Thousand Trails Input Needed

[wicked1]

Originally Posted by bareftn

It may be a good deal for some but all I know the one near me is not that good its really run down and needs a lot of work, where you plug your trailer in for us one time is in a hole and filled with water I had to beg to get moved to another site for it was not safe and should be closed off till ground around the pedestal was filled in and made higher so water would run off and not collect at the pedestal

You must be talking about Cirlce M, what a mess that CG is under TT.

[gectisme]

First off, congrats on your Surveyor 33RLTS and welcome!
We are TT members and so far it has worked out well for us. Most of the parks we stayed at have been OK to good. I think some of it has to do with expectations... - for free to $10 a night, (RPI through TT gets us the $10 rate), a parking spot would be OK to me. All of them have been much better than a parking spot. The first thing we figured out, get there at noon when you can first check in, good spots with full hook ups have always been available if we did that. If we get there after 4pm, it has been slim-pickens at the busy parks. You also can grab a spot the next day if one opens up that you like. As some one else mentioned, read and understand the agreement because not all TT Parks are free or $10 a night, even within your region, so just make sure what you want is included. Right now we are staying at TT Park in Maine that is not included in our plan at the free or $10 rate, It is normally $70 a night, with our TT Membership we get a discount of 20% and can stay for ~$56 which is nice but then using Passport America we can stay for $45 a night, so for this Park, our plan with TT was not the best option. In the end for us, @ $655 a year, (included is the $110 for RPI), with most RV Parks ~ $40 a night, it paid for itself in 3 weeks of camping. So we are happy campers, pun intended.
Oh, and we are 30 amp so did not specifically look for 50 amp although all the parks we stayed at so far have had 50 amp service available on their maps.

[djeirlessr]

My DW and I became members when we unknowingly visited a TT campground at Gaston Lake in Littleton, NC. We didn't have a camper at the time but was planning to get one soon. Talking to the manager she mentioned about becoming a member. I think they charge $45 or $49 dollars a night for non members. The cost to become a member was $545 and was a two for one. We could select two regions for the price of one.

We bought our 5th wheel last year and decided to join. We recently retired and we liked the lake which is about two hours from where we live. We figured if nothing else we would spend a lot of time there. We got the thirty days "free" and after that our stays are $3 a night. There is not a lot of full hookups there but if you go early enough during the week you have a pretty good choice of sites. We renewed our membership for the same reason. I think the membership went up $7 and there was an additional $25 on the renewal and it was a donation that I opted out.

We did stay a one of their camp sites in SC that was not the greatest for eight days last year. We used it as a base camp and visited places in SC and Georgia. When we camp we don't sit around the campground. Maybe because we are new to camping as of last year and we want to see places.

While in Florida earlier this year we visited a couple campgrounds there. We visited Peace River and Three Flags. Of the two I think Three Flags was the better of the two. I was surprised that for members you can stay at Three Flags (Wildwood,Fl) for six months for something like $2,000. We we stayed at in Florida, not a TT campground we paid more than that for two months.

It all boils down to what you want to do and what your comfortable with.







Duane
2011 Toyota Tundra V8 iForce 5.7 381HP 4.10 gears 6 speed automatic

2016 Crusader 295RST FW

[Wyn]

We were given a 1 year free membership when we purchased a new trailer, in 2014, we went to Timothy Lake North in the Poconos, it was so bad that we only stayed about one hour,, never had we been in such a run down dump and we've been camping since 1985. I complained to TT main office and they could not have cared less. They even tried to talk me into purchasing a membership!! Needless to say, I am not a fan of TT.

[Evereddie]

The one near us in Advance NC is a pit but that was 4 years ago. Can't say what it is like now. It's scary what we saw living there. We left fast.

[JCCarr]

I've been a TT Zone Pass member for two years. I walked away from an Outdoor World membership 10 years ago because of quality issues and lack of space because they'd sold everything to seasonal spots.

The facilities have been improved to level of OK. Not great, but not bad.

The reservation system sucks. Lifetime members can reserve early. So you may be planning on a trip and then when your reservation window opens find out that there's no room in the campground. Now you've paid for days you can't use and have to go pay for another campground where you want to go anyway.

The check in sucks squared. Give them your membership card at the gate and then go drive around. They don't know where spots are open (BULLPUCKY) and they don't know if there's any full hookup. You end up hauling a big rig through tight northeast campgrounds hunting for a spot. At sea pines you can end up running head on into a big rig coming the other way and end up having to back out. I've seen people drive by on a Friday night 4 or 5 times in search of an open spot that will fit their rig becasue first they hunted for full hookup (no luck, half the TT spots have no sewer), then they hunted for just 50 amp (no luck, half the TT spots are 30 only). Now they're hoping to just find one that they can fit in. Especially annoying when you see a pop up tent camper in a 50 amp big spot because they wanted full hookups.

Finally, the sales people have pi$$ed me off to the point that I'm fuming today. Last night I reserved an hour for them to give me a webinar sales pitch from 7-8 so I could find out what changes are coming. TT called me to tell me that there are changes, but I needed to have this meeting to find out what. I'm not a fan of high pressure sales tactics to begin with, but to be forced to sit through it to find out what will change with what I have...

So at 7:30, half an hour late the finally call me. And proceed to tell me all about the the company and history and how they make manufactured homes and vacation properties. I'm an RVer. I just want to know what's happening with my membership. So finally at 15 before 8 Interrupt and say I have until 8. Please tell me about my membership and the changes. He goes right back into vacation property spiel and the economy and I give him 5 more minutes and interrupt him again and tell him straight out, I don't care about this stuff and I want to know what my changes are and we only have ten minutes.

The bastich hung up on me. Disconnected the webinar and hung up the phone. So I'm waiting to hear from a supervisor today. Last night they offered to schedule another sales presentation for me.

I'm done. I will not be buying another zone pass. I'll pay the extra 300 or 400 hundred a year it will cost me to camp 30 days in a public campground before I deal with these slimeball used car style salespeople again.

I certainly will never commit to any kind of long term membership. There's a reason you can buy them out cheap online. Lots of people want out.

[ToniandSal]

I think every RV dealer purchase includes a TT year membership. There isn't one of their campgrounds real close to us, but I have never heard anything good about them. Our year is up, and did't use it. We are predominately state beach campground campers. On a side note, on our 6400 mile round trip from CA-NY-CA this summer, we did stay at quite a few KOA campgrounds. Most were excellent!

[wicked1]

You can negotiate with them I got last year's membership for $299.00 for two zones, when you go for elite or elite basic haggle don't settle in the $6,000-$9,000 price range, negotiate it does work. If you want someone that can help you just call JoAnne @ Seapines in NJ, tell her Anthony O. sent you, she is great.

[wicked1]

Ok so done with TT now, they want to sell me a membership with unlimited camping within all Zones but issue is I can’t get into most of the CG’s with a 60-Day booking window. Their Elite Basic is now over $8,000 and over $12,000 for the Elite Connections.

No point paying for a membership that allows me to camp all over unlimited nights if I can’t get into most of the CG’s due to the booking window.

Anyone having the same issue.

[ependydad]

I never have issues with my Elite 120 day window or even the 90-day window that is my Outdoor World parks.

In fact, I can usually find a place to stay with less notice. Just takes some checking back periodically.

BUT- the 60-day thing IS a hassle; especially with some of the busier parks.

[dblr]

Wicked, I understand the frustration in booking but have you considered a used membership instead? Cheaper for sure and with the member number and a call to member services they can tell you all about that membership and what they are entitled to, just a thought.

[wicked1]

Originally Posted by dblr

Wicked, I understand the frustration in booking but have you considered a used membership instead? Cheaper for sure and with the member number and a call to member services they can tell you all about that membership and what they are entitled to, just a thought.

The only ones they have now are elite basic for like $3900 and only have a 120 booming window and there are some restrictions?

I was thinking of the $465 plus 199 for trails collection but with the 60 day window I can’t even get into some of the good parks especially Lake George and Lake and Shore