Harbour Village Campground and Water Park — Hotel in Town of Egg Harbor

This campground could have been rated higher, but there were too many things that just were not right with it. We stayed 7/23 to 7/27. ||I’ll start with why we went there. The pool, water slides, and pond with inflatables. We have 3 kids, ages 11, 11, and 9. We try to go to campgrounds that have lots of activities for them. The pool with waterslides looked awesome. Unfortunately the waterslides were closed the whole time we were there. And I know they were closed the week before that too because we were staying at a different campground near there and we stopped in one day to check the place out. I guess they had a life guard shortage. This was disappointing. Also, the pool closes daily at 6pm! I’ve never been to a campground with a pool that closes earlier than 8pm. I felt this was way too early. There was also a hot tub that was empty so we couldn’t use that. |The pond closes at dusk which was good since the pool was closed so early, but the Wibit inflatables were deflating more and more each day we were there until some of them were unusable and dangerous. ||The activity pavilion also closed at 6pm, which means you can’t play mini golf after 6. And the mini golf course has lights, but for what? You can’t even play when it’s dark out. I felt like 6pm was quittin’ time at Harbour Village. Employees were out after 6pm, which means the fun stops at that time. ||They had a jumping pillow, but that was broken and unusable. We get that this was out of their control, but another negative. ||On certain days when the wind is right, it picks up manure smell from a nearby farm and stinks up the whole campground. This isn’t their fault, but it happened two of the four days we were there and it was really bad. ||Now for our campsite. We stayed it site 102. First there is no 20 amp service. This is a bit annoying because I like to plug in an extension cord and run outside small appliances off it to avoid blowing our 30 amp service on our travel trailer. I’ve ver seen campsites without 20 amp service. |Second there was garbage all over our site when we arrived. Whoever was there before us left wrappers and little pieces of garbage everywhere. Also left a bunch of garbage in the fire pit, which had no border around it. It was just a circle on the ground. We ended up picking up every piece of trash we could find and also found some rocks to put around the fire pit. |And finally the biggest annoyance with our site and the campground was the walking path that went right through our site. Again, we we’re in site 102. Do not pick this site if you don’t want people and kids walking and riding their bike through your site all day and night. Site 102 is and end site on a row that has a walking path that runs behind all the sites and leads to the bathrooms/laundry room. It is intended for all the sites in this row to use to get to the bathrooms. The problem is that there is a path that leads from the road into site 102 and then continues on past the back of all the rest of the sites. The rest of the sites have smaller paths that lead from their site to the main path, so anyone walking on this path does not pass through their site, instead they walk just behind the other sites. But this path begins and ends in site 102 and ignorant people and kids use this path as a fun trail to ride bikes on and as a shortcut that’s not even a shortcut to and from the bathrooms. Any reasonable person would turn around as soon as they saw that this path leads right into someone’s campsite. But people didn’t. They just put their heads down or said hello as they walked right past us 4 feet away as we ate our meals at our picnic table. They actually had to walk just under our canopy tent and around our bikes as they passed by. And the site is not large enough to move things around so that we were not near the path. We actually put up caution tape that we had in our camper for Halloween to block people from using the path and security ended up telling us to take it down. We tried to explain that this was super weird that they allow people to walk through our site, but they said it was a public path and there was nothing they could do. They also said that they never heard anyone complain about it before. I get it, the path is there and people are going to use it, especially kids. But that’s not how the path was intended to be used and adults should understand that and refrain from using it. Walking on the road gets you to the same place in the same amount of time without disturbing people’s privacy. I always think of our campsite like a hotel room. Imagine if people were able to walk through your hotel room and there was nothing you could do about it. Maybe an extreme comparison, but it’s kind of true. I should point out that site 102 was the only wooded site left when we booked, which I don’t think was a coincidence. ||And finally, checkout is 11am which is the earliest I’ve seen at a campground. ||If we were in a different site and the water slides were open and the inflatables were not dangerously deflated and the jumping pillow wasn’t broken, we’d probably go back. But all that stuff added together is enough for us to not want to go back and we won’t. It is a nice campground, but too many things were wrong with our stay. ||And one last thing. There were tiny little frogs all over our site and the campground. You couldn’t take a step without worrying you were going to crush some little frog to death, which I did once or twice...

I have been camping for over 20 years at all kinds of campgrounds, and a part owner in a similar facility in the Dells. This was the first time I left a campground completely disappointed with my stay. Upon check in, I walk in and the three teenagers working don't acknowledge me or even stop their pointless talking when I say ask if this is where we check in. The girl who was somewhat working and perfuming a portion of her job said yes, asked my name, and threw the waiver at me and continues talking to the other two. I had to ask for a pen three times before she stopped talking and finally chucked one down at the counter. I sign and complete as much of the form that seemed appropriate since it is poorly worded, and pass it back to her. She tells me that I need to complete the form. I find one spot where I missed a signature and hand it back. She gives me a car pass and says nothing else. I ask where our site is and she gives us a map and circles a general area. She gave us no guidance as to where anything was in the campground (bathhouse, pool, porta potty, etc.) I drive to my site, following the 5mph speed limit and find that golf carts have a free for all when they are on the road and can go as fast as they want. Once I finally located my site area, I called the office to clarify that this space was in deed my site and to ask where to park since the only parking lot in the rustic tent are was full. Of course, nobody answers. I call again in five minutes, and still no response. I had to walk an verify that every other site was occupied to be sure that this unmarked plot of land was reserved for me. After setting up, leaving for dinner, and coming back to go to sleep for the night, there still wasn't a spot for my car in the lot. Being that there was space for me to be completely off the road and out of the way, I put my car on my site. I went to bed and was awoken well after 11pm to the neighboring site talking about how Security had just come around asking for the car on our site to be moved. The issues I have with this: 1) where was my car supposed to go? 2) why didn't they come and check to see if I was in my tent or call my phone since the car was registered to me? 3) why did security allow the neighbors to keep playing music and yelling profanities until 2AM? I left early the next morning (6AM) for a triathlon and returned later that evening for a shower before heading out to dinner. When I finally found a bathhouse after navigating the golf carts that plague the roads, I found that not a single handle in the showers actually allowed you to turn the shower on and the most disgusting bathhouse or shower facility I have ever been in. Eventually, I found a shower that would trickle enough water for me to wash some of the bay gunk out of my hair. When I returned after dinner that evening, security came around and complained about our car being on our site the night before, but failed to note that even at that point in the day there were three cars between the few tent sites and only one spot left in the lot. Thankfully, there was a thunderstorm so the site neighbors couldn't stay up all hours of the night for the second night in a row. I got up again at 6AM, packed up my site, and decided that I would never return to this campground or recommend it since the only redeeming quality I found was the grassy and level site for my tent. We chose this campground for the amenities offered, and didn't use...

Not coming here again

Pros It has a lot of nice amenities, when they're available. They have lifeguards at the pool. Bathrooms are mostly clean.

Cons Not many bathrooms, closest was a 10min round trip walk from our site. Dumpsters are sparse too. Probably a 30 min walk. Expect to drive or rent a golf cart. The security guard is nitpicky. He pulled up to my site when I was about to use my electric scooter and said it wasn't allowed. I brought it because everything is spread out. Guess they really want me to rent one of those $60/night golf carts. Other reviews mention that he seems to enjoy harassing the campers over trivial things. Read through them, you'll see what I mean. It's not just me. He really made the place unpleasant. The rules here don't allow electric scooters, ebikes or even trail bikes (i.e. mountain bikes). I wouldn't be surprised if the guard pulls you over to check your tires and shocks to make sure it isn't a mountain bike. Again, read the reviews about this guy. He also wears a badge. Is this place so bad they need a real cop with the power to arrest people? What does that say about this place? I guess the guard goes home at some point since the park descends into anarchy at night. There are kids riding bikes without lights and reflectors, unsupervised kids walking down the middle of the streets, people blaring music on their golf cart. Maybe the guard hopes by being strict during the day that people will be orderly at night. It doesn't work. Expect the water slides to be closed due to lifeguard shortages. It was closed everyday for us and, based on other reviews, closed for most of this season. Equipment checkout is scummy. Our kids wanted to check out a pedal car. The teenager at the desk said they were all checked out and the dozen or so in the pavilion are out of order. OK, I understand. Then a group of kids arrive and drop 4-5 cars off. Can we check out one of those? No, the teen says. They're out of order too. The power went out unexpectedly. 30 minutes later we get a text that there is a "planned" power outage. This "planned" power outage will last 8 hours. This "planned" outage occurred on Saturday from noon to 8pm. Fortunately it came back on in 2-3 hours but struck me as dishonest from the owners. Just be honest and say your electrical system is so dilapidated that it fails when stressed, namely on summer weekends. Our 5 year old got locked in a bathroom stall because the door handle fell off. We crawled under the door to get him out. Did I mention a urinal in the men's bathroom overflowed when flushed and spread all over the floors. That was gross. Makes me rethink crawling on the bathroom floor to get my 5...