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This was the worst camping experience I've ever had. What sold me on Clay's Park Resort to begin with? Well, since this was to be my and my husband's last private vacation before our first baby arrives, it was their web site's proclamation: "Our spacious, 500 acre facility allows us to provide you with larger campsites, secluded areas and plenty of room to roam."
Large campsites...secluded areas. That's what we were looking for. And then unlimited boat rentals - we imagined lazy days on the lake fishing and soaking in nature. A 10-acre swimming lake promised open swimming, no matter the crowd...a video arcade and game room, in case we just needed a break from the outdoors...picnic table and fire rings...the web site made the trip sound well worth the $200 camp site rental (not to mention the additional purchase of camping gear for the trip).
Now we begin with the disappointments. When we arrived, excited as could be, Friday, August 7th (planning to stay through August 14th), we were escorted to a slim campsite between two other slim campsites. At check-in, we were assured this was the best camp site in the park, with a nice view overlooking the fishing lake. The view WAS nice, but that didn't compensate for the community sleeping - a far cry from "spacious" and "secluded".
Also, the gentleman who escorted us told us that the camp site no longer provided picnic tables or fire rings, but they could be found around the park. He did help my husband move a crumbling picnic table over to our campsite and our one neighbor, who was leaving that day, said we could take her fire ring. Um, but their web site states in its checklist under overnight camping: "Picnic tables & fire rings".
My husband and I decided to just make the best of it, however, and reluctantly set up our camping gear to TRY to enjoy our vacation. After all, we only get one vacation a year and this was probably our last for a couple years. At night, we could hear our neighbors, whose tents were a mere two feet from ours, snoring and moving around in their tents. That could only mean that they could also hear every little thing we did, too! That meant no romance for us, especially since they had kids and we wanted to be respectful!
But, my husband and I trudged on, determined to make the best of a bad situation. Besides, we could go do other things and didn't have to spend all day at our camp site. Right?
So, we rode our bikes around the park to check things out. Swimming lake? A small blocked off area of a bigger lake. Boating (kayaks, canoes, etc.)? The rest of the swimming lake, with barely any room to move around, especially if all of the boats were in use. Of course, there was also a 20-minute limit on the boats, again a far cry from "unlimited". Canoes did appear to be available at the fishing lake, but no oars and no one on hand to inquire about them.
By Sunday, most of our neighbors checked out, which gave us slightly more privacy, so we decided we could just hang out at our camp site, going fishing or swimming at the indoor pool if we needed to get away for a while. Of course, as we finally settled in to relax to our view of the lake with no one to our immediately right or left, a giant camper pulled in right in front of us, blocking half of our view. We had earlier been informed that the only people who would be permitted down there were the owners' friends. Yay for them. I'm sure glad they had a good time and got a "spacious" camp site. If only paying customers were treated that way!
At the indoor pool, while nice and refreshing on hot days, was unattended by any park employee. After two days of watching kids, whose parents were nowhere in sight, jumping and diving in the pool - almost on top of other kids and swimmers (against posted rules) - I finally yelled at the kids myself. Of course, they didn't listen to me so I was forced to go into the camp restaurant to report the behavior. Only after that did someone periodically check the pool to ensure all kids had a parent and to stop kids from jumping and diving. It wasn't foolproof, but at least it made things a little safer for other swimmers.
We were disappointed, also, that there were only 5 showers for how many campers? Geez. I didn't even have an opportunity to hop in one until Sunday evening.
We ended up leaving the campgrounds a full four nights ahead of schedule with NO refunds because a big rain had come through and flooded out our camp site. Half of our tent was submerged in water, along with our fire ring and half our picnic table (pretty much the entire camp site). I had tried to get a refund for those days we could not stay, but no one at Clay's Park is getting back to me.
Received from Joanna for visit in Aug 2009 |
Site Number:B5
Stay Again? NO |
