Cape Charles / Chesapeake Bay KOA Resort — Hotel in Cape Charles

In 2019 we found a hidden gem. The KOA Chesapeake Bay Sunset Resort. Imagine jumping back in time when you had a private beach resort, the (original restaurant, hail the mighty Jackspot) wait staff welcomed you at the restaurant/bar overlooking the best sunsets found on the beach with menus, drinks in hand and smiles. They basically became your servers your entire stay going above and beyond to make your stay a memorable one (beach, table or poolside). The resort had a live band every night and the deck was packed full of families eating, laughing singing and dancing. The pool(s) were clean, and open, the gazebos (all) had roofs, loungers and palm trees, a towel and snack stand (which isn’t the case now). This was the ultimate place to be, we found our summer getaway. Fast forward to 2022. The beloved Jackspot is gone along with staff, the resort is still clean but rents cabanas at the pool now (insanely costly instead of first come first serve). Fast forward 2023… I waited over 35 minutes (only RV checking in mind you) to get someone to bring us to our site after walking back inside to an unmanageable, chaotic front desk that could just not get anyone on the walkie talkies. We finally had two (wonderful, definitely original staff members, not the new ones who don’t want to work and can’t smile) employees take us to our site to whom we tipped (you should) because we were grateful and I knew they appreciated their job here, as it once was. Site was clean, they always are. I can’t speak for the cabins (heard horror stories today that make me not want to have our big family reunion here in August) we have an RV. Yes it’s cramped but we don’t care about that, your glamping anyway; if you want privacy go to the woods or stay home. Water pressure was great, 50amp, which I need—perfect. The one pool was drained, the other pool was packed (but always is, it’s hot down here so it’s a must to have the pool running). You need to tell people they can’t bring floats and pool toys into an already crowded pool, there’s no room. Seriously? One kid brought in a small body board today. He’s going to crack his head on the pool wall or someone, run that filter 24/7 and shock the hell out of it, it’s nasty. Also, what happened to quiet time? People were in the pool blasting music and getting cranked at 1am. Since when? Start enforcing rules again guys, it’s turning into a trailer park. 5pmh zones? No, more like 30mph with RVS PULLING IN AT 30! You’re going to have someone get killed, probably a kid on a bike! The bar your building on the deck should have been completed in May/June. This is peak season and it’s in rubbles, wood and trash all over the side deck, you can’t even sit on that side. Do not get me started on missing the Jackspot, th nightlife, the bands (no bands, not like it was), fix the foot shower at the beach, fix your golf carts, they’re brand spanking new! Stop letting 5 year olds drive said golf carts speeding around at all hours playing tag! Oh and put those hammocks back! That’s what we missed the most, swinging the bike watching a sunset that is to die for. Fix the front desk—management—answer the damn phones. I needed to fix something in my reservation (I added a day unfortunately) and no one answered (all hours of the day) for FIVE DAYS STRAIGHT! Unacceptable. Bring this place back from the peak of death, clean it back up, get it back in straight. It’s SO SAD that in three years the best place on earth has gone to complete hell in a hand basket. We are DEVASTATED. Truly, it’s heart breaking. Fire the people who complain (in front of you) and don’t want to work here or appreciate it (garbage pick up was seconds—now it’s a full day in hot sun that attracted bugs while garbage golf cart pick ups stared and drove by—what in the hell? Do your damn job!). I love this place, I hope that next year if we come back it’s been taken care of in hopes of coming back up to par. Otherwise is the biggest, saddest waste of that hidden gem I told you about. We’ll see… and hope come...

TLDR - $10 per day resort fee, with no resort amenities available at the end of April. Kids jump pad out by major highway in front of office and run down hotel instead of out back near families, see picture. Front gate bar code scanner barely worked, but HOMELESS PEOPLE COME AND GO AT NIGHT through the open exit area, no security or staff on duty. Hotel building falling down, doors wide open for homeless people to stay in. Not enough staff (end of April). Virginia Beach KOA is fully open with lazy river and pool and other amenities. Beach was amazing for the sunsets though!

Robin the GM is only nice to you until you try to get problems addressed. As soon as you try to explain that your stay isn't as expected, she throws a tantrum and makes a scene in front of her staff. Sewer work being done right by our site, water leaking down the road, holes in the sites near us with TV wire exposed, cable plate not attached at pole, water spigot too low to attach pressure regulator or filter, bathrooms not cleaned, not enough staff, amenities not open until some time in May even though they charge a $10 per day "resort" fee, but there are older posts from other people about green algae in the pool from lack of maintenance. Kids jump pillow is out front of the building by the major HIGHWAY, no where near the actual campground. Nothing was open during our stay from 4/21-4/25 "because it's the off season and they don't have enough staff," even the restaurant was closed for renovations. The second night we were there, someone flooded the women's bathroom at 5:30pm and the maintenence guy (singular, only one for the whole park) said to the woman who made him aware of it, that he was done for the night, no after hours maintenance. At the same time, someone drained the water out of one of the men's toilets, and then used it. It smelled so bad in there, that you couldn't walk through the door without gagging. All calls to the office DON'T get forwarded to anyone, I tried throughout the night. The exit gate is non-existent, so while we were there, a woman in a white Ford Escape from Virginia was living out of it driving around, using the facilities to shower and change, and she was not mentally stable from the interaction I had with her and her little dog. Laundry rooms only take quarters, only change machine is all the way out front inside the office. Dryer didn't dry first time, so i had to pay for a second cycle. When I tried to address all of these issues that we encountered, Robin started berating me asking me "what do you want me to do? We are short staffed, you are here too early on in the season, I don't have after hours maintenance people, the after hours phone i have is dead and doesn't work, I don't have any security people to keep out homeless people who come in through the open exit gate." I had already shortened our stay from 4 days to 2 as soon as we set up at the site they gave us, which was right on top of another rv, even though there was 60 plus empty spaces in the whole row we were in. It was the worst experience we have ever had at any KOA, we will never be back to this one ever again, and all I asked for was the money back for the 2 days we wasted there. That's when Robin went to the front desk and told the young guy working there "to refund them all but the $20 reservation fee, cause you'll just post a bad review if I don't" and he said, "okay no problem, all set sending a confirmation email right now." Never received it, I talked to that guy a few days later and he said she changed her mind and they won't refund us. He agreed that he remembered the interaction she had with us, but there is nothing that he can do to help us. Corporate KOA was not surprised to hear complaints about this location and would be passing our experiences along to those in charge including the franchise owner...

We booked for the week for our yearly vacation. No one mentioned at check in that there was a power outage or that both pools were closed. I chose this park based on the fact that it had swimming pools and beach access, so not having a pool to swim in out a huge damper on our vacation. (Not everyone is willing to swim in the ocean) And although the power outage did not last long, after a very long travel in the heat I would have liked to have known that information up front, as well as it would have helped when we were trying to troubleshoot why we were not getting power. Also, the cable hook up on our site was broken off and although there were several sites in the patio section we paid extra for, they insisted we park in the one area with a pole that obstructed us from using the patio with our front door. And to add, the patio sets face each other, so you get a nice view of your neighbor. I personally don’t like feeling like people are watching me when I am cooking, or trying to spend time with my family. The patio set is just a round table and chairs (hole for an umbrella, but umbrella not included) and a wooden two seater rocker with a fire ring. If you insist on coming here, save your money and don’t pay extra for this site. The bath houses were large but not very clean, especially the men’s. There were no paper towels and every toilet in the men’s was full and overflowing. And while we have a bathroom in our camper, I would prefer to keep the sand out of it so we planned to shower in the bath house during our stay. We did call the number on the door to get the bathroom cleaned, but when we finally got through a man came and simply told us the cleaning lady was out. There are 4 ice machines for pay in the property, but only one seemed to be working. Laundry facility is just Ok, $2 for a wash or dry and smaller, older machines and no rolling baskets to assist with transport (most KOAs we have stayed at did have this). The park shows on the map two playgrounds which are not much to offer, one is just a structure with two slides while the other play area had a similar structure with one slide and two kids swings as well as two baby swings. There is a jump pad, however the blowers that they are using do not put out enough force to support more than a small child, I tried to take my youngest onto it and I sunk directly to the ground. (I have enjoyed these at other KOAs so I know it’s possible to make it hold the weight of an adult.) The K9 park is just a big open area by the road, with no toys, or benches - again we have stayed at many that have a few things for the doggies to play with, water bowls, and the nicer KOAs even have a dog wash, which would be great at this park to wash all the sand off. And then there is all the extra fees, amenity fees, a fee for bringing my own golf cart - in total an extra $180. The WiFi was not great, but if you have a Verizon jet pack you can make it I will say that the check in area that is attached to the hotel does have some hot items (pizza, wings, chips, pretzels) and ice cream treats and scoop ice cream, as well as most anything you may have forgotten to bring for sale at a small mark up, as well as arcade games (make sure to bring cash) and a small gym. The best thing about this was the beach access, but we spent more time down the road at the Kiptopke State park with a nice fishing pier. Would likely consider camping there next time if we return to the area. It was very hard to fish with many families swimming on the beach, even on the ‘fishing side’. The ‘private beach’ is not actually private, because if you come down to park the the bar on the beach, you can enjoy the beach without staying at this park. Overall, this place has the potential to be much better, but fell short for us...