot Express Cafe - they have these really cool Dark Side Chicken and Waffles.

TIP: At this cafe ask for a cup of water (they will give you a cup and you can fill it up at the coke machine). There you can get unlimited soft drinks without having to pay $4.50 (ouch). As for rides I have to say the Toy Story Mania is a must! We also made a small mistake and basically went for this ride at the beginning of extra magic hours leading us to wait a lot longer (since everyone with extra magic hours wants to go on the popular rides). Use fast pass for this ride and your magic hours for rides like The Great Movie Ride or Star Tours.

Finally Epcot! We actually didn't visit this park for this trip, but I did back in August 2014. It was my least favourite only because we didn't get a lot of time there and alcohol was not really my thing. If you're more into a chill day this will be your park! You can try out beer from all around the world as well as food! There's also a new Frozen ride, so if this is something you want to see remember to get a fast pass for it! I don't have much to say about this park as I was left with a very dull memory of it. However, from friends that have visited this park they really enjoyed. It was more "adult" (I guess) as in more for an older audience. If you like to explore the different cultures then you can find it here. There's also a few nice places to snap some Instagram pictures haha.
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So to break it down in short here are my top picks for theme parks

1. Magic Kingdom
2. Animal Kingdom
3. Hollywood Studios
4. Epcot

Where to buy tickets:
Another question I have gotten a lot - where do I buy my tickets? The first time I visited Disney, tickets were included because it was a tour (4 theme park + 2 universal studio park - all park hoppers). From what I remember it was roughly $600-700 for these tickets, which is so much cheaper. Now the only thing about park hoppers is if you plan your visit accordingly it can be a very useful thing. What I personally found bad about park hoppers was we didn't have enough time. Hence this time around we bought 5 single day tickets for Disney itself. Yes, it was a bit pricier (actually a lot but that's cause we extended our trip a lot more). I would not recommend park hopper for Magic Kingdom or Animal Kingdom, just because these parks are a bit bigger so there's a lot more to explore and sometimes wait times can be so long that it'll take up half your day.

TIP: I would also suggest everyone to keep checking the Disney website for further discounts. For example when we purchased our tickets we got extra 30% off because we were Canadian residents. A lot of people choose to buy tickets at the gate, but I personally prefer to have all my tickets before going and most of the time there are additional discounts online.

If your schedule is a bit tighter consider the park hopper tickets, but if you're a bit more flexible go with the one day park tickets as I know for sure Magic Kingdom will take up a lot of your time just for pictures and exploring!

Wow - this was a lengthy post! I hope everyone enjoyed this as much as I did sharing it! I also hope these are some useful information! For my next post I will go a little bit more into eating at Disney and some great deals my boyfriend and I found!

Hello everyone! Super excited to be sharing with you all my hacks and tips on my Walt Disney World Trip! This is my second time visiting Disney World, so there's a lot to share! I will be dividing this post up so it won't get too long. In today's chapter I will sharing with you when to visit Disney and where to stay! So let's begin!

When to visit Disney:

First thing and the most important thing, is deciding when you want to visit Walt Disney World. For us we were a lot more flexible with our schedule so our ideal month to visit Disney was in September. September is one of the best months to visit as the crowd level is low and you get a peek of Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party (an exclusive event for their Halloween season). The weather at Orlando is also a bit less hot during the month of September. However, due to some conflicts we weren't able to go during this month. With lots of planning we finally settled for end of May 2017. Before heading over, it didn't seem like the best time to be visiting as it was Memorial Weekend and end of school for the United States. So why we picked this week to visit you may ask? Simple, it was the opening week for both Volcano Bay at Universal and Pandora the World of Avatar at Disney (will give more information on these parks!)

I have to say it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Crowd level wasn't crazy but there were a lot more people as expected. We did see a few school tours but it was never a huge problem for us. I will get into more hacks to avoid crowds in a later post. The weather was HOT! We were a bit lucky because it was raining most of the days. Yes, you heard me - we were actually happy it was raining cause it cooled down the place so much!
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I also visited end of August for my first time going - so if your schedule is a bit more tight and have to visit during summer holidays I got you. I have to say though my first visit to Disney was a huge mess, as I had nothing planned and just went. August has a huge level of crowds, so you will be spending hours in line if you don't prep well. I will get into all this in just a bit!

I used a few websites as guides and I think they were pretty accurate:

"Undercover Tourist" has a crowd calendar that I used a lot for my planning! It shows which time of year is the best to visit and which park they recommend visiting for lower crowds.
https://www.undercovertourist.com/orlando/crowd-calendar/
I also checked out "Dad's Guide to WDW" a lot for my planning.
This website provides a lot of hacks and tips!
http://www.dadsguidetowdw.com/

Where to stay in Disney:
Another important thing to decide is where to stay when you are visiting Disney. For my first visit I stayed outside the resort and although price was a lot cheaper I would still highly recommend staying inside the resort. This visit we decided to stay at the All-Star Movies resort. In all honesty, you get what you pay for. It was not the most fancy resort, but it was enough for my boyfriend and I. We booked this resort with the mindset of "we're just sleeping in here", which was the case as we stayed at the park till midnight almost every night.

Now why would I recommend staying inside the resort? It is super convenient! Seriously we did not have to worry about ANYTHING. Disney has a magical express bus that would take you from the airport to your resort directly. There is also bus transportation from each resort to each park as well as Disney Springs (Downtown Disney). Each bus runs 2 hours after park closing, so you don't have to worry about having to catch the last bus or missing the fireworks show.

The best part about staying inside the resort is the priorities we get. For example 60 days before our visit we were able to reserve our fast passes! This meant we were able to plan all the rides we wanted to do in advance and didn't have to worry about the long waits. I will get into a bit more detail on this later. Also, magic wrist bands - I'm sure everyone have heard of these. They're a wristband you wear throughout the parks and it works as your hotel keys, wallet, park tickets and fast passes! There's also magic hours on certain days for different parks when you live inside the resorts. This means you get to either enter the park one hour prior to park opening or stay one hour after park closing!

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That's it for today's chapter on Disney Trip hacks. Next post I will talk more about the parks and park tickets! So stay tuned!

Mystery Room: Magic and Thieves

	52 W Beaver Creek Rd, unit 16&17 Richmond Hill, ON

	60 Minutes
	4-10 players
	$22.00 per person
	Unlimited hints
	Mystery Room
	905-707-5829

Hello - I am back! Before I left on my trip I received an email from Mystery Room letting us know their newest room at their Richmond Hill location was open. Of course, your girl here had to give it a try the moment she came back!

Pre-Room Experience: Like a lot of escape facilities we tend to have to do payment while booking online (which I don't like in my opinion, but I can see why they have a deposit system). Being as spontaneous as we are, we ended up just calling them asking if we can come in without doing the payment online. I guess because they are still a new facility it seems much quieter in comparison to Omescape or the bigger facility in Markham, thus we had no trouble making a last minute booking at all!

Room Quality: I was pretty impressed with this room. The props were still on the lower-budget side, but you can tell they put a lot of effort into the props and puzzles. The theme for this room is inspired by the movie Now You See Me. The players are the detectives and we are basically trying to locate where the four horsemen are and try to escape their trap. The use of tech for this room is much higher than their Pandemic room. I wouldn't say the room had enough "wow-ing" factors compared to higher end facilities, but if we weren't comparing anything - I was pretty impressed and amazed by this room overall.

Puzzle Design: Puzzle design was definitely on the easier end for us. It was funny how the game master indicated that this room was probably going to be too easy for us (which it was). However, I think this room is perfect for beginners! It had enough puzzle design that would keep you entertained and amused. As I stated earlier, there was decent use of tech in this room and it was pretty impressing to see how all the puzzled connected with this facility being a budget room. Definitely a bump for them! The puzzles were all very linear, but I can see it being challenging for beginners as it revolves around a lot of observation. It wasn't much so problem solving but more so thinking outside the box. I guess because we've played so many of these rooms - it was pretty much straight forward for us.

Overall: Not bad once again! I stated on the Pandemic review that I saw potential in this facility and after playing their Magic and Thieves room I really can. This facility might not be the most high end one you find at Markham, but it doesn't disappoint you like some lower end ones. We've been to so many facilities where the props are cheap and it was one lockbox after another. You would think this facility is similar, but they're really not. I would say they are like an upgraded version of Esc-It. Fun and entertaining with a good amount of tech. Again, I would recommend this room for beginners though. If you are an addict like my team and I, this room will definitely be too easy! If you are looking for just a fun escape though - give them a try as you will be quite impressed!

Happy Escaping!

Freeing Canada: Unmask

	9625 Yonge Street, Unit 2F Richmond Hill, Ontario

	60 Minutes
	2-8 players
	$25.00 per person – Wed - Thur $28.00 per person – Sat - Sun
	Unlimited hints
	Freeing Canada
	647-800-7622

Hello Everyone - I'm back! I apologize for the MIA on the blog! Today I return with the continuation to our Freeing series. Today's room will be on one of my favourite from Freeing Canada. I say, half the experience is based on the people you escape with. This room was made extra fun because of the small memories made by my teammates.

Room Quality: I would say this room definitely felt more put together. The props used for this room weren't cheap and it didn't feel cheap. I wouldn't say Mission Incredible was cheap but it just lacked something that drew me into the room. This room however has a twist to it and it is rather interesting in my opinion on how the theme shifts. I don't want to expose too much, but again this was definitely on the creepier side - nothing terrifying like my previous experiences but there are some good catches.

Puzzle Design: YES! For some reason I personally really enjoyed the puzzles of this room. The level of difficulty was just right! There was a lot of observation involved which kept us all very entertained. The amount of locks was just right - we pretty much had to go through everything to decode puzzles. I find this so much more fun in comparison to just one puzzle to the next. I love exploring and just digging through everything to look for hints. With that being said, this room was extra fun because of the creepier moments I mentioned earlier. Let's just say if you're the unlucky one (like me) you will be caught off guard.

Overall: Once again this room is recommended for people that are a bit more new to escape rooms. Puzzle design was a bit on the easier side which is great for beginners. If you are looking for something a bit more high end, you can skip this room. I would recommend a party of 2-3 for this room. It's not that spacious so if you go with a bigger team it might get a bit too tight in the room. I also thought going with three people was perfect because the creepy vibe does get to you especially when it's just a few people in that room. There's no jump scares so you don't have to worry about that. I personally just find anything dark to be scary, but it wasn't pitch black to the point you couldn't see anything.

Happy Escaping!

Mystery Room: Pandemic

	52 W Beaver Creek Rd, unit 16&17 Richmond Hill, ON

	60 Minutes
	4-10 players
	$22.00 per person
	Unlimited hints
	Mystery Room
	905-707-5829

Taking a short break from our Freeing Series as I want to write a review on our most recent escape adventure at Mystery Room. We took our adventure to their newest(?) location at Richmond Hill last night. Given the fact that we are such addicts when I discovered there was a Richmond Hill location, it was almost an instant go. Background story, we've actually been to the their Downsview location before and in all honestly it was a low budget escape facility. It was not necessarily a bad escape facility, but of course compared to the higher end ones it did lack in terms of tech and props. However, with that being let me share with you our experience!

Pre-Room Experience: I honestly thought their location was the old Esc-It location! I still remember when escape rooms first came out and the level of sketchiness was so high in my opinion. Their Richmond Hill location is located right on West Beaver Creek. Location was great for us as half the time we grab dinner on Hwy 7 and it's much closer than other escape facility. Once again it gave off the sketchy vibe as we pulled into their facility. There were no car which made it even much more sketchy haha - We seem to have been the only booking they had all night. As we enter, the lobby was small but there was another room full of board games and more tables. I'm not too sure if it's because this location is new or what not but it was pretty much dead. The staff were friendly, but it did seem like he was nervous as we were the only guests haha. Oh, here's the catch - before arriving we were told that each player needed to have a fully charged phone. This was such an interesting call for us because as you know most escape facility don't allow cell phones. Before we entered the room - we were all asked to download an app. Here's where it gets interesting....

Room Quality: Continuing from our pre-room experience. The theme to this room was a virus breakout and we all needed to survive and escape. As I stated earlier we were all asked to download an app. As we enter the room, we were told to connect to their wifi and the app. We each created an IGN and basically this was our "health" status. Basically how it all worked - the app indicated our status with each a health bar, hunger bar, injury bar and thirst bar. We needed to maintain each bar in order to survive. Throughout the rooms there were resources that we needed to find to keep us all alive. Once resources were found there were QR codes on them which we then scan through the app. Resources that were scanned will increase our status keeping us alive. Cool! Putting this app to the side the room itself was alright - not the best but not too bad. Props weren't as high end in compared to other escape places. The design of the rooms somewhat lacked in my opinion. For example the last room was pretty much just an empty room with very minimal props. I would say they could easily do so much more if more money was put into it. I can see the potential. In other words, it was a budget room.

Puzzle Design: There were a few downfalls in terms of puzzle design. The whole app experience was quite fresh and interesting to all of us, but mid-way through, half my team gave up on "surviving". This was because maintaining the status of your health was so distracting to us. Half our team were decoding the puzzles while I was trying to feed everyone food and water. The purpose of it also seems very unnecessary as mid-game one player ended up dying but still proceeded with the game. There was also difficulty in terms of scanning our resources. Some resources were empty, which wasted a lot of our time trying to scan another resources. One player's phone barely scanned anything and by the time it did it was already too late. In terms of their puzzles, it wasn't too bad. Nothing impossible and it all did connect. I would say though a lot of my time was spent trying to keep everyone alive so I did miss out on some puzzles.

Overall: Not bad I would say. I can definitely see potential for them if they invest a little bit more into their rooms. The whole concept of the room was fresh and new. Even though with some distraction and glitches the room did keep us all entertained and we didn't feel bored at all. I would say the biggest downfall I found was the app having to be open the whole time. I didn't have enough time to figure out how to keep my iPhone screen on the whole time so I had to keep tapping the screen to make sure my phone didn't sleep. This made it super hard to do anything else! With that to the side, this room was very spacious. So if you are looking to go with more teammates you will not feel crowded. Oh, also if you don't have a cell phone or if your phone dies they do provide you with chargers and also spare phones. Overall, we had fun and it was a very interesting room. However, if you are looking for higher end rooms with "wow-ing" tech, you won't be able to find it here.

Happy Escaping!

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