Merry Meadows Recreation Farm — Hotel in Shrewsbury

My husband and I needed a campground within a short driving distance of a Maryland Hotel where the State Dance Convention was being held. We are dancers; all we wanted was a quiet, clean place to stay, and even WE were disappointed.

First the good points: the WIFI was solid and free. There were quite a few tv stations available through antenna. Our site was spacious, private and shaded.

Cons: Before we even stepped foot on the property, we felt slapped in the face with the rules at this place. As we were driving to the campground, we received an intense and angry-sounding email stating that check in time is 4:00, but if we should arrive early, there is a $10 per hour early arrival fee. The email also told us to:

"Bring cash. Only cash is accepted for purchases in the Store, Snack Bar, and Hub. There is a fee for the Golf Range baskets ($5 small, $10 large, $15 jumbo: open April to December). Also, there's a fee for Mini Golf 18 holes ($3), Sluice bags ($6, $8, $11), and The Corral ($10: Inflatables, Giant Swing, Climbing Wall, and Crazy Bikes) and Hub. You may want to bring cash to avoid the $10.00 minimum and $5.00 credit card surcharge fee."

We normally would have arrived at Merry Meadows at about 3:15 or 3:30, but because of this intense and angry-sounding email, we pulled over and parked for awhile at a Cracker Barrel. We arrived after 4:00, and there was a line of rigs waiting, as they also, had probably received the same angry-sounding email. At check-in, I was astonished at the length of rules and contracts I had to sign. I have never seen anything like it at any other campground, and we have camped across the country.

We were not traveling with children, but we stayed on a Friday and Saturday night, over a weekend, and we did not see any of the advertised activities up and running. Not only are the family activities an extra fee, with extra charges for credit cards, but the activities are only open for short periods of time on certain days!

The Pavilion, Entertainment Center and pool are all built on a hill, with the surrounding campsites on lower tiers. In order to get anywhere from your campsite, you have to walk up a steep hill. It was exhausting to do this in the summer July heat. Everywhere we walked there were rules posted - see pictures. There was even a charge for the mini golf course which was very basic and appeared to be designed for young children. As almost all other reviewers have said, the water pressure was terrible. I am a woman with short hair, and I would not have been able to wash my hair in the little dribble of water we had all weekend.

I agree with the reviewer who said the owners here seem to want to be a campground for older, retired seasonal campers. This campground does not interact with its guests as if it wants or welcomes families.

And, by the way, if you're going to have rules posted everywhere like saying you cannot bring food or drink into the pool area (not even a water bottle!!), perhaps you could consider using proper English on your sign - -

Your sign should read: "No Food or Drink From Home or Camper Allowed PAST This Door". Your sign uses the word "passed" which is incorrect. The word pass / passed is only used as a verb, i.e., "In the road race, I passed my opponent", as opposed to, "In the road race, I ran past my opponent", or "No one is allowed past this door".

Nit-picky? You bet! But a point totally in keeping with all the nit-picky rules and regulations of this place! My suggestions: re-write your "welcome" letter - it's not very welcoming. Advertise ON YOUR WEBSITE the fees for the family activities and the actual times/days they are open. MANY reviewers have said there was false advertising, or, at best, incomplete information given. Management has had MORE than enough notice that this has been an issue for guests.

We would not recommend...

Imagine owning a campground but actually hating campers! That is Merry Meadows Rec Farm Campground. I'm a retired US Army warrant officer, and the daughter owner and the office manager treated my wife and I like enemies from day one. Arrived in the dead of winter and the place was empty for the most part. Had power problems on site due to an old breaker box. Lost water for a week due to cold temps. After we suffered through all that and never complained once (we left to go to a hotel for days), you would think they would treat us nicely, I mean the place was almost empty. We were paying campers. BUT No, instead it was all rules and minor complaints thrown at us from day one and they never stopped. The place is old and run down. Some spots are okay (but all are taken by long term renters called Chipmunks), but most need attention. They made us move to a monthly spot because the 2025 season was arriving. So we did. It was worse than the first one, the road was all mud from the rain and snow. The incline to park my truck on at the site was so steep my wife fell out of our truck twice. Plus it was complete mud. So we parked to the right side of the spot and the owner kicked us out for it. The one way streets make no sense at all. They are backwards and you drive over uneven roads and speed bumps to get to the 1 trash dump area. The place is falling apart and it shows. I'm not even sure why they are open. The rules take up 3 sheets of paper and you have to sign over 5 pages of documents to even camp here (even your signature is reviewed). They accept no packages at the office. The gate at the front is broken half the time. The laundry facilities are poor. The Wi-Fi is terrible. I have no clue how this place survives. I think they only like the "GETAWAY" Chipmunk campers - the ones who rent spots long-term for their RVs but are only allowed on the campground 1 weekend a month or something silly like that. We kept our site clean, we bothered no one, we didn't play music, we didn't do anything, but try to not park in mud and on a steep incline. The electric charges from meter readings are insane, be prepared to spend a lot for power. I hope this place goes out of business, I really do. It is simply not right to treat people the way the daughter owner and overlord office manager do. We've lived for over 3 years fulltime in our RV and have never seen anything so terrible as the way Merry Meadows is run. I just shake my head at all their nonsense marketing talking about Veterans in their family, meanwhile they kicked me out and treated me poorly--a Veteran of the multiple combat tours.|Photo 1: See the spot they forced me to park in - it was so steep and muddy, every time it rained, it became so slick even in 4wd I would tear it up trying to park - but they kicked me out for it. Photo 2: Showing the damage done to my RV because of the steep incline that I even told them about when they moved me to that spot I didn't want, but they forced on me, pulling the RV as we left the rear black tank line was broken as it bottomed out on the spot, you can even see the dirty mud from the parking spot wedged in. Photo 3: Roads are not marked in a way that works or makes sense, all of the one ways are confusing and they kicked me out for actually following the owner's truck down a road. Apparently I went the wrong way again but look at the photo and tell me what was I supposed to do? Photo 4: the mud road they moved us to because we actually wanted to stay longer and they don't want that - they only want Chipmunks, people who pay to leave their RV on the spot but can only access it a few times a month. Photo 5: Wife's twisted ankle from the incline of parking spot and all of the mud made her slip and fall.|**My advice avoid "merry" meadows or at least pay in cash, that seems to get you on their good side somewhat, I'm guessing so they can avoid...

We’ve been camping 20+ years and have never had an experience like we had at this campground. If you read my review and think to yourself that it can’t be ‘that’ bad, then please take the time to read through many of the other comments. You will see a common theme and many negative remarks. One of the reviewers mentioned that those campers who break the rules are the ones that write negative reviews. Not true. No 'rules' were broken.||||First, they tell you nothing as to the cost of the amenities until you receive your confirmation email two days prior to your visit. And they tell you to bring cash. They discourage credit cards. Their method of accepting credit cards is to hand write your credit card number onto the old credit card forms with the carbon copy (the ones that used to imprint your credit card.) ||||Arrived on a Friday and couldn’t wait to take the grandkids to the pool on Friday night. No splash pad. What they don’t tell you is the splash pad is only available on weekends (Sat-Sun) and they control the hours that it’s open. Same with bouncy house. $8 to jump around per child and then it’s only open 1 or 2 days a week for only 2 hours. Don’t go to this campground with children and expect to have the amenities during the week. As for the bounce pad and inflatable slide – FILTHY. I have pictures to prove it. Kids and clothes were filthy when they were done. We let them play on it because we had already paid and they were so looking forward to it. We kept our time there short and straight in to the showers when they were done.||Arcade was open with no one in it. Not air conditioned and too hot to use.||||Many rules. They hand you the rules at check-in and then they want an employee to go over them with you to make sure you know all of their rules. They also tell you to fill up your water tank in the ‘event of a power outage.’ We had to use the water in our tanks because their water sputtered, full of air, by mid-weekend. But they won’t tell you that is why they want you to fill up your tank. It had nothing to do with power outage.||||Went to use the restrooms nearest our camper on Monday morning and they were locked. It was 8:45 am and the bathroom door on the outside of the building was locked. Really?||||Many gate rules even though the gate wasn’t working. Stressed the gate rules over and over.||||And poison ivy – haven’t seen so much in a very long time. I realize you are outside and camping among the trees, but that much poison ivy? ||||Staff is indifferent. There is no warm greeting. If you walk into the office, they take their good old time looking up to acknowledge you. It’s like they take pleasure in seeing how miserable they can make their guests. When I inquired about the bounce area’s hours and said I was disappointed it would only be open one day that entire week, I was told that they encourage parents to entertain their own children while camping. Why did I come to a campground with amenities? To not use them? ||||They have many permanent or seasonal campers who speed through the campground. I wonder why there isn’t a ‘rule’ for them to slow down. We noticed it every time we were out, how fast they drive.||||So even though this is the nearest campground to our grandchildren, nope, nada, not going back. I left there irritated and upset that this campground could bring my mood down so much.||||And you’ll have to call the office if you want to find out what to do with your garbage. For all the information they give you, that is acutely missing.||||We were surprised to be able to secure a FHU campsite for a weekend at the last minute. Not surprised now. Many open sites were available that weekend. I wish that we would have read the reviews...