Escapealive Reviews 19

What an absolute joke of a place. Waste of money, very boring. How they can charge these prices are insane. Do not go, it's very bad for everyone. Hard work getting any response of the company, they don't care and don't listen.

I paid £154 for 4 of us to attend the Maze Entry + Halloween Party it was an absolute waste of money for the "experience" Alton Towers scare Maze for £30 is fare better for value and "scare factor"

"Local stalls" was a chippy van, pizza van and coffee and cake. All extremely over priced along with the bar!

After the Maze they took all our wrist bans off so any was "welcome to stay" if they "dare" until 11pm so you couldn't tell who paid to stay for the "party" or who was there for FREE!

No refund policy! Absolutely disgusting! It's a total rip off. Out in 10 mins and not an experience I want to re-encounter. It's as bad as the other overpriced experiencees that have reached the news!

Spoke to onsite manager and he wasn't interested as he had our money! Send an email to 'customer services' or speak to the box office!!

Stay away!! Left a sour taste in my mouth and I'm out of pocket.

Absolutely terrible! DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY! Maze was such a disappointment. No plot and only lasted 10 minutes. Not scary at all. No “after party” which we paid extra for and everyone was allowed to come and go as they please, whether they’d paid extra or not. Hardly any stalls and those that were there were ridiculously priced. £6.50 for a warm
Can of Budweiser! Managements attitude when questioned was disgusting. What a disappointment!!

If I could give this a minus score I would.
Absolutely dreadful. What a waste of money!
Local street food was a pizza truck and fish and chip stall charging extortionate prices.
There was no "party" which the tickets were an extra £15 pp!
No one was monitoring the tickets.
It wasn't scary. The actors were mediocre.
We spoke to a security guard who didn't know anything about a party. She went to speak to the "owner"...
Came back and advised to speak to box office. Went to speak to them and were told that they don't know as they run a few events. Absolutely dreadful.

Went back to speak to the "owner" and by far was this the SCARIEST experience of them all. He was there with 3 men, who were intimidating and quite rude and aggressive. Told they can't help and to speak to customer service. Absolutely dreadful.

If you've ever been to FEAR at Avon Valley (or something similar) you will definitely be underwhelmed by Escape Alive's experience at Caldicot Castle. The "maze" essentially comprises a series of rooms with different actors in that deliver monologues/stories. Some of the stories made absolutely no sense and went nowhere - after 60 seconds or so of an actor talking, you were ushered into the next part of the maze for another completely unrelated act. Some of the actors put in a decent attempt, but it was really let down by the non-sensical format of the maze and non existent storyline. I would also say that the time we spent in the queue was a fair bit longer than what we spent in the maze (and yes, there is queueing inside the maze itself whilst you wait for the previous group to clear the room etc). Speaking of the queue, there was one actor constantly walking the length of the queue and shouting at everyone to "fill empty gaps" so we could get into the maze more quickly. Again, non-sensical and got old pretty quickly. When we got to the end I couldn't quite believe that this experience cost £27.50 per person. I would normally make a point of looking for at least one positive, but honestly I feel a bit ripped off.

Total utter waste of money. Cost me £100 for 4 tickets. The walk through lasted 15 mins. Was meant to be 12+ only and little kids were there. We seen one scare actor which was a knight walking around aimlessly. The best bit was the monk outside when we were queuing. Please save your money and next year go to Fear at Avon Valley, they really put the effort in.

Totally over priced for what this was. 20mins in the "maze" and nothing really to do when you came out. Queued for about 20mins before we got into the maze which wasn't too bad. The actors were quite good but lacked any real story and we were ushered through each section so quickly you didn't really have time to take anything in. If it had been £10 per person it wouldn't have been so bad but £50 for 2 people is way too much for what we experienced.

The potential for something scary at Caldicot Castle is huge but it was a massive let down and as other reviews stated, over within 10 minutes. Throughout the maze, when we entered each room we expected something to happen but instead, just ushered by an actor to the door and into the next room. I’d describe it as a ‘fast dark castle walk’ instead of an experience!
The whole ambience has not been considered; you can hear disco music throughout being played by the DJ.
If the tickets had cost ~£10 it may have met my expectations but not at more than double the cost. What a disappointment!!
I’d recommend the organisers visit London Dungeon to enhance their knowledge.

If I could give this minus 1 stars I would. Unfortunately I didn't read the below terrible reviews before going to Caldicot Castle.

Over £20 for one 'maze' definitely isn't worth it and wasn't made clear on the false advertising on social media. I'm so annoyed that it was made to look amazing on Instagram when in reality it's the furthest thing from scary. The 'actors' wore the worst masks (couldn't even be bothered to attempt face paint) the storylines were weak, accompanied by the fact you couldn't hear them under the mask and at one point there was just a guy juggling. My friend who is normally scared by anything, didn't even flinch. I can't put in to words how annoyed I am so be so ripped off. It then gets worse as we tried to pay for the photo booth only to be ripped off another £6 as it didn't work and basically printed loads out for free anyway. We wondered if the night could be saved by a hot chocolate but they had run out of whipped cream!!! Insane.

Please don't waste your money on this absolute farce. I wouldn't even think kids would be scared.

I was extremely disappointed by the *Escape Alive Scare Maze* at Caldicot Castle. For the price we paid, I expected a thrilling, immersive experience, but it fell completely flat. First, it was far too short – it felt like we had barely started when it was already over. We booked one of the "scarier" slots, but it wasn’t particularly frightening, even for people who don’t scare easily. I’ve done other scare mazes at a similar price point, and they offered much more in terms of length, intensity, and atmosphere.

They had bingo going on in the waiting area which you could hear from the maze, which was just odd and totally didn't fit the theme. There was also spice girls playing which we could also hear, no scary music to set the tone.

The maze also failed to fit the advertised theme of the "Lady in Grey." There was no continuity or storytelling that tied the experience together, which made it feel disjointed and confusing. Overall, it was a poorly executed maze that did not live up to the hype. Save your money and look elsewhere if you want a genuine scare experience – this one isn’t worth it.

The advertising for the Caldicot Caslte Halloween event is misleading as what you see on Instagram is not what you get at all.....paid £75 in total for 3 of us to enter and we lasted probably 30 mins.....the maze was the only scary thing there and was rushed from room to room....luckily we ate before coming in so didn't have to pay the extortionate prices that people have talked about.....however my daughter wanted a marshmallow stick but at £5 for 3 marshmallows we gave that a miss......very misleading and wrongly advertised as a scary event......Will definitely not be booking again and makes me question booking any Escape event anywhere after that.

WASTE OF MONEY!!!
- Caldicot Castle Escape Alive
The tickets were very expensive and so before I made my purchase I sent an email to the customer service team to find out how long the scare maze would last. I was told that the experience usually lasts between 30-40 minutes which I thought wasn't too bad but an experience like this I would expect to last up to an hour.
Me and my partner went to the 9:15 slot and so wasn't queuing for long which was good. The actors were pretty good and played their roles well but were very rushed as I have mentioned below. As we finished the maze it felt like we had just gone in. I checked my phone to see the time was 9:30. I felt disgusted. After the initial briefing, we must have only been in the maze 10 minutes max. £50 for 2 tickets just to be there for 10 minutes is way out.
Furthermore, they have a no refund policy so once you've paid all that money for overpriced tickets, you'll never see it again. The experience is what matters the most and it has really let me down. I expected a lot better.
Each scene could have been longer. It felt like the actors had rushed each scene considering we were one of the last groups to go through the maze and so it felt like they wanted to get it over and done with so they could go home.
I never leave reviews, but because I have been scammed by false advertising and false information, I don't want other people to be scammed by this too.
I am planning on going to a scare maze again next year but it definitely won't be with escape records.

Extremely disappointed!!!
Having been to things like this in the past I was really looking forward to the idea of going to a scare maze in a castle!!! What a fab idea!!!!
My friend bought me this as a gift and we were both excited to go.
We got there and got in fairly quickly, our a lot was
7.30. We went straight to the loo as had travelled over an hour to get there. The portaloos were
Gross!!!! No lights, no loo roll in a few of them and the smell was horrific!!!!! Rotten fish!!!

We then headed straight over to queue for the maze. We didn’t queue too long,
Around 10/15 mins, and went in.
Well the scare maze was awful, the actors were Mediocre, and didn’t make It feel scary at all, after Going in a hand full of
Rooms we headed
Outside,
Watched a brief show
With a flame thrower then
Was a Quick hustle thru to the end where someone ran at u with a chainsaw and it’s over.

Was in there 10 mins max!!!

I was expecting so much more from this. It is such a shame as this could have been so much more.

The entertainment was
Lacking, the food choices were minimal, and the “horror movies” playing….Addams family!!???? Not really horror

Wasted the evening and wasted
Fuel
Got there at 7.30 left at
8.05!

The start was amazing I screamed the hole way through one of the acts made me laugh.The squeaky voices had me it was so scary and they had us sat down and they was like a warm breath and she was saying this man was going to chop of some of our heads.But I do get what people mean though when we left there was a big queue and in it we didn’t really see it but they was chasing us up the stairs as we went down the noroww steep stairs.The entertainment was rubbish my favourite act was the witch he brought the kids up to look for a escape note but there was probably none there before the chain sore man it was a norrow hallway they probably made and in the end it was great I don’t want to spoil it all it was amazing just needs better entertainment who wants to go fishing for ducks straight after it and do bingo and the masmrllows where £5 But I do recommend I did go at 7:30 maybe don’t try the late one.We did go on Halloween though.

Pure disappointment there was nothing there to do before or after the maze just people playing bingo they had a dj and all he done was play terrible club music and not halloween music and the maze really did seem very loosely put together I wouldn't go again

Caldicot castle escape alive was over priced and extremely underwhelming, even the kids said it was boring and too quick, ushered into rooms where an actor says a few lines then they move you on, literally took 10 mins if that, 3 pounds charge for parking, chips were extortionate, then 3 pound for a can of coke! Save your money!

I don’t normally write reviews, but this experience was so bad that I feel I must warn others not to waste their money and time.

My friend and I attended the Escape Alive event at Caldicot Castle on 26th October and we have been extremely disappointed with the event as a whole.

Our time slot was 20:45-21:00, we arrived 15 minutes early and were waiting in the queue for over 20 minutes just to get into the event. We were told that our time slot had moved to a later time and we were now on the 21:15 group. This would have been fine, as we are reasonable people who understand that these things happen, but the night that followed has lead me to request a refund.

Firstly, we were charged £3 for parking on top of the fee to enter. This is only mentioned on the ticket email after purchasing sent about 48 hours prior. If this information is somewhere it has not been made clear enough. The parking for Caldicot Castle is also normally free, so it is clear this event is all about the money and not about the customer experience.

We then queued over an hour (close to 1.5 hours) for what can only be described as one of the most awkward scare mazes I have ever been to. The actors tried their best, however multiple power cuts throughout the night made it difficult to function.

We stood in the queue for so long that we went to get a hot chocolate from the stalls. We were charged £8 (2x £4) for one scoop of shop bought galaxy hot chocolate sachets, which is incredibly overpriced. We understand that these events need to make a profit but this was outrageous. The power cuts also meant that the stalls couldn’t operate.

The scare maze itself was one of the worst I have ever been to, and I have been to a fair few such as Fear @ Avon Valley, Alton Towers and smaller mazes like Bristol Aquarium etc. We were left standing in a room with lights flashing aggressively for about 5 minutes, wondering where we were going. It got to the point where our group were laughing, rather than scared.

The website advertises ‘street food’ yet upon arrival it is clear that one fish and chips stall and one pizza stall is all that is offered.

The website also advertises marshmallow toasting, yet this was turned off the whole night. The Tarot reader also had no slots left for the whole evening, so by the time my slot came around at 8:45pm there was no hope in getting a place.

Because of the long queues and delays, by the time we got out of the maze everything was packed away. It’s important to bear in mind we began queuing at 21:06, so our whole time was spent in a queue.

I have proof of all of the above through time stamps on photos taken and photographic proof of the fires not working, tarot reader, long queues etc.

Overall, I feel absolutely robbed of £20+ (plus the £3 parking charge and £8 on below average hot chocolates) after attending this event. I even heard conversations between people leaving as we arrived that it “was definitely not worth the money”.

I have tried contacting Escape Alive on Instagram and Facebook, but have had no response. They are also deleting other people’s negative comments on social media, which I feel is really damaging as people need to know whether it is worth the money. In case you hadn’t guessed already… it’s not.

I’m hoping someone from Escape Alive will read this review and give customers what they deserve - a refund.