It's been 2 years since we camped at Key Largo Kampground and a recent experience with a friend reminded me the reason I don't like this place and made me realize that I never wrote a review about this place. Seems after 2 years things have not changed at all. If I could give 0 stars, I would.
We booked an RV site about 2 years ago when they were still allowing jetski/waverunners on property. We booked a few months in advance and apparently between those months, they changed their rules, but did not let us know. No email, no phone call, no letter, nothing.
We arrive with our RV and jetski and check in and the rudest lady in the front begins this whole speech how they are not allowed at all on the premises anymore. We can’t use the ramp, the marina, or even keep them at our site. She said, if you want to stay here, you can keep them off their property at another marina or storage facility nearby or else we can leave. I was shocked how rude this lady was. She told me they were denying and cancelling people’s reservations that come with skis. I couldn’t believe they would rather cancel people's reservations then let them in with ski’s.
They first told me they weren't allowing them because people started to beach them at the beach and one of the skis almost hit a child. Which is understandable. She said is that people were riding "rough" in the canal leading to the marina. Which are all understandable reasons.
I begin to tell her that we are sorry and understand the reasoning as there are bad apples out there but we didn't know about this rule and no one told us. It wasn’t even on their website at the time so there was no way of us knowing before we arrived. As upset as I was, I tried to be reasonable and try and compromise. I begin to ask her if we can at least keep them at our site and just trailer them out to launch somewhere else. I told her we would not be blocking any roads or making any noise by turning it on and just trailer it out to launch elsewhere. We are not rowdy people, my husband is a federal officer, we like to follow rules. She told me no, they were not allowed at all on the premises.
She said owners did not want them on site because they cause a nuisance and they start blocking roads. Even though I saw plenty of 15-30ft boats blocking the roads and sites with 3 cars or more blocking roads. Their RV sites are really wide. Some people keep boats on their site and you're telling me my little 11-12ft ski will cause a nuisance and will not fit? that one really got to me. I was willing to compromise by just trailering it and launching elsewhere but they kept making dumb excuses to not allow them on property at all.
Finally after much begging and pleading, we spoke with another rude lady that told us they would make one exception but that we cannot use their marina at all, we would have to trailer out. She was like “I don’t want to see it, I don’t want to hear it and you need to trailer it out”. I said that is perfectly fine. After finally checking in, we go to our site where security would drive by our spot multiple times a day, every day, watching us like a hawk. It was super uncomfortable. They wouldn’t leave us alone. We were booked for a full week and having this security guy watch our every move was very unsettling. We kept feeling like we were doing something wrong and it started to get very annoying. It’s like they were waiting for us to do something wrong or were looking for anything that we did that was out of line to kick us out.
We had a friend (who is an FWC officer), come visit us at 6pm one night, just to hang out and have dinner with us at our spot and they denied him entry saying it was past the time for guests. Guests weren’t allowed after 6pm. If he wanted to visit, he would have to come during the day and pay $6 for the guest fee. I was appalled at this level of customer service.
These people who work there are the worst. I called during our stay to talk to someone about something that wasn’t working on our site properly and I guess they forgot to put the phone on hold and I could hear them talking about us, “…that dumb lady with the jetski at site __, is on hold to talk to us about something on her site, I’m just going to keep her on hold.” I kid you not, I heard their whole conversation, basically talking bad about us when we were nothing but respectful and kind. I was shook. They also look down on campers (tents or RVs) at this place and prefer the residents then campers... Basically telling us to our face "we care more about our residents (people that own lots), then you campers. If you don't like our rules, you can leave."
After 2 years, it seems like the front office staff are still just as rude, nothing has changed. My friend had a different experience not related to jetskis but the people there were just as rude. I hope they get new staff and even new management. Until then, WE WILL NEVER BE BACK. STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE!