The Crystal Maze Manchester: The Crystal Maze

Oh my gosh this is so much fun! We went along as a group of 6 and were put into a team with 2 other people. From the very beginning every single team member at the venue (right from lovely Glynn in the foyer, through Isaac - or shall we call you Mumsie?! - to our wonderful Gamemaster Eve) did an incredible job, making sure that our team gelled properly and got really jazzed up and involved. The whole experience was such a brilliant recreation of the TV show (as it used to be in the 90s), complete with the pumping theme music, the running down corridors and up and down stairs, crawling, sliding and jumping to get from one beautifully themed zone to the next. The games were varied and all well-realised, with no obvious corners cut. In fact, it felt as if we could have been playing on the actual set of the TV show! There was a good variety of types of game and difficulties, and every person’s needs and preferences were taken into account by the hosts. There were always ways to avoid the physical parts of the experience if you were unable to manage them. Even though not everyone plays every game, we all felt thoroughly involved and integral to the team and experience and we got to the famous Crystal Dome with adrenaline pumping and blood rushing. The dome itself was great fun - although, and this is our only tiny criticism, we felt there were not enough tokens inside for us to have a chance of getting a good score. But this didn’t detract at all from our fantastic experience, which we felt was well worth the money and we were glad we’d travelled to experience it. Thanks to everyone involved in making our day great - especially for the special victory medal for the birthday boy! We will be back!!