New Escape Room In Bel Air Nearly Impossible To Solve

BEL AIR, MD - Players eager for a new challenge prompted the owners of Bel Air's first escape room to create a new room ahead of schedule.

Great Escapes opened in September 2016 in The Shops at Bel Air, where it offers three themed rooms in which people must solve puzzles to "escape."

Owners Chris and Katie Cole added a new room in July that only one group has been able to solve within the allotted hour, the husband-and-wife team reported this week.

Related: Escape Room Opening In Bel Air

"The Haunted Audition" is now the most challenging of the three rooms that the business has to offer, the Coles said. It replaces "The Dressing Room," where players had to get out of a magician's dressing room.

"It’s a completely different set of puzzles and the room has a whole new look, plus it’s much more difficult," Katie Cole said, adding: "We have learned that the more challenging a room is, the better that escape room enthusiasts like it.”

In "The Haunted Audition," players solve puzzles to outsmart a dead magician who is sabotaging others auditioning to take his place. The Coles designed the puzzles, created the sets and wrote the stories to go with each room, a process that takes months.

"From our very first weekend in business, no matter which room was played and no matter if they escaped or not, visitors were eager to try another adventure," Chris Cole said. "In fact, many came back and completed all three rooms within six months. So although initially we had anticipated changing the first round of rooms after a year, our guests’ enthusiasm motivated us to accelerate that schedule.”

In addition to "The Haunted Audition," Great Escapes has rooms called "The Pharaoh's Chamber" (mid-level difficulty) and "The Killer's Lair" (highest rate of escapes)

By the end of the year, the Coles said they may replace another room to keep players guessing.

Great Escapes Harford is located in the Shops at Bel Air South at 2108 Emmorton Road, across from The Festival, next to YourSpace Storage. It is open Thursday to Sunday, and hours vary. Special sessions for groups of at least 10 can be arranged by appointment. Minors must be accompanied by adults.

Players must purchase tickets online in advance; tickets are $27.

Image provided by Great Escapes.