American Heritage RV Park — Hotel in Williamsburg

We’ve stayed here many times over the years. We have seen this campground grow over the years. We appreciated the dog run in years past and the inflatable slide. ||Things have changed.||First of all, the dog park is dilapidated. Second, the inflatable slide is gone. ||The pool is dated and tired. The playground looks nice but it is set on the side of the road, which is stressful for anyone with children. It also has no swings. ||The park is far, far away from anything. It’s down a remote road that feels more like a glorified shared driveway. We joked that anytime you put anything in the GPS that it takes 15 minutes from the campground. Everywhere we wanted to go was at least a 15 minute drive from here. ||We paid for a premium site this year. ||In years past, we felt very cramped in the concrete jungle of the park that makes up the regular camping sites. The premium site is larger, but there are also larger regular sites as well. I guess it is all luck of the draw or who you know there that determines if you are crammed into the old section or on a spacious spot in the new section. ||The premium sites have a fireplace that looks nice from a distance (and cheap up close). The patio table and chairs with the umbrella on the patio are nice. There is decent parking for two cars on the premium spot.||We also had a cabin. The medium cabin has a bathroom, which is nice. ||They are sticklers about check in and check out times. As campers for nearly 40 years, one of the things we appreciate about campgrounds is that check in and check out are fairly flexible. We like traveling on weekdays and taking it a little easy. ||This is NOT the place to take it easy. If you’re a traditional camper like we are, this place is not for you. ||We arrived a bit before 2:00 and we were not able to check in to our cabin yet - even though the campground was at about 50% capacity. That is fine, but the front desk staff were so rude about us arriving early that it was really off-putting. ||Then, on the date of checkout, we got a call before the 12:00 checkout asking when we would be off the spot. We asked if we could do a late checkout. They said we could have until 2:00 and then after that they would charge was $20. ||At 1:30 they called us again. This time they rudely said that if we were not off the spot by 2:00 they would charge us for a full night. Just to note - the campground was about 50% full with other premium spots available. I’m not sure what happened to the $20 extra fee option and why it became a full night fee. But we made sure we pulled out by 2:00. They were rude every single time we dealt with the office. It was a very sour experience and with the other options available here - especially ones that are actually close to the parks and downtown areas - we will not be returning to American Heritage. ||We all felt bullied by the staff. Clearly they enjoy yelling at customers. We are all professionals with a lot of patience for people. These people are NOT that at all. They seem to get a thrill out of yelling at people and bossing them around. ||Heed our advice. As long-term campers, this is NOT the place to stay. They are not welcoming at all. It is sad because we have memories here, but this place is just about the bottom line and about making money. ||Update: they charged us $20 for leaving at 2:00. They originally told us it would be $20 after 2:00 and then they changed that to the cost of a full night stay after 2:00. Their policies just keep changing and NONE of this is written on their website. ||The bottom line: this is a decent campground but with the rudest campground staff we’ve ever encountered in many years of camping. We’ve stayed here for years but won’t be staying here again. The staff are rude, the policies vary wildly, and they are eager to overcharge people. Plus they are in the middle of nowhere and a long drive to any main attractions....

We recently brought a group of ten campers to American Heritage RV Park because several of us had stayed there before and remembered it as a clean, well-kept park. Based on those positive experiences, we recommended it to our group and looked forward to sharing the campground with them. Unfortunately, this stay did not meet our expectations.|Because sites are not assigned in advance, we could not choose sites that worked well for our group. Our 42-foot fifth wheel was placed in back-in site #136, which — like the other back-in sites — has a tree planted at the rear that prevents fully backing in. This left us very close to the road, with no way to park in front and no room to park alongside without blocking our steps.|We first parked across the road in a grassy area but were told to move. When we parked in another group member’s pull-through site, we received a call saying two vehicles were not allowed — even though we observed several sites with two vehicles. The office directed us to the overflow lot near the front of the park, the farthest point from our site on the back row. When we asked to speak to the manager, we were told she works off-site. I emailed her asking her to visit our site, but she never responded.|We were also told we could not put up a dog fence that extended onto the grass, though this rule was not posted anywhere.|When booking months in advance, we requested that our sites be grouped near a cabin for one of our members — an 86-year-old woman in a wheelchair who requires oxygen. She was placed first in Cabin 5, then moved to Cabin 8 after a request for a larger and closer cabin. The second cabin was still far from our sites, down a hill and facing the woods in an unlit area, making it hazardous to reach at night, expecially for her.|We also saw another camper with a rig identical to ours struggle to get into a back-in site, ultimately hitting a water faucet across the road, leaving the park without water for over two hours. These sites are simply not suitable for big rigs.|While the park is clean, our overall experience was frustrating. Guests who book early, provide rig sizes, and pay for extended stays should reasonably expect sites that accommodate their camper and tow vehicle, and that group requests would be honored when possible. Large rigs should be cautious — the back-in sites are tight and maneuvering is difficult.|Unfortunately, based on this visit, I cannot recommend American...

Be aware. 1) Staff was extremely unpleasant. Specifically Donna. In all honesty if she is not the mother of the owner to this property and have some sort of vested interest...she should be fired. At least 8 adults were at the check in desk with my family, and our travel families who heard her repeat that she does not care what the owner said he would do for us (in front of her) because he left and was not there at that time. Not only was she nasty to me, but also to my travel families at different times of the day. Just ugly, and unnecessary. Myself and 3 other ladies held our toungue and stayed as appropriate as we could because our children were with us. Donna really needs a lesson in customer service and we were fully informing her of the negative comments we would be posting. 2) Not all lots are on concrete / paved roads. Our lot had a concrete pad, but roads were not paved where staff encouraged us to camp at. We have small kids and riding bikes was no fun for them with gravel roads. Very different from videos and photos online. 3) Pool depth is deeper than noted. Scary when kids generally are aware of the depths they can swim at. No life guard on duty so - don't leave your kids to make the best decisions on pool safety as they are not set up for success with the pool being more full. 4) Game room is filled with property improvement projects. No game options available. 5) Hippo slide is NOT included in your stay. It is NOT always open. It is NOT even guaranteed to be open during the posted hours it is supposed to be open. Furthermore if you manage to get on the slide - you may still be listening to the barking orders from Donna over the Walkie talkie as if 3 grown adults cannot listen to rules and follow them despite her grumpiness and rudeness. We are mature adults and raising our children to be polite as well as rule followers. 6) The staff riding the golf carts doing trash pick up or whatever they are doing are totally reckless! Speed limit is 9 for cars...what is it for speeding golf carts whom don't slow down to even take corners. Our first impression was we could stay here again, it's quiet, but there really is minimal for the kids to do. It's fairly close to several area attractions. BUT after today, I don't feel that being there are 3 other RV parks in this area this will be an...