Oh Lord, where do I begin?
In my opinion this KOA had the worse costumer service that I have ever experienced.
There was a Class-A motor home that arrived while we were there. I noticed, after a short while, the motor home was leaving. Curiosity got the best of me and I had asked why they were not staying. Another person said that “the driver of the camper was not able to get his rig in the campsite and he would not be able to get his slides out“. The employee at the KOA told him “if you don’t like it, you can leave.”
Moore Haven KOA is independently owned. This means that corporate (KOA) will not work with you or help you if there is a problem, especially if the issue is a fee or pricing problem. If you reserve a stay one day shy of a month, they will charge you the daily rate for the days that you stay. Of course they didn’t tell me that, nor will they fix the issue. If you think about it, that one day cost me $800.00. Here’s the math: The monthly rate (28 days) was $1200 – the daily rate ($75 per day) at 27 days cost about $2000. That’s a difference of $800.
Prices at the camp store were a bit higher then most other campgrounds. You might as well pay the camp-store prices because it’s going to cost you more in fuel if you have to go into town.
They have a designated area, in the back of the campground, to wash your vehicles. However, it is locked and you have to pay to use it, but they won’t tell you that. Yes, they “nickel and dime you“.
We were there for almost 4 weeks and the pool was cold the entire time. The website says that it is a heated pool… this was not the case during our stay. For those campers who like the pool but are not able to be in the sun too long, there were no umbrellas available. If you look on their KOA website, it shows umbrellas on the pool deck. I think this campground is “boarder-line” false advertising.
This campground is surrounded by rundown-cattle ranches and farms. If you are “scent sensitive” and the wind is blowing, you may not be happy with the unpleasant odor. The neighboring cattle ranch has two dogs which roam the campground freely. One dog has patches of hair missing on it. I have to wonder if the dog is “diseased”. It would probably be in your best interest to stay away from these dogs. Don’t leave your garbage bags outside or they will get into them.
Even though this campground is located in Florida, it’s a “far cry” from a tropical environment…it’s more like the plains or flat lands of Texas without the cactus. If you are looking for a tropical environment, this is not a campground for you.
The campground has cable TV available. There was a lot of “pixilation” and broken streams, especially on a windy day. It was so bad that we had to switch to the RV antenna to get decent reception for the rest of our stay.
They are short staffed and no one wants to work there. I asked a KOA worker “what about the locals“. Their response was “they say it’s too far to travel”.
There is a construction-type business that houses its employees in several campers and cabins at this campground. Their campsites were trashy and they didn’t cleanup after themselves. What an eye sore. I was walking my dog past those sites one evening, when my dog found chicken bones on the ground. I was not happy! Fortunately, my dog didn’t swallow any bones.
Eventually, a KOA worker had to take extra time to police those campsites…as if they aren’t short handed already.
The employees (from the construction-type business) tied up the showers in both of the bath houses after they got off work. I went to take a shower one evening and five of them were sitting on the floor waiting to use the shower. This occurred on several occasions. It didn’t help that one of the three shower stalls was out of service the entire time that we were there.
I heard some of the campers say that they were going into town because there wasn’t a washer available. I noticed that there were ten combination washer and dryer units… six of them were “out of service”. I am sure that this was a big inconvenience for those campers. If you were lucky enough to use one of the washer and dryer units, they will take your money or not give you the appropriate amount of time. Again, the fees to use the washer and dryer units were a bit higher then most campgrounds that I have been to.
On certain designated campsites, you are not allowed to have a fire, even if you brought your own fire pit. Again, they won’t tell you that initially. Needless to say, our campsite was one of the “no burn” sites.
You are not allowed to have any canopy, EZ ups or like… they will make you take them down.
The ceiling in the clubhouse was falling down; presumably from water damage.
There weren’t many events for the children. They have an ice-cream social on Sundays but I think that was more oriented for the senior campers.
The electrical panel, that my camper was connected to, “fried” my surge protector. I immediately disconnected everything, changed all of my appliances over to propane, and replaced the surge protector. At this point, the only thing running (on the 30amp circuit) was the A/C unit and my T.V.
When we arrived at our next campground, I was able to continue using all of my electrical appliances, including the A/C, without any issues. I spoke with another camper that had been at Moore Haven KOA and he too had the same problem, except his damage was a lot worse.
I didn’t see many people fishing during my stay at the three ponds on the property. I guess they were afraid of the alligators. Use caution if you walk your pets near the waters edge.
The mailroom is open 24 hours a day. The door was unlocked at 1:00am on several occasions. The delivery services (UPS, USPS, FEDX, etc.) leave the packages on a table just inside the mail room door. That’s where you pick up your packages. This system of mail handling by the campground is not secure. I was fortunate not to have any of my packages missing during my stay. However, there were a few people that were not so lucky.
I am an avid KOA camper and rewards member. I have been to many KOA’s over the years. This KOA was very disappointing. It amazes me how KOA Corporate still allows this campground to use their name.
Please do your homework before you travel to this campground. There are nicer campgrounds around that are more “camper friendly”, less expensive, and not in the middle of “nowhere”. If nowhere is what you prefer, be careful of what you ask for.
