Retired Nomads: Sun - n - Fun RV Resort

Thursday, November 16 we made our way to Sun - n - Fun RV Resort in Sarasota. As we make our way past Plant City, where we have visited often for their Strawberry Festival (it’s the winter strawberry capital of the world). They bring in name entertainment and have all the usual carnival food, but of course the star is their strawberry shortcake. Fun entertainment like the cow costume contest. Owner and their cow dress in fun themes. Yep, it’s a fun time!

Then, we make our way past Tampa where we also have visited many times to visit Busch Gardens (used to be season ticket holders) for the animals and of course the roller coasters, we have been to several Tampa Bay Lightening hockey games and often come to celebrate a birthday or anniversary at Bern’s Steakhouse.

We arrived at Sun - n – Fun in the early afternoon and got escorted to our site. We are here for 3 weeks. I had hopes of ordering things and having them delivered here for our SA cruise, but getting the package from Zappos that arrived yesterday was painful. When we arrived here the UPS lady just happened to be delivering a package and she just handed it to us as we had just arrived and hadn’t even parked the RV yet. She said we had another one in the office that she delivered yesterday.

So, Greg goes to get the package and was told they NEVER accept mail at the office. It was probably in the mail room. OK, we don’t live here and have no idea where the mail room is. Greg asks and she says well, it’s not open now. It’s all locked up and we don’t have keys to it.

We check out the site map for this RV Park and find a mail room hoping they list some hours. It’s locked and nothing there. So, we go back to the office to ask where it is and what are the hours. It was moved temporarily due to Irma damage and she gives me the hours and they were open. (not locked up as they said before)

So, we set out to find it and eventually do. They were not forthcoming in telling us how to find it. It’s a huge room and I’m sure It’s run by volunteers that live here. (or possibly it’s a paid job) Anyway, they said no they don’t take UPS packages there. We see the box sitting on the shelf and they begrudgingly get it for us. Then, a lady comes by and really gets snippy saying the only reason it’s here is because the UPS lady forgot to take it back. They are supposed to only deliver to your site. (which wasn’t assigned when it was delivered and I’m sure she wouldn’t have left it at an empty site)

We haven’t encountered that anywhere else, no matter how large or small the park (or quality of park) they have all been gracious about package pick up and delivery. For those who full time it, it’s the easiest way to get something delivered. They normally have a room they keep mail in until you come to pick it up.

For a lot of reasons, we have already crossed this one off our list of places to stay. We expected to really like this place.

First of all, the roads in here are really narrow. So are the sites. It was the hardest space to get into that we have found to date. (and we’ve had a few tough ones) It barely fits in the narrow space (that isn’t all that long either). It’s geared towards families that vacation here. It has mostly these 500 sq ft “houses” that people can buy or rent. (they must have 90 consecutive days that they live somewhere else since that’s a law in the county or something) So, it’s a weird feel here with that. It’s a huge pool area with bar and snack bar, but you can’t bring your own soda or water to the pool area. There are tons of “fun” things to do that we just don’t value in a place to RV. They have a gym, but it’s $6.00 a day to use it. Normally, the point of a resort RV park is that they have these amenities and they are included. (hence, the higher cost to stay in one) Supposedly, the winter rate does let you use the gym at no cost. The sites are gravel not paved, which isn’t a deal breaker, but for resort prices you normally get a large paved space. This place is about $30 per night more than the last place we stayed with wide streets, huge parking space and nice amenities. If you had a family of kids and spent a couple weeks here in the summer, I’m sure it would be appealing to those folks. Though, there were a lot of retirees paying bocce ball & shuffleboard. The pool was packed. Cost aside, for half the price we wouldn’t care to stay here again. They just don’t make you feel welcome. They seem to be big on sales and not much in the way of being friendly and customer service. Maybe they are to their owners.

Up until this one, there aren’t any we wouldn’t stay in again. Of course, if this was all that was available we would stay here.

Saturday the 18^th we drove to Port St. Lucie to get our cruise stuff from storage. Just over 2.5 hours each way.

Today, Sunday we walked around this huge place. All things considered it probably is a decent lifestyle for retirees for a low cost active retirement complex. (in the tiny houses) Great for snowbirds since they have to leave for 3 months anyway, so they just go home.