How strict is RCI Harmony on the age limit for the Escape the Rubicon puzzle room?

I know everyone hates these types of questions, but how strict is RCI about the 14-year-old age limit for the Escape the Rubicon puzzle room on Harmony of the Seas? On our next cruise our sons will be 14 and almost 12, and they would both absolutely LOVE this. Any chance of an exception for the age requirement? (As an aside, I'm never one to try to circumvent age requirements when they are in place for safety reasons, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.)

There is no way they are going to allow an 11 year old to participate.

I was able to book it for my son who was 13 through the cruise planner. No one said a thing on the ship.

I have no way of knowing this for sure but if they allowed my son to book then they don't have an age filter on the booking system and once on board I doubt they would care. It might be different if he were by himself but as part of a family probably not.

There is no way they are going to allow an 11 year old to participate.

I think your wrong... Maybe not by themselves. But it is a "family" activity. I am counting on my kids going it with me. There are tons of videos and pictures showing kids participating.

I know everyone hates these types of questions, but how strict is RCI about the 14-year-old age limit for the Escape the Rubicon puzzle room on Harmony of the Seas? On our next cruise our sons will be 14 and almost 12, and they would both absolutely LOVE this. Any chance of an exception for the age requirement? (As an aside, I'm never one to try to circumvent age requirements when they are in place for safety reasons, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.)

My daughters were 13 and 15 on our cruise we just got off yesterday and they would only let my 15 year old daughter do the puzzle room. Kind of a bummer because they both really wanted to do it.

I think your wrong... Maybe not by themselves. But it is a "family" activity. I am counting on my kids going it with me. There are tons of videos and pictures showing kids participating.

Yes, it is a family activity for those 14 yrs old and up. There is a huge maturity difference between an 11 yr old and a 14 yr old. I know on Anthem they would not let a younger kid come in our group.

Things often have an age limit....best to go by that. The groups are approx 12 people...maybe the majority of the adults in your group may not care to play with 11 year olds.

Some of the tasks in the Escape Room are complicated. They require a fair amount of intuition.

I did this on Anthem, some of the tasks are difficult and require a lot of thinking. You really need everyone in your group focusing on solving the clues. Once you are in no one can leave until time is up (or you solve it) so if a kid is in there and bored they have to stay.

This is my question. I 100% feel that 14 is a little steep. How scary can this thing be? My daughter is 11 and LOVES escape rooms and has done a number of them on dry land lol The age limit is usually 10 and up or with parent present. I was very upset to hear about this requirement after booking my trip this summer. Does anyone have any insight as to why the age limit might be so high?

This is my question. I 100% feel that 14 is a little steep. How scary can this thing be? My daughter is 11 and LOVES escape rooms and has done a number of them on dry land lol The age limit is usually 10 and up or with parent present. I was very upset to hear about this requirement after booking my trip this summer. Does anyone have any insight as to why the age limit might be so high?

Does the reason have to be "scariness"? It's not. They set an age limit because they feel that this is an activity for more mature minds. They (or the creators of the escape rooms) have set 14 as that minimum limit.

As the original poster said, people do NOT like these questions. Why does someone ALWAYS have to push the limits? Why can't you just accept that there ARE limits? As another poster stated, not everyone wants to be locked in a room with your precocious and precious little 11 year old for an hour.

I can't go into Adventure Ocean, no matter how immature I may be. The inverse holds true here.

I have a suggestion for posts like this, before generating one substitute "smoking" for the request.

Smoking seems to be the only rule everyone demands that is met. The real ironic thing is a lot of folks demand all smoking rules be strictly adhered to but then go on to explain how their 12 year old is mature enough to use the solarium with them, or how they smuggle alcohol on board.

Things often have an age limit....best to go by that. The groups are approx 12 people...maybe the majority of the adults in your group may not care to play with 11 year olds.

Does the reason have to be "scariness"? It's not. They set an age limit because they feel that this is an activity for more mature minds. They (or the creators of the escape rooms) have set 14 as that minimum limit.

 

As the original poster said, people do NOT like these questions. Why does someone ALWAYS have to push the limits? Why can't you just accept that there ARE limits? As another poster stated, not everyone wants to be locked in a room with your precocious and precious little 11 year old for an hour.

 

I can't go into Adventure Ocean, no matter how immature I may be. The inverse holds true here.

This says it all. If the age limit is 14 and I ended up with 11 year olds I probably wouldn't be happy. Find an activity where the age limit allows everyone in your family to participate. Life isn't fair and they can't always get what they want.

The escape on harmony is very difficult for kids. We had my two teenage boys with us. The 15 year old was clueless but our 18 year old got us out.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

There was a very young boy, maybe 7 or 8, in our group on Anthem. It was so far over his head, but he wasn't a distraction either. In the end, the group let him perform the final part. I think the age requirement is so that you don't have a group go in that is largely comprised of kids. It just wouldn't work. It's hard. I'd still be in there if I had to solve it myself. My adult daughter was phenomenal at it. I thought the social dynamics were the most interesting part. You can ask nicely about having your 11 year old take part but he should be prepared that the answer will probably be no.

As for the scary factor, as others have said, zero scare factor. You are in a quiet, well-lit room, with various types of puzzles to solve. Some are mathematical, some graphic, some 3-dimensional, some word based. It could be incredibly boring for those who don't like puzzles, of any age.

Does the reason have to be "scariness"? It's not. They set an age limit because they feel that this is an activity for more mature minds. They (or the creators of the escape rooms) have set 14 as that minimum limit.

 

As the original poster said, people do NOT like these questions. Why does someone ALWAYS have to push the limits? Why can't you just accept that there ARE limits? As another poster stated, not everyone wants to be locked in a room with your precocious and precious little 11 year old for an hour.

 

I can't go into Adventure Ocean, no matter how immature I may be. The inverse holds true here.

Perfectly said. Kids need to learn they can’t always get what they want.

I wish that rules are rules applied to chair hogs. Personally, I wouldn't ask for the age rule to be extended but you see it all over the ship so I don't blame the OP for asking the question. She's not asking for special treatment, she's asking if the rule is actually enforced. The answer is no, not in my experience. Just like the 30 minute holding your chair in the solarium rule. Now, I know some will say they've seen these rules enforced on their cruise, but it just shows the inconsistencies.

I have two kids. One was always able to do stuff, the younger couldn't yet. It's a fact of life. Just remind the younger, that the older one had to be disappointed numerous times, and it's only fair they get the same disappointments.

Escape the Rubicon. When we went reservations were available almost every day at every hour and filled up quick. Maximum of 12 people can go in at one time. It was only 8.99 last summer but I'm going again next month and it is now 19.99 per person. Not sure it is worth it but I can say that since I've done it once. You may want to pay to try it once. It was fun. Later in the week, I believe on the last sea day, they have a free "puzzle break" in the on air club which my family thought was just as fun. You just have to look for it in the cruise compass. We would probably have missed it if the Escape room leader hadn't told us about it.

 

Enjoy!!

Found this in another thread.

Found this in another thread.

That other activity from puzzle break is not an escape room. We got to be one of the first groups to do that mystery thing last year. It is fun but our 14 YO DD wanted nothing to do with that. She loved the escape room.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thanks for the description. That is what I kind of thought it was. Don't want to think too hard while on vacation, so I have heldoff on booking it in the past. This confirms I have been making the right decision.

As for the scary factor, as others have said, zero scare factor. You are in a quiet, well-lit room, with various types of puzzles to solve. Some are mathematical, some graphic, some 3-dimensional, some word based. It could be incredibly boring for those who don't like puzzles, of any age.

Just wondering if the reason is that it is comprised of a group of 12 other adults in the group ended up with a few 11,12,13 year olds. They might feel that affected their total experience and complained. My sister and nephew used to go on cruises with us and she always carried on about how it was "unfair" that her 11 year old son wasn't allowed to participate in everything, regardless of his age. She would purchase a fruity alcoholic drink for him (putting us at risk of getting thrown off the cruise), took him to The Quest (which is adults only), let him join her in the Solarium, and I'm sure if our ship had this activity, she would have argued until he was allowed to participate so that instead of having 11 other people that could contribute, the group would have had 11 people contributing and an 11 year old they had to pacify by allowing him to take up their time participating in or ignore. If you think that someone of the other 10 people wouldn't have preferred to have another adult, instead of an 11 year old, you're just kidding yourself. We stopped cruising with them because of it. Not everyone is going to say, "he's so mature and he was a real asset to our experience." Just saying this from my own experience with a parent that never recognized that the world didn't revolve around her child.

Just wondering if the reason is that it is comprised of a group of 12 other adults in the group ended up with a few 11,12,13 year olds. They might feel that affected their total experience and complained. My sister and nephew used to go on cruises with us and she always carried on about how it was "unfair" that her 11 year old son wasn't allowed to participate in everything, regardless of his age. She would purchase a fruity alcoholic drink for him (putting us at risk of getting thrown off the cruise), took him to The Quest (which is adults only), let him join her in the Solarium, and I'm sure if our ship had this activity, she would have argued until he was allowed to participate so that instead of having 11 other people that could contribute, the group would have had 11 people contributing and an 11 year old they had to pacify by allowing him to take up their time participating in or ignore. If you think that someone of the other 10 people wouldn't have preferred to have another adult, instead of an 11 year old, you're just kidding yourself. We stopped cruising with them because of it. Not everyone is going to say, "he's so mature and he was a real asset to our experience." Just saying this from my own experience with a parent that never recognized that the world didn't revolve around her child.

Well said. While I am sure there are some 11yo that would be a help in an escape room, I have done many rooms on land, and find that even teenagers (14-17) tend to struggle to be that helpful (unless it is an easy room). We do take our kids, but only when we book the entire room. We have been in rooms that held more people, and had younger teens, and really had no chance of getting out. It is not just about the puzzles, it is about communicating and working together, and that is the hard part with any strangers, let alone kids.

I have not done the one on Harmony, so cannot compare to the difficulty of ones I have done on land. We had some that we made it out with 10 minutes to spare, and others that we would have needed 30 extra minutes to complete.

Just wondering if the reason is that it is comprised of a group of 12 other adults in the group ended up with a few 11,12,13 year olds. They might feel that affected their total experience and complained. My sister and nephew used to go on cruises with us and she always carried on about how it was "unfair" that her 11 year old son wasn't allowed to participate in everything, regardless of his age. She would purchase a fruity alcoholic drink for him (putting us at risk of getting thrown off the cruise), took him to The Quest (which is adults only), let him join her in the Solarium, and I'm sure if our ship had this activity, she would have argued until he was allowed to participate so that instead of having 11 other people that could contribute, the group would have had 11 people contributing and an 11 year old they had to pacify by allowing him to take up their time participating in or ignore. If you think that someone of the other 10 people wouldn't have preferred to have another adult, instead of an 11 year old, you're just kidding yourself. We stopped cruising with them because of it. Not everyone is going to say, "he's so mature and he was a real asset to our experience." Just saying this from my own experience with a parent that never recognized that the world didn't revolve around her child.

Your sister gives her 11 year old alcohol?! Wow.

I understand your wanting to take your child into the escape room with you and we are in the same "boat". That said, there is an age limit for a reason. Not only is it that it could be difficult for your child and cause frustration, you need to also consider that there are other passengers in the room with you. It affects everyone's experience. Rules are rules and me being a rule follower, thinks you need to listen to and respect to the rules. For everyone's sake.