Review Detail

I thoroughly disagree with the previous post. I have stayed at Holiday park many times since 2006. We are full timers and have traveled all over the country and stay in military RV parks when there is one in the vicinity. Since we are from the Pacific Northwest we most frequently stay at Fort Lewis, McChord, or Camp Murray. The Holiday park campground has some particular advantages. The setting is beautiful. Those trees that were complained about are mainly Douglas Fir. Some are several hundred years old and exceed 100 feet in height. They are majestic. It is like staying in a an enchanted forest. There are deer and other wildlife and a great variety of birds. Yes, you do get pine needles in everything, but if you want to stay here you accept that, or go somewhere else. The Pacific Northwest is known for big windstorms in October and November. If the winds are going to exceed 50 mph the park staff has always told everyone to leave, because limbs do fall, and occasionally even trees. But most of the time it is perfectly Safe. If the poster had seen this park in the past they would not be complaining. The showers were disgusting, Now they are completely redone, and clean. The laundry has new washers and driers. The electrical was only 30 amp. Only half the park had sewer. Now all the regular sites have full hook ups with 30 and 50 amp service. I used to have to make a run to the dump site every 3 or 4 days. That is no longer necessary. One loop is much lower than the rest of the park and would regularly flood during heavy rains. I once had to wade through six inches of water to get to higher ground. That has been fixed. There is now a sump pump to get rid of the water. The Club house was an old building that was cold and smelled bad. It was taken down and a new one built. It has TV, lots of videos and books, and in the last few weeks they added WI-FI, but it is only in the club house. That makes sense because the trees would block the signal. TV reception has always been bad here because of the trees, and good luck getting a SAT TV signal. Cell reception is spotty, but in some sites is very good. The staff, particularly Ron and Maggie have always gone out of their way to help when I needed it. They have one other assistant. They do a good job considering it is only three people. Yes they don't normally mow the grass in the winter because it rains a lot. (I mean, a lot!) They do attempt to clean up branches and debris after storms, but in the winter it is a never ending job. Since Ron took over a few years ago the park has improved significantly. The blackberries do grow wild in the summer. That is true all over the Pacific Northwest. It makes for good berry picking. The park staff do cut them back as needed. Occasionally dogs here are off leash, which I do not like, and some of the big dogs can be intimidating. But they should be on a leash. There are coyotes on McChord and small dogs could be easily killed by them. However, whenever a particular pet has gotten out of hand a word to Ron has usually solved the problem. McChord also has an off leash dog park where people can run their dogs. The electrical system was upgraded a few months ago, and they did have some power outages. One was a general outage for the whole Lakewood area. But that's why we have generators. If you live in an RV you deal with it. The only reason I gave them a 3 in amenities, and value has nothing to do with the staff. Rather, with the management. Yes they raised the price. it went from $300 to $504 for 28 days. I have stayed at RV "resorts" for less than that. All three parks here did this. These parks are supposed to be for the benefit of active duty and retired personnel with active duty having top priority. But how many junior active duty enlisted can afford that price? It seems to me that the contractors running the parks are only interested in their profit margin. This is not because of only the daily price increase. They also increased prices for storage and limited the number of vehicles you can have. They seem to be extremely slow in updating facilities, and providing adequate personnel to maintain the parks. Simple things like cleaning the common areas are subcontracted and done only a couple days a week. When equipment breaks down it seems to take weeks to get it repaired. Overall I would rate this park as a good value, but would have called it very good value under the previous price. I would stay here any time. Compared to Fort Lewis or Camp Murray: the park itself isn't as modern as Fort Lewis but the facilities and amenities are better than Camp Murray. The staff at Holiday park is far more helpful and friendly than at Fort Lewis and about the same as Camp Murray. These three are all about the same price now but Camp Murray still has a slightly lower price. Overall experience is excellent.