Our final full day of escapes! So bittersweet.

Frizz Status: I tried wearing my hair down today. It wasn’t a complete disaster but eventually I did have to tie it back up again.

Today had 1 more unique theme, 2 fairly standard games, and 1…well we will get to that one.

Tourist Trappings

Before we went to the escape room, we walked down the street to the Mediterranean Sea! It was beautiful! And also…soaked my shoes. I guess they needed a wash anyway.

I do enjoy the promenades of the towns I visited. All of the shops facing outward remind me of a video game.

I barely got one Spanish word out in a cafe before they went running for the English speaking employee. I should really just give up, but I refuse!

For those going to travel to Spain, know that if you don’t get a car, once you get further out of Barcelona things like cabs can be iffy. The app we had downloaded to find local cabs did not have options in a few places, and while the transit system is extensive it is as also an incredibly long travel time depending on where you want to go. So if you are doing a Spain trip and want to do a few outside of the city centres, plan for lots of travel time. We ended up getting the WhatsApp contact info for one driver, Tony, upon learning he could easily drive 6 people. He and his partner, Raja, got us out of a few jams. Thanks, Tony and Raja!

Local Trends

Shockingly today, 3 out of our 4 rooms did not have ladders! Madness. Still plenty of crawling though.

In addition to the licensed properties, a lot of rooms had music from various films and video games as well. I kept getting distracted by it trying to guess all the soundtracks.

Okay, this one is important. Consistently we have been told certain rooms are not scary, only for a couple of our team to scream in terror and exclaim “I THOUGHT THIS WASN’T SCARY!” Mind you, one of those people was Lizette who screams at…almost anything that moves, but it should be clarified: Rooms in Spain classified as “not scary” usually means “there won’t be any overt scares or actors grabbing at you”. However, there is often still an element of tension or creepiness, and maybe a slight jump scare or two. If you are someone who really, really, REALLLLY does not want any scary elements whatsoever and are super sensitive to them, consider not going to Spain. Me, I enjoyed it.

One thing is clear: on the whole, both mid-tier and top-tier rooms in Spain have very solidly built sets. There is both attention to detail and heavy duty builds able to withstand our shenanigans.

Virus Room Escape:Tao Room Escape- Japanese Massage Centre

Our first room of the day was a ways out of Barcelona, so figuring out transport to get there in time was a bit dicey. Long sorry short, cabs can be expensive.

The setup for this room was as a Japanese massage parlour and I do have to say, it is one of the more unique pregame preps we have had to do.

I thought at first we would be doing tasks specific to a Japanese massage parlour, but quickly learned this was more of a general mish mash of Japanese culture, with our goal being to obtain a special scroll. Our host, Ariadne, brought some fun energy and to the room and mostly ignored Errol’s efforts to talk further with her. Good for her.

Both Myra and Philip in our group speak and read Japanese, so it did mean we were able to learn what some of the phrases on some of the puzzles said, which was a funny Easter egg to uncover.

The puzzles were pretty cute and leaned more toward task based like many of our rooms. There some fun physical mechanics in the room, including one I hadn’t seen in an escape before. Errol did manage to volunteer for one particular cutscene which of course meant he sabotaged our efforts.

I think I would have preferred a more specific theme rather than the generic “all the Japanese tropes”. For example, what if the entire escape was focused on a ryokan? Still, that aside we did have quite a bit of fun in this room and on top.of that, we got a souvenir that is my favourite of the escape rooms so far!

Kadabra Escape: Poison

Poison began as most the Barcelona rooms did, with a cold open where we wandered in off of the street to visit an asylum. We were all provided with visitor badges, after which we were instructed to enter a room. Of course things went south once the Joker showed up. Oh yeah, this is a Batman themed room…kind of…

This room started off as a split room, which didn’t go too badly, although we did drag at the end a little bit.

This then lead to the main set, which looked far more impressive than what we were set up with. From there we all split off to solve various puzzles which were blessedly non-linear. I never really felt “bored” during this room. There was always some puzzle that needed solving.

There were some inconsistencies in theming, mostly around which Joker they should base their  game on. The set and voice kind of screamed an over the top cartoon Joker of the 90’s, but another video implied it was the darker Heath Ledger style Joker. It didn’t affect our actual gameplay, but did leave me wondering.

The puzzles were on the easier side,mostly task based, and involved some fun tasks that were new to me in escape rooms. One task in particular Errol adored and if he could have, would have spent the rest of the room doing.

Our host, Israel, was friendly and even indulged Errol’s need to continue one of the tasks we had done in the game. He even gave us a bit more history about the room, which seemed to be a family built room (so was Londium for that matter).

Overall this was a fun and solid room, even if I wasn’t sure which version of Batman villains I was getting.

Cubick Escape: Scubick-Doo

In our third game of the day, we had to pose as tourists to gain entry to a spooky old mansion in order to help the Scooby gang solve some sort of mystery. Again, the roles we were playing did not come back into play at any point in the game.

Okay….I should preface this by saying that

1. I am pretty sensitive to noise, especially when it’s chaotic.

2. I was pretty tired and likely overstimulated by this point in the trip.

3. I have never been a big fan of Scooby-Doo.

I…did not like this room. And a big reason is the 3 or 4 different soundtracks all playing at once, all in various areas of the set, and all at FULL volume. On top of that, the pre-recorded hints sounded like some speaking through a pillow most of the time. Sound mixing was not a thing in this room. It was a sensory overload.

Which is a shame, because the set, puzzles, and theme for this room were okay, even if I don’t hold a special place in my heart for Scooby-Doo. It did, for the most part, capture the goofiness of a Scooby-Doo episode, and if you have seen even one life episode of Scooby-Doo, it’s not difficult to see where the plot goes.

Errol even got the chance yet again to interact with the game host, David. David did pretty well at staying on task despite Errol’s best efforts to derail the game.

I wish I had more to say about this one.  But the noise issue (which is mostly a personal problem, I know) just took me right out of the experience.

1801 Escape: Casa Museu Josep Fontcalda

Our final game of the day was far in a town called Tona. Very far, in fact, for a group with no car rental and the uncertainty of how we would get back in an area with few cabs. But it was as highly recommended and on top of that, was closing forever that week. This would be our last chance to play. Plus it was a history themed room. I love a good history theme, even if it is fictional.

Our cab driver got lost a couple of times on the way. My tastebuds still soured from the last game. I wondered again if we were paying buttloads of cab fares for a game that would ultimately probably not be great.

After playing though …I am so glad I got to do this room, and that it was the last one of our trip.

We played as a tour group going to get a tour of the house of a fictional scientist, Josep Fontcalda, who devoted his life to studying the four elements and discovering a fifth element he believed existed (probably a nod to the movie, the Fifth Element, especially given the appearance of a couple of props). Shortly after giving us our first history lesson, the tour guide (our host, Fortia), accidentally locked us in after the door got stuck. We now had to find our own way out and if we discovered Josep’s secret formula on the way, so much the better.

What ensued was…a mechanical marvel. 1801 is a mixture of manual mechanics and modern tech, resulting in the escape room equivalent of a movie that knows when practical effects and CGI work best.

I cannot describe the joy this room’s puzzles brought. This was a room about the thrill of small reveals. In many ways, it put me in mind of 49 Boxes which I played in LA last year or the video game, The Room.

My feelings were reflected in the rest of my group as well. Every time a puzzle was solved, there were several “OOOOOH”s around the room. There was a lot of “hidden in plain sight” items around the room, which were somehow fun and not frustrating to discover.

And I loved the feel of the more historical items. Sometimes I was afraid I would accidentally break something but it soon became obvious how much was too much in terms of handling props.

The story was compact, which suited it fine. The setup as a museum appeared authentic and worked effectively for hunting at puzzles. Like the story, the space was also limited, and not one inch of it was wasted. It felt like a scientist’s old basement office transformed into a museum.

I should also mention Fortia who, while limited in his role, provided some incredibly timed comedic lines. I know he was nervous doing the game in English, but his timing of being suddenly unable to open the door cracked me up.

There were no ladders, no massive set reveals, no last minute bomb to diffuse, just the simple delights of opening a puzzle box with the satisfying “kerchonk” of a wood gear or giant key to a secret keyhole, or discovering a hidden space that had been staring you in the face this whole time. It really did feel like we were discovering a scientist’s secrets after years of being hidden.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I also love those Blockbuster escape rooms and the feelings of excitement and immersion I get from their elements, including those discovered in this trip. But what I appreciate about 1801 is that it is proof positive that you can achieve that thrill of discovery by other means. Like I he best Blockbuster games out there, it was clear this was a game made by people who designed with their hearts…and craftsmanship. Lots of craftsmanship. Good grief, those gears were precise.

Errol described it perfectly after the game, but I will leave that to be discovered in his blog.

I am really sad they could not stay open, but totally get it. All of the designers/owners have day jobs, and the escape room industry sucks all time and energy.

But I am also glad this was the last game of the trip. It was the perfect high to end on.

Thanks for joining me again on this journey. I was a bit more delayed this time in posting for various reasons, but I enjoy making these chronicles when I travel :). I will probably make an “Epilogue” post when I have a chance to let everything sink in, but it’s safe to say the Barcelona has so many quality escapes. I hope next time we can get further afield!

But for now…sleeeeeep…