Thousand Trails Forest Lake Advance NC 7/2012

Name of Park; Thousand Trails Forest Lake
Date of stay; 7/9-7/15/12
Staff; Over all friendly
Price;$0.00 for members, non members around $45.00

Map of the park

Site description; We had a back in site with full hookups and 50 amp electric. Site was gravel. Site was level.  Most roads are gravel, but there are a few paved roads. There was no privacy between sites where we were. There are other areas with some bushes/trees between sites. Some areas are on dirt/grass. I didn't see any pull-thrus.
Our site, note the space between sites. Plenty of room to park the truck and car.

Our site from the back

Big Rig Friendly; Yes, many areas of the park. Some areas are tight.
We are the 4th RV, see how wide the road is, great for big rigs, but not all roads like this one.

Amenities; Two swimming pools; two club houses; mini golf-needs work; small lake w/small beach and fishing; Activities-not much schedule at this time. We ask for a schedule of activities when checking in(Mon.) and were told they were working on one. On Friday we ask for a schedule and were told there should be one in the afternoon. Didn't check back to see if they ever did get one. Most sites have picnic tables and fire rings. The bathroons I checked were clean, but dated.
Laundry; One of  two in the adult lounge. Clean with 3 washers and dryers. one washer out of order. Each $1.25.


The adult lounge and one of the laundries.

The family lounge, snack bar.

 The tennis courts and basketball court

 The spa

 The adult pool, the pool did need cleaning.

 Shuffle board courts, equipment damaged and pucks(or whatever they are called) laying on the ground broken.

The family pool

Phone/Wifi/TV; Our Verizon had 4 bars. There is a pay Wifi in the park, $4.95 day w/weekly/monthly rates. TV over the air, about 20 channels. In the wooded area satellite could be a problem.
Dog Friendly; Yes with many areas to walk them.  A few miles or roads in the park to walk.
Night Lighting, etc.; Very little night lights. Very quite no road or train noise.
Book Exchange; Very very small for a park this size.
Comments; Shopping for groceries about 10-12 miles to a Walmart and Winn Dixie. Some BB Q's through the area as close as 1 mile. Other restaurants in town.
Opinion; We would stay here again as we are members. Both pools were redone last year with new furniture. The grass needed mowing and trimming. they did mow while we were there, but did not trim, and it looks like the last time they mowed they didn't trim then either. Some of the roads and site could use more gravel. Some of the trees need trimming. The mini golf needs a lot of work. They need a activity director or some way to control equipment checkout so it isn't damaged like the shuffle board equipment was damaged. They did have a sign up for "help wanted".  About 1/3 of the sites are 'seasonel or permanent'. But all are kept nice, and some are nicley landscaped.  There are about 12 cabins for rent.  There are many many golf carts in the park.

On the road again, here we come North Carolina

   After three months in Pigeon Forge TN we hit the road with gusto. We spent our last week doing a few more shows and saying good bye to new friends and co-workers. We also had dinner with new friends Randy and Bobbie, that are friends of friends we worked with at Walt Disney World. Like I said in the passed, the circle of friendship is like throwing a stone in a pond and seeing the circle of waves getting bigger and bigger. The circle of friendship keeps growing. We our blessed to have met so many great people, and become friends if only for a week. Meeting great people is one of the exciting things about our life style on the road. But saying good bye to new and old friends is a little sad. Another but, we always say we'll see down the road. And this does happen.
      Now on with the show. We saw our last two shows this week, on two different nights. We saw the "Back to the 50's" at the Smith family theater, and the "Smith Family Show" there also. Again they were great shows. And we did get to see 4 or 5 Elvis's. Both shows had a Elvis, amazing.
 We also saw a few more shows at Dollywood. One of note was the gazzillon bubbles show. This show is not only for kids.In the show they fill the largest theater at Dollywood with a "gazzillion" bubbles and do a laser show. The bubbles sparkle with the laser lights, really neat. We turned in all our costumes and did say our finial good byes to friends and co workers.
    On  Monday we left the RV park early (7:30 AM, very early for us), as we wanted to beat the approaching rain. . We had a 250 mile trip to Advance NC and the Thousand Trails Forest Lake Resort. It was an easy trip with two short rest stops along the way. We arrived about 12 noon and beat the rain. It did rain very hard latter that afternoon. We will be here till Sunday the 15th. We had stayed at this park before, but only for 4 days. We wanted to explore more of the area. Stayed tuned for updates.
 

Recap of our time working for Dollywood

While two months stretched into three. We came here planning to work for only two months and stayed for three. What a great time we had. The work was ok, but our time here in Tennessee was great. We enjoyed many of the perks working for Dollywood. We went to 27 shows and attractions compliments of Dolly. The total cost of our savings using our Dollywood passes was $1775. Plus we had multiple visits to Dollywood and Splash Country, and many shows at Dollywood.  We got to have lunch with the Mayor of Knoxville, tour the beautiful Smoky Mountains and  to meet Dolly. What more could you ask for? The folks following our blog got to see our experience and maybe even enjoy reading about our time here in TN. We thank you for following along. This has been a fun time for us and hopefully fun for y"all. Over the next couple of weeks we will slowly make our way back to PA, and spend some time there with family and friends. We will keep updating our travels and hopefully you will follow along. If any of our RVing friends want any information on "work kamping" at Dollywood just send us an email or give us a call.

Bear Cove RV Village Pigeon Forge TN 4/1-7/9/12

New look of our RV Park reviews-our take on RV Parks

We posted this on 3/6/2011, and it still applies to our reviews. 

Hope you like the new look of our park reviews. Rather then having it just run in long paragraphs, we are trying to categorize it. We will not rate it by some numbering system. We will try to tell it like we see it and try to include some pictures. If you need more information, just email us and we will try to answer your questions. As full timers we look at the cost of RV Parks a little different them weekenders/part timers. One of the cost we can control in were we stay. When paying 365 days a year for a site, discounts are very important to us. No one like's paying the full rack rate(as they call it in the hotel business). Any discount is better then none. We look for the best value for our dollar. We will not sacrifice safety or stay in a very poor quality park just for a better price. Things like playground equipment is not important to us, and the fact it's not being there is a plus for us. Also showers and restrooms are not important to us, as we use our own. We will report on them if we check them out. Laundries are important to us, as we use them. Dog friendly is important to us. Also big rig friendly-very important. We try to do a search on the parks we go to, but can't always find  much information . We rely on other rver's info, on their blogs, and in sites like http://www.rvparkreviews.com/    We do look at the parks website if they have one for information. However when did you see a RV park show a picture of something and say this is our worst site etc. Many websites do not show the sites, only the pool, game room etc..Show us what's important. This is why we are adding reviews to our blog- to maybe help some one else. We will try to include photos for each park. It is also a reminder to us, as our blog is our journal. The most important thing, is this is our opinion, yours may vary or other things may be more important to you. Things like price, specials, ownerships, club affiliation, etc change. We are not trying to replace any directories. So if you find something different or a better park in the area let us know. If we return to a park we will update it. Please bear with us as we try to critique our RV park review

Name; Bear Cove Village, Whaley Drive Pigeon Forge TN. This is the entrance/office.

  Date of stay; 4/1/2012-7/9/12

Staff; Helpful and friendly

Price; $41-45 per night, Monthly $425. + Electric

Site description; All sites are back ins. Roads are paved, sites cement, but very uneven, front to back and side to side. Our site was so uneven when we leveled our wheels on one side were off the ground. So we pulled out and put boards under the wheels then leveled.  This year they did take out 10 sites and put in level pads. But if they only do 10 a year it will take 10 or more years to level all sites.  We had full hook up with 50 amp electric.  We back up to a drop off with woods behind us. Across the road from us you back up to a very steep bank. Parking your car/truck is very very tight. See pictures when park is full. When we put our sun shades on our awnings they were almost on the other site. Sites are close, but this is norm in this area, except for a few RV parks.  This is the closest park to Dollywood and our drive to work was less than 2 miles.  This is the one of the reason we choose this park.

Our site. Not much room to park car/truck. We had to park our truck in a overflow lot up the top of the hill. Parking for at least 8-10 trucks.

 The cabins have been removed in the end of June.

 The park filling up.

 Looking down at the park, that is one of the laundries, pool on left, just out of the picture.

 Looking down  at our RV. This was in April, very few people here.

 You can see how close the sites are.

Amenities; 2 pools, one with a small play area aside of it. Two laundry rooms with individuals showers and toilet area. Both Very Very nice. No club house, just a small office. Very very small pond. There is a fee to fish. Not sure about the fishing. We did see a few ducks use it, also a large snapping turtle. There are a few benches around the pond, and it is a nice place to sit and relax or read.

This is one of the pools and laundry room and showers/bathrooms. This is the one with the small play area. The other one is just like this, except no play area.

Laundry; see above

Phone/Wifi/TV; Verizon had 4 bars. Wifi in park worked great most times. If close to an antenna and no RV between you and the antenna, the signal was always good to excellent. When someone pulled in between us and the antenna the signal drop to fair to good. Sometimes it would go to poor/fair. But for the three + months we were here we used it about 90% of the time and it was good or better.  There is cable TV with at least 40 channels.

Dog Friendly; Yes, but next to no place to walk them to do their business. Very little grass, and were there was grass it was between sites, what little there was.

Night Lighting etc.; good low lighting at night. No road noise at night.

Book exchange; Tiny, tiny, tiny book exchange in each laundry room.

Comments; Ideally located close to Dollywood and all Pigeon Forge attractions and many restaurants. About 6 miles to Smokey Mountain National Park. About 2 miles from Food City, 4 miles to Kroger, 6-7 miles to Wal mart.

Opinion; If we would return to work at Dollywood we would probably stay here again. If just visiting the area we would stay somewhere else.