the mommy avenger

I did something this month I swore I wouldn’t do again. Back when escape rooms first started gaining in popularity, I did a few. And I failed miserably at them. I had resigned myself to fact that they were just not my thing and let it go. The last one I did was probably back in 2014 and I was happy to let that be the last time I would ever go. That is, until I was invited to go to The Escape Game at American Dream in East Rutherford, New Jersey. I debated whether or not I actually wanted to do one again, because I will be honest with you, my past experience with them made me feel less than intelligent. There’s not much fun in getting locked in a room being forced to do math problems only to realize that you couldn’t figure them out in time to escape. Maybe you were better at it than I was? Probably so.

We decided to bring our family to do one of the harder escape rooms at The Escape Game. We signed ourselves up for Special Ops: Mysterious Market with an 8/10 difficulty rating. Because I was so great at escape rooms before, it makes a lot of sense that I would pick a really difficult one, right? We arrived at American Dream and got ourselves situated for the start of our hour long game. The staff members were very friendly and accommodating as we got started.

We walked into the room and immediately, I could tell that this escape room was much different than ones I had done in the past.

There were so many little details to take in and we tried to be as observant as we could as we were locked in the room and given our mission. Once the message was delivered with our instructions, we teamed up and got to work.

Unlike my past experiences, I didn’t have any real math problems to solve, but we did have riddles and clues to lead us in the direction we were intended to go. We were making significant progress and having a great time along the way. When we were stumped, we could ask for more clues and could figure out our next steps.

I was really impressed with the room we were in and as we progressed, the other portions of the room we were able to unlock. What started in a foreign bazaar quickly turned high stakes and we found ourselves having to stop a bomb. Really happy that the skills needed for this portion of the game were more focused on geography than math (did I mention I am terrible at math?!). The high intensity of the mission we were given had us so engrossed in what we were doing, we looked up and saw we only had a few minutes left to finish!

We were intensely focused and we kept going as the countdown was on. Then, with 1 minute to spare……we successfully completed our mission and escaped! Hallelujah, it was a miracle of epic proportions! I’ve never once successfully escaped from a mission before and this one was so much fun. Our time went by so quickly as our family worked together to solve all the riddles and clues. It was a great family activity to participate in and one we would definitely do again. The Escape Game at American Dream is a wonderful location and offers many different rooms. I can’t wait to go back and try others! If you aren’t near the American Dream location, be sure to look online at the various locations throughout the United States, as there are many others.

I’m so glad that, despite my past experience with escape rooms, we decided to give The Escape Game a try. Every one of us had a fantastic time and know your family and friends will, as well!

To learn more about The Escape Game, explore different rooms, and to book your own time slot, visit them online.

^{*we were invited to facilitate a feature, all opinions are our own*}