Alexander Springs Recreation Area — Attraction in DeLand

We stayed at the campground for the weekend. On Sunday check out was 11. We packed everything up and my wife and kids walked down to the springs while i finished up at the campground.

I then drove around to the recreation area to meet up with my family and swim with them for maybe 30 minutes before we got on the road. After i parked and began to walk up i was approached telling me that i can’t park there because i didn’t pay the $22 for a day pass even though we paid for than that to camp each day. I was told i had to drive back to my campsite, park, and walk up to the springs or i would receive a ticket.

I advise them that seems kind of silly since we paid to camp there and to make us drive all the way back to our campsite and walk up. I told them i would just take the ticket and pay it later. The person i was talking to seemed to get very nervous and have no clue what to do with this answer and started getting in her radio.

At this point i asked to speak for a supervisor to talk to them. Supervisor gave me the same explanation as stated now that i would get towed if i stayed there. I said the other lady told me it would be a ticket, and she didn’t have an answer for that. She then told me i had to leave my campsite by 11 or i would be towed from my campsite. So i couldn’t park and enjoy the springs at the recreation area so i had to park at the campsite, and if i didn’t leave my campsite by 11 i would be towed from there.

The supervisor then stated that they were like a hotel and after checkout you have to leave. I asked her what hotels she stays at, because very hotel we stay at tells us we have full access to amenities for the rest of the day after we check out. She began to back pedal and didn’t seem to know what she was talking about.

Over all the staff was very rude, not professional, and didn’t seem to know what to do when someone actually called them on things that they were trying to push that...

Place is privately run, so the rate is double what you would pay if the USFS was managing it directly. And it's all dry camping. We got there a little early and they said that if our site wasn't ready we could pay for the day use and wait in that parking lot. Fortunately the site was ready so we went in. But in checking the day use parking later on there is NO parking there for RV's so no idea where they expected us to park. Roads and pads are asphalt and are narrow with trees right against edge. We scraped palm fronds the whole way. No one trims trees. CG is very forested and we didn't get more than 50amps charge per day. Our 400ah battery was down to 72amps when we left after 3 days. Both sites we stayed in were very hard to get into. The first one (37) with tires one inch from edge on drivers side we could barely open trailer door due to tree on passenger side. The sites are all back-in and most of them are curved instead of angled. Have never seen curved back-in sites. All sites come with fire rings, tables, and bear boxes. But note that about a third of them are on the wrong side of the pad. There is a good amount of road noise and because it's Florida you can't close your windows. Was told there had been a bear in the campground but we never saw it. Restrooms were not clean, rust and hard water stains on walls. No one cleans above the 6ft level. Windows and vents filthy. They have a few souvenirs for sale at the office, and their concession store down by the spring/river surprisingly was open when we were here. They have kayaks for rent at the concession stand, but you can't rent them there. You have to walk up to the office to rent and pay for them for some reason. They have lots of signs down by the spring, some are misspelled. Even some that were professionally printed on corrugated poster board. Dump station was closed when we were here. And all of the boardwalks have apparently been...

Great way to spend the day. I had called the day before to inquire about dogs. They said no dogs allowed. However, we did see a family with a dog. I really wish we could bring our well behaved small dog, (So I'm not sure how that family was able to bring their dog inside) We packed lunch, drinks, snacks. Got there 730 am to wait on the car line. Which got so much longer behind us. This was highly recommended to arrive there early by 730 am to ensure you end up getting entry. Because at some point when they have a capacity limit of the numbers allowed to enter. you may not be able to go inside the park. The cost was $11 per person. This was my first time there. We saw many families come prepared to grill food etc. We did come prepared with the food as I stated above.but our food was more like already made sandwiches. We.also brought chairs, pool floats, small table, cooler, ice, paper towels, sunblock, Bug spray, I even brought fire ant pellets, just in case . We did end up n using the fire ant stuff as there was an ant hill not to far from our spot. We also have a wagon to put all our stuff, so the trip from tne car to the actual park and picnic place is not tiring. Having a wagon makes the transition from the car and back so much easier. Anyway we found a good spot right by the water under a tree. The water was excellent . Nice and cool and not uncomfortable. You can see right to the bottom. I kept my eyes open in case there were any alligators. I mean someone told me they don't have gators, but I've always heard, that in Florida, if there is water, to always assume there are gators..but NOPE we didn't see any alligators. the day was beautiful. We left around 2 pm because it was getting cloudy. By the time we were driving home, it was...