The Adventure Park at Sandy Spring — Attraction in Olney

I REALLY wanted to like this place but ended up being a big disappointment. Like another family mentioned her Grandson being stuck and staff had zero sense of urgency to respond, I also endured a similar situation. Not only did my zip line rebound sending me back a considerable distance away from the landing platform, I screamed for help numerous times as I dangled in the wooded area. NOBODY responded whatsoever! It took an eleven year old walking through the wooded area to pull me back towards the landing platform which was quite difficult. The rebound resistance was so strong that the eleven year old child had to pull me back several times before he finally reached the landing platform. Throughout the entire ordeal, the nearby staff did absolutely nothing most likely because they were under staffed and/or the ones within reasonable range was distracted by their coworker team environment. Another mom told me she went through the same thing trying to get her son help. Earlier in the obstacle course, I also witnessed another parent calling for help because her child was in a frenzy mid course asking for potty. Again, absolutely no staff bothered to acknowledge the calls for help!

Based on the my personal experience as well as similar reviews, I feel this place has established a clear pattern of disregard for calls for help. It is utterly shameful that the owner knows about the history of neglecting children as well as adults but fail to be more vigilant after all the reports.

I was also disappointed with the aesthetic of this location. Like port potty vs actual rest rooms and the harness smelled like a men’s locker room. This particular location has a decent obstacle course just unbelievable that during a time of recent global health crisis, their harness reek of sweat odor. They’re waaay too pricey to not have proper odor control with their safety equipment.

A few staff members were also downright snooty like they did not want to be bothered. The ONLY reason I even gave a two star rating was because the manager and the guy that took my reservation was extremely pleasant. There was another sweet young lady that sincerely wanted to direct me to her manager when she noticed how distressed I was after getting rescued by a child but the first staff member she attempted to talk to lacked confidence in his ability to even listen to my concerns evident by him brushing me off on another staff.

Though the manager offered me two tickets for a future visit, now that I read other reviews that complained about being stuck with zero staff intervention, I don’t know if I will ever recover from my experience. Total waste of money because I just could not bring myself back to trusting the remainder of the course after getting stuck on my first course. As a 17 year business owner, it hurts to see when business owners don’t fix things that they have a clear history of complaints about. Especially considering this business appears to be a little more lucrative than my small business but I at least invest heavily in sanitation as well as...

This is an absolutely terrific adventure park, far surpassing virtually any other ropes course or zipline adventure we've come across. There are multiple courses at levels that vary both literally (meaning height) and metaphorically (meaning difficulty). They aren't short, either -- each course has an impressive number of challenges, usually with a few optional exit points along the way if one doesn't want to do the whole thing. When you add in the beautiful wooded setting, gracefully shaded beneath a canopy of lovely trees, it's hard to beat. The water stations are also handy and they are kept well supplied.

Other props need to be given for the way they've kept it fresh. We last did the park three years ago, and were surprised upon our return by how much had been added to the courses. There is real innovation and creativity in the physical challenges -- all sorts of novel ways to get across. I actually found my strength, my balance and my flexibility challenged more than I'd remembered. There was one point where I just didn't think my middle-aged legs could lift high enough to get through a hoop across a tightrope, and I'd be stuck. Fortunately I somehow made it.

Minor complaints? I have a few. One is that while the challenges are wonderfully fresh and innovative, the equipment is aging. The clip-lock mechanisms don't work as easily or reliably as they used to, and I even had the problem a few times that one clip would lock but the other wouldn't unlock, leaving me stuck in a very uncomfortable position between two locked clips on different cables that could only be relieved by twisting the connecting cord this way and that until something reoriented inside. Also found that the harnesses, clips and loops were sometimes dangerously confusing; some loops were a bit too small to easily serve their purpose, and their identifying colors were faded. Worse yet, the clip that visitors are supposed to attach to get up and down the ladders physically resembles and goes awfully close to the dreaded D ring that one is never supposed to unfasten. It doesn't seem completely safe that visitors have to repeatedly fasten and unfasten a clip that so closely resembles one they are never supposed to touch.

Also, the staff clearly varied in their experience levels. A few were excellent, but sometimes one had to wait until a more experienced person arrived to get necessary help. Some of the course design mechanisms seemed odd -- planks that were so unstable that they really couldn't be stepped on without spilling, which meant one could only get across by walking the cable as a tightrope. Unclear why they would bother to put planks on if the span could only be traversed as a tightrope anyway.

Despite the concerns, it's a marvelous experience. Just be...

What an awesome experience! I took a group of 12 year old girls for a birthday party and they had an absolute blast. On top of that, let me lay out how amazing their customer service is. We originally planned this event in March of 2020, but had to cancel because of COVID. Daniel helped us with our initial reservation, and he was a delight. Then, a year later, of course I had lost track of my gift certificate for the deposit I had paid in 2020. No worries, because here comes Daniel to the rescue again. He resent my gift certificate email, and spent a ton of time on the phone with me to help me understand my different options i.e. group reservation vs. last-call tickets. All was looking good until the day of our reservation, and then the weather got in the way. I called the office number and they read my mind, because one of the options was a pre-recorded message about how the park handles weather, and how EASY it would be to cancel my reservation and transfer it to a new date. Once again, Daniel answered the phone when I called to reschedule, and he told me all about climbing in the park at night. Although the "Glow in the Dark" event only happens about once a month, the park is lit up beautifully with string lights on every other night. It was AWESOME. However, my two younger daughters were having some trouble with the cold. Their hands were too cold to operate the caribeeners and the special lock/unlock mechanism, which in turn just stressed them out and they wouldn't even attempt the first rope bridge. Oh well....maybe next time. As we were hanging out by the fire pit, here comes one of the park staff to ask me what happened. I explained that my younger daughters just weren't feeling it tonight, but no big deal, we would just come back another time. I was not expecting any sort of refund, so I was pleasantly surprised when the staff member offered to provide a credit for all 3 of us, because they really wanted us to have an awesome experience. I gave the staff member my name, and he introduced himself as...you guessed it...Daniel. The Sandy Spring Adventure Park truly understands excellent customer service, and they have a new customer for life!

P.S. Miguel took this photo, and he was...