Get a lock on fun
Bust out your thinking cap for a trip to Escape Rooms Newport
By Gretchen Ammerman
Oregon Coast TODAY
Picture yourself trapped in a room made to look and feel like a deserted island, an old-timey jail or a pirate ship. Then, imagine that, instead of using brawn, bribery or a blunderbuss to survive, you need to rely only on your brain.
Finally, imagine you have been dragged to said setting by your significant other.
Luckily for me, my husband is a great sport. Neither of us had a clue what we were in for when he “agreed” to be my research assistant for a feature on Escape Rooms Newport, which turned out to be a very good thing.
We chose the island room, and the first thing that we saw as we entered was a [redacted] and some [redacted].
My husband and I have very different brains, so it worked out well; he noticing things that I didn’t, and I figuring out some small part of the whole picture.
You are allowed three clues, which feel like a valuable currency that, from experience, I do not recommend hoarding.
After we figured out our first challenge, we were both engaged and emboldened. Players are given one hour to reach the final clue and escape, and the time truly flew by.
At one point, we found a [redacted] which once [redacted] caused a [redacted] to [redacted]. It was super cool.
The rooms can accommodate as few as one and as many as 10 people, depending on your choice of theme, but the more brains the better.
People can, and often do, return to repeat a room to finish. The experience is addictive.
“We have people that do escape rooms anywhere they travel that have them,” said Robert Heater, who owns the business with his wife Jennifer.
“We also have lots of events; bridal showers, proms, team building and bachelorette parties.”
If you had asked Robert five years ago if he thought he was going to be making a living by shutting people in a room, watching them on a monitor and giving them clues to help them escape, he probably would have laughed. The Newport native, who graduated from Newport High School but left town as a young adult, wasn’t even sure he wanted to return to his hometown.
“I had never heard of escape rooms, and I didn’t have any plans to leave Portland, but then my brother put the idea in my head to open one. I was like, ‘Well our kids are all grown; why not?’
We stayed with themes we know, but we’ll be adding some new ones in the future that will force us to get really creative.”
The themes they knew include a nod to the show “Survivor,” which I regretted mentioning after Robert and my husband spent the next 15 minutes bonding over the show.
“I’ve watched ‘Survivor’ since the very first episode,” Robert said. “I was very excited to create the island room.”
Every year, the Heaters escape from the rooms themselves and put on scavenger hunts in Newport and Lincoln City.
“It’s a treasure hunt that lasts for a few weeks,” Robert said. “We put out one clue a day. They are usually locally themed.”
The announcement for the hunt and the daily clues are posted on the Escape Rooms Newport Facebook page.
The theme of the rooms, “Turn off your phone, and turn on your brain,” is what keeps Robert engaged after five years.
“We don’t utilize our brains the way we used to,” he said. “It’s really nice to watch people come alive as they rediscover this way of thinking and get so excited when they figure something out. There are also lots of sweet moments that happen here. We once had a guy that we worked with to personalize the clues in a way that ended with a marriage proposal.”
She said yes.
Escape Rooms Newport is located at 3101 SE Ferry Slip Rd #226 in Aquarium Village and is open Thursday through Tuesday, from 1 pm to 9:30 pm, depending on the room. For special appointments, rates and to arrange for large groups, parties or corporate bookings, call 541-867-2988. For more information, go to www.escaperoomsnewport.com.