GL Campgrounds experience...

We arrived around 9 PM on Friday evening to be greeted by a very friendly GL worker. I thought to myself that this would be a great place to stay as opposed to way down the road at Yogi's Campground. Boy, was I mistaken.

We checked in and were told we could just pick an open site that had electric and water where they had highlighted on the map we were given. I thought this was fairly odd but OK, whatever. We drove around and found a decent site not too far from the restrooms and not directly next to another camper.

We set up in the dark and got things up and running. I had worked all day and was ready for bed. The next day we decided to go to WWK for most of the day. We took our showers that morning and were less than impressed with the community restroom. We went to the park for a good portion of the day and returned to relax and eat dinner. At this point the restrooms were completely demolished. The girlfriend said someone had even ripped one of the soap dispensers off the wall in the ladies restroom. I understand that they can't monitor the restrooms 24 hours a day, but at least have someone checking on them periodically. There were only two sets of restrooms for the entire campground. The ones that were trashed and the others up by the entrance to the campgrounds. We decided to give those a look. Surprisingly enough they weren't too bad, so we used them the next morning(Sunday). The other restrooms now had signs in them asking people to put trash in the garbage cans and not on the floor. We have stayed at a campground that actually took care of their restrooms and it was a great experience. We'd go back there again without a thought, but we'll never stay at the GL campgrounds again. There's essentially only one thing that someone that is staying there actually uses and would expect to be clean and neat, the restrooms.

Campers are usually more courteous. Odd.

MrScott

I agree with you on that one Mr. Scott. Every once and a while you run into an exception while camping though. For the most part campers look after each other and clean up after themselves. This is a shame to here because my family wants to try out the campground at GL sometime. Hopefully this was just an isolated incident.

I've stayed at Camper Village a couple of times now, and have only had one or two problems creep up. The last time we stayed in the old circle, the group next to us was a little loud overnight (i.e. up talking around the campfire until one or two). They also tried parking several cars on their site and even one on ours. Both of those problems I can sort of blame on the tight quarters in the old circle though. Since then, we have stayed in the new circle and haven't had any problems. The extra $10 or so a night is worth it for the extra space and nicer bathrooms in my opinion. They could use a little more shade over there, and then they would be perfect.

MrScott said:
Campers are usually more courteous. Odd.

MrScott

If it's the same crowds that frequent GL that are using the campground (which is obviously the case...), then I can see exactly why the campers were doing that crap.

I have always had a pleasent stay at Camper Village at CP. I have never camped at GL, but did stay at a hotel there a few years ago. The hotel was ripped up and under construction. I think 6 Flags owned the property.

I have not been back to GL since, and that was 7 years ago.

MrScott

I forgot to mention the fact that the girlfriend got up around 4 AM to use the rest room to find that some jackass had locked the door and shut it.

She had to walk up to the ones by the entrance. There was noone in the office to let know about the locked door. I've always seen at least one or two people working the night shift at campgrounds just in case an emergency arises.

Not only was she upset about it, of course she had to wake me up and tell me about it also.

On top of all this, when we went to leave on Monday, I encountered a bad ground on a tail light. Of course it blew the fuse in the van. It's a 93 Chevy and I couldn't, for the life of me, find any extras in the fuse box anywhere. I thought, hey they have a shop up by the entrance, they've got to have auto fuses. Hahahaha, not only did the girl at the counter barely speak english, when the grlfriend tried to explain to her what she was looking for she mentioned a "fork" 'cause of the two metal spades that stick out of it, so the GL employee thought she actually meant a "fork".

We drove without a radio to the Mantua Napa and bought some fuses.

I filled out the comment card for the campground today and will mail it in tomorrow. There was nothing wrong with the service we received, just the restrooms.

That just sounds like a BAD TIME. Sorry you had that at a CF Park!

MrScott
*** Edited 7/4/2006 11:19:39 PM UTC by MrScott***

I almost stayed there last year, but it was quite pricey for a camp ground. The campground at disneys(fort wilderness) was cheaper than the geauga lake campground.

MrScott said:
I have never camped at GL, but did stay at a hotel there a few years ago.
MrScott

I was completely expecting that to end with "but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express."

Hate to hear your campground experience was so bad. I'm rather surprised by it. Usually campers even in the worst situations are pretty respectful.

Our camping trip over Fathers Day weekend (National Lakeshore Campground on Lake Michigan) was plagued by the water pump to the campground breaking on Friday morning. So, everyone in the 2 non-rustic loops had to use the 2 rustic loops for bathrooms and water. Thankfully, my parents had their camper so that helped some, and I'm a guy, so there were about 8.2 million bathrooms in the area, but it made for an interesting weekend. Plus it was dead empty. There was noone there (odd for a weekend in June). Just one of those things to make you remember a trip.

^^ I'd be interested to know when you were staying at GL Campgrounds to be more expensive than Fort Wilderness.

From April to August at Fort Wilderness it's $55 a night for electric and water where GL's Campground is only $38 a night.

There's no way it was more expensive to stay at GL, but it really is a moot point now because we'll never stay there again anyhow.

Yogi's it is!

*** Edited 7/6/2006 12:04:29 AM UTC by Loopy***

I just spent the last 2 nights at Camper Village for the fireworks and I must say it is the nicest campground I've been in. However, the bathrooms don't seem to be kept up as good as they were a couple years ago. We are going to GL in a couple weeks and thought about staying in their campground. Anyone with nice stuff to report?

I've always had an awesome stay at CV, though the bathrooms need more attention. At $73 per night and all we use is a couple bucks at most in electricity and less than that in water/sewer, well...the toilet seat should be clean enough to eat off of. However, I've never heard any of my neighbor's fart, and I hope they said the same of me:). All in all, CV rocks (Lighthouse Point too Mayor Scott).

Agreed. CV is a very nice camprgound. But the bugs in the bathrooms in late May and early June can be nasty!

MrScott
*** Edited 7/6/2006 11:58:55 AM UTC by MrScott***

^^ Spend the extra 6 or 8 bucks a night and stay at Yogi's campground, you won't be sorry.

It may be a little farther from the park but the fact that you can take a shower without wanting to puke makes up for it.

I almost forgot something else that happened to me while staying at the GL Campground. I was taking a shower and someone walks into the bathroom with a cigarette. That has to be the worst smell i've ever encountered. You're taking a shower and smelling all fresh and soapy when next thing you know you smell cigarette smoke, people are so rude.

That really has nothing to do with how GL's housekeeping was but it still added to the disappointment of the stay.

I will never stay off Point again. In fact, I probably would not even visit the park, without staying at Lighthose Point, Camper's Village or Hotel Breakers.

MrScott

Bayshore was a nice place to stay.

The train isn't really that bad after the first night.

Yes, the train is bad on any night.

MrScott

MrScott said:
I will never stay off Point again. In fact, I probably would not even visit the park, without staying at Lighthose Point, Camper's Village or Hotel Breakers.

MrScott

I stayed at a local hotel off point in June 2006. What a disappointing experience. I will not let anyone talk me into that again! You can't beat the atmosphere of sleeping at the foot of Mt. Mean Streak and listening to the sounds of Maggie's lift hill and riders' screams in the pretzel turn. OK, now I'm starting to sound like an advertisement...enjoy!

CP-DAD, YOU think that YOU are starting like an avertisement? Try being me! I I (as you) probably only want to suggest the best way to stay.

And that is on Point. Lighthouse Point, to be exact.

MrScott

They must have finaly lowerd the price of the campground, last year it was nearly $50 a night to camp there.

It's still around that figure, depending on what you what to include. Sewer hook-up? Heck no, I'll poop in the included restrooms. Water hook-up? Well, maybe, but you really don't need it, if you carry your own. And poop in the campground bathrooms. Coasters seem to shake the walls clean, if you know what I mean :)

Electric. YES.

All of the other stuff that they have added in the last 5 years I won't pay for. I'm at Cedar Point, for goodness sake! Just how much time will you use the the added things? Most of the time you are in the park. (Unless you stay at Lighthouse Point) :)

MrScott