Waterloo / Lost Island KOA Resort — Hotel in Waterloo

This is a beautiful campground! We were pleasantly surprised to get a great, full-hook-up spot on the spur of the moment when we realized we had 3 days off from July 4-7. We figured we'd never find anywhere with openings, but we got right in. The campground seems newer, so the trees are very young and shade is scarce, but the amenities are incredible and in a few years those trees will be gorgeous. The sites are roomy. The convenience store at the check-in spot has a gas station, ice that is cheaper than HyVee up the road (but slightly more than WalMart), and many RV accessories. There are lots of things to rent to play on the water - kayaks, those strange floating bicycles, paddle boats, etc. The beach area is quite large. It is not deep - at the deepest place I was up to my shoulders and I'm 5'3", but I had to work to find that spot! Because it is shallow and our weather has been very hot, the water was quite warm. There are lots of geese, which probably means it's not a great idea to do a lot of head-submerging in the water anyway. There is a cute little island in the middle of the lake (really just a very large pond) that you can actually walk to through the water from the swimming area. It has a shelter building, charcoal grill and picnic tables. There is a nice walking path all around the lake and around much of the campground. I was surprised to realize how many sites they have! There are two full bath-houses, each with laundry facilities, and everything looked very clean. We had full hookups, so we showered in our RV, but I always scope things out when I'm at a new campground.

There is a fenced dog park area - divided so that there is a spot where big dogs can play and little dogs can be kept separate - and there are various doggie obstacles like rings and teeter-totters and things to take your dog over/through. At the dog park and at intervals around the walking trail are doggie poop-bags and trash cans.

There are lots of adorable cabins scattered around the lake and the park, which seemed very popular. Just at the top of the hill from the beach area is a very large building that is not completely enclosed/bug proof, but very sheltered from wind and rain. It had about 10-15 full sized picnic tables inside, and one wall was a long counter-top with multiple electrical outlets and a sink, and a huge charcoal grill, perfect for a large family gathering or reunion.

The cons - not great amounts of shade yet, but will be coming as the trees grow. The place is well maintained, but enforcement of rules seems lax. I appreciate the all-dogs-on-leash rule, but there were lots of people breaking it with impunity. I have a dog who is very friendly and loving to us - but she does NOT tolerate strangers - people or animals - approaching her or us quickly. People don't think about the safety of their own dog when they let them run wild. A couple of those free dogs just barely missed being attacked by my dog when they tried to run up to her. She was properly restrained and kept very close to our camper. Very scary. I called to report the loose dogs, but the staff are a bit overwhelmed and it took a while to get someone out. Likewise, there were signs everywhere asking "please no fireworks" and that was completely ignored and unenforced. The quiet hours are supposed to be after 10:30 p.m., and that was mostly followed, but someone set off a whole bunch of fire-crackers at 2:30 in the morning on the night of the 5th into the 6th, which was annoying. It's not the fault of the KOA staff that people are jerks, but I wish the jerks would stay home. :p

The campground is less than 5 minutes from the Lost Island water park, which was a blast, and you get $5 off the admission to the water park if you are a guest at the campground. There is also all the basic shopping you could possibly need within half a mile - HyVee, WalMart, a full indoor Mall, etc., and the campground offers a shuttle service to and from the casino if you're into that sort of thing.

Over all, it was a great experience and we can't wait...

We called directly to the campground to make reservations 3 1/2 weeks before our arrival date. There are 3 families in our group, with 10 young children, so we specifically requested 3 sites next to each other knowing the kids would bounce back and forth between campers. We were given the sites and received confirmations. Upon arrival we discovered that another camper was in one of our sites. I went down to the office to register and was told “here are the new sites we are moving you to”. They had us all split up and with all of the traffic in the campground, not at all ideal for young kids going back and forth. I explained that we had reservations and the point was to keep all of us together. I asked how someone else could be in one of our sites since it was reserved for the weekend.I was told things are really screwed up this weekend. I asked why we had to go to a different site instead of making the other camper move since we had the reservation. The woman finally told me that the other camper was supposed to be out two days earlier but they were still there.I said well that’s easy, I have a reservation and they don’t, they need to move. I was told they would send someone down to make the other camper move but in the mean time we could set up in a temporary site close to our other two sites. We sat there all afternoon and never saw a KOA employee go to the other camper and ask them to move. It was getting late and we needed to get set up and hooked up for the evening. We were assured that the temporary spot they put us in was not reserved and we could stay there all weekend. It was obvious at that point that they were not going to make the situation right so we had to make the best of it. Next day a camper rolls in and tells us that we are in their spot, they have reservations for our temporary site! The incompetence of the staff at this KOA is astounding!! In the time we were up at the office we discovered there were several other campers who had reservations and found others on their sites. The staff at the office was ridiculously unequipped to deal with all the issues and very unapologetic about the mistakes on their end. The lady at the counter was super frustrated, rolling her eyes, pounding on the counter and putting her head in her hands while two other gals sat in the office and wouldn’t come out to help. Apparently they have a horrible system that doesn’t allow them to see if sites have already been booked before allowing others into them. They don’t keep tabs on campers and have no idea who is supposed to be there and when they are supposed to leave. And the temporary site they put us in cost less than the site we reserved but they still charged us for the site we didn’t get. The bath houses have no ventilation so it’s like showering in a sauna. The pond has been dyed blue and is full of algea. Definitely not the best KOA we’ve ever stayed in and I don’t know that I would recommend...

We have traveled the lower 48 states and have stayed at dozens of KOA’s including several of their resorts and this place falls very short of what was expected. I’m not sure what classifies this as a resort b/c the amenities are limited. I don’t know of a KOA resort that does not have a pool. It’s large and there is a nice convenient store/gas station when you first drive in. But the rest of the park is more like a glorified campground. The shower is a push 30 second button and they do clean it daily but it has so many bugs and can’t look clean. For a big place there’s only a couple washers and dryers in their laundry facilities. These aren’t things I would normally list as a con, but as a “resort”- it was just very similar to several campgrounds we’ve been too and nothing like other KOA resorts we’ve been too. The playground is nice, however it is limited with what a child can do(two slides, a bridge & hang out spot underneath) They do make the “beach” area look nice with tiki umbrellas and seats, but it’s really a scummy pond with duck poop everywhere. Sites aren’t level so no matter how we arranged it we couldn’t sit at our picnic table without feeling like someone was falling off. I just feel deceived by this place. The pictures they post online are mostly of the cool water park across the road. The absolute worst part of this place is that they have these parental supervision signs everywhere. It wouldn’t bother me so much but they are in red caps. They are not KOA signs. We did get a spot by the playground so we can supervise- but that’s not good enough you must be right there. Would understand if it was busy but this place is dead- we saw one kid our few days there We just came from a KOA Journey- it had pool, game room, seasonal restaurant, jumpy pillow, bigger play area with swings, bigger nicer laundry, nicer tiled bathrooms with removable shower heads. We did get right in front of play area to keep an eye on our kids but I’d leave to change laundry and we were doing some Rv work going in and out of camper. They see our kids and us doing these things and don’t care at all. This is typically what it’s like at a KOA for us and the main reason why we stay at so many. Our kids are 7-12, we always keep and eye on them and are close but it’s difficult to be glued to all of them 24/7. We’ve just been to so many KOA’s and this place does not compare to any of them. Needless to say Iowa also wasn’t impressive- we...