Niagara's Lazy Lakes Camping Resort

[Billy Bob]

We purchased our PU from Meyers RV Super Store and with it we received a certificate for 7 days/6 nights of FREE Camping Vacation. However we must go there first to validate the certificate.  I asked if this was some sort of time share or membership and they said on the phone NO. They also said we have won TWO of the following prizes Men's/Ladies Rolex style watch -- Complete Disney World Vacation including air fare--19" Panasonic color TV/DVD Combo -- Sea & Ski Package -- $500.00 in Cash. PLUS they sent a key for a new Chevy Cobalt and if it fits it's ours.

We must both be present and have the registration to our PU.

It sounds way too good to be on the up and up. So has anyone else been there done this with Lazy Lakes Camping Resort.

[Cheryl]

I think this is the campground we visited 3 years ago with some friends when we wanted to see Niagara Falls. If it is the same one then it is part of a membership network BUT you do not have to be a member to camp there.....you just pay more. They will probably TRY to get you to listen to their hour to hour-and-a-half sales spiel but that will be up to you. The campground itself, if it is the same one, was very nice, very quiet, and very clean. We really enjoyed our visit to that part of the country. (DH just came home and said this IS the campground we stayed at). Hope this helps.
Cheryl

[mdecann]

My husband and I have been members of Niagara Lazy Lakes for about a year now and really like the comfort of home that they provide.  It is a membership/timeshare type of place, but it gives you a lot of other amenities as far as discounts to other things.  The membership cost approximately $100 a month for roughly 7 years and then you can upgrade to a full charter membership which is a lifetime membership.  You can pay this within about 3 more years.  You also have maintenance fees to pay every 6 months, but that goes toward the upkeep and new amenities that they are always upgrading.  The resort is a very nice place to camp and they have a lot of events going on all the time.  The hubby and I love to camp there and enjoy the piece and quiet.  Also, with being a member, you are just not a member of this resort, but a co-owner.

[Billy Bob]

Hello everyone who is following this thread and I have to say we WENT to their presentation.

This was our third presentation type selling gimmick. Once in Orlando for a timeshare that was a HARD HARD HARD sell that took over 3 hours to get our "free' (my favorite word) Universal tickets, and other time in Vegas where they were trying to sell us a VACATION membership. That one lasted about 2 hours and our salesman was just a nice guy that didn't yet know how to push their OVER priced membership. For $8000 they could provide you with DISCOUNTED vacations. Yea right ! ! !

Lazy Lakes is a membership driven only campground. The owner is Tim Swift and his twin brother Tom is the salesman that does the presentations. Tom is a very likable kind of guy and perfect for what he does. He was very honest and up front with the presentation giving the cost in the beginning of the presentation rather than waiting until the end when you break up into small group when your one and one with a salesman. It worked out we had Tom as our guy and once I told him the money wasn't a issue for not buying in but rather we want to travel with our PU and may not keep it after this one year we were free to go on our way.

Lazy Lakes cost is $8495.00 one time and this year the maintenance fees are $360. Tom said the maintenance fees are tied in with the CPI and have never gone up more than 2% in one year. Of course I don't have a way to check that so I would have to just take his word on that but I'm sure you could on Google.

With their membership you also are entitled to join AOR and ROD (Resorts of Distinction) but this cost $99 a year extra which gets you to take advantage of unused times shares for a reduced cost. Adventure Outdoor Resorts are also available for a yearly cost of $89 a year and you can camp for $6 a night plus a $2 reservation fee. They claim there are over 150 of these campgrounds throughout the country.

As far what did the campground look like. Well it had a nice small lake that swimming and fishing is allowed. They also provide a built in swimming pool and have plans to add another one this year. They gave a tour and the site are quite roomy with mostly level gravel pads. Some site were right on the lake but were almost half the size of non lake sites. The bathroom were EXCELLENT, Large and SPOTLESS. Shower areas were GREAT, large tiled showers with each having a private dressing area.

They also have a huge rec center that breakfasts are served daily and on Fridays a dinner is served.

Right now they also have 4 NEW log cabins that can be rented on a daily rate of $65 per night or half that price if you reserve it for a full week.

Some of the catches are you are only allowed to stay 14 days in any one stretch and need a 7 day stretch before you are allowed to return. Only on the holiday weekends are reservations taken up to 90 days in advance. One you enter the CG you show your membership card to the guard and find your own camp site. They then ask you to report back to them within 30 minutes of setting up camp to tell them the site number you chose. Not a bad deal. Also if you don't like your neighbors you can pull stakes and find a different site and just report to them you moved.

Memberships can be transferred three times to family or anyone. Tom never mentioned a transfer fee but I would bet there is one. I tend not to ask any questions at something like this because it just prolongs your stay. Learned this when I worked on the RR. We would almost kill the guy asking questions at our training classes because it always spurred more questions and added another 30-45 minutes to our class time. There went the early quit!!!

As I already mentioned I was not interested in their style of camping but I'm sure there are many of you that would be tempted into buying in. At the end they also were willing to reduce the price to $5495.00 and it was good for 10 years. After the ten years you still had the option of paying the additional $3000.00 to make you a life member. However, if you go this route you are not entitled to the AOR and ROD memberships.

Bottom line is they seemed like honest people and I thought there was no HARD sell. The presentation was very interesting and informing which made the 90 minutes fly by. Believe it or not I can say I would recommend this for folks who like to go to the same campground a lot unlike the timeshare and vacation membership presentations. So if your close by to Niagara Lazy Lakes Resort maybe you should check it out. For us, we purchased a PU this year to see our great country.

If anyone has any questions I haven't covered, ask and I'll try to answer them.

Bob

[bbklavan]

Billybob

We got a phone call last week for the same thing.  We went to the Syracuse Fairgrounds RV show and put out name in a drawing and received a call that we won this.  I told her to send me some more information int he mail because we can't committ to something without literature.  Since we live several miles from the checkin spot we weren't going to just go and hope it was worth it.  Let me know how it turns out for you and we will decide what we will do too.  Thanks.

We purchased our PU from Meyers RV Super Store and with it we received a certificate for 7 days/6 nights of FREE Camping Vacation. However we must go there first to validate the certificate.  I asked if this was some sort of time share or membership and they said on the phone NO. They also said we have won TWO of the following prizes Men's/Ladies Rolex style watch -- Complete Disney World Vacation including air fare--19" Panasonic color TV/DVD Combo -- Sea & Ski Package -- $500.00 in Cash. PLUS they sent a key for a new Chevy Cobalt and if it fits it's ours.

We must both be present and have the registration to our PU.

It sounds way too good to be on the up and up. So has anyone else been there done this with Lazy Lakes Camping Resort.

[Billy Bob]

bbklavan,

You need to read my second post in this tread. I think it covers it all.

BTW we of course didn't win the Cobalt car and if your promised TWO prizes out of about5 or 6 here is what you will get.

1) your choice of a men's or ladies watch.

2) a "FREE" get away NOT including air fare to several places like Mexico, Orlando, Vegas etc........... All you have to do is send them in $25 for the ESTIMATED tax on your complimentary stay with several dates and then they will get back to you and tell you if any of those dates are available. They don't even mention on the pamphlet what kind of lodging your getting. It could be the worst Days Inn available.

BTW  We did get our certificate for a free week of camping so we will be going back for maybe a long weekend.