Escapology In Lakeland Provides Small Crowd Fun With Escape Rooms

LAKELAND, FL — Escapology in Lakeland reopened its doors and is operating with safety measures in place as coronavirus cases surpassed 100,000 in the state of Florida on Monday.

The owners are a husband-and-wife team — Marcus Ruggiero and Kendra Ruggiero — who told Patch their escape room franchise has been spotlessly clean since opening on May 15, 2017. After a temporary closure due to the pandemic, they found more ways to protect the health of guests and staff before reopening on the business's three-year anniversary on May 15.

"New measures include smaller group sizes, more time in between games to allow for cleaning and sanitizing and more time between game start times to limit guest interaction," Marcus Ruggiero said. "We have masks and gloves available and have hand sanitizer throughout the venue. We have also reduced touchpoints around the venue and within the games themselves."

Customers can expect a live, interactive and immersive themed experience where they will have 60 minutes to search the room for clues and solve puzzles to escape the room and win the game. It requires teamwork in various ways through communication and hands-on interaction with different puzzle elements.

Considering the times we're in, many customers choose the Antidote escape room as players who choose this game attempt to find the antidote to a pretend viral infection that could destroy the facility.

Marcus Ruggiero said Escapology is a great entertainment experience for anyone who isn't comfortable going out into big crowds where social distancing would nearly be impossible.

The Ruggieros are happy to be back at work after being uncertain of their business's future during the temporary closure. Marcus Ruggiero has been at the downtown facility every day since the reopening except June 7, when he was celebrating his daughter's birthday.

"The days leading up to the closure were very emotional and painful as we all faced this pandemic with uncertainty of our futures," Marcus Ruggiero said. "I tried to keep up with and understand the efforts put forth by our federal and local governments, and to seek assistance with the various relief efforts."

Throughout the closure they were able to continue paying their staff, and they kept in contact with their customers via social media and their website.

They have implemented an online-only booking policy and an online waiver system.

Escapology is located at 210 East Pine Street, and for more information about the different types of games and coronavirus safety protocols, visit Escapology's website.