Xcitelife's First Mystery Xperience in Toronto - 30 Jan 2016

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On Saturday January 30th 2016, two dozen people boarded a bus for an unknown destination. They had no idea where they were going, or what was going to happen to them that afternoon. All they knew was that they were going to soak up a series of strange experiences, adventures they could digest in their minds for months to come.

This mystery 'Xperience' as they call it, was the first ever wholly unique package offered on the Xcitelife list of fun things to do. This company is hoping to design and deploy many such attractions to transform their users to become better people. X stands for Xperience, Xcitement, Xplore. Xcitelife seeks to evolve consumers heretofore content spending money on stale attractions like bars and clubs, dinner and a movie, etc, Those hapless consumers need to break the cycle and 'Xpand' their horizons. There are so many things to do out there and most people don't know half of them! That's why this crew built Xcitelife - to share all the amazing things there are to do out there with those of who would never think to do them.

The Xcitelife Mystery Xperience Begins

ALL twenty four passengers were really excited to get started, and maybe even a little scared. Nobody knew each other, but everyone knew the host; Paul Peic is a fearless kite boarder, home renovation TV actor and owner of a busy paddle board rentals business in the summer months. He's one of the pioneers of Xcitelife, and this was his personal dream. He wanted to launch the site with a mystery tour to show off these experience vendors offering interesting high value attractions right here in Toronto.

Unlike most other events which issue SWAG bags at the end as people get their coats to leave, the Xcitelife staff handed out the Mystery Xperience gift bags right at the start of the journey - people got their blue survival kit as they boarded the bus and took their seats.

SWAG Bags Contained Gourmet Chocolate Bars

SWAG stands for Stuff We Al Get and the thrill of anticipation for what lay ahead was spiked even higher by the contents of gift bags. There were black and red Xcitelife t shirts, whistles, ribbons, business cards and power foods like Qlicious gourmet chocolate bars, Japanese dried soybean snacks and a candy necklace. There was also a pair of safety glasses.

Everyone put on their t shirts immediately and there was another round of pictures and many of them went direct to Instagram and Facebook with captions like "the mystery tour begins' Then the assembly all signed waivers , which were legal exemptions but also granted Paul and the Xcitelife team the use of our personal images - all photography and video image rights throughout the universe actually.

The Xperience Started at 2pm

Traveling on the bus, being shuttled toward an unknown destination to soak up unknown adventures was just as stimulating as the actual events to come; there was a brief sing-along and then somebody found a crate of Nerf Guns (plastic guns that shoot Nerf Bullets) and for the next twenty minutes there were Nerf bullets flying everywhere.. The people at the back of the bus fired forward, and the people in the front fired back. The people in the middle had nowhere to go. Now you know what the safety goggles were for...

Paul was in his element here, as he has a Nerf machine gun personality. When the bus finally stopped we found ourselves parked in front of ESCAPE GAMES CANADA at 15 Kodiak Cres. Unit 5 Toronto, ON. a large one-story building with no exterior presence. So we were still in the dark..

Escape Games Canada Has A Mayan Tomb

The front desk person greeted us like famous explorers but had to step out of character when it became obvious we didn't have a clue where we were, or what was happening. She had to tell us where we were! And then she went on to detail the place and help us select our mission. We had no idea what was on the menu, and of course had no prep time to read anything about individual missions in advance. So it took us a few minutes to get up to speed here. In time we discovered there's a haunted house puzzle game, and a wild west set? I think, and a jail scenario. Our group selected The Mayan Curse, seduced by the opportunity to explore a long lost Mayan temple and lift the curse of an ancient god. The adventure did indeed test our problem solving skills with a gauntlet of logic puzzles and... well.. suffice to say it defeated us. It was the math.

The Mayan Curse is one of the first missions that the facility opened with in June 2014. This is a classic puzzle game and if I could say anything about the experience is that I would suggest having someone on board that is good with numbers and can efficiently add sums in their head.

As for the physical experience, the details of the temple are lovingly hand-carved out of Styrofoam. And there are strange chests with padlocks and canvas scrolls with strange characters marked on them. Idols that need to be placed in pedestals and even the dusty skeleton of an adventurer who failed to escape the temple earlier. Officially this was a beginner level mission, catering to new escapees with it’s linear puzzle design, but it still defeated us. Iur skeletons are moldering away in there too. The puzzle beat me because it required deciphering symbols with numerical values and then using the highly complex math to solve puzzles. So in that respect it was very challenging for me as I have no head for numbers. I do know quite a lot about the Mayan culture though, knowledge which didn't help me in the least.

Next we all climbed back on the bus and headed for a facility in Vaughn. There were even more wacky moments along the way. The bus rides were always fun and filled with storytelling and general kibitzing about the attractions ahead and behind.

Xploring GTA Sports Plex

GTA Sports Plex at 8301 Keele St, Concord, ON L4K 1Z6 is a very large facility with all manner of indoor sports available. There is a massive soccer field, basketball, badminton, and even archery butts.

The rumour spread quickly as we walked in the door. We were there to play Bubble Soccer! What's that you ask? Well its when soccer players get inside large (five feet wide) plastic bubbles and play the game with lots of physical contact.

After the brief setup we found ourselves on AstroTurf staring at ten giant plastic bubbles - five with red polka dots and five with blue dots. When the whistle blew we were expected to get inside these vessels and play a game of soccer just like normal - except everything is different.

The bubble is a hefty mantle, and slightly claustrophobic. If you're a barrel chested muscleman like myself, you might find it restrictive at first, but once you get used to its exigencies, it feels pretty damn good! All players soon noticed that you can't run very fast unless you lift the bubble up from around your legs using the two plastic handles inside. The bubble would otherwise act like a tight skirt which seriously limits your leg movements. So you have to be strong enough to lift the plastic orb to run fast and then drop it for collisions and even tuck into it when rolling. Rocking back and forth is the quickest way to get up, and I found that if you get knocked down its possible to pivot into another upright player's forward motion and the subsequent collision will probably put you right again - the energy of the balls colliding will bounce you on or off your feet. In short - the best way to succeed here is become the bubble!

The actual game play seldom lasted longer than thirty or forty seconds, because as soon as there was a goal the net was usually knocked over and somebody not wearing a bubble was required to retrieve the soccer ball from the end zone. Plus half the teams were on the ground rolling around and the referee would have to wait a few minutes longer than the game play had actually lasted to start the match again. I don't think anyone kept score or even knew who was on the different teams as our identities were so well masked by the bubbles. I know I got some good hits and I gave a few myself and although I never scored a goal I did save our team from being scored upon at least once, i think..

After we played soccer we tried a version of 'capture the flag' which was simply to knock over three pylons at the end zone. Again two teams of five faced each other on the pitch, but now things got really violent - it was Bubble Sumo as five people charged each other to get to the pylons. I just parked it over top of one of the pylons and challenged them to try and tip it - if they came at me directly I simply matched momentum and if they turned and tried to outflank me they were doomed to my ram's attack. There were some very satisfying moments for me in this round.

Between bouts of Bubble Soccer and as the Archery Tag was being set up - we ate a fine chicken dinner lunch with rice and a nice green leafy salad. It was a healthy sustenance and I ate well because i was very hungry and the chicken was real tasty. At this time we had musical accompaniment by Guest DJ Heather Van Vyper.

We Played Archery Tag with Foam Marshmallow Tipped Arrows

Archery Tag is played similar to dodge ball the difference being instead of just one ball we all had wooden bows with half a dozen patented foam-tipped arrows. Two teams, consisting of five players each formed up against one another on the hardwood floor of sizable indoor basketball court, another amenity of the GTA Sports Plex facility. This exciting, action-packed game was indeed a thrilling experience and I pulled a muscle in my arm, sprained muscles in both my legs as I ducked and shot and dodged and shot and dodged. etc I have a real ability here. I'm a great archer.

RULES : One team wore black goggles and one team had green goggles. We were separated by a safe zone. Each team also had what we call a “5-Spot Knockout Target.” There are two objectives: 1) to hit the opponents, and 2) to knock out the five discs of the opposing team’s target. You eliminate a player by hitting him or her with an arrow, or by catching his or her arrow. The 5-Spot Targets work to save a “life” of one of the players. A “hit” player can be called back into the game when a target spot is knocked out or when a teammate catches an arrow.

So above are the rules that I just copied and pasted from the Archery Games page of the GTA sports Plex website, but once again that's not what happened. Paul cranked up the music and filled the room with laser lights and fog and we just shot arrows at each other for half an hour until our arms and back and legs hurt. I could see that almost everyone was limping as they left the court.

Mystery Xperience Ends With Good Vibes Circle

When the bus finally stopped the mystery xperience was still not over. Now Paul gathered the whole gang gathered together on the shores of Lake Ontario to make a prayer circle of sorts whereby we held hands and thought about the future and sanctified our mutual respect for each others' lives, mental health and professional ambitions.

Without too much ceremony (it was cold standing there on the shores of Lake Ontario), Paul lit a single white Japanese lantern which as you may or may not know is a paper bag with a tea light sized wax cube underneath. The cube burns and three inch high open flames fill the vessel with hot air and lift it up into the sky. That's what's supposed to happen, and indeed this is what does happen on a calm night when there's no wind. Unfortunately the weather was not calm, and the wind did not cooperate in this respect. The ceremony was short and sweet.

The first ever Xcitelife Mystery Xperience was an overall success! It paved the way for even greater sorties into the unknown and hopefully the news of this attraction and the stories of what happened here will inspire other coordinators and unique experience vendors to come forward and use the platform to find participants for their Xciting events.

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Photos

Step up for the Mystery Tour
Participants board the bus into the unknown...

Guests sign waivers
Legal documents protect experience vendors.

merrymaking on the bus
Getting there is half the fun!

More delicious chocolate
Gourmet chocolate bars made with edible flowers.

Xcitelife fed us a healthy lunch!
All participants enjoyed a delicious lunch.

We played Bubble Soccer
We played soccer while wearing huge plastic bubbles.

GTA Sports Plex - Bubble Soccer
The actual game play is very short, but hilarious.

Participants Learned Archery
We learned to shoot by aiming at each other playing Archery Tag with foam tipped arrows.

This is what Archery Tag looks like
The fog element added to the thrill of dodging arrows.

When we wished upon a Japanese Lantern
The Lantern didn't fly very far or live very long.