Emerald Cove Resort — Hotel in Parker

Emerald Cove Resort is a membership based campground. This is not our regular campground but wanted to see what they offered as it is included in our membership. Can stay 2 weeks but stayed 9 days which was too long! This place should be called red neck central! It is located in California but is stuck on Arizona time? Why? If you complain about the “free” stuff, you knew what it was before you showed up! We arrived on a Friday and check in was brisk, no wait. We had never been here before and were surprised to get a beach front space to camp. The spaces are spacious and clean. The only eye sore was the rotting tires on the beater rental trailer next to us! Really? Can’t afford to clean it up? There are a lot of old outdated beater rental trailers on this property. There is a weekly activity sheet that I got from the front gate when we came in but the next weeks sheet also had to be picked up at the front gate, which has NO sidewalk so you have to walk in the traffic lane. Had to wait for employees to stop yaking before I could pick one up. The proper thing to do would be to step aside and let the guests through! Why isn’t the activity sheet available at the store? Resort store is large and fully stocked. Great variety and prices. We had kids with and hoped that they would enjoy the kids club, arcade and other kid activities however it was a holiday week so everything was shut down or hit and miss. Are you short staffed? Seems like they are. The miniature golf course was challenging but needed to be swept of old debris. Everything that was planned was well organized. There are NO I repeat NO activities close by to do or see, except the dam! Not ideal for kids, especially when everything is closed. Lets talk about the bar area! OMG! If you want to be or are a raging alcoholic and love BAD loud noisy late night music karaoke, then you’ll love this place! Every Friday and Saturday 7pm to 11pm is bad karaoke time, so you can forget about enjoying the great outdoors or relaxing or sleeping! Bar opens at 11 am so you can get an early start. I ran into one person that was so drunk he could hardly walk and to top that off, he wasn’t even staying at the resort. Obviously no security. I did go to member services to complain and was asked if I wanted to speak to the manager but hopefully he is involved, he knows and won’t change anything! Corporate needs to know. The food was awesome, appetizing and served hot. Food employees were polite and knowledgeable. Prices were reasonable. Just before our last few days, I had to go to the store and buy water, which I can’t carry back to our trailer, distance. I drove to the store and there were so many over-sized trucks and everyone was parked everywhere, I had a hard time driving through! This is the same street that everyone has to drive into the park on with their RV’s. I was told that parking was bad because they were busy? Seriously? The only thing busy was the bar! You can drink then drive back to your campsite? There was a flotilla holiday parade on the Colorado River but nothing was ever mentioned by anyone! Why? Because I was told it was not affiliated with the park. So what? There’s an awesome activity that nobody was told about! There was a golf cart light parade in the park but the flotilla parade won the night. I will scratch this campground from the list …...

I was excited when I read positive reviews & like usual thought the negative reviews came from very picky people so I didn't pay much attention to them. We bought a pop up trailer and were told we had a couple free nights at some RV resorts but had to come to Emerald Cove to redeem them and had to sit through a sales pitch when we got there. Let me list the negatives (the only positive note: coin laundry on site) let start off with the smells they range from urine and/or sewage mixed with bleach (it was 105 degrees when we went), restrooms/showers are not cleaned so you can see filth, vomit, and used shower products left thrown around and if you can muster up the stomach strength to enter that little piece of nasal hell to do your business you will be pleasantly surprised that there is no toilet paper for you to use, then when you walk to your trailer you will see golf carts flying by you with drunks at the steering wheel or even worse children who haven't yet hit puberty playfully driving daddy & mommy's toy around without a care in the world, and if that is not enough excitement there is the river! The beach front is small and crowded, many of the spots taken by families with watercraft anchored along the shore and it really is not a place to have fun. There are no speed rules both on the roads or in the resort, there is no security so your neighbors can party into the wee hours of the following morning (we were kept up until 3 am by our drunk neighbors), at about midnight you will hear the beautiful sound of the heaving of the beer coming back out the same way it went in which is absolutely disgusting. Then they force you into a 9 am sales pitch, ask you to become a lifetime member for a measly $13,000+ dollars, and if you dare say "no thanks I just bought a trailer I'm not ready to make that type of commitment right now" they treat you like you stole something & literally throw your "free prizes" at you which are completely worthless because of the the clauses and exclusions that go along with them. So if you are thinking of giving it a chance prepare yourself for this place. If it sounds too good to be true then Emerald Cove is just that. Go someplace else along the river and enjoy it this isn't the only place to stay nor should you stay here...EVER!!! I have never written review before but this...

Great place to take the kiddos. They have a kid zone where they do crafts with them. Three pools right by the tiki bar where you can order food and drinks. Live music and karaoke nights. We stayed free by doing their membership orientation with a really old man named Bill. He was very polite AT FIRST.

We went in knowing we couldn't afford to buy into anything right now but we politely listened to him describe each and every single resort they own, in great detail. Then he moved on to tell us about all the many other places we can go for free, etc, etc, etc, so an hour later he finally gets to prices and the one time only deals he can offer us. So we respectfully tell him our kids race dirt bikes and we don't have a lot of time to travel to really benefit from it, or extra money to spend ($1400 down, plus $160 a month, plus $440 a year in dues.... $11k^ total) and my husband tells him maybe next year....he looks at us and says, "nope you can't come back next year, you have to decide now to get the deals. If you come back later it's going to cost much more." So my husband and I look at eachother, and then tell him again, sorry then, we really can't do it , he says "well (with a stink eye and scrunched face) I wish you would have that about that before!" Then proceeds to crumpled up the paper he wrote on and throws it in the trash!

We were floored! Like Jeeze, you advertise free weekends with the presentation but get mad and throw a tantrum when someone said no. Not a very good way to get a good word out, let alone maybe our business in the future (even if it did cost more). We asked about the $100 in gas they also offered, again he grumbled and had to go ask and comes out with a rule sheet saying you have to mail in max $25 gas receipts from Shell to be reimbursed. Oh and each receipt has to be mailed 2 months apart from the last. Oh but we did get a free 1 year trial membership, (not sure what it entails because I was so bitter I haven't read it)

Everyone else in the place was very friendly including security, front gate, the bar, and the store. Even the burro! I think maybe it's just time for him to retire, again!

Overall we had a great time! I didn't let grumpy ruin our weekend, but I just thought Emerald Cove and CRA needs to know how people are being treated,...