I'm pretty sure I've watched The Crystal Maze since I was a kid, wishing that I could pretend to do challenges in my house to win crystals but I couldn't ever do that. I would occasionally watch the repeats on TV and when I heard they were bringing it out for a Celeb Special for Stand Up To Cancer, I was a little bit excited. Whilst I was watching it, I was googling about the one-off show, to then realise that there was an actual Crystal Maze Experience in London that had opened earlier that year. I really wanted to go but didn't really think anyone I knew of would want to do it with me.

A few months past, the new series with celebs came on TV, followed by regular folk and I still had it in my mind that I would love to try out the experience. One day, I was hanging out with some friends, who was suggesting we all do something fun, and someone (surprisingly not me) came up with the idea of doing the Crystal Maze. I instantly put my hands up and said yes, to which most of my other friends actually followed and said they'd do it aswell. We called up three other friends to see if they wanted in and they did! That was it! We were actually going to do it! The next thing was picking a date that everyone could do. We received a text from a friend who was organising it and said that a date that had some availability was the 10th September but at 9pm, which was pretty late. But everyone was good for it so we went ahead and booked it. He also asked 'Green or Orange' as this was going to be our team colour. We ended up with Green.

The date came and I was actually excited but nervous as I didn't really know what to expect. We all headed into London a bit earlier so we looked around the Chinese Food Market that was going on near London Bridge, checked out the Science Museum and went to a Wetherspoons to get some last minute fuel. We were only round the corner from the place, which was near Angel Tube Station, and there it was, in all it's glory, THE CRYSTAL MAZE sign all lit up.


We went on it, did the waiver bit, put our things in a complimentary locker (apart from my phone as I wanted to take some snaps before going in) and headed to our green table, which had the green bomber jackets hanging underneath. Alongside our team, there were three others, blue, red and orange. We all go round at the same time but start off in different zones. A guy at the place took a few photos of us in our jackets, went through a couple of things, like the premise of the experience, health and safety etc. and when we got our little call before our start time, I put my phone back into the locker, went to the bathroom (as you don't get a chance to go once you're in) and took the jacket off, as you don't actually wear them during your time in the maze. It's literally for photos at the beginning. It 9pm and we headed into our first zone, which was the Medieval zone. We sat in a room which had a TV playing clips of TV show and all of a sudden, a guy walks in, which happens to me our Maze Master, wearing a glorious star cape. I can't remember his full name but we did call him Bert. Whilst in that room, we decided on our Team Captain (who got to wear the fab cape) and Vice Captain and I swear, all we did was constantly cheer and clap for unknown reasons. Suddenly, it was time to play! Unfortunately, I have no pictures on when we were inside as you cannot take phones in with you, so you don't ruin things for others so this next bit is going to be a bit wordy.

So yes, we started in the Medieval zone so it was a little dark but I was quite impressed with what they did with it. Our Maze Master asked the Team Captain what game we wanted and for who so one by one, we went round and did our tasks. I had a mental one and I was so close to it but just ran out of time. Yes, you do have either 2, 2 and a half or 3 minutes to complete it. Legit, the time goes by so quickly that I felt like I was hardly in the room. I was gutted but seeing as there were 8 of us and potentially going to do 16 games, I knew that I could have a second try. So after our first zone, we only won one crystal but we had many zones to go.

Climbing up some steps and crawling on a platform close to the ceiling, we reached our next zone, which was Aztec and again, I was really impressed with what they did. They have actual sand so, very realistic. We did a quick photo in the Aztec zone which we could see at the end. So, during the first game, our friend got locked in but rather than leaving you in the room like they do on TV, they take you to 'jail', where you have to answer a riddle and if you can answer the riddle before the team move onto the next zone, you can get out for free otherwise, if you don't, you have to give up one crystal. Luckily, he managed to get out during our third game in, so we didn't lose any crystals. We did better in this zone by winning two crystals, which put us up to three and we were half way round.

Third zone was the Industrial zone, which we only had to climb a few stairs to get to from Aztec, and it looked all rusty, which was similar to TV, just no water in sight. This is where I had my second game, another chance to win a crystal but sadly, I didn't do it, so I won no crystals for my team at all (bit gutted, not gonna lie). My boyfriend was doing really well in his and the crystal did actually get revealed but he had already knocked on the door to come out so he only needed a few extra seconds to have grabbed it and come out without being locked in, which was a shame but after that zone, we again managed to win another 2 crystals, which put our total up to 5.

Our last zone, which I was most intrigued to see, was the Futuristic zone. We had to climb down a ladder from Industrial and into a pod, which would see us 'travel in time' to the zone (I had a little lol). The look of the zone was pretty cool, lots of white walls and lights. I was still a bit gutted that I couldn't even redeem myself but was just looking forward to seeing what my friends could do in their games. This was our most successful zone, where we picked up 3 out of 4 crystals, which was so good. This put our total up to 8. Once we had finished all the games, it was time to head 'TO THE CRYSTAL DOMMMME'.

We got to the set of doors, and our Maze Master said to us to shout our team name (which was Team Faff because we are so awful at making decisions and actually getting things done, bit ironic when it came to actually doing the Crystal Maze but that's what made it funnier) which we did and there was the dome and the other teams waiting for us. Some funky music was playing, another Maze Master introduced his team into the Crystal Dome, where they had 35 seconds of time (one crystal less than us as 1 crystal = 5 seconds in the dome). The music was playing, we all chanted the last 5 seconds and it was their time up. A quick 35 seconds. It really made me just want to get in there but the second Maze Master introduced her team, who won 9 crystals (I think) so just slightly better than us. They did their bit and it was done. Orange team was next, who won 12, which meant they had 60 seconds in the dome. Longer than everyone else but was a quick 60 seconds. Then, it was our turn. Good ol' Bert introduced our team, told how many crystals we got and we headed on in. Hold the bars at the back, can't pick any 'tickets' from the floor. They didn't have the whole silver and gold tokens because you don't win anything at the end, so it was just gold tickets, although some of them looked like they were just ripped up, but it was just the taking part that was the fun about it. So, we would have had 40 seconds in there but it just seem to fly by but I had a right laugh in there.


Now it was time to count how many we got. They must have had a way of doing it (possibly by weight) but the results were in. Our team came 3rd out of 4, but the amounts were quite close to each other so none of us did a bad job. We all had team photos in front of the dome, in the jackets again and said our goodbyes to our Maze Master. They had a bar at the end where we all grabbed a small cup of water and headed back down so we could get our stuff. By this point it was about 10:30pm, so the whole thing lasted about an hour and half. We then also saw our photos, from the Aztec zone and the ones sat in front of the dome. We wanted to buy the ones of us sat in front of the dome but they would also upload them to their Facebook page at a lower res. My boyfriend and I bought ourselves a small crystal (and a large one too, oops) and then we headed on home. Didn't actually get home until about 1am because there were issues with the trains.

Overall, I had an absolute fantastic time and a childhood wish had actually become a reality. If you watched the show and wanted to do it, I would highly recommend going, even when I didn't win a single crystal. They also have one in Manchester but I can't say for certain if anything I've said above is the same for that location. Seriously, if you and your friends want to do a fun activity, this is definitely the thing to do.

Have you been to the Crystal Maze Experience? How did you find your experience?

Look after yourself,


This blog post is not sponsored and all opinions are my own and honest!

I went to Brighton about 2 weeks ago for a weekend with my boyfriend, something that we don't really do often. I've not been to Brighton for the longest time. I was probably a kid and went there for a day out with my parents to the beach, so I've never really seen much of it, so I was pretty excited to see somewhere new.


We arrived in Brighton and stayed in the Jury's Inn Brighton Waterfront hotel. It had a great interior but the best, was our room. We had a sea view room, so we were able to see both piers and plenty of sea. We ventured out on a little walk before getting any food, all the way to the colourful beach huts and back. It actually started raining just as we were getting back and we decided to have room service because we not long got there and thought it would be good to chill. Unfortunately, when our room service arrived, we got one wrong meal. We waited about half hour for what we wanted which meant the other meal was going cold, which was a bit of a shame.


The next morning, we woke up so early (like 6am!) so we got up, got ready and decided to go for a little walk before breakfast. Once 8am came round, we paid a visit to The Breakfast Club. I had heard it was pretty good so thought it would be a good opportunity to see what it was like. We both ordered a full monty (without the black pudding) and chose to have scrambled eggs. We waited a little while but we chatted, admired the interior and sipped tea out of smiley mugs. When it arrived, it just all looked so yummy, and couldn't wait to tuck in. The potatoes though! They were so delish but I couldn't quite finish it all, but felt so satisfied with what I got.

We then decided to go to the pier and both got wristbands to go on the rides. It cost £20 and you could go on anything as many times as you wanted. It didn't take long for us to cover the £20 so anything we did additionally was extra, so was worth the money. We took some time out to go get some ice cream from Boho Gelato. Let me say one thing. A-MAZ-ING. I went for three scoops in a cone; sea salt caramel, birthday cake and nutellesque. All of it was so good. I'd definitely recommend it if you go to Brighton. We then went to check out Dum Dum Donuts, as I had heard they sold cronuts, something I wanted to try. I got one called The Zebra, which was layered and had chocolate buttercream in the middle. It was so divine, but had to eat it in two servings because it was quite sickly.


We wanted to go on the British Airways i360 at some point in the day, but we thought we get our tickets in advance, so we didn't have to queue later on. So we went for another walk, as it was nice and sunny out and then headed back to the pier again. We managed to get a few more rides in, and I decided to go on The Booster (which spins and turns you upside down 130ft in the air) on my own because my boyfriend wasn't fond on that. 8pm came round and it was time to head to the i360, as we wanted to get the last ride of the day, because the view with the sunset would look so beautiful. It started to get a bit chilly whilst we waited but it was so worth it, because the views were incredible, seeing so much of Brighton, the pier all lit up and a gorgeous pink hued sky.


We headed back to our hotel and decided to go on Deliveroo and get ourselves a Pizzaface and a waffle from Creams. I chose a veggie pizza because you can't go wrong with peppers and lots of cheese. The delivery guy was a bit unwilling and didn't want to bring it up to our room (normally they do it according to the lady at reception). Just as we were finishing up pizzas, our waffles arrived and the guy, kindly, came up to our room. The pizza was filling enough and only had about half of my waffle and I was full to the brim. Reflecting on the day, it was one of the best and it felt like we managed to do so much with the time we had.


The next morning, we decided we were going to have the breakfast at the hotel. It cost £10 and it's a buffet style. Not going to lie, we were a bit disappointed. The scrambled egg didn't taste too nice, the sausages seemed a bit soft and their berry smoothie was way too sour (just a personal opinion). But we then did another walk around the Pavilion Gardens, chilled in our room for the last 2 hours we had and checked out. We then just went to the shopping centre down the road, had a little look around there but didn't stick around for long and we then drove on home.

Overall, I really enjoyed myself in Brighton and would love to be able to do it all again. Although the food was a bit of a let down, the view we had from our hotel room and the location made up for it. Everything we did and places we ate were so good, would definitely recommend all of it!

Have you been to Brighton? Are there places you'd recommend?

Look after yourself,


This blog post is not sponsored and all opinions are my own and honest!