Thanks to Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean International, escape rooms have hit the high seas.
Various incarnations of the interactive puzzle experience now exist on eight cruise ships and counting, but how likely is it that their popularity will last?
When you think of classic cruise ship activities and attractions, there are several that immediately come to mind: Deck games like shuffleboard have been mainstays for over a century now, and calls of "Bingo!" have been heard for decades just the same. More recently, staples have further included art auctions.
Of course, many of those are also becoming rather stale, and cruise lines have begun seeking out new shoreside attractions and trends to bring aboard in order to substantially jazz things up.
That has meant more and more elaborate waters slides as well as the likes of surf and skydiving simulators. Now, escape rooms are among the newest ways for passing the time in exciting fashion.
For those unfamiliar with the concept, escape rooms are essentially physical puzzles, usually themed to a narrative of confinement. They require small teams of participants to work together to find a way out. Usually, a series of solutions are required to "escape" the room.
In many ways, they take the virtual puzzle worlds of video games like "Myst" and realize them on land or, in this case, onboard.
Royal Caribbean was first to introduce it on the Anthem of the Seas in partnership with Puzzle Break. There, the experience is merely an overlay of challenges applied to the teens club. Across the fleet, Puzzle Break has since expanded to Brilliance of the Seas and Ovation of the Seas.
On the Harmony of the Seas, a dedicated venue was installed: "Escape the Rubicon." A similarly specific version is anticipated for the upcoming Symphony of the Seas as well.
Meanwhile, Norwegian Cruise Line has also gotten in the game with its own "Escape The Big Top"-themed overlays aboard the Norwegian Breakaway, Norwegian Epic, Norwegian Escape and Norwegian Getaway.
[READMORE]READ MORE: Norwegian Cruise Line Adding Escape Rooms to Newest Ships[/READMORE]
On both Norwegian and Royal Caribbean, the experience is open to all ages but is best geared towards older children, teens and adults with good critical thinking skills. They are also complimentary, with the exception of Harmony of the Seas now, which is understood to come with a small surcharge, (likely to reduce any no-shows).
From my personal experience trying "Escape the Rubicon" and several others shoreside, the dedicated onboard version was fantastic, with better production quality than most. In fact, the venue itself was designed in collaboration with Hollywood go-to fabricator ShowFX Inc., and the challenges were equally engaging.
Whether or not escape rooms will remain hits on land and sea has yet to be determined, as neither iteration has been around for more than a handful of years.
However, unlike, say, bingo or art auctions, they are not necessarily revenue makers seeking to draw large crowds. They are actually inherently niche experiences, usually never exceeding a dozen or so people at a time.
[READMORE]READ MORE: TravelPulse On Board: Harmony of the Seas Review[/READMORE]
Still, they are likely to expand to other ships over time, tapping into an activity that resonates with the coveted millennial audience, even if only to a limited degree. (As a millennial myself, escape rooms at sea certainly intrigue me.)
Just like any new shipboard partnership or feature that grabs the attention, it's the halo effect that cruise lines are always after. If even one small thing hooks a new cruiser and convinces them to come onboard, it has sufficiently done its job.
Escape rooms, it would seem, are one of those new things.
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