Avoid Peace River Campground at ALL costs

[Speargirl]

The news has reached San Francisco. I am impressed by Speargirl's cool. Kudos.

As most of you know I too run a business of renting Townhouses and Condo's here in the Florida Key's and have just openend a Campsite my self here in the Key's. The difference is I know how to treat people with respect and kindness if we have a problem we talk about it and it's done. over with. A temper will not solve anything but word of mouth will I see and talk with people all over the world who are looking not only for a trip to the Key's but the rest of Florida and I can tell you I will have no problem telling them our story and by the time I finish telling them it will be a story they will tell all there friends about. Every person I come in contact with that is looking for a camping spot when they leave me will NOT be going to Peace River Campground.
As one one Campsite owner to another I plan to make sure NO ONE leaves my Campsite and comes to your Peace River Campsite grounds. My goal is to make sure I give good advice to everyone to make sure that their VACATION is the best they ever had.
Actually this could be a really good scary story to tell around
camp fire at night.

DOOM AT PEACE RIVER CAMPGROUNDS

One evening just about dinner time everyone was really happy that they found fossils that day and wanting to share there stories and show their finds of the day. When all of a sudden men wearing red shirts come riding up and surround there tents yelling at everyone and threatning all the people in the campsite :11: the kids running to find a safe spot to hide being ever so quite not to be heard or seen. They start yelling at a couple pack up and leave we give you 20 min OR........... Everyone was in fear not knowing if these back woods people have guns and is it really fossils of prehistoric fish and mammals we have been finding all day or was it the remains of people from the past who camped at Peace River Campgrounds. Would we ever see our friends Dennis and Roxanne ever again or will they be the next set of bones in the river to find:scared: And the story can go on and on and on......

I am pretty good with campfire stories.
Sorry guys I promise not to use your names in my story I will think of other names to use.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

I have had a few days to mull over the goings on of that Saturday. Foruntately for me, I was out rescuing a lost family who just wanted to go home and needed some keys. . However, I was back in time to see the assult on our campsite. The one guy was so rude and threatening to everybody, I thought for sure the cops would be arriving any minute to escot everybody out. All this because we had a couple friends for dinner?
I did check out the campgrounds website and noticed the fees. From the website:
**********
Wilderness is $15 per adult (over 12)
Kids 5 to 12 are $4 with their parents and we have a Maximum Family Charge of $45
Extra people over age 12 $7
Group Rates

We offer group rates and special accommodations for groups of all kinds. In our group tenting areas we have shelters that have electric and water. Each of the shelters is designed to accommodate groups of up to 50 people. If your group is larger than 50 we can provide additional room. The group rate is $10 per person per night for everyone over 4 years old with a minimum charge for the group of $100 per night. A reservation and a deposit of $100 per night is required for a group rate or to reserve a shelter tenting area.
**********
It seems to me that we were charged the group rate at $10/pp even though we were in the wilderness area. Also note that $100 deposit per night is for the Group rate tent area.. which we were not in.
As it was explained to me at the front office when I questioned why my 12yr old was charged as an adult, it was because of the group rate. so, I was charged a total of $40 for 2 nights, actually COSTING ME MORE than the regular rate! Add to the fact that they wanted to charge Simon and Christina $10/pp to stop by for an hour or so is simply absurd.

This is the fourth year we have camped at Peace River. After the first year, we have looked forward to the remote camping, even with the ATV's in our campsite. Not again. The attitudes of the staff were deplorable and insulting at best. I am sure to tell othes NOT TO CAMP AT PEACE RIVER. So sad.

 

[ClayJar]

Thanks for the stories. I may have inadvertently stumbled in there, as I'm quite often a camper (even as far away as Deadhorse, Alaska... where they left the light on for me... ). Thanks to ScubaBoard, that won't happen.

Plus, I now have another entry in the BLACKLISTED file on my GPS receiver.

 

[DebbyDiver]

Wow, this is sickening. I am SO sorry that my SB friends had such a horrid time. I've camped all over this state, and many others, and have never experienced such a thing. Becky, I'm glad your boys understand and are willing to give camping another try. It is indeed a beautiful experience to enjoy nature. The campground staff sound like a bunch of Nazis. SICKENING.

I had wanted to go on this trip and couldn't...I am so glad it didn't work out for me. I want to try to do this trip next year. In a NEW VENUE.

 

[DiveBandit]

I've seen this done before, mostly for deadbeat online sellers, but the same thing can apply here. If we post links to this thread all over these sites the word will really get out.

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Good Sam Club

Sam's is the really big one. I couldn't find one for KOA

 

[Divergirl4U]

Wow I am sorry the weekend was ruined for you guys

 

[Stu S.]

Pay by credit card? If you call and say that after payment, they made multiple efforts to bounce you out, you may get a refund.

Might be a small consolation.

 

[Divergirl4U]

Well I can not wait to try out Becky's campground

 

[KBulla]

From the moment I found out Peace River Campground had changed their deposit policy from a total of $100 to $100 per night, I should have known something was up. I was given the group rate quote of $10 per person per night for over 4, and then another lady told me she thought the age for paying kids was over 5 with the group rate.

When I went to inquire about getting my deposit back on Saturday, they only showed 8 people in our group which I think would have screwed me out of my $200. They did end up finding other members of our group spread all over the place on their little wall board they use to keep track of people, so I was relieved at that. That's when I discovered that different people ended up paying different rates. Kudos to those who got a better deal than the "discount" group rate would have gotten them. Apologies to those who got stuck paying more because of the "discount" group rate.

Based on the majority of the employees' attitudes towards us, I'm very glad that this was our last year staying at Peace River Campground:mooner:. I always thought their camping prices were ridiculous, and now I'm thrilled to be supporting another campground next year.

As one of the main coordinators on this annual trip, I am committed to finding another campground or facility in the "fossiling" area where we will be respected and appreciated. Brownville Park is a nice enough place within walking distance of fossil river beds. I know some people feel it's too "open" without enough wilderness, and some people want to be able to enjoy a beverage (read "rum") after an honest day's digging, so I'll see what else is around.

I'm just happy to say that the Bullas will definitely AVOID PEACE RIVER CAMPGROUND from now on, and I'm thrilled to read about the overall support we are getting.

) Kris

 

[sea nmf]

All this because we had a couple friends for dinner?
I did check out the campgrounds website and noticed the fees. From the website:
**********

From reading all of this, I get something a bit different from it. While I COMPLETELY agree that they should have let those folks stay for dinner without any of the fuss and muss, and that the subsequent events were outrageously inappropriate, I don't think the motivation for kicking them out was because they wanted to stay for dinner.

From a complete impartial observer, the anger came from the "borrowed" tag. Now the staff is just sure that there is a bunch of other "thievery" going on. Rather than solve the problem, they let anger rule the day. Not a good practice.

It seems to me that the appropriate solution to this, with much less involvement of staff and emotions, would have been to allow the car to visit the other campers. Then, a couple of hours later, one staff could have driven by and reminded them to please be on their way or pay for camping.

I'm not a camper so I won't be going there. But if I were a camper, I still wouldn't go there. With the amount of distrust by the owner/staff, it seems likely that they exhibit some of the behaviour that warrants mistrust. That is frequently the case.