Eclipse Escape Room - Magic Moonstone, Flaming Pearl and Knights Templar Reviews (Gold Coast)

 

Hi everyone

In October of 2024, on our weekend away to the Gold Coast, we checked out a total of 7 escape rooms. Our fifth, sixth and seventh rooms were Moonstone, Knights Templar and Flaming Pearl at Eclipse.

Here is what we thought:

Moonstone Review – Room 316

We really enjoyed Moonstone. We have played many (many) magic-themed rooms to date – they are always a popular choice with our daughters. I thought Moonstone was one of the better magic-themed rooms.

I enjoyed the quality of the set and the props throughout. There were some really nice puzzles and puzzle elements, with a really good mix. I think the strongest element of Moonstone was the puzzles (which is where I think many other magic-themed rooms fall down). I would describe Moonstone as being about a medium level of difficulty – we escaped with plenty of time and our girls led the way for the most part.

Knights Templar – Room 317

Knights Templar was another strong room. The initial set was quite simple and straight forward, with players beginning in an internet café. Whilst the set quality improved throughout the experience, I think this was probably the least impressive set of the 3 rooms that we played at Eclipse.

We enjoyed the puzzles in Knights Templar, as did our daughters. They were varied and all challenging. We did get stuck at the end because we had solved everything but just didn’t know where we were supposed to place the final item (and perhaps more cues in the room for this would not hurt). This was a fun room but probably my least favourite of the 3 rooms that we played at Eclipse. 

Flaming Pearl – Room 318

Flaming Pearl was an awesome room (and in fact, it was our favourite room of the trip). Flaming Pearl is their newest room and had only been open for a few days when we played.

It is a very pretty room with so much to take in. Flaming Pearl has a really cool mechanic where players have a (large) number of puzzles to solve, but there is a central board which shows their progress. There are puzzles (and puzzle elements) everywhere! The room is non-linear for the most part, so we divided and conquered (especially in the first 15-20 minutes). We then regrouped and worked together on the puzzles for the rest of the experience.

The puzzles and room flow are the standouts at Flaming Pearl. The puzzles were all incredibly varied – there were so many different puzzle types (which we all loved). They were challenging and really satisfying to solve. There is a lot of hidden tech in this room, which was all flawlessly concealed.

We absolutely loved this room and it was our favourite on the Gold Coast by some margin. Our GM (and the owner) Kerri is very enthusiastic about escape rooms and it was lovely chatting with her before, in between and after we escaped from her rooms. By far my favourite ER company on the Gold Coast.

Where:                    Level 1, Chevron Renaissance Shopping Centre, Surfers Paradise

Duration:                60 minutes

Themes:                 5 themes

Price:                      $45 per person (for a team of 4) (children cheaper)

Overall Rating:       Flaming Pearl was our favourite room on the Gold Coast!

More details:           https://eclipseescape.com.au/

Lost Locks – Cottage Capers (Gold Coast)

Hi everyone

In October of 2024, on our weekend away to the Gold Coast, we checked out a total of 7 escape rooms. Our fourth room was Cottage Capers at Lost Locks. 

This was our 315^th room to date. Here is what I thought:

• the room very much felt like a generation 1 room. The quality of theming was pretty poor by current standards;
• the puzzles were all ok, but not memorable. We did have a few mechanisms throughout the experience that did not work (some were finnicky and worked on the third or fourth attempt, others were poorly designed so that we solved them before we should have solved them);
• my girls enjoyed the Christmas theme, but that was probably the best part of the room. The actual execution of the theming, with props and quality of floor/wall/ceiling dressings, was below average; and
• I thought this room should have been retired some time ago and was surprised that the price charged was more than what we paid at other, much better escape rooms on the Gold Coast. Prices here are $55 per adult, which I think is far more than this room deserves to charge. We were out in less than half the time, with a pretty unsatisfying, anticlimactic ending.

I would give this one a miss. Our family of 4 paid $210 for less than 30 minutes for an average, generation 1 room. For less money, go and check out Padlockd or better yet, Eclipse Escape Rooms (which are the cheapest and best rooms we played on the Gold Coast).

Where:                 3240 Surfers Paradise Blvd, Surfers Paradise

Duration:            60 minutes

Themes:              7 themes

Price:                    $55 per person (over 15yo)

Overall Rating:     Give this room a miss – should have been retired long ago

More details:        https://lostlocks.com.au/

Padlockd – The Carnival (Gold Coast)

 

Hi everyone

In October of 2024, on our weekend away to the Gold Coast, we checked out a total of 7 escape rooms. Our third room was The Carnival at Padlockd. 

After having just played their School of Magic room, which was a near duplicate of a room we had played in Sydney, we were hoping for a better experience with The Carnival. Thankfully, it delivered.

The Carnival was our 314^th room to date. Here is what I thought:

• we played The Carnival with our 2 daughters and we all had a great time. The story behind the room is that players find themselves in an abandoned carnival where they have to make their way through the carnival to hit the big red button to escape;
• The Carnival is not a scary room. There are poorly-lit areas, but no jump scares and nothing scary (our timid girls were fine);
• there is a nice room flow and scale to The Carnival, which was much bigger than I had anticipated. There was a really fun mix of puzzles as well;
• the most memorable aspect of The Carnival was that we all got to do something we have never done before (or since) in an escape room, which was pretty cool;
• there were some fun puzzles that had us all running all over the place; and
• one cool thing that Padlockd does is that all players walk away with a free, high quality, coloured pin. We walked away with both a Carnival and School of Magic pin, which were really nice (not many ER businesses provide keepsakes, but I wish more did).

The Carnival was a really fun, family-friendly room. The puzzles were all fun and we all really enjoyed ourselves. The only issue we had was that one puzzle had not been reset correctly and a spare key had been left in the room, which we found and then skipped a puzzle. That was a shame, but it didn’t ruin the experience.

Where:                 3177 Surfers Paradise Blvd, Surfers Paradise

Duration:            60 minutes

Themes:              14 themes

Price:                    $54 per person (over 15yo)

Overall Rating:     A really fun, family-friendly room

More details:        https://padlockd.com.au/

Padlockd – School of Magic Review (Gold Coast)

 

Hi everyone

In October of 2024, on our weekend away to the Gold Coast, we checked out a total of 7 escape rooms. Our second room was School of Magic at Padlockd. 

I had written to Padlocked ahead of playing this room to confirm that it was a unique room (given the number of ‘magic’ themed rooms that we have now played both in Australia and overseas). Padlockd confirmed that the room was an Indestroom room, but that the only other place that the room had been constructed was in Brisbane (and even then, there were just elements from the room that were shared in that Brisbane room).

Unfortunately for us, that didn’t turn out to be correct. Within about 10 seconds of entering the room, I knew we had played it before. Whilst there were some subtle puzzle differences, I can confirm that School of Magic at Padlockd is almost identical to Wizardry at Paniq Room at The Rocks in Sydney. We played on (but didn’t enjoy the experience, given we had played Wizardry in Sydney only maybe 6 months before). We zoomed through and escaped in about half the time.

To their credit, Padlockd refunded our money after I sent them an email (the GM on the day didn’t seem to appreciate that we were disappointed, but Emily, their COO, did when I emailed her).

School of Magic was my 313^th room. I won’t bother reviewing the room here – instead, you might as well read my review of Wizardry here (given the rooms are near identical).

I do want to make a comment though about Indestroom rooms. For those of you who don’t know, Indestroom is a company (based in Europe I think) that designs and sells fully-constructed rooms. The concept, as I understand it, is that ER businesses can purchase a room and it is then sent across (presumably in a shipping container) with instructions on how to build and combine all of the pieces together.

I am not a huge fan of this model (and I suspect most enthusiasts aren’t). What this type of product is good for is to allow ER businesses to get a new room up and running very quickly and to therefore start bringing in revenue. And I have heard directly from Sydney ER owners that have had a successful partnership with Indestroom (albeit subject to exclusive contractual obligations to purchase spare parts from Indestroom for life, and an inability to change the room designs in any real way). However, I have yet to be amazed by the quality of any Indestroom rooms (and none to my knowledge sit on the top 300 TERPECA rooms list). They are typically reasonable rooms with high quality props and theming, but without any wow factor, large scale or any kind of well, soul.

The biggest issue with Indestroom rooms is that the same rooms are now appearing all over the place and ER owners are not, in my view, adequately flagging this fact on their websites. For example, I am aware that there are Indestroom puzzle elements from that same School of Magic Gold Coast room now at SCRAM in Parramatta and obviously at Paniq Room at The Rocks. So that is 3 magic-themed rooms in Australia (that I know of) with some identical puzzles/props (and in the case of School of Magic and Wizardry, almost completely identical rooms). That’s a problem.  

If Indestroom is going to sell its pre-made rooms, surely it should only be selling those rooms/puzzles in different geographic locations (and surely ER owners would want to ensure that is the case in their contracts as well)? But this does not seem to be the case. I also think any ER owners that purchase Indestroom rooms or puzzle elements should make that clear on their websites.

Where:                 3177 Surfers Paradise Blvd, Surfers Paradise

Duration:            60 minutes

Themes:              14 themes

Price:                    $54 per person (over 15yo)

Overall Rating:     A reasonable room, an identical copy of which we had already played elsewhere

More details:        https://padlockd.com.au/

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Fox in a Box Gold Coast - Wild West Saloon Review (Gold Coast)

Hi everyone

In October of 2024, my wife had a work conference on the Gold Coast, so we decided to take our girls up for a few days. Whilst there, we managed to check out a total of 7 escape rooms. The first room was Wild West Saloon at Fox in a Box.  I had previously played some rooms at Fox in a Box in Brisbane, so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect (as far as room/puzzle quality was concerned).

This time, we were a team of 6. I had been telling my Dad for years about escape rooms and I finally managed to bring he and his wife along to see what it was all about (together with my wife and girls). 

Wild West Saloon was my 312^th escape room to date. Here is what I thought:

• I would describe Wild West Saloon as a pretty simple, family-friendly room (no dark areas and no jump scares of any kind);
• the puzzles were all straight forward (with the exception of one, which was a little illogical for my taste), but overall they were reasonably good;
• there was some nice, albeit simple, theming in the room. There was no amazing floor or ceiling treatments, but the props made sense in the space; and
• the puzzles were all fun to solve.  We divided and conquered, with my girls solving several puzzles by themselves. There was also a good mix of hunt and seek fun, together with some low and higher-tech puzzles.

Wild West Saloon was a straight-forward, family-friendly room. There were no wow moments, but the puzzles were all largely good and the theming was also reasonably good. My family had played an amazing wild west themed- room in Paris together earlier in the year, and that room easily outshone this Fox in a Box room. I would also describe Wild West Saloon as being on the easier side (we escaped with plenty of time to spare, even though we weren’t rushing). Of the 7 rooms we played on the Gold Coast, this was about middle of the pack.

Where:                 Level 1, 3173 Surfers Paradise Blvd, Surfers Paradise

Duration:            60 minutes

Themes:              8 themes

Price:                    $42 per person (team of 6)

Overall Rating:     A reasonably good family-friendly room

More details:        https://www.foxinaboxgoldcoast.com/

The Traveller's Guide to Little Sodaburg - Review (Live Avatar)

 

Hi all

Back in October 2021, I played The Traveller’s Guide to Little Sodaburg with a number of escape room enthusiast friends of mine.  Little Sodaburg was voted the 8^th best online room in the 2021 TERPECA awards, so I had high expectations.

Little Sodaburg was my 202^nd escape room experience.  The theme of the room is as follows:

Take a trip to the absolutely normal seaside town of Little Sodaburg. Bring a group of up to 6, and experience a time like no other.

Marvel at our fish statues, visit the castle ruins and tour the factory of the universe's most popular soda. Just don’t swim in the river, if you know what’s good for you!

Here’s what I thought about Little Sodaburg:

·         this was a fantastic online escape room experience.  It was incredibly funny – they utilised excellent videos and computer game elements throughout the experience;

·         the storyline is both ridiculous and hilarious. The gameplay was excellent and we had a great game master/avatar who provided a great experience and the right level of assistance;

·         the theming was very strong.  The used different media (searching websites, navigating a character in a low-level graphics game on screen and a few other quirky things that were really unique);

·         the puzzles were all interesting and challenging.

The Traveler’s Guide to Little Sodaburg is one of those escape rooms that is designed to make you laugh and have a genuinely good time.  It was very creative and quite unique.  Definitely highly recommended.

Where:                        Virtual room (online)

Virtual Room Type:     Live Avatar

Duration:                    60 minutes

Themes:                     1 live avatar rooms

Cost:                           $30USD per player (assuming 4 players)

Overall Rating:           A humorous and incredibly fun live-avatar room

More details:              https://thetravelers.guide/

 

Locurio - The Vanishing Act (Live Avatar)

 

Hi all

Back in October 2021, I played Locurio’s Vanishing Act room with a number of escape room enthusiast friends of mine.  Vanishing Act was voted the 5^th best online room in the 2020 TERPECA awards, so I had high expectations.

Vanishing Act was my 200^th escape room experience.  The theme of the room is as follows:

The Great Noximillian, world-renowned magician, is hiding more than just tricks up his sleeve. His past five assistants have mysteriously gone missing, each after their 13th performance with Noximillian. Now his latest assistant, Casey, is desperate to uncover the truth behind these disturbing disappearances.

Casey’s roommate, Sam, plans to investigate The Great Noximillian’s private dressing room while Casey and the magician are busy on stage…but Sam needs your help. Find out what Noximillian has been hiding and solve the mystery before the show is over and Casey’s time is up!

Here’s what I thought about Vanishing Act:

·         this was a great online escape room experience.  The gameplay was excellent and we had a great game master/avatar who provided a great experience and the right level of assistance;

·         the theming was very strong.  All of the props and puzzle elements made sense in the space;

·         the experience uses a great online inventory system that was seamless;

·         the puzzles were all interesting and challenging; and

·         Vanishing Act is a little expensive, at $40-$50USD per player.  However, it is a 90 minute experience and the quality justifies the higher-than-average price point I think.

Vanishing Act is an award-winning game.  Our team really enjoyed the online experience – great puzzles and theming and a fantastic live avatar.  The inventory system was well designed and there was clever use of video as well.  It was a great experience – definitely highly recommended.

Where:                        Virtual room (online)

Virtual Room Type:    Live Avatar

Duration:                    90 minutes

Themes:                     1 live avatar rooms

Cost:                           $40-$50USD per player (depending on group size)

Overall Rating:           A great live-avatar room with great puzzles and interaction

More details:              https://www.locurio.com/the-vanishing-act/