. . "10"^^ . "2016-01-07T00:00:00"^^ . "6"^^ . "I've rather quickly become obsessed with the escape room concept. Funnily enough, even though I live in Atlanta, all my Escape room experiences have been in Charlotte my wife's hometown. During the Christmas holiday, we thought it would be fun to do another room with friends. Having completed a few rooms in Charlotte at another establishment, we wanted to try something different so we searched on YELP and found Escape Hour. \n\nWhen we got there, the place was buzzing and very busy. One of the owners, Lindsey, greeted us warmly and directed us to the back of the building and explained that they were in the process of filming so they were running a few minutes behind schedule. We were happy to hear that because our friends had texted and let us know that they would be late so the extra minutes came in handy. Lindsey didn't say what they were filming so we could only guess, a commercial? a reality show? footage for their website? Hmmm...\n\nWe were the first to arrive for our room but a minute or two later, the rest of the participants came in and were placed in the back next to us. Our friends were still not there yet so while we waited the other owner, Ryan, was kind enough to go over the rules for us and told us to just fill our friends in once they arrived. \n\nThe rules for Escape Hour were standard in terms of how escape rooms go except that :\n\n1) There were red stickers on things in the room that we weren't supposed to touch or take apart.\n2) We had to FIND our three hint cards during our quest to escape as opposed just being handed a certain number of hints.\n\nThey handed us a walkie-talkie to communicate with the staff and also gave us a basket for used clues and a notepad to write things down. I thought the basket was a simple but great idea, it really helped us stay organized and I was the official note-taker in our group. When our friends arrived we all entered \"The Dollhouse\". There were ten of us total (four from my party and six people we didn't know).\n\nIn the Dollhouse, you accidentally enter the cottage of a serial killer who is obsessed with dolls and you must find your way out before he returns to make you his next victim. I thought the concept of the room was great, very original and sufficiently creepy. It was lots of fun trying to crack the clues to advance to the next step. There are many twists and turns to keep you on your feet so must pay attention. \n\nAnyone who has done an escape room will tell that COMMUNICATION and TEAMWORK are two of the biggest keys to being successful. I've participated in other rooms where we worked together and we able to make it out and I've participated in rooms where the groups wanted to remain segregated and didn't work together thus resulting in failing the challenge. The team we had an Escape Hour though worked very well together. We shared our findings and really worked as a team utilizing everyone's strengths. \n\nIn the end, we made it out with 19minutes to spare--coming so close to beating the record for fastest breakout for that room! We were thrilled! However, I felt that the room could've been a tad bit harder or perhaps limit the number of people allowed in the room in order to increase the challenge. Apparently, Dollhouse has a 60% success rate, the highest of all three rooms currently at Escape Hour. I think 60% is a little too high. I think all rooms should have between a 20-40% success rate to REALLY make us sweat. \n\nOtherwise though, we really enjoyed the experience. Escape room was GREAT fun and I was thrilled that the owners were African Americans venturing into the ever-growing escape room craze--that's awesome! Not only were Ryan and Lindsey professional, they were also extremely friendly, warm and enthusiastic! I'm sure they have to go over the same rules and walk people through the same rooms 1000 times a week but they still act as if they're excited about it. Even one of the employees came out and spoke with us for a while making us feel very welcomed. That is what you call customer service! \n\nI cannot wait until we are in Charlotte again, we'll definitely be checking out another room at Escape Hour. I have my eye on \"Grandma's Kitchen\" next. \n\nThanks again Ryan, Lindsey and the team at Escape Hour!"^^ . . "5"^^ . "6"^^ .