Sun Retreats Avalon — Hotel in Middle Township

I'll preface by say that we previously stayed a Sun Outdoors in Delaware and absolutely loved it! The grounds there were spacious, clean, and the people were amazing. We had similar expectations/high hopes for Sun Retreats Avalon and were thoroughly disappointed. ||We stayed in a cabin (181); first the hot water was disgusting from day one. It smelled like sulfur and when we contacted the front office they told us that was normal for well water. My wife took a shower and the smell of sulfur smell was so bad it stunk up the entire cabin, only at the point did maintenance come and chlorinate the lines. I don't understand how housekeeping can clean the cabins between guests and not notice that the hot water smells disgusting - actually I do know because they don't actually clean them. When we were cleaning the shower before we left I noticed an Amazon Basics tag (from a wash cloth or towel) that was on the shower pan floor. None of our wash clothes/towels were Amazon basics and all had their tags - so that means it was there from a previous guest. Disgusting. ||The sites are crammed together and its a hodge-podge of cabins/tents/rvs people that are staying a few days and people there all summer. One of our neighbors left a giant pile of trash behind which attracted tons of flies to our site; I had to call the front office to have them come take it away. ||We also had someone come onto our site and steal our firewood. When I complained about that to the front desk they did absolutely nothing, but were more than happy to sell me a bundle of firewood which consisted of 3 split logs for a total of $8 (complete rip-off). ||The camp ground is listed as "pet friendly" but that is a joke; I understand that there are certain places that dogs cannot go (welcome center, cafe, pool area, etc...) but they wouldn't even let us bring her onto the beach of the lake area. We understood keeping her out of the beach area that was cordoned off for swimming, but they wouldn't even let her be on sides of the beach where people were fishing in front of the "No Fishing" sign. | |We tried to take out a paddle boat and wanted to bring our dog with us (she has a life jacket and is a great swimmer) but were told that the dog was not even allowed to swim in the lake. There were no restrictions posted on the sign about no pets/animals. ||This makes absolutely no sense since we signed a waiver to hold harmless the campgrounds when we stay at the grounds/use the amenities, so why not let our dog swim beside us or join us in a paddle boat. ||The water is putrid and overrun with algae and smelled of sewage so it was probably for the best that we didn't subject ourselves or her to that nastiness. ||We are responsible adults, meanwhile the campground is overrun with kids who have no regard for rules whatsoever. One day my wife and I were at the "heated pool" (which is not heated by the way, as was confirmed by the water aerobics instructor) and there were kids literally just running around unsupervised. We saw one kid who was running slip while trying to jump-in and nearly crack his head open on the side of the pool. Another kid jumped without looking and nearly did a cannonball on my wife. One kid was using a 6' wide pool floaty that took-up half of the deep end.||But yes, please don't allow my dog to join me for a paddleboat ride, but do let kids under the age of 12 take them out by themselves. Smart. ||We get it, this community is run for people who stay there all summer and run by the people who stay there all summer. ||Absolute rip-off. We'll gladly go back to Sun Outdoors in Delaware but will never come back to this...

I would of put ZERO stars if I could. My family and I went to this campground and paid a little over $800 just for the rental for a 3 night stay. Okay, fine but at least make sure my rental is clean before we get there right? NOPE. I’m talking stained up carpets, floors with layers of dirt, toilet looked disgusting, and the couches had nothing but hair and food all on the couch and inside the pull out couch where we’re supposed to sleep. My mother (who owns a successful cleaning business) had to go in and clean for an hour and bleach everything down and vacuum even vacuum the loft before we could even let our kids in there. Now we’re not people who like to complain and not for nothing we just wanted to enjoy our vacation so we just cleaned it ourselves and kept it moving.. we were shocked when we saw the lake that the kids were supposed to swim in.. it looked like port-o-potty water is what we called it, it definitely looked like you would walk out of there with an infection of some kind. Then we were surprised to see that practically every activity they offer, you have to pay more money for-it’s not included in the hefty money you pay to stay there. Their prices are high even at their little “restaurant” and let me tell you I ordered a chicken cheese steak and threw it out because the meat couldn’t of looked any more fake.. my son came home and was vomiting and diarrhea for 24 hours and I’m curious if it had to do with him eating the food there. Kids played games in the arcade but I can’t tell you how many times the games ate our money and they didn’t get to play. The grills that are outside our rental was so gross and small we had to walk down to the store and you guessed it- spend more money to buy a charcoal grill to cook our food. The items in their convenient store were overpriced, and it cost us more money to have family come there for an hour just to sing happy birthday to my son. I felt like this place was just out for money instead of caring about the families that come there and wanting them to enjoy their time, it’s sad. They literally charge you for everything any chance they had! But Wait here’s the best part!!! I get home and a few days later I have a email from the manager of the campground letting me know that she had already charged my account and took $160 because the carpets in the rental we had stayed in we’re stained up!!!! Yup! The carpet that was already stained when we got there! I’m wondering if this is something these people do, repeatedly charge people who stay in the rentals with damages that were already there. Not only was this incredibly infuriating, the fact that the manager didn’t even contact me by phone first and she just emailed me letting me know she charged my account already when I didn’t even sign anything that says she could do that. I’m currently trying to get my money back but it’s hard when you call the office and try to speak to the manager and she doesn’t answer or return your phone calls when you leave a voicemail! REAL PROFESSIONAL. Unreal, honestly if your looking to take your family somewhere keep looking passed this place, you’ll be glad you did and so will...

We checked in Aug 19, 2017. On our first night, we were having a karaoke and itv was only 9:15 pm (mind you the quiet time was 11 PM) and suddenly this old man (staff) came in screaming "stop the music!" I dont know exactly what they meant by quiet time. If they will put rules and regulations they should abide by it.

On our second day, we had our kids do the the zipline. There were only 3 staff members. At the end of the zipline there was NO ONE at the end of the zipline. We have been ziplining in the last 10 years and in different countries and this is the UNSAFEST ever. They dont have helmets and when we asked about the helmet they said "YOU DONT NEED A HELMET!" So if you fall and hit your head, you'll have a cracked head there.

As I was saying, there was NO ONE MANNING THE END OF THE ZIPLINE. My daughter at the end of the zipline bounced back (because she hit the padding of the tree really hard forcing her to bounce back). The other girl who can't see that my daughter was still stuck in the zipline went ahead (because the staff were busy chatting as per our children) and luckily, grabbed the zipline ropes to break before she could hit her but blistered her fingers in the process. So two girls were still stuck in the zipline. Another girl, who didnt see the girls still stuck in the zipline went ahead and hit the 2 girls hard in the zipline. And when one of the girls asked for help with the harnesses my daughter said that the girl was giving her a mean look/ annoyed facial expression and asked why she still needed help. One of our friend's daughter even fell at the end. They were busy getting the orientation for the next group when the other group was not even done. They expect the first group to be done in 2 hours, yes I could understand that, but NOT ALL PEOPLE HAVE THE SAME STAMINA like anybody else. They could have at least guided the group to facilitate the process. So when confronted, they even said that THEY CANNOT AFFORD TO PAY FOR ANOTHER STAFF TO STAND AT THE END OF THE ZIPLINE.

We were so dismayed by the lack of compassion of the staff and being rude. We would have been much understanding if the staff at the zipline have been apologetic because of what happened. I spoke to the people at the office asking for the names of the staff at the zipline and file a formal complaint and their answer that they are "new" staff and dont even know their names. Really ?!?

Anyway, if I have to really give them a star, it will be ZERO! We have been camping for so long and this is the WORST campsite in terms of their staff. Rude and unprofessional. Maybe they need to attend a seminar in dealing with customer service because they need it. If they dont like what they do they should not be in this business because they are killing...