Dubbo Escape Rooms - Aunty Edna's Flat Review (Dubbo)

 

Hi all

Back in April 2022, my wife and I took our daughters to Dubbo for a holiday.  We stayed at the Zoo (which was awesome), we checked out the Dish at nearby Parkes, which was also awesome, and we booked into play some rooms at Dubbo Escape Rooms.  Unfortunately, the experience at Dubbo Escape Rooms was not quite as awesome as the Zoo or the Dish...

We had initially booked in to play all 3 rooms at Dubbo Escape Rooms – Aunty Edna’s Flat, Witch’s Temptation and Counter Intelligence.  We played Aunty Edna’s Flat first (and were due to return 2 days later to play the other 2 rooms). 

Aunty Edna’s Flat was our 210th escape room experience.  The room summary is no longer on their website (as I think they have retired the room), but the gist was that lovely old Aunty Edna wasn’t just a doting old aunty, but she (or her husband, I can’t remember) might have been up to something else in their spare time.

Here’s what I thought of Aunty Edna’s Flat:

·         I really did not enjoy the experience, it’s really that simple.  The theming was well below average, the room was dated, some puzzles were poorly designed, there were puzzles that were broken (and which the game master was well aware were broken), the list goes on;

·         I appreciate that regional escape rooms usually cannot match the quality of theming that we are lucky enough to enjoy in major cities, so I can definitely see past that kind of thing. But it was the broken puzzles (which the game master had to come in to fix) and the poor puzzles that I found the most annoying;

·         there was one poorly-designed puzzle that required players to pull up the carpet (!).  If the owners think that’s clever room design, then they really can’t complain if players start to pull up the entire carpet, or remove the wallpaper, etc.  It’s just not a bright move; and

·         there were some puzzles that were ok, but they were clearly overshadowed by the room's many failings.

This room was incredibly disappointing.  I don’t enjoy writing such negative reviews, but unfortunately this room deserves it. Hopefully since we played, they have improved their game (and I understand that this particular room has now been retired).

It was also disappointing that the game master didn’t seem to care that we had a poor experience.  I am pretty sure he was not an owner and his response about the broken elements was that they are known faults and he usually has to come into the room to fix them mid-game.  That was enough for me – on the way back to the car, I cancelled my other 2 bookings for their other rooms later in the week.  That is something I have never done before.  It was also disappointing that when I wrote to the owners letting them know I would like to cancel my other bookings, they didn’t engage with me at all about my experience (despite having emailed them back and forth before our trip).

Where:                        Dubbo Escape Rooms

Duration:                    60 minutes

Themes:                     3 rooms

Cost:                           $30 per person (assuming 4 players)

Overall Rating:           A run down room with broken puzzles – very disappointing.

 

More details:              https://www.dubboescaperoom.com.au/