Last year, on board Utopia of the Seas, we decided to try their toned down escape room entitled Escape U: Freshmen Year. Our younger son, John, wasn’t old enough at the time (you need to be 12 years and up), but for our most recent cruise on board Star of the Seas he was able to join us.
Unlike the bigger, more complicated escape rooms found on some Royal Caribbean ships, the escape rooms found on Star of the Seas all take place in one room. Also, Star of the Seas has two specific escape rooms set up with different themes. Star Escape Records revolves around music from the 1980s where your job is to save the music from the time traveling gremlins. With Star Escape Diner you must save milkshakes from being erased from existence by going back to the 1950s to a classic diner.
For our cruise, we chose Star Diner Escape over Star Escape Records because we thought John would like the theme slightly more. We met outside the Escape Room area, which is located right next to the Crown Lounge on deck 6. Priscilla from the activities staff checked us in, and, once we were all there, we watched a short video about our “mission”. Then, we checked in our bags and phones (no phones were allowed inside) and entered the room.
There were 11 of us, and we naturally split up into groups exploring the room and gathering puzzle pieces and clues. There were different kinds of puzzles that involved putting puzzle pieces together, figuring out codes, lining up shapes and other items and following the figurative points from A to B to C. I wouldn’t say that the puzzles themselves were especially challenging, but it took some thought to figure out what you needed to do with all of the information that was throughout the room.
Our group was successful in solving all of the puzzles and “saving milkshakes”. We finished in about 40 minutes, leaving us feeling accomplished and hungry for ice cream. It turned out to be a fun way for us to spend our afternoon, and it was a great way to introduce our younger son, John, to the escape room experience.
We had done escape rooms on other ships and on dry land as well with varying degrees of difficulty and price points. For an escape room that only exists in one room and is relatively easy, the $50 per person price point actually is a bit high. For example, a more involved and more challenging escape room in Roswell, GA could cost about $32 per person. So, depending on the price point, I would say that the escape room on Star of the Seas may not be worth it to some people.
Regardless of whether or not you are planning on giving the escape rooms on board Royal Caribbean ships a try or not, I would love to help you plan a cruise with Royal Caribbean or any other cruise line. Contact me today and we can start planning that next dream vacation.