Sun Outdoors New Orleans North Shore — Hotel in Ponchatoula

PROLOGUE: |First, I need to say that my husband and I have an rv and have stayed here several times previously. Our first visits here were when it was still privately owned and was named Reunion Lake. At that time, we very much enjoyed staying here. It is of course now corporately owned by Sun Outdoors, who seem to be acquiring a lot of rv parks. It is unfortunate, as I think the corporate ‘attitude’ tends to reduce the quality of service; everything obviously becomes about money. ||I am a small business owner and typically take my Assistant Director on a long weekend trip somewhere fun every summer, for a business planning trip and as a thank you. This year I decided to rent a cabin (please don’t misunderstand. These are not log cabins) at SunOutdoors RV Park and enjoy the amenities here, which include a lazy river, an adult and a family pool, swim up bars, live music on Saturdays, miniature golf, pickle ball, etc. ||CABIN REVIEW:|This is the first time I have stayed in one of their cabins. I want to say up front that I was initially a bit shocked at the cost, but booked it anyway. My thought was that they must be pretty damn nice inside for that cost, at an rv park. The charge was 260 dollars per night. After booking, I got an email from them saying that there would also be an additional 10 dollars per day ‘services charge’ added (this is apparently new). They listed all of the amenities, including cable (which they actually did not have), as a part of this charge. It also stated that there was no guarantee that any of these amenities would be available during the stay. So, Im paying for the possibility of having those amenities? Additionally, I had to pay (way too much) for a ‘linen package’ in order to have sheets, cover and pillows for the beds. || The cabins are modular and look very nice on the outside. The impression entering is that it is decent. Although I immediately noted that they are extremely minimalistic- there is no decoration of any type on any of the walls. ||After trying to function, in the cabin, it became quickly obvious that everything in it was the cheapest possible thing they could do. They also did not provide some necessities that I think would be expected for 260 a night. ||Bathroom:|The closure on the shower door broke off the first time I used the shower. Note that this shower is smaller than the one in my rv. I have no idea how a larger person manages in the shower. There was only one roll of toilet paper. The towels were barely larger than a hand towel and were the cheapest possible towels available - they felt a little like sandpaper. For reference on the towel size, I am 110 lbs and the towels would not fully wrap around me. The vanity was small with limited space. This is fine; however, there also was no shelf or medicine chest to store bathroom items. There was no light above the bathroom mirror and the peel and stick vision block on the bathroom window was peeling off. ||Bedrooms:|The bedrooms were adequate. Again, obviously the cheapest possible mattresses and there was some room on the side walls, in the main bedroom, to at least have put a shelf beside the bed as a make shift nightstand. There was no where to put a drink or anything at night. ||Kitchen:|There was a paper towel holder, but no paper towels provided. This might have been okay, but there were also no dish towels nor any oven mitts. I ended up using the hand towels from the bathroom. I brought canned goods and when I attempted to use the can opener, it was rusted and broken, so I couldn’t open my cans. There were pots and pans, but no skillet. Also, the pots and pans were the plain silver ones that are the hardest to clean - and there were no sponges that would adequately clean them. The coffee maker was a one cup pod coffee maker that again was the cheapest possible option; a far cry from an actual kuerig. Again, that would have been okay had I been even paying 100 dollars a night, but not for 260. There was no dish rack. There was a small, cheap dishwasher, but only one bar of dishwashing soap was provided. The oven seemed to have a mind of its own. Both times I used it, it just randomly turned off in the middle of cooking something. ||Living Area:|The living area was okay. Again, cheap furnishings, but fine. Just no decoration of any type, so it looked very bland. Especially since the walls are painted a very light grayish color. The couch is also gray. There was only a small couch and a coffee table. When I moved the coffee table closer to the couch, I noticed the top of the table was loose. ||AMENITIES REVIEW:|I always have enjoyed the amenities at the park. Especially the lazy river. It is fun. It is also nice that they have an adult pool and a family pool. It doesn’t always seem to be enforced, but most people seem to adhere to the rules. The exception was Saturday evening when they had live music at the adult pool and bar. There were way too many children out there, in the pool that evening. The biggest complaint I have with regard to pools and bars is that the bars now seem to be rarely open. They seem to only open during heavy usage times. I partly understand that they are trying to maximize incoming vs outgoing money…. AND I was at the pool and lazy river all day Friday and the bars were not opened. It was annoying. We noticed this began happening all the time after SunOutdoors took over. The pool bars seem to be closed more than they are opened. That might be okay if they did not have statements in their paperwork that says you can’t bring a cooler or any outside drinks in. 🤷‍♀️ Same goes for the onsite store. They don’t seem to have consistent hours, which is annoying. ||EPILOGUE:|Overall, I have always enjoyed this rv park, when my husband and I come in our rv, but we have noticed a lot of changes now that it is corporately owned. Of course, we all want to minimize output and maximize incoming. However, there should be some balance to that. That is obviously never the case when anything becomes corporately owned. This park is no different. |I will likely come back, with my husband, in our rv sometime. However, I will not be renting a cabin again for a trip with anyone else. The cost absolutely does not equate with what...

Things you need to know We stayed here with another fam in 2 campers with a total of 5 kids from Sat July 25th - Aug 1st. We stayed on sites 86 and 88. Overall we had a great time and will be coming back. Here are some things you need to know. The place is big and if you don’t like walking you will need to bring a bike or golf cart. You can rent a golf cart for $75 a day or $350 a week and it holds approx 4 people. You have to have a driver license to drive it. I thinks it $10 a day if you bring your own which is what most people did. There is plenty of water for the kids and grown ups to enjoy. There is an all adult pool with swim up bar which is where the band and dj’s setup. By this pool is an all adult hot tub and there is another little pool area with swim up bar that is connected to the lazy river. Lazy river was great but you need to bring your own float. You have to provide your own float, but we didn’t get our floats out until the last day because there were floats always left from last visitors all around the lazy river. Kids loved the obstacle course on the lake. There were 2 workers on it at all times watching the kids play. Adults can do it as well. You have to bring your own life jacket and they do not rent them. This is one of the biggest gripes I have. We have a 13, 9 and 6 year old. All 3 wanted to go on it for the week and a week’s pass is $100 per kid/adult. Because my daughter is 6, I would have had to buy a $100 weeks pass as well. That is $400 for my kiddos to do the obstacle course for the week. We ended up just buying the 9 year old the weeks pass and buying the $35 two day pass for myself and the other kiddos. I didn’t feel like the workers really understood the fees. Long story short, we ended up buying the 2 day $35 pass and then going back and adding 2 more days for $10 total for the extra 2 days. Makes no sense to me, but that is what they told us and charged us. Another thing is they need to have something for the adults that have to pay to go with their kiddos. First give the adults some type of cost break as it is very expensive especially when you have Multiple kiddos. Second, if I pay for the week, I believe I should be able to share that pass with my spouse so we can share the time having to go out with our kids that are 8 and younger. Anyway, this is a lot of fun, I just think they need to rethink some pricing structures as I have heard and read many complaints on this topic. They hire mostly kids. I think I saw 1 person over the age of early 20’s while I was there for 7 days. That is not an issue, and they were all really friendly but most of the tome felt like they were just there doing their job and not trying to make the experience special for their guest. I guess I felt like the environment should have been more like a cruise where there are activities and fun stuff going on for adults and kids. Maybe they do have this stuff and they have pulled backed due to COVID. BAR- there are 2 bars. One is strictly swim up (one off the lazy river) and the other is walk up or swim up. They have pre-mixed margaritas that are good, full bar to make other drinks and beer (Corona, Ultra, Budweiser and others). These are all 16oz beers and you can by one for $4.30 a beer (+ tip) or you can buy a bucket (6)beers & you can mix match for $20 (+tip). Each person in your group gets a wrist band & you can tie any of those bands to your debit card which is super nice. We didn’t do the kids but we did ours which made it super easy. Games game room was closed due to COVID. They do have a nice basketball and pickle ball court that we played on. There is a putt putt course which was fun, a horseshoe toss area and a volleyball court. The volleyball court net was down I guess due to COVID. There is a building where all the games are where you get your balls or clubs to play with that is manned with an employee. I didn’t feel the game area was maintained very well but a lot of fun. Overall We had a great time! Family of 5 spent about $1,600 for the week including campsite. We will for...

Could be awesome BUT: really need to adjust their operating hours and hire more staff. The operating hours are what truly ruined it for us. For your $40 resort fee, you have access to a lazy river, kids pool, adult pool and hot tub, playground, lake shore, mini golf, volley ball/basket ball/shuffleboard/pickle board courts, small arcade, snack bar, 2 adults only swim up bars, and camp store. Sounds great! BUT nothing opens until at least 10am and closes at 8pm on weekdays (even in the summer and on holidays). Even the playground and lakeshore are behind locked fencing. Checkout is at 11am by the way so you can't really enjoy anything on your last day. Here's why their operating hours are truly why we likely won't be back: You're a resort that caters to kids and families. Kids wake up early and many nap in the afternoons. Our kids wake up between 6 and 7. That's 3-4 hours to fill before ANYTHING opens. Yesterday we finally made it down to the pool at 10 and as we were walking in, staff closed everything saying there was a lightning storm. We headed back to the camper to wait out the storm- which ended at 1pm. We live in the south, it's not a secret that summer storms hit almost every afternoon. If the pool was open at 8 or even 9 it wouldn't be that big of a deal. This morning we hustled to pack up camp as much as possible to hit up the pool at 10 because check out is at 11. From 10-1045 when we left, someone was cleaning the kids pool and everything else was still closed. No snack bar, camp store, lazy river, rentals, bar (ok understandable), arcade, or mini golf. We couldn't use the toddler splash part because the man was vacuuming it but the deeper end where a bunch of us were swimming was FILTHY with bugs/hair/etc. At one point another guest picked up one of the skimmers and began skimming it herself. If you're not going to open the pool until 10, it should be cleaned at 8 or 9. Side note, for all 5 days that we were there, the pool was really dirty and the water was super cloudy. Pretty gross but to be fair it IS getting used by a lot of people. Anyway, at 10:45 when we were leaving there was someone walking through and cleaning the mini golf area. That just seems sooo late to be opening. Last night my husband and I got the kids down to bed at 730, set up the video monitors, and RACED down to the adults only pool for some us time and a mixed drink. We got there at 745- the bar was closed and locked. Lazy river closed and locked. We sat in the adult pool/hot tub until 8:20 when a woman came and told us and the others there we had to leave. I mentioned that the paper we got when we checked in stated it was open until 10pm, and she said "oh not on weekdays, on weekdays it closes at 8". It was the 4th of July. Yes on a Tuesday but... ?! I will say on Monday the 3rd they had great live music and a fireworks show which was super fun, it all ended at 10pm. But we're there on vacation. The adults only pool shouldn't close at bedtime because its a weekday. It was REALLY frustrating. I feel like I should mention the grounds were mostly clean, but there was a lot of loose litter as we walked from our campsite to the pool area. Our toddler also kept finding cigarette butts at our campsite which was really frustrating (we are NOT smokers). The women's bathroom at the pool had an "out of order" sign on it for 2 full days- there were 3 stalls inside. 2 were blocked, the handicapped stall had the tank lid off, and there was NO toilet paper in the entire bathroom. The nearest bathroom is over past the lazy river which is about a 5 minute walk (longer if you're walking with a kiddo who REALLY has to pee). I did tell the woman kicking us out of the pool area last night about the bathroom and she said she'd let someone know but there was already a sign on it for 2 days so.. All in all this could be an amazing place just an hour away from home! They definitely have the basis for it. We were SO excited when we got there and we did still have a lot of fun, BUT they really, really need to adjust their...