I recently visited the Fayetteville/Wade KOA and had a terrible experience. The owner is an unpleasant person who seems to have nothing more to do but to try to make campers' experiences miserable. The rules were not clearly displayed and seemed to change at a whim. I will never return to this campground and would not advise anyone else too either.
Well this is certainly unsettling news since I was going to call them tomorrow (7/18) to make ressies for our trip to Florida this weekend . :huh: Could you please be a little more specific in what happened? What rules were unclear and then changed? Did it have anything to do with the pets? I would so much appreciate a quick response. It's really not fair of you to say these things and not give us more info. Thanks.
The first thing that happened was when I arrived. When I went in to check in, I asked where I could park, because there were no marked parking spaces. A very nice man who worked there asked the lady at the desk (one of the owners) and she told him to have me park near the pool (some of my family had already arrived and were at the pool). He even led me directly to the place to park. I had just gotten out of my car when a very unpleasant man (the other owner) asked me why I had parked there. When I told him one of the attendants told me to park there, he said in a very unpleasant tone, "Well, I'll straighten that out, but you can't park there." Another time, we had our dog (a very clean, very well-behaved toy poodle) on a leash with us at the pool. (There were no signs saying this was not allowed). The man again told me that I could not have the dog there. By the way, there WAS a sign saying no eating or drinking, but other people had been eating and drinking there the day before and nothing was said. Yet another time, my son had his truck parked adjacent to the barbeque pit to unload some wood for a campfire, and this same man told him he would have to move his truck. Yet another time, we had the dog on a leash, with the leash attached to a railing right beside where we were sitting, and were told the dog had to be under our control at all times. I guess that meant we had to have the leash in our hands. Anyway, we were having a family reunion with our children, who had not seen each other in two years. We had rented three cabins and an RV site. The whole weekend was unpleasant and I will never go back to that campground.
Thanks so much for sharing your experience and I am so sorry that your anticipated family reunion was not as enjoyable as it should have been just because of the rude owner. I really didn't expect you to write back and I did call this CG today and made a one-night ressie for this weekend on our way down to Florida. I will keep your experiences in mind but, for an overnight stop, I don't feel we will be facing the same situations as you. I hope your next Family Reunion is much more relaxed and enjoyable.
Campground experiences are necessarily subjective and, having had my share of negative ones, I can sympathize with what's been said. In fairness, though, I'd point out that most reports about this campground (on this website) have been quite positive. See http://campgroundreviews.com/North_Carolina.html#Wade
We had an extremely enjoyable visit at the Fayetteville/Wade KOA, and we'll certainly go back. We met the owners and they were friendly, helpful, and totally professional. We also were in the store while they took care of other customers and they treated them in a friendly, helpful, and totally professional manner as well. In short, we were very impressed by the entire Fayetteville/Wade KOA team. Here's the review that we recently posted: "An outstanding campground. Absolutely spotless showers, bathrooms, and laundry room. Excellent, very smooth gravel interior roads, with easy pull-through access. Quiet and peaceful, a short drive from I-95, but no highway noise at all. Their free Wi-Fi works perfectly. Very friendly staff. We will most certainly stay there again. We camped here in a Motorhome in June 2005."
In August, 2005, we stayed overnight at this campground en route home to Florida. It was one of the better KOA experiences that we have had. The campground is easily accessible from I-95, and there are long pull through sites for big rigs. The grounds are well cared for and nicely landscaped. Our check in took 5 minutes and was handled by a friendly, efficient staff person. We will definitely stay there again.
Several years ago my tow vehicle broke down near this campground when returning home from Florida. I had AAA tow my trailer to this facility and it stayed there for over a month while my transmission was being repaired. I rented a car and drove home to southern NJ. The campground owners were very courteous and only charged us a storage rate even though we had the trailer parked in a site with the electric plugged in (We only thought it would be there a couple of days when we plugged it in.) When my transmission was repaired the owner of the campground even picked up my car and had it waiting by my trailer. These people helped to make a bad situation much better and I have been highly recommending them ever since. The AAMCO corporate office on the other hand gave me a check so I would stop telling people about the service they gave me.
QUOTE(Overdue2go @ Oct 16 2005, 09:18 AM) There's always 2 sides to every story . . . . . [snapback]2816[/snapback] Yes and I believe we have just heard the lopsided side of the story.
In 27 years of camping and RV'ing we have stayed in a number of campgrounds. I have seen guests have trouble with the owners at places where we have never had any problems. We have become friends of a couple that own a CG and to be honest, there are days neither should probably not have any contact with the general public. If you know them, they are great people, but they can come off as negative to younger people or demanding people of any age. We have seen people told to pack up and leave because they pitched a tent on an empty site prior to registering. Unlike most CG’s, you have access to most of this one before you ever find the “office”. Due to its location, I’m sure some people think it is a National Forrest campground and don’t even realize it’s private. We have been camping there for about 24 years. It takes all types to make the world go round and there are two sides to every story. I do think that persons new to camping or RV’ing may not have an understanding of what is expected of them as guests at a CG or RV park. Even the group we travel with has had older couples join us that just got into RV’ing and they can be very inconsiderate of other RV’ers or the campground rules.
