The Observatorium

The Observatorium aboard the Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas is an impressively designed escape room experience that delivers genuinely challenging puzzles and a strong sense of immersion. The room itself looks fantastic, and the puzzle design stands out for requiring creative, out-of-the-box thinking rather than relying on straightforward logic alone. Many of the challenges felt rewarding to solve, particularly because teamwork played such an important role throughout the experience. As with many cruise ship escape rooms, the group dynamic significantly affects gameplay. Since players are often combined with strangers, the experience can vary depending on how cooperative the team is. Fortunately, most of our group worked well together, shared ideas openly, and contributed positively. However, with a larger group of around twelve people, communication occasionally became chaotic and it was easy for players to unintentionally work over one another or become distracted by competing ideas. The room likely would feel more balanced and manageable with a smaller team size. The game master handled hints appropriately during our session, only stepping in when requested, which helped preserve the challenge. Although the pre-game organisation felt slightly rushed due to delays with the briefing and technical issues with the introduction video, these were relatively minor frustrations compared to the overall quality of the room itself. Despite some logistical limitations that come with the cruise ship format, The Observatorium remains a worthwhile and memorable escape room experience with clever puzzles, excellent production value, and a satisfying level of difficulty.

Room was great overall. Had to share the booking with others from the ship. GM stays in the room with you the entire time. There could have been more puzzles to solve for how big the room was and how many people are playing. Still a fun experience to do an escape room on a cruise ship though.

I don’t like public games but this wasn’t too bad. This was a 50 minute room and the price ($27) was fair. We were paired with a good group of people of different generations and skill levels. There were 12 of us which was too much in my opinion even though the room was still spacious. The puzzles were good and all made sense, some a bit tricky. Since the room was located on deck 15 you won’t feel the sway of the boat much. Pretty fun room, but I’d like it more if it was private booking but I get it.

Novel idea for an escape room on a ship but they fill this with 16 people! The game master stays in the room with you and gives verbal clues unprompted. People in wheelchairs had to be carried up the stairs and could not see some of the puzzles. Ideally this room can take 6 people- it was physically uncomfortable having 16.

The game was decent. Puzzles were pretty good, set was great. But they slammed it full with THIRTEEN people!!! Then the game master’s English was extremely hard to understand. I had someone literally take game pieces from in front of me and take over the puzzle without asking at all. That makes for the worst experience ever. RCCL should never allow 12 players in that space. It’s too many. We sat back and watched 80% of the time and just gave people answers because we figured them out while they were fumbling around. I only recommend playing it if you know at least half the people playing. We weren’t even allowed to take a picture after! ☹️

The set design was cool and the puzzles were fun, but the GM interaction was too obtrusive and hand-holdy.

I’m on a boat! Way too many people at 12. This is a public game

Public room, bit much with the 12 people but puzzles were good, wouldn’t do if it were brick n mortar but worthwhile if you’re on the cruise

The best thing about this room was definitely the ambience, really beautiful space. They put 12 people in each group, so it’s challenging working with so many strangers with different levels of experience, room interest, and ages. I think the ideal number of participants would be 4-6 max, but I understand the financial benefits for the quantity of participants. I asked the GM if the room was linear and he didn’t understand the question…. Anyway the room was not linear. The GM gave lots of unsolicited hints. Also he was resetting the room WHILE we were still in it! It was hard to keep track of what we had accomplished with 12 people in the room. In fact, I didn’t even see one of the puzzles at all, because some people solved it while I was working on a different one. It was even more confusing when he would lock the boxes back up five minutes after we opened them. Overall the puzzles were mediocre at best. It was still a fun way to spend an hour on a cruise. It would be nice if there were a few more puzzles considering how many people were in the room.

This is a quality game with very logical puzzles. The whole group can be engaged at the same time. Being a public game on a cruise can significantly impact your experience. You’re on Morty reading this so you’ll probably have to lead your group and do most of it.