Military Campground Price Complaints

Anything involving food and good companionship sounds good to me! :woohoo:

If any of you are interested, there's a mess of us meeting up at Pointes West Army Resort during the month of May. Stop in if you're in the neighborhood (that means you Bill...LOL)

Oh...and don't forget your chili Lamsan! Looks like Frank wants to give you some competition in the chili arena. :laugh:

I know that the FamCamps are run by MWR and have to support themselves. But I don’t think that they should be priced out of reach of either the Active Duty or Retired military. And when the price is over $30/night you’ve done exactly that.
Here are a few reasons to do this;
1 – MWR is using a short depreciation schedule to recoup the initial costs (probably 5 years).
2 – MWR is paying way too much in operating costs.
3 - MWR needs the money to cover expenses on other functions.
4 - To be able to say “we’re cheaper than the outside parks”.
Sometimes it’s a combination of some of the above. But ALL of them can be corrected by MWR.
Here’s an upcoming example. Fiddlers Cove Marina and RV Park on Coronado Island, CA. This park has been run for the last few years as a dry-camp for $12/night (a steal). It has been closed for renovation and is scheduled to open in June 2013. The suggested rate is $40/night. The initial costs include a bathroom/shower house, buried utilities including 20/30/50 amp power, water, and sewage. The rest is landscaping/road. This park has run with up to 2 volunteer hosts (1 in the winter) and shouldn’t change. The check-in/out is done at the marina store, which is already manned. So you’d think the overhead would be pretty low. The amenities include; the marina with rental boats, the marina store (fishing tackle and snacks), & the fantastic view of the harbor and the downtown skyline.
Now lets compare this park to some of the locals.

Chula Vista RV Park & Marina: Winter rates $49.50 On San Diego Bay, surrounded by landscaped parks & its own marina. Amenities include a general store, boutique, picnic area w/barbecues, swimming pool & spa, laundry, club rooms & adjacent water-front restaurants.

San Diego Metropolitan KOA: Winter rates $61 nuff said.

Mission Bay RV Resort: Winter rates $50 with about the same amenities as Chula Vista

Conclusion: They are pricing Fiddlers Cove, in my opinion, on number 4, above. All the civilian parks have much more in the way of amenities. But they are only $9.50/day below their closest competition. If they were really comparing what you get for your buck, it probably would be $30 or less. Where is their pool? General store? Picnic area? Barbecues? Etc?

We are currently at Parris Island RV Park for the first time and paying $15.00 a night and is probably the lowest we have ever paid for a military campground. The sites are very wide and long, have picnic tables and water pressure is excellent and electric is excellent also. The site and the utilities provided are the most important to us and then the geographics of the campground. Here you have Beaufort and Hilton Head that are close by and both are tourists meccas so for $15.00 a night again I see it as a bargain. A state park in the area is about $25.00 and Hilton Head the prices are from $50.00 and up. No host here but not really needed as only 18 sites and MWR is located at the MCAS up the road and they are very helpful by phone if needed. Price here is reasonable because parents and grandparents come here for graduation and stay a few days and are not expecting pools, community rooms and other extras you find at commercial campgrounds. This is a hidden gem as sites are always open so a two week stay is perfect for us as we travel out of Florida in the winter. Those of you coming down from the North should try it for a two week and max of four weeks as the cost for a month of $450.00 would be hard to find elsewhere. There are some sites being used by some active duty but each day there are at least 4 or 5 sites open.

Sarge3398 wrote: ...I play golf and know that the costs on post are substantially lower than private courses off post. Golf is a very popular recreational pastime, but the maintenance costs are tremendous.

First, there haven't been much activity in the forums. I figured everyone was buried by snow. I am glad to see a lively discussion.

Let me throw some jet fuel on this topic fire. I also play golf and have a big problem with the courses charging more based on rank. IE: the same cost for me the retiree, making way less money, as my AD counterpart. I know someone is going to defend the course for doing that, so when you do, please educate me as to which other military facility does that. Class 6 store? Shooting range? Campground? Commissary? Tour and Travel? Gas Station? Lodging? Bowling alley? Club restaurants? ...et al.

I think that we all are aware that the military price perks we used to get aren't as competitive as they once were. My local golf course charges the same as the military course (thanks to my rank) and it is a nicer course. On post lodging, turned over to a contractor, is within a few bucks of the same quality local hotels.

I no longer shop at or use many of the military facilities because the local civilian counterparts are price competitive and many times are lower. An added benefit is that I don't have to bother with security gates, a complete lack of customer service, or some low level MWR employee bossing me around like they owned the place. Those reasons would apply to more than a few military campgrounds.

I work for the gov't (though not with MWR or DOD) and can tell you that all gov't entities are hurting. It's not about pricing someone out or raising prices for profit or competition or whatever else people are thinking. The prices charged are what it takes to run the facilities and maintain the standards. Be glad MWR can adjust prices to maintain the services or the facilities and services would probably close down if they didn't have the visitation.

Martin64 wrote: all gov't entities are hurting. It's not about pricing someone out or raising prices for profit or competition or whatever else people are thinking. The prices charged are what it takes to run the facilities and maintain the standards. Be glad MWR can adjust prices to maintain the services or the facilities and services would probably close down if they didn't have the visitation.

Martin - Yes, you are correct in that many entities are hurting, but the reasons for that are as varied as there are “hurting” entities. MWR/NAF typically operates the clubs, bowling alleys, shooting/skeet ranges, golf courses, aero clubs, pools, outdoor recreation, campgrounds, plus other operations that I have surely missed. For a variety of reasons, many do not draw a sufficient number of customers to remain profitable. As of October 1, 2012, DOD directed all MWR activities to be self-sustaining, or suffer reduction of staff and/or possible closure! Many of the listed functions are not self-sustainable; CONUS clubs typically cannot compete with their off base counterparts; aero clubs and shooting/skeet ranges have limited appeal; bowling alleys on some installations seem to do well, but not so much on others; while most golf courses seem to be doing OK, some are not and have been opened up to the local civilians; not every MCG is located in a garden spot and they often suffer – usage of several MCGs is now available to the local civilian population. The answer is often a “rob Peter to pay Paul” mentality; increasing the fees at the profitable operations in order to assist in the funding of those not so profitable functions. In view of the DOD directive and our current Federal fiscal approach, I am certain that will not continue, which will result in closure of many base activities.

JMHO - John