Room Escape Artist

When in London… Phantom Peak. We loved Wintermas when we visited in 2023, so with an impromptu visit to London this spring (2025), we definitely wanted to experience another season and see how this delightful, interactive world had evolved. (For more details about Phantom Peak, check out our original review.)

At the time of our first visit, Phantom Peak had recently introduced a closing ceremony to put a bow on the hours-long experience. With this visit, we also experienced an opening ceremony, which set the stage for the trails, highlighted important characters, and gave us overarching goals for Jonacon. This orientation provided a lot of guidance that I expect especially helps new visitors.

As much as we loved the ridiculous stories of the trails we pursued, we didn’t find Jonacon to be as interesting as Wintermas. It was supposed to be a convention, but this only added some extra gameplay, and not a thematic layer. As much as we had fun solving a Survivor-style upright blimp-themed jigsaw puzzle to try to win points (for a team that didn’t feel particularly meaningful), the convention vibes were lackluster. There was opportunity to make Jonacon into something more than it was.

That said, Phantom Peak has evolved its own culture, seasonal theme aside. We were impressed by how many guests wore costumes! This added vibrancy to the town itself. Phantom Peak has achieved being a living, evolving, immersive town. To me it feels like a real-life Brigadoon – not because it appears every 100 years, but because I appear at it intermittently, and I can’t take the world back home with me. It exists where it is, in its own time and space, for me to visit, appreciate, and enjoy.

Crowd Control

Phantom Peak expertly handled crowds who all wanted information from the same characters. When we first visited Phantom Peak, we spent a lot of time waiting in line to talk to a character, just to have the same interaction as the 3 groups in line ahead of us, albeit adapted to whatever our group said, and how we played the scene.

On this visit, we found that the actors more readily pulled together a dozen people who had all sought out the character for the same purpose, never mind that they were from 4 different parties. This didn’t detract from our experience at all. Sometimes we played the scene our way, with other guests looking on; other times we got to appreciate someone else’s approach to the character. We were happy to let families be front and center, and let children be the stars. If the follow-up interaction required a prop of any kind, the character would give one to each party, allowing us to progress at our own paces.

Furthermore, the actors were aware of everyone around them. We stepped into one room, prepared to wait for a character who was performing a scene for another group, but they immediately recognized our purpose and shepherded us along to a well-concealed interaction without detracting from the experience of the group they were engaged with. It was impressive.

More Machines

Since our last visit, Phantom Peak has introduced Klacky, a device similar to the Jonagraph, Jonavision, and Jonacomms… but distinct in name, which really counted for a lot. Even on this second visit, I couldn’t keep those others straight, but I knew Klacky.

Furthermore, Klacky accepted more varied inputs, allowing more creative freedom for the parts of trails that revolved around machines instead of humans.

A few of the various kiosks were broken during our visit, which created some bottlenecking.

We’ve struggled with the web app that is central to completing Phantom Peak trails since our first visit, something Matthew also noted in his piece about the Summer’s Peak season. During this visit, I found the app easier to manage, perhaps in part because my fingers weren’t so cold, but also, I think, because it was less essential to the experience. I managed the app, and the other members in our group of 4 hardly looked at it. They didn’t need to. They had all the characters and all the Jona-devices, plus Klacky, to provide information and plot points.

Storytelling

The actors at Phantom Peak were truly exceptional. They made every guest feel welcome, while delivering key plot points… over and over all day as if each time was the very first time.

Phantom Peak had also introduced puppets, since our first visit. We loved this, as it gave the actors even more opportunity for playfulness and drama.

Phantom Peak could further enhance their storytelling by adding magic into the various character interactions. We could turn a blind eye to a character pushing buttons on a keyboard, but the interaction could be so much more impactful with a hidden foot pedal, or some similarly hidden trigger.

As much as the actors brought the town to life, the humorous video content elevated each trail at Phantom Peak. The videos were unhinged, in the best way possible. With this visit, we found the video production had leveled up, as had the storytelling in these brief, punchy video interludes.

Since day one, Phantom Peak has leaned into its own unique humor, and that’s a large part of its charm. The trails at Jonacon were no different. Come to Phantom Peak for an amusing, unusual, and entertaining immersive adventure.

Jonacon is running through May 11, 2025.

Disclosure: Phantom Peak comped our tickets for this experience.