I am giving this a bit of a harsh review, but before I do, let me say that it was a decent trip and that if you can do this with a different company I would recommend.
Why didn't I enjoy this:
1. The directions to the location through Viator is very wrong. We ended up at another outfit, and waited around to talk to someone and when we did they didn't seem to fully know so they said to wait around to see if a van or bus would show up to get us.
2. While we waited, we reached out to the company several times and didn't get a response.
3. When I found someone else to talk to, they told me that we were in the wrong place, DESPITE THE DIRECTIONS DIRECTLY FROM VIATOR, and that we needed to go to another place.
4. When we arrived to the right place, the people were not very receptive to our issue and didn't seem to be bothered or care that we were now late because of their issues with directions through VIATOR and lack of communication on their part. I had to fight to get them to schedule us for another trip, even though it wasn't the same as what we ordered. They also didn't change the pricing, even though what we ended up with was not the same as what I paid for.
5. Lunch was very bland and not worth it.
6. The safety prep and gear hand out was chaotic and confusing.
Before I go on, let me say that we are very adventurous and experienced people. I used to be an instructor for climbing, ziplining, and ropes courses, and we both are experienced climbers and outdoor enthusiasts. So anything critical I write about the actual experience is based on my level of experience. If you are brand new to zipline, rappel, or outdoor activities, then you may not be as bothered as I was.
7. The only female staff member was stressed, rude, and short with everyone she encountered.
8. The rappelling was VERY FRUSTRATING. We only got one rappel even though we paid for several, but that wasn't the issue. You rappel off a 100m deck, which seems cool, but when you are hanging from the deck and trying to lower yourself, you can't because the guide below has you so tight that you can't feed the rope through the figure 8. You have to fight to pull the rope through, essentially pulling the rope from the guy below. THAT IS NOT HOW YOU RAPPEL and that is NOT HOW YOU SAFELY BACKUP BELAY SOMEONE! This actually caused issues for a few of us in the group, including myself and my wife. At one point, I was literally playing tug of war with the guy below so I could try to lower myself down. This causes jerking and bouncy rappelling, which can be painful and is not enjoyable at all. I had to yell at the guy below to give slack, and when he didn't I just gave up and let go of the rope. He then lowered me down himself, which again truly sucked.
9. At the last 10m of the rope, the guide thought it would be fun to drop me very quickly and catch me, 2 or 3 times. As a former guide and leader for this type of activity, I understand what he was doing and why, but it just pissed me off because it hurts, and because if the whole point of keeping the rope so tight that I couldn't rappel myself down, then why do something risky at the end?
10. My wife who has 15 years of climbing and rappelling experience said that this was the worst experience she has ever had. She too complained that the rope was too tight and that she could not lower herself down. There is a section in the middle of the rappel where you have to move past the bridge and little cut out in the wall, and could easily be done if allowed. However, they would not give her the slack she needed to do so and instead controller her descent and caused her to hit her leg on the railing because they dropped her too quickly in that spot and caused her to slide against the muddy wall because they were pulling the bottom of the rope too tight for her to be able to control her own descent.
11. The zips were fine, but the assisted braking system that they have is not great. Again, I have a lot of experience with this and understand how this works, so I feel safe to criticize. There was an example where the assisted braking system was slid out to slow my wife down, but instead of slowing her down, there was an issue with the retraction part of the mechanism and it stopped her dead in the spot of the zipline. This caused her legs to swing up over the zipline and really scratch up and bruise her legs. The instant jerk also affected her back for the rest of the trip. After they brought her in to the platform they apoloigized and said that they weren't sure why it didn't slide in with her and that it shouldn't have done that.
12. The overall zipping experience was rushed and very congested. They had 3 different groups running at the same time and it felt very rushed, very hectic, and not personal at all.
I hope that the company we used reads this and if anything understands the following things:
1. Be more personable and understanding and friendly. If someone shows you that something is wrong with your directions and showed you that they reached out for help, take some ownership of that and try to be a little apologetic and understanding and try to come to a resolution.
2. Teach your rappelling team how to backup belay people better. I understand you want to be safe, but people sign up for rappelling because they want the excitement and experience. They don't want to be tied to a rope, fight with the person below, and have a bad experience, and then just give up and let the person below lower them down.
3. Try to stagger the groups versus slamming everyone together, so it doesn't seem so congested and chaotic. The smaller groups give for a better experience.