Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and people everywhere are scrambling to figure out how to impress their sweethearts. Planning a fun and original date is a challenge, and a lot of people choose to include an escape room. Escape rooms are an amazing date idea for a couple that’s been together for a while. They can provoke communication and force you to work as a team. But if you’re a new couple or if it’s a casual date, we would like to offer a word of caution. There are a lot of reasons not to choose an escape room date. Let us explain.
We’re not sure this needs a more specific explanation. Frankly, escape rooms just don’t stack up to a candle-lit dinner or some roses. So many of them are horror-themed. Even the games that are more adventure-based usually have at least one good scare. Just look at some of the missions at Escape Games Canada; evil corporate laboratories and serial killers hiding in subway stations really don’t scream romance, do they? Like we already mentioned, after a few years of being together, a little adventure with some friends can make for a memorable date night! But if you’re trying to impress your Valentine, you might fare better sticking to more conventional plans than an escape room date.
Any escape room worth playing won’t pair you with strangers, they’ll also rely on strong teamwork and communication to solve. That automatically rules out playing with just two people. Sure, you could buy the minimum admissions and take on the game by yourselves, but before you jump at that idea, consider this. Playing short-handed is going to make the game so much harder, in some cases, you might even be short-handed and unable to finish! Not to mention, if you’re not experienced escape room players, there’s the basic challenge of just figuring out how the game works! That’s right, escape rooms have a learning curve and if you haven’t played very many, that curve may be steep. You want to impress your date, right? Then don’t put yourself in a situation where they watch you struggle with a logic puzzle!
You want to make sure you have a good rapport with your escape room team, and that includes any potential dates you might bring with you. Since you’ll both presumably be playing for the first time, you want to ensure a couple of things. First, it’s important that you can work as a team. Imagine really liking someone and everything is going well until five minutes into an escape room when neither of you can agree on how to solve the first puzzle! Second, you want to be sure that you can look impressive. Getting frustrated, or accidentally making a bad game choice, those aren’t cute looks. Why would you put yourself in a situation where it’s easier to look foolish than impressive? The short answer is you shouldn’t. Wait until you have a bit of a relationship, your communication has been tested, then wow your date with your puzzle-solving skills.
Romance isn’t dead, unless you kill it, and not thinking twice before planning an escape room date might do just that. Bring your long-time, board game-loving SO, or your BFFs, or even your parents along to enjoy a game. But remember that Valentine’s Day is your time to shine and impress your date, so don’t throw it away by creating an awkward experience and failing an escape room.
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