“You’re never actually locked in a room,” Fox said. “We prefer to laugh than to be scared, so we want the same thing for you. By removing as much intimidation as we can, we just want it to be an absolutely fun and enjoyable experience.”
Fox opened the first North Texas Escape Rooms location in McKinney in October 2015 before expanding to Plano in summer 2019. She said she was inspired to open the business after chaperoning a youth group trip with her husband where they did three different escape rooms.
“Nobody escaped, and everybody loved it,” she said. “And I like to win, so the fact that we had fun losing felt like something was special there.”
Fox’s Plano location offers six unique rooms of varying difficulties. All the rooms are private, so other than the game master, groups are on their own when trying to piece together the clues needed to win the game. Fox said the rooms are designed for participants age 10 and older, but “all ages have fun.”
“We have had four generations in an escape room, so it is really fun for any age,” Fox said. “It’s exciting to provide people with a cool opportunity to connect with each other without using their phones and technology.”
Players get to keep their phones when they enter the rooms, Fox said, but those pieces of technology are not going to help anyone figure out the clues.
"We find that, typically, people want to unplug and get immersed in the experience,” Fox said. “We definitely design things so that we provide you with everything you need to be successful.”
In addition to the escape rooms, the business has a large private suite that can host everything from corporate events to birthday parties.
“Recently, we hosted a really cool gender reveal [party],” Fox said. “We customized a game to announce that it was a boy. We made a balloon garland, [and] we made a custom onesie for them that said ‘Escape Womb Master.’”
North Texas Escape Rooms
8232 Preston Road, Ste. 100, Plano
469-712-6837
www.northtexasescaperooms.com
Hours: Mon.-Thu. 9 a.m.-8 p.m., •Fri.-Sat. 9 a.m.-10:45 p.m., Sun. 1-9:30 p.m.
