A critique of the new Maze Live Experience Venue on Opening Day
Just hours after our lucky involvement once again with the best show ever made, (that's all I can say for now), we had another Maze to attend to, and that's one I'm allowed to currently talk about - that's right, the brand new Crystal Maze Live Experience venue that recently relocated from Angel, to the heart of London's West End in the Trocadero.
Our slot was booked for 3.15pm and we were the very first team to go through on opening day today, 29th March 2019. We walked in and were greeted by staff who were stood behind a very lavish mirrored Crystal desk. There was also a rather cool looking neon light fixed to the wall behind, with the immortal words 'Will you Start the Fans, Please". We were told that they were still rushing upstairs to get the bar finished in time, and that the lift was not currently working. We were led up a lot of stairs into a briefing room, before entering the Maze. Unfortunately, teething problems were expected due to being the first team into the new Maze. This was the case in fact, at one point, some of us were left alone in the briefing area for a good five minutes, before eventually being led into the Medieval Zone. Two players had already started without us, and we were there before them! Not quite sure how that confusion had come about. It wasn't the best of starts for me and Adam. We had missed two games in Medieval. Our host was 'Enzo'.
I won't spoil the games for you but will tell you that the games are a lot truer to the original series and feature some of my personal, all-time, favourite ones. Ok. I will spoil one game because I loved it so much, and that was the 'Power Saver' game in Industrial. This game was brilliant in the original series as it featured 'game boy' style countdown packs you had to slot in. This worked really well, they used a soft play area on two levels instead of a caged crawl maze. The execution of the games are brilliant and a perfect take on the original - my friend Charlie Wheeler designed all of the games for the West End Maze, but kept them under wraps from us. He is part of the Maze Fan Group and I've already told him personally I love what he's done at the West End Maze.
Even the information slate signs in the game cells have the original font- now that is attention to detail. My only criticisms of the new Maze: The initial 'cock up' where we were left in the briefing room while the Maze Master started with two other people without us! The Maze itself is a lot narrower in terms of smaller corridors and hallways, compared to the Manchester Maze. It feels more cramped and confined, despite the space available. But the original games make up for that.
The Crystal Dome looks to have improved lighting compared to when it was at Angel. However, we had a few teething problems here as well as the fans didn't start a few times, and they forgot to add tokens. You'd have thought that they should have offered cheaper 'tester tickets' like they did with the previous Live Experience Mazes. We paid full price for our tickets, so you would of thought everything would be as expected. I have no idea why they abolished 'tester' tickets. We were thanked individually by a manager once we came out of the Maze for being the first players of the new maze. (We wish that we were given something to mark this, like a free drink, especially as Maze Bloggers/Fans).
The bar looked upmarket and rather lavish and swanky. It featured only subtle Maze features, such as Aztec foilage and plants - no obvious features were noticable that you are in a 'Crystal Maze' bar, like the Angel one which caught our immediate attention. It featured people sat down around us who seemed to be shareholders and management - this wasn't the best image to present, but we're told they've tried to make the bar more inviting, because it was barely used in Angel. At the end of the day, fans crowd funded it and brought it back, so that fact should not be forgotten. The crowd funded Crystal picture with supporters names from Angel wasn't anywhere to be seen. Please Crystal Maze Live Experience, don't forget the people who helped crowd fund you. We were hoping things would go a bit smoother for us. But this was opening day, maybe our expectations were too high. They had produced two Mazes before, so we thought things would be smoother. However their guest relations have been really good.
It wasn't going to be perfect on day one. Recent Trip Advisor reviews for the brand new West End Maze haven't been kind because its still settling in. Overall, the Maze isn't as good as Manchester, but the games are better, and the new location is a lot more accessible. They were selling limited edition blue Crystals today for £14, of course, I had to get one to add to the massive collection! I hope that the new maze beds in, I guess these things take time. They were only minor niggles, the games made up for it. I hope you enjoy your time when you go and visit. But it's not as good as the other venues before it, we expected bigger and better for such a prime location. The Manchester Maze remains our favourite Live Experience venue. We will revisit the West End Maze once it's had a chance to iron out issues. We've been told by the Manager from Mid May onwards it should become fully established, and we wish them well. We look forward to returning once it's fully up and running!
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