Eludesions Escape Rooms – Mad Hatter’s Tea Party [Review]

Curiouser

Location: Phoenix, AZ

Date Played: March 11, 2022

Team size: 4-10; we recommend 4-5

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $32.95 per player

Ticketing: Private

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

Playing The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party was an absolutely delightful stroll through the Alice in Wonderland storyline. With few nonsensical exceptions, the game flowed well and invited enthusiasts and non-enthusiasts alike to engage their imaginations with a myriad of spot-on Alice in Wonderland references. Beginning at the beginning, we found ourselves in a fairytale space that smoothly onboarded us into a world of croquet grounds, Cheshire cats grinning, and Queens that rather preferred you did not have your head.

As we traveled through the scenes, The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party built experiences via a rich mix of puzzle types, encouraging our party of explorers to continually alter our approach. Not all who wander are lost; this escape room rewarded us for individually exploring and interacting with a space easily expansive enough to keep a group of 4-5 entertained.

Our primary critique of the experience came towards the middle of our journey with a challenge that would have benefited from gating. Between the unnecessary puzzling and subsequent missing information when it was appropriate to solve, this obstacle temporarily sapped most of the enthusiasm from our group. Later finding out that difficulty solving wasn’t due to a search fail – that some of the information simply wasn’t present – only compounded our frustration.

If you are in the greater Phoenix region, this is the type of escape room that I would not hesitate to recommend that you bring your family to for a fun-filled journey through the looking glass.

Who is this for?

• Young at heart
• Scenery aficionados
• Any experience level

Why play?

• Lively group dynamics
• Amusing storybook references

Story

Our jovial group of explorers suddenly found ourselves with the opportunity to explore Wonderland…what adventures to be had!

Setting

Mad Hatter’s Tea Party took place within a whimsical fantasy land with plenty of callbacks to what you might have expected Alice to find in a playful Wonderland.

Gameplay

Eludesions Escape Rooms’ Mad Hatter‘s Tea Party was a standard escape room with a low-to-moderate level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around interacting with the space, searching, and puzzling.

Analysis

➕ The opening sequence was energetic and themed perfectly to frame our adventure. It set the tone for an almost completely smooth path through the game flow.

➕ A physical interaction that tied the scenes together was quite rewarding to see pay off towards the close of the experience.

➖ A problematic puzzle had confusing mechanics and inconsistent cluing that temporarily dragged the momentum of our team.

➕ One particular audio puzzle was incredibly well executed with clear cluing towards the expected outcome.

➖ The use of green lasers may put individuals at risk with eye-level interaction.

➖ It feels as though an opportunity was missed to build towards a momentous finale.

➕ The set encouraged active engagement with the puzzles and surroundings in several satisfying and tangible ways.

Tips For Visiting

• There is a parking lot.

Book your hour with Eludesions Escape Rooms’ Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: Eludesions Escape Rooms provided media discounted tickets for this game.