Community Forums

AKBrick · 06-24-2008, 02:57 PM

Hi all,
CheetahGirl and I are looking into getting an RPI membership but are still waffling. We are worried that there will not be enough of these membership parks where we would actually want to go.

Do any of you have a membership and are you happy with it? We are fulltiming with a rig that has 50 amp electric and noticed that a lot of the parks only have 30amp service.

Are you fulltiming it? Are you traveling across the country? Is the initial membership fee worth it? These are the things that we want to know from experienced RVers in the know before we take any leap.

Thanks for any info you all can offer, good and bad.

AKBrick

AKBrick · 06-24-2008, 02:57 PM

Hi all,
CheetahGirl and I are looking into getting an RPI membership but are still waffling. We are worried that there will not be enough of these membership parks where we would actually want to go.

Do any of you have a membership and are you happy with it? We are fulltiming with a rig that has 50 amp electric and noticed that a lot of the parks only have 30amp service.

Are you fulltiming it? Are you traveling across the country? Is the initial membership fee worth it? These are the things that we want to know from experienced RVers in the know before we take any leap.

Thanks for any info you all can offer, good and bad.

AKBrick

digNbubbs · 06-24-2008, 09:15 PM

Good post. I am curious to see input on this as well.

We have been asked by a lot of people if we have any campground memberships, and the only one we did have - Passport America - we didn't use very much. Seems we want to go where we want to go, and it doesn't seem "convenient" for us to use the memberships. I hear of people paying such cheap prices, but if you have to be where you don't necessarily want to be, cheap doesn't sound like the right answer for me - right now at least.

Maybe if we eventually change our travel patterns it would work out better for us. I will be watching to see what others have to say.

--kevin

Gary RVRoamer · 06-25-2008, 05:20 AM

It really depends on you and your travel style. We know full timers who belong to 1000 Trails and RPI and stay in one or the other nearly every night of the year. Saves them a tremendous amount on campground fees each year. But if you are not willing to go where they are, obviously it is pointless to become a member. You have to spend quite a few nights each year in the system to make the membership cost worthwhile.

We live about 7 months a year in the coach. With the increase in fuel prices, we anticipate staying longer in one location and moving the motorhome less, so we decided to buy a campground membership that was eligible for RPI and give it a try, We picked up a 1000 Trails & NACO resale at a very modest price ($2000 complete) and last week got a combined RPI & Enjoy America membership as well. We haven't had much opportunity to use either yet and part of the reason is lack of parks where we now are (Maine), but we have some reservations for other regions after we leave here in early August. Will see how it goes.

You are right that many of the parks in these systems are 30A only or mostly. Some are upgrading, but certainly not all.

LVJ58 · 06-25-2008, 05:56 AM

When we bought our first motorhome we were given a free membership with RPI. All we had to pay was the $100 year maintenance fee to our home park and the annual RPI dues.

We later dropped our membership as we wasn't all that impressed with it. Sure, there were a few times during our travels when we could find a participating park we saved a few $$.

We didn't particularly like the 14 day limit where you had to leave go to another membership campground.

Insofar as we usually stay at one location for a month or more, we found it to be more cost effective just to rent our space on a monthly basis from most any campground .

Others may find these campground memberships work great for their RV lifestyle, but we don't.

Good luck with your decision,

AKBrick · 06-25-2008, 06:57 AM

Hi All,
Thank you very much for your replies. It seems that all of you have hit the nail right on the head as far as our concerns go. So far during the winter we have stayed in a few southern places in AZ and southeren Cal. Mostly we have been staying for a month and relaxing with 50amp service. We found out that it is really nice to be able to run both heatpumps or air conditioners. Even in AZ it gets COLD! We don't always want to have to run the propane furnace but sometimes you have to because the outside temperature is to cold to run the heatpumps.

I think for a lot of people who are not fulltiming but like to camp on the weekends or for a couple of weeks, the membership sounds great but for us maybe not so. It would take using the campgrounds for at least half a year for 4 years to make the membership fee worth it. Although we would still have it as long as we live. We may check to see if there are any member parks wherever we go to find out if they were close to where we wanted to go in the first place. We're worried that they are in places that people go to get away from it all (work and city). That's fine sometimes but as a dear fulltiming friend once put it, "it ain't camping no more", once you sell the stickhouse and live in the RV.

We keep going back and forth about "just doing it" or "just saving it". Obviously there will be places that we'll wish we had joined up.

Please keep your opinions coming to help us save us from ourselves.

Again, many thanks,

AKBrick and CheetahGirl

AuntSmurf · 06-25-2008, 05:23 PM

We belong to RPI, Passport America, and several others. Hubby bought into RPI a couple of years ago (before we even OWNED an RV lol) with the knowledge that we were planning on becoming FT'ers in 2010. He wanted to make sure that we avoided spending lots of money as soon as we retired purchasing memberships. Although we have yet to use the RPI, we are certain that the money we spent on it will come back to us.

AKBrick · 06-27-2008, 05:38 AM

Hi All,
Welllll......after doing a lot of hmmming and hawwing we decided to not go through with the deal. I went to talk with the rep and she had forgotten that we got 1500.00 off of the price because we bought our motorhome within a year from a dealer that they use for advertisement. That helped us decide that we will go through with the deal because that lessoned the length of time that we feel we would be able to make up the upfront cost of the membership. We did a lot of internet checking on the parks and found some that were close to where we would want to go. There are a lot of different membership parks that share the RPI business.

Thanks for the posts to this thread. It is much appreciated.

AKBrick and CheetahGirl

historyljc · 06-27-2008, 12:29 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">she had forgotten that we got 1500.00 off </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Wasn't that convenient, until you were fixing to walk.

AKBrick · 06-27-2008, 05:32 PM

Hey historyljc,
Man, I'm with you on that brother.

So tell me, why did I go directly to Deerpark RV and Golf resort for $675.00 a month with cheap 18 hole golf course right out my front door? This place is like "Outdoor Resorts" only cheaper!! Our site has grass and a cement pad that is HUGE!

My heavens it's nice here with crystal clear skies and 90 degree weather. We actually had this place booked in our itinerary and I just couldn't give it up. We are here for a month. This place is 15 miles north of Spokane, WA. (Deerpark, WA) Man, I'll NEVER forget this place!

Okay, so the RPI campgrounds will be good for the in-between long stay places. I'll recoup the membership costs sometime in our lives. It'll come in handy in Palm Springs, CA and Arizona. I'll keep on thinking of things to rationalize my actions and apeace myself.

One more glass of wine please,

AKBrick

historyljc · 06-27-2008, 06:48 PM

I know, it's a tough job but somebody has to do it.

AKBrick · 06-27-2008, 07:12 PM

*Heavy sighhhh*, so true, sooooo true.

Oh the pain of it all......

Tom and Jo B

two2go · 06-28-2008, 05:50 AM

Personal preference, as usual. We joined AOR and RPI, and also have Passport America. Using $25 as a baseline nightly camp rate vs. what we actually paid at various membership parks over the past 5 years, we have recouped our initial investment. Counting the annual dues, we are still behind, but will be ahead now that we spend more time in the RV.
However, financial gain is not the primary reason we like the clubs. We do buy a month at a park every year, and then do some membership parks, so we do both. We like to move after a week or two, because it gives us the opportunity to explore different places. We don't usually look for membership parks where we have to go, but plan our trips around where the parks are. Works for us.

GoneFishin · 06-28-2008, 09:27 AM

AKBrick & CheetahGirl,
Congrats on joining the world of membership parks! I think you'll get a lot of use out of RPI based on where you go and your activities. (golf!) We also find the 'campers' at most membership parks to be very nice people. They do tend to have rules, but that can be nice, too.

Which section are you in at Deer Park Resort - A or B? We looked at their website photo gallery and it looks very nice. Perhaps Tom could throw a line into the golf ponds to get him through the fishing urge? Yum, carp!

We'll get back to you on travel routes by email. Have fun! We are!