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:

1. "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/
2. 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!