One of the amenities in a review is Restroom: Vaulted. What the heck is a vaulted restroom? Also think there should be a way of quantifying the quality of free WiFi provided by a campsite if they advertise it. Any thoughts?
A "vaulted" restroom is basically a glorified outhouse. Instead of just a hole in the ground though, it's built over a usually concrete tank that stores the waste for periodic pump out. WiFi can be pretty subjective depending on the time of day and the current occupancy of the park. That means that each person's perception of the quality could vary drastically depending on the current conditions.
Dutch's answer for vaulted toilets is correct. I've found them in more primitive campgrounds or those that haven't been upgraded to more current standards. I've started posting speed test result (upload/download) numbers in my reviews. It's still not an exact science, as Dutch stated, conditions vary based on multiple variables.
Agree with NYDutch 100%. Both the vaulted toilet explanation and the wifi response are correct. Wifi in almost any campground is going to be impossible to rate accurately. It will depend on what site you are in, what you are attempting to do, what day it is and what time of day you are actually trying to use the system. The only truism about RV park wifi is if you really need fast, reliable connections, don't expect the park to provide it via cellular data services. You will need to bring your own and even then, if your park is so rural it has vault toilets, the cellular service may be inadequate or unavailable as well. If you choose to "get away from it all", Wifi is often part of the "all".
IMHO an imperfect speed measurement is better than none at all. Furthermore, from what I've been told by the technical guys on this site, the speed test software can detect whether you are using WiFi or a cellular network. So the capability exists to start collecting data on cellular network performance at particular RV parks. Sure, that data will also vary by time-of-day and day of the week, but IMO something is better than nothing!
The "getting away from it all" isn' always possible. I have a business that relies on communications while camping; that is, mostly email so WiiFi is a plus and I do appreciate folks running a speed test using the campground WiFi and noting which cell provider towers offer decent signals. It does dhape my decisions on which campgrounds we choose. As a relatively experienced camper, I do understand the vagaries of trying to quantify campground WiFi but do appreciate attempts to characterized camper's experience in this regard. When a campground touts their great WiFi on their website and it proves nearly useless and I can't get a reliable cell signal to use my phone as a hotspot, these factors truly make the camping experience less than optimal. Everyone has their own need for a data signal so I will leave it at that. As far as the vaulted potty, guess I haven't seen one in the many campgrounds I have camped in. Thankfully although we use our camper's bathroom almost 100 percent. Only time we didn't was when we camped in a truck camper and the missus would not use the little "wet bathroom shower" and used the one the campground provided.
Vault toilets are relatively common in the more remote/primitive state and national park campgrounds and some trail heads.
Is there actually RV Parks that advertise "Great Wifi"? All I have noticed is that Wifi is listed among the items listed as amenities. I haven't seen any that actually tried to tout any service experience above it is available. I have seen many that will say the Wifi service is not capable of things like streaming or anything else above checking Wifi and basic web surfing.
