Go Ape Zipline and Adventure Park — Attraction in Burke

Let me preface this by saying my rating is based on a phone call, and not on an actual visit. Also, the call was to a 1-800 number so I could have been talking to a guy in Colorado or something. The staff at Springfield is probably awesome and I will still go , BUT I don't appreciate the tone of the conversation, and I want them to know. I was interested in a membership , but for the price of $300 I wanted to make sure I didn't have to wait on obstacles while a large group of people, some of whom will naturally struggle more than others, goes through. At some of these types of places, you get roped in and you enter as a group, but once you are in you can go your own way and choose your levels, enabling people to stay in their zone and generally cutting down on wait times on tougher obstacles. So, I called the 1-800 number to ask if you were free to move about the obstacles or if the whole group progressed together through a series of points. I pressed option 5 because my question didn't seem to fit the other categories, and the smarmy "Steve" informed me that he didn't work at the parks but the answer to my question was "no". In a squeaky voice he told me "You are thinking of an amusement park where you pay your way in and then can do whatever you want! You can go to the Rollercoaster or..." at that point I interrupted him saying "Don't tell me what I am thinking and I have been to a million of these type of places. I was just trying to ascertain the progression at yours before I plunked down $300 and had to commit myself to two to three hours every time". He seemed flustered and taken aback by the fact that I was griping at him, and sarcastically asked if he could help me with anything else. I told him he could help me by not being a jerk. I don't think he liked it. I am a public school teacher and have been for 30 years. If this whole Covid disaster has taught me anything, it is that businesses need to be more accommodating and more effusive in their desire to help customers, and this company seems not to share that philosophy. I may still go to GoApe because I love the workout you get when you have to engage all the muscle groups to overcome challenges but was I Ape about their customer service? No. Seemed like...

I mentor a young man affected by autism and we go on adventures every week. This past week, we decided to check out GoApe at South Run Park.

Since it was his first time and we were afraid of getting caught in the rain, we tried the junior course.

At check in, we accidentally received the wrong paperwork and were given adventure course paperwork to fill out instead of junior course paperwork. After reading through it and helping him fill it out, we had to then fill out another sheet for the junior course. A little inconvenient but not horrible.

A short wait and our instructor Nathaniel picked us up and escorted us down to the junior course. We got into harnesses. Instructor Emily took her time getting my friend into his harness. He isn't very fond of touching, but she did her best to keep him comfortable through the awkwardness of harnessing for your first time.

Next, we began our safety briefing and finally it was time to get up on the course.

There were only 2 other people on the course with us. They cruised through the obstacles and allowed us to move at a great place behind them and we were able to do all 3 junior course sections 2 times. We did his favorite section 1 more time and he was tired and ready for lunch. We ended 5 minutes before our hour was up. We only had to wait at the Zipline once since there were only 2 other people on the course.

Next time we go, we are going to try and adventure course.

If doing the junior course, I would definitely try and pick a slow day like a day with potential rain to get the most out of your hour.

You get 1 hour on the junior course. When making your plans, it's good to know your hour starts after you receive your safety briefing. For 4 people in our group, it took ~20 minutes to get us harnessed and briefed. I can imagine how things could get backed up when it's busy in harnessing, briefing, and when trying to go down the ziplines since all 3 sections end at the same 2 ziplines managed by an instructor.

It was a great first try for my friend to try something new and I'm excited to go again and Live Life...

I absolutely loved this park! I did the Treetop Journey (it was my first time trying such an obstacle course so I did the shortest and easiest option as a trial run) and enjoyed it immensely. I was a little scared at first because it was my first time doing such an activity, but the strong, secure harness and safety cables, which were easy to manoeuvre, helped me overcome my fear. The staff’s professionalism was exemplary. Everyone was super friendly. I had also signed up for the 40-foot monkey drop, but due to anxiety decided not to do it. The staff were very understanding and immediately gave me a refund without making a big deal out of it. Sounds like a bare minimum, but I have experienced businesses that get aggressive and stubborn if I try to get a refund for something. Also, I was doing my event on a very hot, humid day, and I saw several kids starting overheating and showing signs of not feeling well, and the staff were very caring towards them, giving them ice packs and Gatorade and letting them relax in an air conditioned room. Also, the staff were never pushy with any of the parts of the course, at least in my observation. For example, I got scared to go down a zip line, and the guide was understanding and let me walk down the stairs. The one minor thing is the lack of flexibility for the time limit a person is given to do their course, though the course is overall self paced. Due to not properly understanding some instructions (related to what to do to proceed to next obstacle) and having to repeat part of the course, I was not allowed to complete the course as the time limit has passed. I understand the time limit is to maintain crowd control, but if a person genuinely misunderstood or did not fully understand what to do, they should be allowed to finish. I had to book book another course to be able to finish the Journey, and it was no huge deal, as $39 is not going to break my bank account, but it would have been nice if I could have finished...