Disney Springs: LEVEL99 taking former NBA Experience location
LEVEL99, an interactive gaming venue, is moving into Disney Springs. It will slide into the former NBA Experience space in the West Side section of the Walt Disney World entertainment complex, all parties confirmed Wednesday.
LEVEL99 has more than 50 physical and mental challenges set in artistic environments alongside dining options and craft beverages. The Disney Springs location follows the original venues in Natick, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island.
“We are defining the category and setting the standard for out-of-home, interactive entertainment,” LEVEL99 CEO and founder Matthew DuPlessie, said in a news release.
“Our vision is to make ‘challenge rooms’ a mainstream concept, and the opportunity to open at a marquee location like Disney Springs is the next step in our plans to expand the LEVEL99 brand nationally,” he said.
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DuPlessie launched the first escape room-style concept in the world in 2004, the news release said. In 2021, he opened the first LEVEL99 location in hopes of broadening the appeal and increasing repeatability. Participants typically spend two or three hours of entertainment play, the company says, followed by food and beverages there.
In its challenge rooms, teams of two to six players work to beat a themed physical or mental challenge that usually lasts between one and four minutes. There also are arena duels for one-on-one showdowns and an art hunt featuring hidden symbols amongst hundreds of pieces of local art.
The Disney Springs LEVEL99 will cover 45,000 square feet over two levels. It will handle about 1,000 players at a time.
Neither an opening timeframe nor pricing were announced. At the original Massachusetts venue, there are two-hour, four-hour and all-day tickets, ranging from $29.99 to $55.99, depending on the date. LEVEL99 locations are scheduled to open this year in West Hartford, Connecticut, and Tysons Corner, Virginia.
At Disney Springs, LEVEL99 will be between Splitsville and CityWorks restaurants, across the plaza from House of Blues on the Cirque du Soleil end of the complex.
The NBA Experience opened in August 2019, featuring basketball-related activities and merchandise sales. It shut down with the bulk of Walt Disney World in 2020 in reaction to the COVID pandemic. In August 2021, Disney announced that NBA Experience would not reopen. The site — though not the building — previously was the location for DisneyQuest, an interactive attraction that closed in 2017.