Our experience overall was ok. It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t over the top great either. We stayed on a Sunday - Wednesday, so it wasn’t busy, which is what we were going for.
Pros:
As tent campers, we very much appreciated the update, clean bathroom super close to our site.
The gentleman running the chippy express was soooo fun! I don’t remember his name, but he mentioned he was a retired police officer, and you could tell he truly enjoyed what he was doing.
The woman running the fancy coffee shop was super nice and truly enjoyed engaging in some conversation.
The kids loved the beach area, and I appreciated how clean it was. The Wibit was a ton of fun for them.
The proximity of the playgrounds to our campsite was a bonus too
Cons:
Quiet time is clearly not enforced as our first night was miserable. We had an obnoxiously rude group behind us (also tenting). They BLARED very obscene music until at least 2 am; they were clearly drunk and beligerent. They also brought a dog who would panic and bark like crazy every time one of them drunkenly shouted something out. If they hadn’t left the next day, we probably would have left then. When we mentioned something about it the next morning inside the store, all we got was an “Oh wow!”
It’s super annoying nothing is listed about coin operated showers. So, since we didn’t have cash, we had to pay an ATM fee to get cash, and then use the change machine in the arcade.
Speaking of the arcade, it’s not one. If you’re banking on it on a bad weather day, don’t.
The mini-golf area was ok. Kids had fun, but it was expensive for such a small, kinda run down course.
The pool/waterpark area was freezing. I did appreciate that the pool area was kept clean! No gross bandaids in the water or garbage laying around. I did not appreciate the amount of people vaping in the pool area.
Overall, my two biggest gripes were:
1) SAND. There is sand EVERYWHERE. While I get it is probably an economical way to make the play areas safer, as a tent camper, it’s obnoxious. Mostly because there are not any feet sprayers anywhere. Most public/private beaches, for example, have little foot spray stations to clean the sand off your feet. With the amount of sand everywhere here, you think they would put one in at each activity area. Instead, you have to pay $.50 to shower off your feet a few times a day. Additionally, the sand was just gross. It seems like it hadn’t been raked through or cleaned, so there was a lot of garbage in it, especially by the jumping pillow and at the individual tent camp sites.
2) People just weren’t very friendly. The workers in the store were….ok 🤷♀️ They just didn’t seem very happy or welcoming. I would say the same about the seasonal campers. They zoom all over on their golf carts, and again, it seems like Midwest nice just doesn’t exist here. I know you can’t control the way guests appear, but it just wasn’t a very happy/fun vibe.
I will say, our kids had fun. And, in the end, that’s what it was all about. It wasn’t a bad experience, but it also wasn’t one that would have us running back right away either.