Review Detail

Where do I begin to clarify what’s going on at DM? This place has become so corporatized that you can barely tell you’re on a military installation. Like all profit-driven enterprises, they pack as many people into what has become a tight place as they possibly can. It’s like buying a seat on an airplane these days. Suffer through kiddo. I speculated to friends at the dog park (where aggressive dogs—and pit bulls—go unchecked) that the crowd was a result of more Baby Boomer retirees having the money to begin RVing around the country. Occupancy certainly is TRIPLE what I’ve experienced there in the past. And guess what? Where the hundreds of people in the campground might find relief in using the Wilmot Gate...it was closed virtually the entire time. So the congestion isn’t just in the campground, it’s on the base roads. Every one of the 21 nights I was “lucky” to be in site #9, my neighbors held a party of 8+ people who found it necessary to speak loudly right outside my dining room window about 3 feet away. Every night. Add to that the noise of 100s of generators running simultaneously in the overflow area and you simply can’t call it fun anymore. The overflow, quite literally, is overflowing. Some said that it’s been that way at DM for the last 3-4 years. Folks arrive there in October, pay up front for a 3 or 5 month stay, then have the right to extend 30 days at a whack. This is despite the fact that there are people on the waiting list constantly, and they are made to sit in the office every morning at 11 am to see if they’ve been “lucky” enough to get a spot—for 21 days. Why in the name of good customer relations they can’t simply make a call to someone on the list, knowing that EVERYONE has a cell phone and the person waiting is POISED AND EAGER to get that call, defies explanation. Their excuse is that they’re understaffed. That’s ridiculous; phone calls can be done anywhere, making staff and guests stay in the office every morning is obviously the greater management burden and everyone knows it. But convenience for guests is not their intention. Many people, after attending the public meeting that took place at the gazebo a few weeks ago, walked away saying they’ll never come back. I was one of them. If you do the math on DM, you realize this is a multi-million dollar revenue source for the base....but you wouldn’t know it given the lack of attention to visitor amenities. People who attended the meeting had suggestion after suggestion and expressed their frustration at the wait list protocol. We all heard the man who directs this campground say that we would “never tell the owner of a restaurant what to do if we had to wait outside for a seat”. Ummm....that’s exactly what customers would do—by their absence and reviews. I could hardly believe he said it. Folks tolerated the condescension from staff at the meeting; their silence was not agreement. They say that soon you’ll see the FHU sites expand to all available sites—construction doesn’t begin until summer 2021. I predict you’ll also begin paying the rates you’d pay in San Diego on the water when they finally open. All of the folks writing 5 star reviews must not know or remember when DM was a nice campground. Any local sightseeing can be done from campgrounds off base for equal or less money and with far greater service to customers. Read BGarrison’s review below. That reviewer’s comments reflect the reality at DM Famcamp. A whole lot of us simply won’t be going back.....after all, Luke AFB will soon be an option, as will Peterson AFB in Colorado Springs. There are lots and lots of choices better than DM.