Of course, creating an interactive experience such as this one has a lot more spinning plates than a typical theater production. As such, planning began well over six months prior to the party, and included bringing in one of the immersive industry’s heavy hitters, Chris Waters of Constructed Adventures. “He never misses. His ideas are spectacular,” says Waters of Harris, who was the one to come up with the concept of framing the event around a wellness cult. “It’s wild how invested he was, considering he was often in another country doing something for work. It was really cool to see how much he cared.”
And the entire creative team shared that same passion: Apart from Harris and Waters, the group also included Cajou Hospitality (who liaised with all parties to make sure everything ran smoothly), and corporate partner Capital One, whose credit card members were the only guests eligible to purchase entry to the three-night, $10,000 adventure. Underwriting bespoke events such as this one at Little Palm have lately become a hallmark of the company: “Creating these once-in-a-lifetime experiences that card holders can’t go and do on their own is really important [to us],” says Monica Weaver, head of branded card partnerships and experiences at Capital One. Other trips in the works for later this year include golfing in the Scottish Highlands with Colin Montgomerie, and a tour of Rome with design expert Athena Calderone.
And even I, an admittedly jaded travel writer, one who has been spoiled from years of butler service and custom check-in amenities, found myself surprised at the attention to detail during the party. I say this without hyperbole: I have never been on a trip as curated, personalized, and fun as this one. In the mornings, we were free to use the hotel’s pool, spa, and beach, as one would on any regular Florida vacation. But our afternoons were tied to the murder mystery party through opportunities to go on “gambits”—carefully planned excursions with characters that not only introduced us to different areas of the hotel like the yoga platform or its boats, but a chance to pump the Circles members for information on secret allegiances, motives, and more. And before dinner every night, all of the guests gathered at the bar, where those of us who met as strangers soon became fast friends as we excitedly traded tips on which Circles members we’d met and what we’d managed to squeeze out of them.
By the last meal, when we’d collectively solved the mystery and the actors emerged to dine as their real selves, the scene at the beach dinner was more akin to a family reunion. Everyone was popping up to chat at different tables or take group photos. “When we ended the [event] and we were all sitting at random 12-top tables that weren’t chosen by us—that we each just picked—I’m not joking when I say I have never seen 50 people all talking so simultaneously and enthusiastically,” Harris tells me when we catch up after dinner. “Everyone was co-existing like family. That I was not expecting.”
The good news is that there are plans to schedule more of these wacky, multi-day murder mystery adventures in the future. (This was actually the second; the first, held last year, was a shorter affair in the Berkshires, also sponsored by Capital One.) “I want to keep expanding it,” Harris says. “I think the third iteration deserves to be more global. There’s something kind of intoxicating about that.”