Universal Studios in Florida have created two escape rooms based around the Back to the Future and Jurassic World movies.

The venue is a former nightclub on Universal City Walk.

Inside feels like an old cinema.

There are various displays with costumes (not screen used) from the movies.

A bar serves themed drinks. The best named drink – Wake Up Juice.

Both escape rooms are actually a series of rooms, where you move from one room to the next after solving clues. Entry times are every 15 minutes and up to six people can enter. That means that you could be with strangers during the experience. Personally I can’t think of anything worse than to be stuck with other people – the only way to guarantee you’ll be alone is to pay $300 plus tax for a private experience ticket. Regular ticket is $49.99 plus tax and that price is higher in the evening and weekends.

I called the Great Movie Escape team and asked about the quietest periods where we would have the best chance to not be mixed with others. They said weekdays and when I looked online I could see plenty of availability – they aren’t busy at all.

We arrived at 10.30am for the first experience time of 10.45am. There weren’t any other customers, but we waited until 10.42 to purchase our tickets to the Back to the Future room.

We then had to watch a video explaining how the rooms worked and some safety information before entering the escape room.

SPOILER ALERT! The following describes each of the rooms, but doesn’t give away any answers to the puzzles. Photography isn’t allowed and so there are no pictures.

Prior to the first room was just an introduction to the game, presented by an on-screen lab assistant. There weren’t any puzzles to solve and the door to the first room opened.

The first room was like a Back to the Future museum with various memorabilia. Doc Brown, voiced by Christopher Lloyd, was featured on screen, but only as a silhouette. Fans of the movie will enjoy the memorabilia. We thought the puzzle wasn’t very good. Doesn’t matter if you solve the puzzle as the doors open to the next room after a certain time anyway.

The second room was Doc Brown’s barn from 1885. The theming was 1885 but it wasn’t anything like the barn from the movie – no scale model of the train and time machine and none of the gadgets. Again, the puzzle was more irritating than fun and required no knowledge of the movie to solve.

The third room was the Cafe 80s. The theming was pretty good, although we would have liked to see a Pepsi Perfect pop up from the counter when we solved the clues. The Wild Gunman machine had the wrong name. This was the only game where knowledge of the movie helped.

The fourth room was based around Biff’s Casino from alternate 1985. We liked the memorabilia. The game felt like at least three people were required to solve the puzzle – as only two and not escape room experts, we failed completely.

The fifth room was nicely themed around the 1955 Enchantment Under the Sea dance. Another puzzle that was more irritating than fun and required no knowledge of the movie to solve.

The sixth and final room was nicely themed around the 1955 clocktower lightening strike. Again, this game felt like more than two people were required.

We exited the experience to applause from the Universal cast member – we didn’t deserve the applause as we did really badly.

We enjoyed the themed rooms, not so much the games. We had planned to visit the Jurassic World movie escape next, but couldn’t face another set of the same games. I almost wish this wasn’t an escape room experience, instead a less expensive themed walk through.

The place was still deserted when we left around noon – I have a feeling that this attraction doesn’t do very well and might not be open for long. I think the tickets are expensive, especially where visitors may have paid for theme park admission and this isn’t included.

If you’re a fan of Back to the Future with a spare $56, it’s worth a visit before this closes.

https://www.universalorlando.com/web/en/us/things-to-do/entertainment/universals-great-movie-escape

Parking is a ridiculous $30, but you can re-claim that after purchasing tickets for either movie escape. Reclaiming is made difficult as you need to visit guest services.