Part Orienteering, part Escape room, part treasure hunt, Escape from Central Park demands you use your map to find clues and animals around the park (no clues north of the Lake nor south of the Dairy.) The object is to exit the park at one exact location. To win the awards, you must finish together while possessing the map you were sent and be able to show your 4 photos of the team with the animals in the photos. We will only check the winners. All others finishing after will be eligible for give-aways only if they supply the three elements above.
After you register (online, here) you will be e-mailed a Central Park orienteering map. This is a high-quality and very detailed orienteering map that you will use on July 16. Along with the map will be instructions and download links. Your success at the event depends upon your ability to combine the high tech of the internet with the nature of the park.
A sample piece of our Central Park map
We will upload a “master map” at 12:00 PM that will have numbers showing the exact location where a clues becomes active. Be sure to bring a pen and paper to work out your puzzles. Four clues require a pre-download of the Zappar App. When you reach those clue sites. Point your smart phone at the object in question with the Zappar app loaded, and a screen will appear with additional information.
There will be 4 “hot spots” where animal sightings will take place. These are definite windows of time and general areas of possibly an acre or more. In other words, each “animal” might not appear until a given time, thus influencing your strategy. You must find the “animal” in that hot spot and take a picture with animal and the whole team in the frame. Do not talk to or interact with poor frightened animals. You don’t have to pose a picture with it. Just as long as most of your team and the animal are in the picture (one team member can take the picture.) The animal could be yards away as long as it is in the shot to prove that you were there. Oh, and the animal will be displaying a clue in some way. Please do not block the viewing of the clue. Take a picture and move on.
At exactly 2:30 we will upload the all-important “decoding sheet” which will help you make sense of your answers. Remember to check either the Treasure Hunt Adventures Blog page or our FaceBook page.
Teams
This is a team event. Those who have been to an escape room will understand. Individuals of course can participate but they will need others for help. That said, we have no hard and fast rules about team sizes. The spirit of the day will be with families and mixed-age teams (kids and adults working together.) Whatever team size you have, that will be fine with us. A parent and child? Great. A couple? Super. Three friends? Fine as well. Four adults and three kids…we could go on. Remember, smaller teams might have less baggage but larger teams have more minds and input. Just saying.
Awards
Like all Escape Rooms, there are no physical prizes. The winners exalt at just being winners. We will have a special photo-op for each winning team to be taken as soon as they finish and pass muster on their photos. We will have two award categories.
First Place Overall Team (no kids)
And
First Place Family Team (including at least one child in elementary school or 16 and under)
All winners’ photos will be posted prominently on our sites and media will be notified.
We will take note of all teams finishing as long as possible. When finishing, look for the Escape From Central Park banner (6’ x 2’) which could be on a bench, a tree or a parked car. We ill probably wind up at 4:00 PM so try to finish by then.
For everyone else who finishes we invite you to pose with our “We Almost Escaped From Central Park” banner. Loads of fun and perfect for your social media posts.
We will only cancel on July 16 if there is lightning. All types of rain won’t stop us and we are on. If cancelled, you will be notified of the make-up date.
Keep a watch on this site as well as the Facebook page. We will make the call no later than 10:00 AM, maybe earlier
ESCAPE HOME – HOW IT WORKS – REGISTER – RULES – RANDOM NOTES