| Yogi Bear`s Jellystone Park / Camp-Resort Quarryville |
| Reviewer : unhappy camper |
| From : Maryland |
| Date of review : June 29, 2009 |
| Rating : 2 |
| Date of stay : 6/2009 |
| This park provided a very mixed experience for us. We booked 4 days/3 nights with 4 other families for a yearly camping outing. Since all of us have children, we steer toward family-oriented parks with kid-friendly facilities and are comfortable paying extra for amenities. Some pros: 1) The small water park was quite nice and well designed; it featured both a fort-like play area and a reasonably large 3'6" deep pool with basketball hoops and a volleyball net. Pool side seating was plentiful. 2) The camp store was large, clean and well stocked. 3) The grounds were clean, and well-maintained (with the exception of the algae-covered and stagnant fishing pond. 4) Craft activities were varied and reasonably priced. Our west-facing site was newer and without mature trees so the mid and late day sun was a bit rough. The sites we booked were designed for popups or tents. However, there were also number of rental cabins nearby. Unfortunately, this area is apparently exempted from quiet hours. Large groups staying there made sleep impossible until after midnight every evening (difficult on families with small children). I never saw a staff member making rounds near quiet hours and, based on the nightly ruckus, I can't believe there is ever any serious effort made to enforce quiet hours. Bathroom and shower facilities were too few and far too dirty. Though I saw a cleaning woman working in one once, I never actually used an acceptably clean bathroom or shower. The floors were dirty and grass covered. Trash overflowed. Dead insects abounded and the facilities lacked hand soap. (One shouldn't have to carry their own soap to wash after using the bathroom.) Free pedal go-carts are available for limited hours during the day, though I was told I couldn't ride one with my boy (even though the large ones were adult sized). Again, inconsistent enforcement allowed many adults to ride, including one who took his cart off the road (there is no dedicated track go-cart area-despite claims to the contrary) careened down a hill, then jumped off the cart to avoid crashing into a camper's new pick up. One of our party brought an inexpensive set of walkie-talkies for the kids. Apparently they (and/or others) were talking on the same (standard public) frequency band that the staff has chosen to use. As we were breaking down our sites at the end of our stay, the owner raced up in a golf cart yelling at the two 11 year olds. He jumped off the cart, grabbed a walkie-talkie and repeatedly yelled "Who owns you!?!" then began berating them about respect. The children were so frightened that they just stood there frozen. Instead of first approaching any adult in the party, he continued to yell at and intimidate the children until I slowed him down. (Or, more appropriately, invited him to redirect his howling at me.) What should have been an easily rectified misunderstanding quickly resolved by mature adults, turned into one of the most absurd displays of childish grandstanding I"ve ever witnessed . Made more egregious by the fact that he was the park's owner! Apparently hospitality and hostility are closer together in his dictionary than in mine. Even after immediately apologizing (though I thought no wrong was committed- we weren't even sure that our children were guilty since they had been playing with the radios for only a few minutes, while "Belligerent Bob" claimed it had continued for over an hour) and assuring him that the children would stop using the radios altogether, he continued to rant and sputter. He informed us that whether our radios were on a public frequency or not, this camp ran on "Bob's Law!" After our group had spent 4 days (and over $1500) at his park without incident, to spoil the entire stay by screaming at a couple small children was utterly inconceivable. There is no water park, swimming pool or any other camp amenity that compensates for the level of discourteous and offensive behavior exhibited by a belligerent proprietor, more interested in exerting authority over trivialities such as public walkie-talkie frequencies than showing his guests a standard degree of common courtesy. This man puts a quality franchise reputation to shame. I would never stay there again nor recommend this park to anyone. |
