A new escape room (ER/ERs) style experience may be coming to select Walt Disney World Resort hotels, according to Notes from Neverland (NFN).
According to a reliable source who reached out to NFN, Disney is looking to create small-scale experiences at several resorts that can entertain guests with puzzles matching the overall themes found at the resort.
It’s believed that these experiences are currently being designed for three resorts – Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort (& Spa) and Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort.
Each resort’s ER would be themed to the resort instead of being themed towards any specific Disney Characters.
Though the activities are similar to ERs in “nature” (complete a set of tasks in order to move on), it’s not believed they’ll be called or referred to as ERs by Disney.
The size of these experiences sound somewhat small. Imagine a large room, perhaps similar to a large conference room, that could be separated into several smaller rooms that combine to create the overall activity.
You may complete a challenge in the first room before moving on to the second room. You’d have to complete all the tasks to “escape” or complete the experience.
“Overall hourly capacity sounds like it’d be fairly low. We’d wager a guess that 50 guests per hour would even be on the high end. But, that’s a more impressive number when you combine the three locations and assume that additional locations could be added if the initial tests go well. This sounds like Disney wants to test the water with this concept,” Notes from Neverland said.
It would be fair to say the idea of ERs isn’t new in the theme park industry. The concept grew in popularity over the past several years and may have even grown in the last couple.
Certain cruise ships even offer comparable experiences to guests sailing with them, however some have said it’s a fad that will eventually fade.
Disney might be a little late to the ER game here, however if they have produced some innovative puzzles with fun themes at a reasonable price, they could have just found a new way to keep guests entertained and at their resorts for longer periods of time.
The pricing, length and complexity of the puzzles are unknown at this time. Please take these kinds of rumours with a grain of salt until Disney officially announces their plans.
Source: Notes from Neverland
