41 rooms in 24 hours: Local escape room enthusiasts break world record

Ona Delussey, a Dr. Phillips resident and Florida Virtual School math teacher, has been an escape-room enthusiast since 2015. 

Her passion for it all began because of a Disney podcast she listened to where the host mentioned attending an escape room. 

At the time, she didn't know what that even meant. 

“I dragged a family member to it, and they thought it was fun,” Delussey said. “But I wanted to play on — another one and another one. … I realized really quickly that my friends and family … did not have the same passion for it.” 

She compared escape rooms to theme parks, expressing her love for that sort of immersive experience — getting to experience different stories and worlds. 

As a math teacher, she also loves the satisfying aspect of finding solutions to problems — even more when there is teamwork involved. 

In 2024, she learned about Orlando Escape Room Meetup, an enthusiast group with people who love escape rooms just as much as she does. 

There, she met some wonderful friends who wanted to get together for escape rooms more than just once per month. 

They created their own group called The Florida Keys, meeting on a regular basis to complete escape rooms around Central Florida. 

In 2025, Delussey completed more than 250 games.

The team consists of five participants: two lawyers, two engineers and a math teacher. 

Most of the members have been playing for nearly or more than a decade, with a love for the game. 

In the summer of 2025, they came together to begin planning for their one goal: break the world record of escape rooms completed in 24 hours, with no hints allowed and only using public transportation. 

The team wanted to beat Japan’s record of 32 escape rooms, which was the world record at the time, and they did more than that. 

The Florida Keys met at 10 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 5, to complete the 24-hour challenge, and by 9:06 a.m. the following day, the team had finished 41 escape rooms. 

Delussey said breaking the record took preparation, dedication and patience while maneuvering through challenges. 

To them, this is more than just a game — it’s a lifestyle. 

GOALS AND ASPIRATIONS

Raychel Garcia is the organizer of the Orlando Escape Room Meetup and team member of The Florida Keys. 

Since she was a child, Garcia dreamed of etching her name into the record books.

As she grew up and discovered her love for escape rooms, she decided she wanted to break the world record of most escape rooms completed in 24 hours. 

Delussey said Garcia introduced the idea to the team in the summer of 2025. 

Before even attempting to break the record, they had to find out if it was even attainable. 

“I didn’t know if it was possible here in Orlando because things are so spread out,” Delussey said. “It’s not like we’re like New York or other cities (where) people can just walk around.”

Previous records were not completed in the United States, and that motivated the team to try to become the team with most escape rooms completed in 24 hours in the world. The first record was set in Russia, but Japan held the latest record.

“Bringing the record to the U.S. — and especially to Orlando, a world capital for immersive entertainment — makes this incredibly meaningful,” team member Rick Corbett said.

With nearly eight months of preparation and figuring out logistics, the team finally was ready to attempt to break the Guinness World Record. 

THE CHALLENGES 

Guinness sets guidelines that each member of the team must follow to ensure validity. 

One of the rules set upon the team was it could not, by any means, take any private transportation to and from venues. 

Team members worked to figure out bus and trolley routes, prepare meals in advance and speak to venues about staying open late or opening early so the team could complete the challenge. 

“We’re really grateful for (the venues), because during the daytime, it was actually harder to book,” Delussey said. “We weren’t able to tell them our exact arrival time, because it would depend on when we finished the previous games at the previous location, so we had to give them estimated arrival times, which meant they had to block out certain booking slots so members of the public wouldn't book those.

“It was definitely a logistics challenge,” she said. “We’re really thankful that each of the locations were on board.” 

Delussey said the team was able to drop off cases of water bottles at each venue beforehand, because it was not possible to carry that around. 

All they had with them were hearts with a dream and a backpack full of snacks. 

Beyond scheduling challenges, once in an escape room, the team could not ask for any hints. 

Each escape room needed to be at least 30 minutes long, and each member needed to actively participate. If the team wanted to give up on that escape room, they were not allowed to leave until the time was up. 

Luckily, that was not an issue for The Florida Keys as they were eager to complete every room in which they entered. 

Delussey said most escape rooms include some form of note-taking device, either a whiteboard, a boogie board or other form. Because of this, they designated a person to take notes so no scrambling was taking place figuring out who was doing what. 

“Our two attorneys love logic problems,” Delussey said. “So anytime something like that came up, we tagged them in for that.” 

She also mentioned the team figured out a strategy beforehand on what they would do if they hit a wall. 

“We said that if that happens, we’re going to get together, we’re going to sit, and we're going to breathe for a minute,” she said. 

She said they strategized to complete a search fail, which is going back to search every corner of the room to make sure they did not miss any obvious hints, and re-read files that sometimes can be overlooked in a rush. 

Team members also had to wear body cams, have witnesses and, most important, needed time to eat. 

BREAKING THE RECORD 

Meeting up at 10 a.m. to start the challenge was exciting, Delussey said. 

They began at Escapology with 11 games to complete, and as they finished them, they realized they actually could break the world record. 

There were a few moments where they got stuck, but when they did, they used their strategized methods to find a solution. 

“There was one game called Seven Deadly Sins, and in the first couple of minutes of game, we hit a puzzle we couldn't figure out,” she said. “Looking back at it, we spent 24 minutes trying to figure out this one four-letter puzzle. We eventually got it, but we got to it in the completely incorrect way.” 

The Florida Keys spent all day working on escape rooms, and by 4 a.m., they had completed 33, officially breaking the world record. 

“We were delirious at that point,” Delussey said laughing. 

But they wanted to keep going, to reach their goal of 40 rooms. 

“We were so ahead of schedule at one point that we added in one 90-minute game to get an extra one,” Delussey said. 

By 9:06 a.m., the team had successfully completed 41 rooms. 

“We were screaming, cheering, and we had a lot of friends and family come out to meet us at the end,” she said.

As they stayed awake for more than 24 hours, all team members were ready to rest after reaching this accomplishment. 

“This wasn’t just puzzle-solving — it was an endurance test,” Corbett said. “When you’re on hour 18 and facing another locked door, your team is your lifeline — and yes, there was a lot of caffeine involved.”

Now, the team is in the process of finishing time-keeper statements, witness statements and editing the body camera footage to send to Guinness. 

It might take weeks or months to hear back from Guinness, but nonetheless, they are happy they experienced this as a team. 

“We just really wanted to highlight what’s happening here in Central Florida because it really is a destination for escape rooms,” Delussey said. “We wanted to bring the record here to emphasize that.” 

And that, they did.