Alcotraz Reviews 18

Brighton alcotraz was a blast! Me and my partner, had a great time was such a good experience. The staff was great and stayed in character for the entire time. The cocktails were spot on. If you get offended easily then I advise you not to go. 10/10 would recommend

Horrendous experience, wasn't let in even though I had a booking. Got to get your shit sorted. Was even called some slurs by staff

Absolute waste of time and money. You pay £50 to take your own alcohol in them they give you nothing but a cup of ice cubes. Waste of a hour and 45 minutes, saying that we lasted all of half hour. Avoid like the plague

Sell expensive ticket and get guests to smuggle in their own alcohol (but really just get them to hand it to Reception on arrival - don’t bother with ‘interactive smuggling’ as advertised as this might lead to fun. Then, mix guest’s own alcohol with sickly sweet mixture and serve back to them as cocktails. Should anyone try to get interactive, immediately ask them to follow you like it’s starting to be an interactive experience but really just throw them out and hide behind a responsible drinking policy. Any online complaints, just reply “we’ll look into it” but really just forget all about it and repeat with next lot of idiots prepared to pay £45 for a no-fun, non-experience. Genius.

Had a fantastic fun experience at the Alcotraz in Brighton. We took along a small bottle of vodka and a small bottle of Tequila in order for them to make us some contraband cocktails, we had 4 cocktails each and at the end the alcohol that we hadn’t used was given back to us. You have to bring along sealed bottles of alcohol, you can’t just bring along an opened bottle from home. We were a party of 2, there were a few other parties of 2 and a party of 6. You can be as loud or as shy as you like, (i’m shy , my partners not:)
But when the actors are doing their spiel, it’s polite not to interrupt, but follow the story.
I loved it, give it a whirl.

Doc made the best cocktails I have ever ver tasted. This was the funniest, best experience I have had had. Bravo to all the actors and thank you!

we went to london alcotraz last night 6 of us and it was the best laugh i have had in years, from arrival to end
yeah u pay money to sit in a cell and u take ur own booze but the theatrical parts and the actors make it such a great experience, the price was fine we did the basic package, its what you make it.
and we had the best night i would defo recommend it.

All the bad reviews seem rather picky
Its a show u participate in
The actors were great fun with the worst american accents which made it funnier.

We had a booking in november but we all had flu and had to rearrange this was done without any issue.

Absolutely terrible and you pay £45 for some juice and garnish as you have to take your own drinks in and sit in a tiny jail cell that is not comfortable and listen to some rubbish skit that goes on for some of the time while you are there. The storyline was so random and sexually explicit. One of our friends made a comment to the Warden (which was very tame in comparison to their storyline and only in jest with the role play) and had to be pulled aside and basically told off ! It was pathetic and ruined the night as it was his 50th birthday night out. Honestly, people who take their job way to serious who really shouldn’t. Do not waste your time or money !

There are few things I felt could be improved with the Alcotraz experience. Reflecting on our time at the venue, one of the other customers may have upset the security staff without our group realising, so perhaps ours wasn't a typical Aloctraz experience, and the attitude of some of the staff wasn't necessarily directed at me or my friends. However, it did put me in a position that made me feel uncomfortable.

At the start of the experience, the briefing was conducted by a young man with an American accent in jailers clothing. There was a lot of background noise from a soundtrack on loop, and the young man was a little harder to understand with an accent, and hard to hear because of the background noise. As we had a positive welcome to Alcotraz, we were in good spirits and all the other customers seemed really nice.

As the briefing started this security guard became irritated, then quite irate with our collective group. We initially thought this was part of the act, mainly because he was otherwise completely out of context, and we thought he was being funny. It wasn't part of the act, he was being quite aggressive in his choice of language and when we realised, it wasn't funny at all. In fact I would say we felt a little threatened.

In future, I'm sure it would helpful to complete the briefing by someone who is clearly in plain clothes and with reduced background noise so they can be heard, understood and their communication isn't misconstrued for theatre. I felt the choice of language used by this member of staff was inflammatory, and did nothing to de-escalate a conflict, if one had indeed occurred, baring in mind this is immersive theatre of a jail.

From this juncture it felt the lines had blurred somewhat from a theatre experience to an actual enforced programme. The language used also did nothing to reduce any tensions in our group between the staff & customers.

Perhaps once again our experience wasn't typical, but I don't think my friend's allergies were taken as seriously as they should have been, because the security team at the briefing felt that we were being annoying. My friend is allergic to pineapple; a potential cocktail ingredient.

My last concern is there should be an ingredients list, including alcohol content for all the drinks given to customers. I don't see how it is safe or acceptable to be given just anything. Despite asking the bar staff what was in the cocktails; we didn't have a clue. We all thought the cocktails tasted really nice, fruity, and had gin in them, which is what we had brought, but they clearly had varying degrees of alcohol content and various mixers. If you are receiving a drink, you should have the right to know how much or how little alcohol is in each one and what mixers are used. Even a name of the cocktail would have been helpful.

The cocktails that was given to my friend, should have been identified as different ie. labelled with a red sticker or brought out separately. However, our cocktails all arrived together and the cocktail absent of an ingredient was identified by the bar staff by pointing at the cup.

There seems like there's no robust system in place to highlight potential risks to customers regarding this issue, either on the website or during the experience. Again I'm sure this wasn't intentional, however, it's an accident waiting to happen.

For us the experience lost its veneer the moment we started the briefing. However, the cocktails/ acting / decor was great once it got going and it's something different to do with friends. It's a fun couple of hours, and our photos are fabulous.

If you are thinking of going to Alcotraz, it might be better going earlier rather than later in the evening. Not sure if I'd recommend as a night out, but something fun at the start of the afternoon/ evening, before the main event.

All the staff were lovely and the cocktails were great! We had a fun experience and I would recommend / return!

OMG what can i say 15 of us went to Alcotraz Brighton for my sons 21st, what an experience such a laugh to suit all, the actors were mind blowing staying in character and getting all involved, so worth a visit

Brighton Alcotraz! Amazing!! Recommend with all my heart.
Amazing!!! Well worth the money! Aclotraz Brighton was amazing!!
Had a fantastic team building experience for our work department here. We had various people, some didn't want to dress up or participate, some wanted different types of spirits for their drinks, but the team at Brighton coped with everything! We had such an amazing time that we are considering at one point going with the 4h hire. Plus, I had people asking me how they could hire the place for birthday parties etc. We all laughed so hard and really had a great time. We might have witness the best impromptu theatrical conversation too! As we had some people from our team that went above and beyond in embracing their characters.
In the end, the actors at Brighton put on an outstanding performance well worth the money and time and coped amazingly with such a diverse crowd!

It was the first time I organized and event and it went down very well! Thank you to all the team at Brighton!

What a fab experience. Right from the greeting outside by the door staff. The actors were fantastic. Did not want to leave prison. Lol 2hrs flies by. Alcotraz Manchester thanks for a fab time.

As other reviews suggest, totally inflexible in the event of an unavoidable situation. We couldn't attend due to trains being cancelled on the day of our experience (how could we have known this 48 hours beforehand?)

6 of us, all lost our money due to train strikes - with zero empathy from this company - no attempt to move the booking or offer a refund

Make sure you give 48 hours notice if your 84 year old Dad gets rushed to hospital on the day of your experience and you can’t go…. You won’t be allowed to move your booking and you’ll lose your money. Shame on you! This was my partners Birthday present and it was his actual birthday too! My Dad obviously took priority on the day, but I was shocked by the lack of empathy and compassion during our crisis. By the way he is still having treatment a week later. If I could move the experience 48 hours prior, then I should’ve been allowed under these circumstances to move to the new year. I cannot afford another present for my partner so that’s a birthday ruined.

Awful website. Awful service. Would not recommend

Great experience buying a gift for my friend here. Im sure they will love it!