The Crystal Maze LIVE Experience, Manchester

I booked this for me and my partner and although we had a good time, it definitely was not worth £60! You don't have an option to play with just the two of you so you get put with strangers. In effect we only got to do about 2/3 games each at 2 mins per game so we paid £60 for like 10 mins! Which is extortionate. The atmosphere was a bit flat due to us jot knowing the other team members and having to awkwardly delegate who played what - one girl looked really moody that she didn't get to play as many games. and so we came out feeling a bit underwhelmed. I think it would be great with a group of people you know but if you want to go with just 2 then I think that should be an option considering how much you pay.
We are avid escape room players and so we are used to getting a full hour of puzzles whereas this was barely anything. Was disappointing and probably wont return unless with a big group and with a voucher or some form of discount to make it worth it.

I must say this whole experience was awful. We paid 220 pounds for 4 people and secured 1 game each and the other 14 year olds took the rest. This was managed awfully and I must say I am not happy about the experience and day out.

Not only did it feel rushed I just lost the fun of it all.

Playing The Crystal Maze is everything you hoped it would be from your memories, if you have them, of the TV show. And with no cameras rolling and an audience of only a few mates there's a tad less pressure if you mess up.

For those unfamiliar, The Crystal Maze was a 1990s gameshow on Channel 4 whereby a team of 4 people would attempt, one at a time, to complete a challenge inside a small room. Some challenges were physical, some skill or puzzle-based, and all are fairly quick (2-3 minutes). Complete the challenge and get a crystal, fail and your team loses one. At the end each crystal buys you time in The Crystal Dome where you grab golden tickets which are how your score is set.

The key here is the games, which are (as on the original show) very varied and fairly difficult. This encourages an atmosphere of really throwing yourself into them and feeling real achievement when you succeed. On TV there were 4 people in a team, here there are 8 of you. You should expect to play 16 games, 2 per person, though if you are quick they will fit in a 17th game sometimes. As someone who has gone a few times for birthdays etc I should also mention the games do slowly change over time. I'd recommend a return visit, but not much more than once each year. The London and Manchester Mazes also have very different games, so do try both if you are in town.

One other brief note on difficulty levels: The physical games are pretty physical. Your team needs at least one member who is genuinely fit and ideally under 40 or those games are a bit of a write off. Still good fun though.

The other key to The Crystal Maze is the general atmosphere. It is an immersive experience where you should feel no need to hold back. This is thanks to the impressive set (very evocative of the TV show) and the 'Maze Masters'. These are the hosts of the experience who guide your team around the Maze providing the odd hint and general atmospheric banter. Every time I've been (4 times so far) they have been reliably good at this, remaining in character as a range of eccentrics from various eras. Last time it was Ignatious Redbeard, a sort of Celtic monk (or something). He was a good laugh and kept the games moving and the tone light but a bit competitive.

If you've seen the show on TV then the live experience is virtually identical, except when you screw up it isn't broadcast to millions of people. Not that you would do that: You want to bring your game face to The Crystal Maze, right?

We joked about people asking would Richard O'Brien be there, however our host was Foo, and I don't think the experience would have been as good if it had been Richard O'Brien. Foo was an amazing host for an amazing experience.

The games were challenging, however not too hard that we weren't able to win quite a few crystals.

The scenery is phenomenal, and gives a real feeling of being on the TV show. The hard work done behind the scenes in order to make the whole experience special for every participant was evident throughout.

To finish inside the Crystal Dome was just icing on the cake and a dream come true.

Myself and three friends came out of this experience absolutely buzzing, and eager to book again.

A lovely touch was the photographs. £40 for 8 photo booklets each with a print (8 x 6 ish) with digital copies of every photo taken worked out as £10 each which is a bargain for an amazing souvenir of a fabulous time.

Thank you so much Foo and everybody behind the scenes. This has been a fabulous experience that we will never forget.

Thank you so much Foo and all the rest of the crew

We visited the Crystal Maze on Saturday with a group of friends. There was 7 of us so that meant we got to play the games as a group which was great. I don’t think it would be the same experience if you were with strangers so consider that before booking.

We laughed from start to finish, some of the challenges are harder than they look and some of the physical ones should could with a warning in advance!

Special mention to Seth who started off our experience, he was friendly, fun and had a good rappor with us (in the short time he was with us)

Also mention to danger mouse who took us around the maze, he had a banging playlist and good banter…. Although be prepared he’s quite brutal with his banter!

Overall great value for money and experience, highly recommend to people who are looking for something different and want a guaranteed laugh!

We went as a group of 6 ranging from 13-42 and we had the most amazing time here. Our host was Trevor and he was so good at what he does and entertained us from start to finish . We had no lock ins and we definitely recommend going if you are looking to do something different and re live the fab game show. On a negative, the state of the toilets was absolutely disgusting . No toilet paper - instead most of it was stuck to the floor, not what I expected in such a place

We visited Crystal Maze as a belated birthday present. 2 of our group had been before a couple of years ago and loved it but we didn’t know what to expect this time.
Jeff Goldfish was absolutely amazing - so fun and really kept the illusion up 😂
The whole experience felt so safe amidst the covid situation. We were offered masks and gloves and there were sanitisers all the way through the experience but not in a way that ruined it, it was all very natural and didn’t detract from the fun and amazement ❤️ we even saw the entry way contact points being cleaned thoroughly once we’d moved onto the next briefing area and the final Dome smelled faintly of disinfectant, all of which made us feel totally at ease and we really do think it’s safer here than a trip to the supermarket!
All of the team we spoke to were extremely friendly and helpful and thank you again to Jeff!

Visitied the venue over 2 days with individuals with learning disabilities and 2 staff members.
We all had a great time, the staff were kind, polite, enthusiastic and made every effort to make the experience fun and exciting.
The games masters were extremely encouraging and involved the whole team with encouragement and enthusiasm.
The venue was kept extremely clean and with the covid-19, a member of staff cleaned every game after we finished with the task and the game masters ensured that each team member cleaned their hands, to ensure safety.
The whole experience lasted around an hour and a half, where the team completed 4 tasks in each zone, with a range of different games and felt exactly like the tv show from the 90’s.
I would recommend the experience to anyone, as it was extremely enjoyable and will definitely be visiting in the future.

Whilst this was an enjoyable day out with a fabulous group of friends who had worked incredibly hard to make it a special birthday treat for me I was left feeling rather disappointed by a number of things. Having read hundreds of reviews on here about how amazing the mazemasters are, ours wasn't. Adam, who did the initial briefing with us invoked more excitement and enthusiasm than Lyn Jitsu managed. She seemed disinterested, didn't engage with us during the games at all and certainly didn't create the vibe of atmosphere others have said they experienced.
Secondly we were never offered photo opps at the start as others seemed to have been and for the included photos we had as part of our voucher we had to have a USB stick as the printer was broken.
We were told at the start that if we completed games quickly we'd get extra but this didn't happen. I had two three minute games, both of which finished in under half the time so my total task time was less than 3 minutes For £25 that's some hourly rate!
As many people have commented the games themselves are getting shabby, there were puzzle pieces missing, things that didn't work, dropped apart etc. The doors often weren't even closed when doing the games and the mazemaster wandered in at the start of each game and pointed stuff out, this ruining any element of surprise.
I fully understand the need for games to be reset quickly but having someone just stomping along immediately behind you destroyed any of the 'magic' and this TV show feel you are claiming to achieve. As does bumping into other groups or having to wait around for them to move on.
Again I'd echo other reviews about the dome experience, the tokens are ripped and ragged, the jackets have broken zips and despite having won 13 crystals we somehow collected less than a third of any of the outstanding totals because apparently the tokens are weighed to determine amount and this is clearly affected by them being torn to bits.
The concept is amazing and it is giving many people a chance to live out a dream but it could be so much more with a bit of tlc and less rushing to get as many people through at possible to grab their cash.

From the reception to the game master, the whole experience was exactly like I wanted it to be - the tv show experience come to life.
We had the wizard Iggy come to guide us around the maze and he was excellent. Enthusiasm, thy name is Iggy; there were detailed descriptions of games, spells cast and a robe of humour encompassing all.
He made our experience a terrifically enjoyable one and I would whole-heartedly recommend the Crystal Maze experience to all intrigued 90’s tv show lovers.