Old Orchard Beach Campground

Watch out. They'll nickel and dime you to death. They'll charge you $5/day for an "extra vehicle" parking when the camp is at les than 40% capacity. We reserved and paid for 10 days....no weekly rate, so essentially $120/day. We ended up being able to leave a day early. "No refunds", they said. Friendly staff, incredibly beautiful park. It was the only option, or we would've left and stayed elsewhere. The experience just left a bad taste in my mouth as I felt extorted. I've just given you $1200,and you can't even work with me a little? Gross. I wish Wild Acres would stay open a little longer.

Nice Campground. Pricey. The most we have ever paid for a campground. Their prices fluctuate daily, weekly. We have never encountered type of pricing. We camp off season because we like the quiet and less crowded time. We wanted to stay 3 nights. Once I saw the price ($72) we decided on 2 nights. Then when I went to book, I saw a price of ($65) so I decided to go back to 3 nights. I called to book 3 nights and was told they have no $65 a night sites. They explained their daily pricing policy, which I did not understand, so I did not book. I kept checking the prices daily and they kept going up even though it was off season , Oct 20-23, and there were plenty of sites available. I did book 1 night, (because they were the only campground open), the morning of Oct. 20 for the Oct 21 night. It was then at it's highest price of $86. We talked with the manager and tried to explain that if the price was $65 a night we would stay 3 nights. There were plenty of campsites open. The campground actually lost money. The manager stated they were sticking with their pricing policy because all campgrounds were using this pricing. ok...but by using this pricing, we could pay $86 a night but the NEXT night it could drop to $65 and we would be screwed because we had booked at $86 for 3 nights. That is hard to understand. Also off season rates are also lower than in season rates, not higher! We have NEVER encountered this type of pricing but we have never camped in Maine either. The campgrounds we've stayed at for years have had ONE price for in season rates and ONE price for off season rates! It did not change daily or weekly. We also had to be out by 11:00 am but were spending some time for lunch with our nephew. $25 to stay in overflow parking. (so we parked in a new by overflow lot of a car dealer because we were only going to be visiting my nephew for lunch in Portland) The car dealership was understanding and gracious to let us do that. In reading other reviews and from our experience we can see that this is a campsite that stands by it's policies. Honorable, understandable, and necessary. We just disagree with the pricing. And sometimes it pays to be a little flexible. Added note: Quiet hours are 8am-10pm, however, the truck and motorcycle traffic noise on the 2 lane highway at 6am is loud. My sound machine could not even cover it! So if you are a late sleeper, the campground is quiet but the traffic noise is bad. (we have RR tracks behind our house in the mountains so we never heard the trains) I guess its all what you are used to! And our cable TV did not work. We were told, "sometimes it doesn't". It's ok, we aren't big TV people...but wanted to let others know. There is a TV that you can control if you are the only ones in the game room. It's open until 12am. (That was a plus for the Ravens and Buccaneers game that night! ) The campground itself is one of the nicest we have stayed in. (There have been others with a much better off season per night pricing). Good biking around the town and to the beach (2 miles away) and around the campground. So if you are a biker...its no problem getting to the beach. We wished we could have stayed 3 nights to explore the town more.

We stayed a week here in the Black Forest section. 447 huge pull thru. Pine tree so some minor droppings but black ants seem to be a lot. But we just kept sweeping our rug. It was after Labor Day so campground wasn’t full. This was on a busy corner with staff golf carts continue most of the day. Pristine grounds well taken care of, lots of seasonal. Signed some policy papers upon arriving, pet policy which I had no issue with. But barking dogs with no one doing anything about it. Our site was right across from a seasonal section. One of the seasonal camper was gone most of the day and the dog barked all day. This went on all week Took away sitting out. Plenty of staff and seasonal people heard it. Laundry is $5 in the newer building but $3.50 up front by the office with smaller washers $3.00 to dry. Other than that it’s a good location. A little tricky getting out left hand turn. But doable. In season I’m sure would be worse.

Sites were very nice. Lots of permentant sites in the campground. We stayed in "The Grove". Great sports areas, pools are very nice, well manicured park. Short bike ride to ocean park. You can bike ride to Old Orchard Beach also, since parking is rough down there. (Especially with a dually). Little pricey, but very nice. Trolley service also available from the campground to the pier.

Beware to all vanlife and van conversion campers. We booked this site for an overnight reset before we hit the road again. My husband went into the office and the staff could not believe we camp in a van and wanted to refuse our booking. Mind you our van is fully off the grid, full kitchen, bed, solar, etc. It's not like we pulled in with a school bus. We paid for a full hookup site ($100+) and knew we wouldn't use it. My husband has to explain we are fully off the grid and won't even use the hookups. The lady continued to make sly comments about how she needs "a big RV and would never camp in that". Another staff threated to inspect the van to confirm it's really a camper. After my husband explained AGAIN they determined we did not need an inspect, but they moved our campsite (we selected) to some stupid spot away from the $500k RVs. Now that the vibe is totally killed and all we wanted to do is cook, wash clothes, and relax. Staff drove by on their golfcart throughout the day and it felt like they were spying on us. I took a shower in the very clean shower house and a staff member came in there FOUR TIMES. She acted like she was checking the cleanliness, but come on do you really think I'm going to trash this place? It became very obvious we were being watched. The entire property is very clean and quiet. So quiet you can't have a fire after 10PM because there are apparently rules when you pay $100 for a campsite. This was a nice campground, but the way the staff talked down on my husband when arriving, babysitting me in the shower house, and the driving by killed it for us. Whoever owns or manages this place needs to educate their staff on van conversions and van life.