Breakout Liverpool – Cursed Carnival

Cursed Carnival at Breakout Liverpool was Mr Carrot’s inaugural room. It’d been sprung on him as a surprise, and he hadn’t known what we were up to until we walked through the doors, but he seemed well up for it (which he expressed by directing a happy and grateful torrent of abuse towards me) which was a good sign. I think.

The Story:
You and your friends have won yourself a prize at the local carnival, but it’s a prize with a difference. Since you took it home, you have been plagued by strange dreams and a haunting voice that tells you to return your prize within 7 days. You return to the site of the carnival on the 7th day and enter the old workshop where you must solve the mystery with only an hour left before the clock strikes midnight. Can you break the curse in 60 minutes or will your nightmares come true…

While this room was actually listed as one of Breakout’s easier rooms, we actually struggled quite a bit with it. Once we solved things though they did all make sense and there weren’t any illogical puzzles or anything, but I think we just weren’t ‘in the zone’ and had a lot of ‘doh!’ moments when clues were given via a TV screen (and gratefully accepted). It’s either that, or we’re just a bit rubbish which is something I expect I’ll be saying a lot more in the future!

The decoration and theming of the room itself was bright and Carnival like as you’d expect, and the accompanying music set the scene perfectly. There was a fair bit of searching involved to start us off, as we had to find a few collections of connected items, but nothing too difficult in that regard.

Several times we thought we must be at the final stage, only to find another bit to complete, and then another bit, so we were getting a bit nervous towards the end.

I’ve was told by our host that kids often find this room much easier than the others, and I’m not sure whether that says something good or something bad about us seeing as we found it so tricky!

Result: Escaped in 56 minutes