Irvine School Of Wizardry And The Dragon WandHidden DonkeyEscape roomIRLRoom #196. This ended up being the final room for the core DRKØPS team, as Colin and Jestine retired after 100 rooms or so. What a way to go out! This room encapsulated all that makes escape rooms great. Highly recommended.
Haunted MansionOogie Boogie Bash at Disneyland ResortHauntHaunted houseClassic, of course. Sometimes my penchant for chaos gets the best of me and I end up rolling with mattress actresses who have “cum slut” tattooed on the back of their legs at the precise eye level of small children just learning to read. I’ll get better.
The WillowsJust Fix It ProductionsHauntOther THE WILLOWS maniacally scratched every itch I had (for fresh immersive theater concepts) until it bled and bled and bled so beautifully. A maximum of 18 guests are allowed to attend each performance. Think dinner theater (kinda)… but it’s actually a wake being held for a recently departed young man by his rapidly-mentally-deteriorating family wherein you must quickly assume the role of one of the deceased’s friends in order to “yes, and” the whole experience. It escalates… boyyy does it escalate. Maybe a small dollop of Texas Chain Saw Massacre without the saw? One of the many things I loved is that it’s formatted to encourage interaction between yourself and the actors AND your fellow attendees. So because we shared an intense experience with complete strangers over a few hours, we actually made friends at this thing, traded contact info, and I even got to slow dance with my favorite new stranger in ages. It RULED.
ArenaMindTrap Escape Room - MurrietaEscape roomIRLRoom #194. As brutal as advertised. We had put this one off for years because it didn’t sound appealing or fun whatsoever, but it kept getting recommended a ton before we finally decided to do it. Kind of makes sense that it’s permanently closed… it wasn’t for everyone, but I’m glad we played.
Cinema SlasherKnott’s Scary FarmHauntHaunted houseDawg… they had Frankenhooker split in two and stuck to a wall in one of the backgrounds. When there’s that much attention to detail on a niché property, you know the haunt is great.
The Family CabinQuicksand Escape GamesEscape roomIRLRoom #200! Great way to ring in a big round number. Did it with the usual team and also had Jessica Penne hop in yet again. Quicksand is always great… they haven’t missed yet.
Jingle BellsMindTrap Escape Room - MurrietaEscape roomIRLRoom #193. Another perfect room from Mindtrap. This one was set up in the remnants of Oz after it had been damaged in a flood and it was one hell of a room… can’t say enough great things about this place and the designers. They know what’s up.
Mesmer: Sideshow Of The MindKnott’s Scary FarmHauntHaunted houseKind of a staple, it hasn’t changed from year to year, but still very enjoyable and usually fast to get into.
Delusion: Nocturnes & Nightmares - [Season 2023]DelusionHauntHaunted houseThis year’s edition of Delusion (an annual immersive theater experience) up in Pomona was called “Nocturnes and Nightmares.” It was considerably less intense, less dark (both in terms of lighting and subject matter), and involved way less physical exertion than last year’s cult theme and design. Something tells me that there must have been problems with audience members (or something along those lines) last year that led to this year getting intentionally tamed so much. Even still, there was a group getting kicked out as we were about to go in because a guy actually tried to punch an actor, the whole group kept taking out their phones to film (you’re explicitly told not to), and they kept disrupting the whole performance for the actors and fellow audience members.
Prison BreakThe Escape Game - IrvineEscape roomIRLRoom #195. I remember the communications on this one being spotty and the reset wasn’t complete, so the gamemaster had to come in and fix some things during gameplay. That obviously broke up the immersion aspect. Weird that this one’s an award-winner on the app. They just have remedied a bunch of stuff in the past couple of years, which is good.
![Delusion: Nocturnes & Nightmares - [Season 2023]](https://res.cloudinary.com/mortyapp/image/upload/c_limit,w_260/f_auto/v1/store/s/00d0529f-219f-4325-b2d9-0f79322d7746.png)
