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The Escape Effect
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The Escape Effect

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See all things to do
The Escape Effect
5
169 reviews
#7 of 292 Fun & Games in Orlando
Escape Games • Rides & Activities • Game & Entertainment Centers
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10:00 AM - 10:30 PM
Monday
11:00 AM - 9:30 PM
Tuesday
11:00 AM - 9:30 PM
Wednesday
11:00 AM - 9:30 PM
Thursday
11:00 AM - 9:30 PM
Friday
10:00 AM - 10:30 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM - 10:30 PM
Sunday
10:00 AM - 10:30 PM
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About
Winner of Orlando Magazine’s Best Entertainment Experience 2020 & 2021! Stop playing the same escape rooms that you can play anywhere and try something truly unique. Choose from four different and customizable 75, 90 and 120-minute adventures. More puzzles, more time, and more fun! Navigate through the castle to reunite with your teammates before you face imprisonment within the dungeon forever, in Florida’s only 2-hour escape room, A Knight To Escape. Face off against the Greek gods and goddesses, and defeat their challenges to become immortal in At Odds with the Gods. Put on your deerstalker and pick up where Sherlock left off, solve the murder, and deliver the evidence in time in Sherlock Studies. Play the role of modern-day ghost hunters. Equipped with specialized tools, find out what happened to Victor and his assistants in Fright Before Your Eyes.
Suggested duration
2-3 hours
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Tripadvisor gives a Travelers’ Choice award to accommodations, attractions and restaurants that consistently earn great reviews from travelers and are ranked within the top 10% of properties on Tripadvisor.

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The area
Address
Neighborhood: International Drive
International Drive is a perfect microcosm of the wonder and adventure found throughout Orlando. It’s also close to all major theme parks and connects SeaWorld Orlando and Universal Orlando Resort. No Orlando trip is complete without visiting it!
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Detailed Reviews: Reviews order informed by descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as cleanliness, atmosphere, general tips and location information.
Popular mentions
5.0
169 reviews
Excellent
163
Very good
1
Average
1
Poor
3
Terrible
1
Seric
5 contributions
Best Escape Game Place in Orlando
Jun 2021
The Escape Effect is for sure my favorite escape game place, I've been to quite a few in the central Florida area, and none of the other places are nearly as good! It's rare these days to find staff as friendly as theirs, but their game At Odds with the Gods is by far the best escape game I have ever played! My partner, my friend, our friends and I all just finished playing it tonight and was so much fun! We were all immersed in the game play the entire time! I am planning to come back and play one of their other games, Fright Before Your Eyes.

They are also very LGBTQ+ friendly and take COVID-19 precautions seriously. We were a group of two gay couples and we all felt very welcomed and comfortable in their space! They throughly sanitise the rooms between each party and all staff wears masks. it's an all around very genuinely kind and fun atmosphere!
Written June 13, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Timothy T
Eustis, FL8 contributions
A Fantastic Experience for Newcomers AND Seasoned Players
Feb 2021
I've been to a pile* of escape rooms around the country and this is certainly one of my favorites. (*pile = approximately 75+)
The positive experience started from the moment we arrived, with a kind attendant getting us ready to complete our waiver by QR code scan with our phone, making it safer in the age of COVID and easier to use our own devices rather than learn some complicated computer system.
It continued once we entered the room and noticed the fantastic theming. We played "A Knight to Escape," which is their two-hour game and the level of detail and period props fit the price and time length.
I won't spoil the game, but know that there was more than enough that even our group of 5 seasoned players weren't exactly sure we'd make it out in time. The clues were freely available - we needed four of them - and we never felt stupid, just challenged.
Overall, the owners and game masters (especially Jess, who was marvelous) have done a great job creating a fantastic experience. If this is your first escape room experience, I hope you realize that you're getting spoiled at the start. If you're not new to escape rooms, this one one of those places people talk about on forums and review sites. Just visit; it's worth it.
Written February 17, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Skorch
Saint Paul, MN29 contributions
Excellent Evening, Rainy, or ANY Day Activity!
Mar 2020 • Friends
We four adults had never tried an escape room before and didn’t know what to expect. We certainly didn’t expect to be immersed in the very realistic, incredibly creative room we found at Escape Effect! We played “Encore”, a one hour game which is set backstage of an old theater. The hosts of the game were friendly and welcoming, and encouraged us to ask for hints as often as we wished. This being our first game of this type, we needed a lot of hints! The hosts were very gracious and encouraging so we didn’t feel like idiots (too much). If you can, book the last game of the night and they may be able to give you more time. (We readily accepted it!)

Having enjoyed the Encore game so much, we were back two days later to play the Sherlock Holmes game. It was incredible!! *Hint: book another game within 24 hours of your first game and you will get 20% off. We didn’t do this but had loved it so much we didn’t mind paying full price (found a $5. off/person code online).

Too bad there are only 5 stars, because we would give it TEN!!
Written March 11, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
David
Raleigh, NC15 contributions
Mediocre medieval mishaps
Oct 2021 • Friends
We were a group of seasoned escape room players with 50-150 rooms played by all 5 in our group. We played “A Knight To Escape”

Pros: Beautiful set design. It looks and feels very well built

Cons:
Truly terrible puzzle flow. Most puzzles don’t fully make sense, even after you have solved them.

Staff was mediocre at best. I expect this from a hole in the wall business charging $25 but at $70 per person, I want more than mediocre interaction with staff that doesn’t seem to want us there.

Lack of game game master. As has been mentioned by other reviews (which I only read after playing 😢) the game masters don’t actually watch your game. They only peek in when you hit a button to request a hint. This means you can spend a lot of time doing the wrong thing and no one will tell you. This happened when we accidentally solved a puzzle and then tried using the extremely vague puzzle pieces that didn’t really tie in for an extra 20 minutes, only to ask for a hint and be told that we wouldn’t need those anymore. A good game master would have caught that and helped us out.

Lack of puzzles. There are only 7 or maybe 9 puzzles total (depending on what you count as a puzzle) for this two hour experience. Most of your 2 hours is spent trying endless possibilities of configurations since the puzzles and vague and not intuitive. This could easily be a 60 minute game if the puzzles weren’t so poorly designed. Some very simple modifications would take out so much confusion.

Lots of bored standing around. There really isn’t much to do. Most of the game is split into two teams. One team twiddles their thumbs while the other team solves a puzzle. Once solved they pass whatever they received to the other team and wait 15 minutes while that group solves a puzzle. This repeats for 2 hours.

Overall, I would strongly recommend visiting some of the other amazing companies in Orlando like Doldricks, The Escape Game or Venture Brothers, but I would avoid “A Knight To Escape”, unless you have $70 per person to waste and like your group to be annoyed afterwards.
Written October 1, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Jamie
I am sorry to hear that our hosts did not deliver a 5-star experience. Our team would like the opportunity to make this better, please reach out to our hosting manager at 855.426.3372
Written December 3, 2021
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Sara L
Waterloo, IA2 contributions
Great challenge!
Mar 2020
We loved the Encore room. The employee was great at providing hints to our group and even gave us a little extra time towards the end because we were so close to solving. Challenging, yet fun. Our group had 5 people: ages 49, 42, 20, 18, 17. Everyone could contribute and participate. A really fun way to unveil certain talents within people. For instance, our 17-year old impressed us with investigative skills we didn't know she had! :-)
Written March 20, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
EMW43
Orlando, FL11 contributions
Must visit!
Sep 2020
Awesome, very detailed and decorated. Will be going back. At first I was a little skeptical of the price but after lots of research finally experiencing it, it was WELL worth it. The people that work there are awesome. Fun family place or a date night.
Written September 9, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Lori D
2 contributions
Elementary, my dear Watson.
Nov 2021 • Friends
My son and I did the Sherlock Holmes escape room in November. We are both huge Holmes fans and were really looking forward to the experience. We were not disappointed. The “set” were beautifully designed and had a very authentic feel. The entire experience seemed deeply rooted in the Holmes tradition and the puzzles were fun and challenging. My son has a lot of experience with escape rooms but I do not and even I was able to work through many of the puzzles. We were able to complete the experience with 4 minutes to spare. The staff was friendly, professional and helpful. We had an absolutely wonderful time and hope to go back soon.
Written January 3, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Alex
Orlando, FL1 contribution
Best Escape Room in Orlando
Jun 2021 • Friends
Just played at Odds With The Gods with me and a group pf friends, and it was such a rush! I loved it, every part of it and I didn’t want it to end, I just wanted to keep playing! I can’t wait to go back and play Fright Before Your Eyes, and honestly all of the other games as well. The attention to detail, the set design and the puzzles is unmatched here at The Escape Effect! Not to mention The Escape Effect staff is so friendly, helpful, and polite! The whole experienced was amazing start to finish. I found my new favorite place for my new favorite hobby. Can wait to visit you again!
Written June 13, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Skip C
cape cod, massachusetts74 contributions
Lot's of challenging fun
Feb 2020
We are fairly new to playing escape games but we enjoy mysteries and found the Sherlock Holmes puzzle to be very well put together. The game designer put a lot of effort into it and the props were quite realistic. Some of the clues were quite easy but most really made you think. Chris who checked us in helped us to decide which game to play and did not disappoint. He seemed to have a knack for when we needed help. This game is not necessarily for beginners especially if your group is small hence the 75 minute time limit but it was a lot of fun for the two of us. One tip that I have is don't be too hasty as you gather clues.
Written February 28, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Kathy E
Oviedo, FL10 contributions
#1 Escape Effects
Jul 2021
I can see why The Escape Effect was rated #1 in Orlando. We played two games, Sherlock Studies and Fright Before Your Eyes. Niki was our host for both games and was very helpful and delightful. I truly enjoyed solving puzzles and clues in both games and having extra time helped our group of three players. We are in the process of booking Odds With the Gods, and I look forward to doing that one for my birthday.
Written July 18, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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The Escape Effect (Orlando) - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go

Frequently Asked Questions about The Escape Effect
The Escape Effect is open:
  • Mon - Thu 11:00 AM - 9:30 PM
  • Fri - Sun 10:00 AM - 10:30 PM
Buy tickets in advance on Tripadvisor. If you book with Tripadvisor, you can cancel at least 24 hours before the start date of your tour for a full refund.
We recommend booking The Escape Effect tours ahead of time to secure your spot. If you book with Tripadvisor, you can cancel up to 24 hours before your tour starts for a full refund. See all 2 The Escape Effect tours on Tripadvisor