Universal Studios Hollywood officially will open its new CityWalk escape rooms tomorrow.
Unlike Universal Orlando Resort, which created its own CityWalk escape room attraction with its Universal's Great Movie Escape, Hollywood is outsourcing its escape rooms to Escapology, the world's largest escape room company.
"We are thrilled to bring our latest games and story-driven experiences to Universal CityWalk Hollywood, adjacent to Universal Studios Hollywood, one of the premier theme parks in the world," Escapology CEO Burton Heiss said. "California has been incredibly receptive to Escapology's mix of high-tech escape-room wizardry with recognizable, brand-name games that everyone can enjoy."
The CityWalk Hollywood attraction will be Escapology's 96th location worldwide. It will feature 10 different escape experiences, including four featuring licensed Warner Bros. IP: with two experiences each for Batman: The Dark Knight Challenge and Scooby-Doo and the Spooky Castle Adventure.
Other experiences will include:
Escapology at CityWalk also will offer "kid modes" for Scooby-Doo, Mansion Murder and A Pirate’s Curse, designed for young sleuths and adventurers.
Tickets are $49.99 per person, with $39.99 tickets available for children ages 3-7 for the kids mode experiences. Each game lasts about 60 minutes, and participants should plan to arrive at least 15 minutes before their assigned start time. Tickets and more information about the available experiences are available on the Escapology website.
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@ThemeParkies - I don't think the price is that far out of line, but when you consider the additional time and cost of getting to CityWalk, the price is definitely not going to draw its own audience. It seems like they're relying solely on USH and CityWalk guests with these Escape Rooms marketed as a diversion, not a destination. That may work eventually, but with the CityWalk complex a massive construction zone right now, I could see them having trouble filling reservations. From experience, Escape Rooms are best when you have a good group of guests (8-12), so the success of this location is going to be dependent upon full rooms.
Having done a pretty big number of Escape Rooms, I think Escapology has the best in the business. I have never had a bad time, and the technical reliability and theming are fantastic. I really enjoyed the immersiveness and authenticity of the Scooby Doo experience. I think for a Citywalk location they should do more IP-related rooms. They do have a Star-Trek one, but I think they should do some Universal franchises like ET, Jaws, etc. Maybe they can do Back to the Future and Jurassic World once Universal gives up on their Escape experiences. I hardly see anyone at the ones in Orlando and the structure of those experiences just shove you along between rooms at set times, more like a timed experience and less like a traditional escape room.
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$50, even for CA, is a little high for an escape room. 10 escape rooms is ALOT for a single business too. I doubt that they’ll get many bookings in the beginning but if USH can make citywalk more of an entertainment space separate from the park (what it seems like they’re doing atm with all of changes/construction) then it could be a success.
Or maybe it’ll be like great movie escape at UO and “kinda” fail