Passport America...Opinions Please

We are thankful for all the Walmarts we have found along our journey from our home in British Columbia on the North West Coast to the South East Coast here in Floida to provide a place to stop for the night when just passing through. (and hopefully we will stop at more on our way to Nova Scotia, Ontario and then back home)

When we can't find a Walmart we open our Passport America Book and find the cheapest place we can close to where we are.

Sometimes we find amazing places like Hidden Valley RV Park read my review HERE,
or places like Rock Crusher Canyon RV Read my review HERE. Both wonderful family friendly places and we enjoyed our time at both places in different ways.

But then there are times when look at your Passport America book and pull into a place late like Tampa East RV Resort...you pick up a brochure stating which sites are available and how much they are and they tell you to come by and pay in the morning. We did this last night. We chose the cheapest site available D1. It was stated that it was a premium site and would cost $32.00 a night.

We arrived after 8:00 pm and it was just starting to get dark. The girls played on the playground for about 10 minutes and then it was time for bed.

In the morning we had to get our Magicjack working so after a couple hours of internet chat (on our internet stick not free wifi from them) we packed up and went to the front desk to pay.

I was then charged 1/2 of  $38.00 plus a $3.00 resort fee as apparently they charge the $22.00 for ALL Passport America users  no matter what priced site they stay on.

I asked the lady at the desk why I was being charged $22 and she was very rude to me. I explained to her we wouldn't have stayed if we knew that they wouldn't honour 1/2 of the posted $32.00 price. She basically told me it was my tough luck, I did stay and I had to pay their $22.00 Passport America price.  I told her she was a scam artisit and she smiled and told me to have a wonderful day.

Sometimes Passport America can find you some great deals...BUT my word of wisdom...READ the FINE PRINT and call ahead to ensure you don't drive somewhere for a surprise. We have pulled into places and have been told we need to pay extra for our 3 and 4 year old anywhere from $2 to $5 each. This I find absurb! I can understand adults...but kids...not very family friendly.

So read your fine print and hopefully you won't have any surprises when you arrive like we did with Tampa East RV Resort who want to nickel and dime you for everything they can like a $3.00 resort fee and yes they do charge $5 per each addition guest of any age. Lucky for me she didn't ask if we had kids until after she did up the bill.

Unfortunately for me I had already given her my credit card but I didn't sign it and a call to mastercard is in order.

You might wonder why I am so upset over  a difference of a few dollars??? Well it's a matter of principle. Last time I did the math...1/2 of $32.00 was $16.00 not $19.00.

We also weren't expecting the $3.00 resort fee. $6.00 isn't going to break the bank but the fact is we wouldn't have stayed there for that price since we knew it was a stop over. Also if she asked about the kids before doing the bill we would have had to pay $10 more dollars for our 3 and 4 year olds which would have brought the total up to $16.00 more then we expected! We didn't want the pool etc we just wanted a place to sleep in this expensive state of Florida and after calling another 8 Walmarts we couldn't find one that allowed overnight RV parking. We aren't just cheap we are currently at Disney World and are quite happy paying our fee each night because we are paying the fee we knew we would be paying before arriving.

What do you think? Am I just being cranky? Or do you think I have a point? Have you used Passport America? How was your experience? I'd love to hear your opinions even if you think I am being cranky ;)