Hawaii Escape Challenge Aiea

My reviews mainly focus on escape rooms and I only leave reviews for the good ones. HEC is no exception!! We did the Red Doors room and it was full of unique puzzles that vary in tech and difficulty level. The room was clean, neat, and very well maintained. Our game master, Zander, did a great job with his introduction, explanation of house rules, and monitoring us while we played. We thoroughly enjoyed the room and overall experience!! We are currently looking at their website to pick out...
Read full review our next challenge. There are some reviews on here that talk about finding their location. Recommend reviewing their FAQ page on the website. This helps a lot. They are located inside a mall on the second floor close to Macys. Their hallway entrance is beside of Claires.

First time trying one of these. Our group did the Nuclear one. Unfortunately, we didnt make it. (Damn you!) Heres a tip, use your free tips. Dont waste time being cocky that you dont need them. You are wasting your time! Remember this... trust me. Good luck! One last thing... it is pretty hard trying to find this place. I was meeting my group there and accidentally found it by sitting down on one of those couches. Lo and behold there it was! It is on the 2nd floor of Uptown on the north side. Its right next to one of those jewelry stores.

I did The Cabin with the family. Staff was very pleasant and friendly getting us started and after we were done it didnt feel like we were being rushed out. The room was done well. Everything was in good repair, clean, and the puzzles were challenging. We will be trying their other rooms in the future. Another positive point is that theyre in the process of changing out an old room for a brand new one so the company is working to stay fresh.

Such a good time!! Had a last min urge to come. So we came as a walk in and it took an hour long. We got out. Did the champion escape room where we had to try to steal the other teams trophy. Great fun. Looks huge inside, can t wait to do all the other ones :)

Hella fun and all of the staff were friendly and awesome! I did my first escape room here and it was really cool! I definitely want to go back to try out another themed room!

Had reservations for 5 at 645. Was called at 640 and told it starts at 645 even if we are not there. No one was booked after our group because we booked another room immediately after. We were not notified you must park on 3rd floor if the booking is over after 8 PM. Completed The Cabin and Nuclear Launch. We enjoyed The Cabin, although lighting made it more difficult and not so much the puzzles.

Our team of 4 did the Diamond Heist challenge and had a great time. It was only the second Escape challenge any of us had done so we kinda got off to a slow start but eventually we caught on. We had tons of fun. The room was well thought out and the challenges were clever. We did have to get help several times but thats to be expected when youre newbies. We ultimately did escape and most importantly we had a blast doing it. The staff was great. Our game master was awesome. The prices were reasonable...
Read full review. I dont live here but if I did I would definitely come back for more! My only disappointment was that I had seen online that they had super cool tank tops and was planning on getting one as a souvenir but they didnt have any. Otherwise, it was a perfect evening!

Let me preface this by saying I have played escape rooms all around the world. I have never been as disappointed as I have been here. First is the bait and switch pricing. One price is advertised on their website and then after youve already made your way there youre told that is no longer honored. First strike. Second, youre told the standard spiel to not move any furniture, or use force on anything. Its not part of the puzzle. Well, when the first task involves forcefully moving a gigantic piece...
Read full review of furniture, that causes you to waste a lot of time! As you were just explicity told not to do so. Second strike. Lastly, nonsensical puzzles are frustrating enough, as they cannot be solved with logic. Fair enough, every company has at least one of these, thats what hints are for. But broken things that cause puzzle solving to become impossible? Completely unfair. Three strikes, youre out!

Ive only been to one room, the cellar which requires 6 people to do. The game was fun and challenging and perhaps a bit too dark even specially with the challenging puzzles. The reason it received 3 stars was the puzzle rooms had definitely been worn and important props and pieces were actually missing to complete the puzzles. Had we not asked for a clue wed have never known we are missing actual props. Despite the room, the service was friendly and the lobby area clean

Went in February 2020 to scout the place out for my Escape team. Ive done about a dozen rooms across a handful of companies, my experience at Hawaii Escape Challenge is my least favorite so far. Flushed had technical issues that appear to be common, and the GM we had wasnt particularly helpful - maybe the radio signal wasnt good enough? The puzzle progression and designs didnt excite me, and the scent-based puzzle was completely inaccessible to our party of three people with allergies - I hope theyve replaced it with something else since the pandemic started. Another teammate went to check out another room and also didnt care for the room design or GM. I dont regret going, but I dont feel motivated to go back and try another either.

Went here for the first time, super last minute, with a group of six; we booked online and went in at 10:15 pm. Diamond greeted us, she was energetic and helpful with explaining everything for our first escape room! We did the Cellar and although we only completed 74% of it we all had a really fun time! 10/10 Would recommend

We had a bad experience. Our group of four did the Cellar. In short: the equipment didn t work, the Game Master wasn t engaging, and the room broke immersion. I m getting re-frustrated just remembering all of this. Full review: The puzzles weren t extremely challenging, but the Game Master was slow/not responsive to requests for help. The batteries were dying on the walkie talkie, but you d expect the Game Master or managers to check equipment before we started. They weren t watching the cameras...
Read full review to see us waving for help. I think the employees were checked out and they may have just wanted to get home. They took forever to come in and change out the walkie-talkies. We didn t even get an offer for extra time after so much was wasted. I spent 45 minutes separated from the group in my own room. I only spent 15 minutes solving all my puzzles. My friend was stuck in his room the entire 60 minutes. He also only spent ~15 minutes solving his puzzles. There was a camera in my room, so they should have seen me just walking in a circle waiting for something to happen. A simple statement on the walkie-talkie or screen like there s a way to get out of your room would have made all the difference. Instead, the Game Master let us stay frustrated thinking we couldn t leave the rooms. They were very disengaged. I ve been to a lot of escape rooms (more than 6) - the room setup was really immersion breaking. The furniture in my room was falling apart like it was just thrown together when we arrived. Pictures of a victim were headshots of an actor from a famous movie. I could see through holes in the ceiling to outside the escape room. I don t want say too much more, but our expectations were high and we ended up having a really bad time. It s a bummer because it could be so much better. Im hoping for a response from Hawaii Escape Challenge to see if they offer some type of reconciliation or to hear what they have to say because Im still so disappointed.

Two of us did the Flush room. Perfect room for a couple! Unique concepts, well designed puzzles, fitting and functional tech, and a fun story. Our GM Doug was also excellent, took care of us even though were 10 minutes late, and need to get out in 40 minutes so we can catch our flight. Highly recommended, and would love to come back and do the other rooms here (especially the Cellar).

Staff wasnt courteous or accommodating. We paid nearly $500 for a large group to complete a room together as part of a family reunion and had issues with the puzzles being broken and not working. The game master had to physically come into our room to check to make sure a certain puzzle wasnt working, and then returned to give us a something that allowed us to finish the puzzle and escape. When we finished the room they rushed us out and didnt apologize or mention anything about the puzzle...
Read full review in the room breaking. We asked if we would be eligible for a refund or a discount and they said their policy was to not offer any refunds or discounts. I would be much more understanding with a simple apology on their part for the game not working, but they didnt seem to care at all. This was our 4th time booking a room with multiple people at HEC, and we wont be going back after this experience. Breakout Waikiki much better in my opinion.

I ve visited this game before a couple years before and loved it! However, brought visitors in hoping for the same experience and did not get what I was looking for. The game itself would have been fun except the room wasn t set up properly. Locks were unlocked that should not have been and the game master acted as though he didn t want to be at work. We were rushed in and out which set the tone for the whole experience from the beginning. Asking the game master for a clue and a picture at the end seemed as though we were bother him. Would love to do another escape room but will definitely go where welcomed.

This was by far my worst escape room experience. Our game master wasn t very friendly and showed no enthusiasm from the first interaction, nor the last. The room itself was bland as far as creativity goes, there was also parts of the room that require outside knowledge to solve, which is the ultimate no no in the escape room world. There was no congratulation for escaping at the end, nor an escape picture offered. I would not return, and if possible, i would have refunded. Would not recommend.

Great activity for the family. Great test for communication and teamwork. Wide range of puzzles, so even younger ones could participate. 5 themes to choose from. Friendly staff. Great for groups, no food or drinks. Closest bathroom is near Macys, so go before you go in the room. Extended hours, park upstairs by Macys monorail entrance so staff can bring in and out of the mall after mall hours.

Worst escape room ever! I ve done at least 50 escape rooms in my life and I never had such a bad experience. I m not disappoint because we failed to resolve the escape room, but because of the overall experience which why far from enjoyable. It left us feeling angry and stupid. Their location is hard to find in Pearlbridge center, they don t even have any indication on their website on how to find them. The staff was not friendly, welcoming nor professional. The game master gave us vague clues and took a lot of time to answer. The puzzles were not fun to resolve nor logical. Don t lose your time and your money on this place, I definitely do not recommend it.

I must first say that I have done many many escape rooms in different countries and this one is by far the worst one ! First situated in a mall and very difficult to find. Second the staff is not very amicable (after all it s supposed to be an enjoyable experience). The given clues are not very helpful and the game master takes several minutes to answer). The puzzles are not very logical either not fun at all! I really don t recommend !

My 3 friends and I did the Cellar challenge and had a blast! Definitely would recommend at least 6 people in your group but we pulled it off with 4. We ended up purchasing the second hour for half off and Im so glad we did because we managed to finish it with three minutes to spare! The staff was amazing and thank you to Claire who was our Game Master. She was so sweet and helped us out above and beyond! We will definitely be back for the remaining challenges!

My family has visited Hawaii Escape Challenge four times now. Every time has been an absolutely wonderful experience! The staff has great customer service and has always been so warm, friendly, and most of all helpful! I definitely recommend anyone on the fence about checking them out, to go ahead and book a room now.

We have done Nuclear Launch, Diamond Heist in the past. Loved the experience and the staff. Tonight we did The Cellar and again had a great experience. We arent very good apparently as we didnt escape any room, however the staff was super amazing and accommodating to assist us in making progress forward. Way past the 3 clues allowed, to ensure our experience was great. Highly recommend and I will definitely visit to finish the 2 rooms we havnt done.

They started the time while our group was still paying. Waste of money. Only had 35 mins instead of an hour to complete it. Terrible service and experience. Rooms are very cheaply designed. There are better escape rooms on island, highly recommended other escape rooms over this.

Me and my family went to The Cellar escape room and we ended up quite dissatisfied In the beginning we had run into little to no problems and we re having a good time being scared and solving the riddles. However they didn t set up the room correctly and it caused us to lose more time which bummed us out. and, one of the rooms weren t working properly so a game master ended up having to come and fix the room for like 5-10 minutes and ended up not being able to fix it which led us to no motivation...
Read full review on finishing this escape room which killed our entire mood . Adding onto that they had terrible customer service and the workers were very unenthusiastic and knew very little about their job. While leaving we were very rushed while we were trying to talk to the supervisor and we ended up having to leave without our wasted $468 and not even a sorry for the inconvenience. or a picture with our time. They gave us absolutely no refund even though it was $36 a person and the place wasn t properly set up. Our experience was very bad and we will definitely go somewhere else next time.

The Nuclear Launch escape room was really fun. I d recommend trying them. However, DO NOT pay in advance. Reserve your spot and pay when you arrive. I paid for 6 and only had 4. I emailed management and they never responded to gave me a credit, or a refund.

I did the cellar with 3 friends so four of us total and it was challenging for sure but we had so much fun and our game master Claire was super fun and awesome. Was a great experience.

I was a bit hesitant because of some of the recent reviews that were on here, but the friendly staff have made our experience here very pleasant! We did the Flush room and it was challenging and exciting at the same time! I cant emphasize how nice the staff were. It was my first escape room and we will be doing one again soon. Thank you Hawaii Escape Challenge for letting us have fun! Mahalo!

Overall pretty good. The staff was friendly upon arrival, the room was fairly unique and challenging. There was definitely some work put into the theming but it still feels a little unpolished and cheap compared to some other escape rooms Ive done. The biggest reason for the three star review is that one of the challenges was incorrectly built (it looked like someone had previously broken it and Im putting the blame on the staff because it was put back together in the wrong configuration. Im putting...
Read full review the blame on the staff because it was fine with some sort of industrial glue which your customers probably didnt bring with them). We spent about 10-12 minutes trying to solve that one puzzle and at the end only got a sorry from the staff. Very frustrating and disappointing.

Went as a family outing, 2 different staff members as well as the waivers failed to mention that children 4 and under had to be HELD the entire time. We were told rudely after starting our game that our 3 year old needed to be secured. We chose to walk out and ask for a refund because its not possible to hold children and play. They refused to refund. We decided to attempt the game since the manager said we could set him down but he cant touch anything. Every time he touched...
Read full review something or tried to help the game master told us to watch him or stop him. He was fine. He wasnt hurting anything. We went to breakout Waikiki the day before and they are MUCH better for family with children. I was able to set my 1 yr old down to free my hands for the challenge. Its sad hawaii escape challenge advertises its fun for all ages when in reality thats not true at all.

Finally tried out an escape room. Been trying for a while now with no luck at some of the other businesses because our groups were too small or we didnt book in advance. Great customer service allowed us to walk in and learn about the games and book an open room on the spot. They say online reservations are recommended for larger groups, which makes sense and I will totally do when we want to book the cellar*. Through Marks recommendations and timing we ended up signing up for the Virus escape first...
Read full review. Nearly kicked our butts but we got out with just under 2 minutes left. No spoilers but some of the tricks they use are awesome and definitely get you into the mood. We had to use clues so we wanted redemption which means we took a break, got some lunch, and came back for the Nuclear Launch... oh my. This room was recommended for a minimum 4 people, and we thought we could conquer it in 3. We were wrong lol. We got to the last few puzzles and time just ran out on us. It was a ton of fun and definitely worth every cent. Im also glad they dont just have a single room because we can go back for more. I We plan on coming back and doing a warmup on the Diamond Heist, before tackling their newest room the Cellar. I hear this one splits you up, so we need to recruit a couple more people first. But we will be back... and no clues, we will win.