1000 trails call- new changes
I received a phone call from Thousand Trails to tell me there were some changes coming to my membership. Need to schedule an appointment for a phone conference. I will be receiving an email. Since I a...
Forum Discussion
JKJavelin wrote:
So, what's the deal with this Thousand Trails? We just bought our trailer and the dealer gave us a supposedly 'one year of free camping' membership with them. There are a handful of Thousand Trail campgrounds, then there's the Encore part of their membership. I called one of those and she said it's a 20% discount. WTF is free about that? I figured this was probably a scam from the beginning. I never trust the finance guys.
JK
Wisconsin is a sore point with me.
The Zone Pass program has four "Thousand Trails" resorts in Wisconsin - but those are Encore properties - and they are not on my list of available resorts.
When you activate the TT membership - you will get an on-line login - and it will list the resorts you have access to as TT resorts. You will also have the ability to make reservations at other Encore properties at a 20% discount. There are also promotions available for some Encore properties for certain times with a much larger discount.
Reservations need to be made through the national on-line system/ phone line - not directly with the individual resort. The people at the individual resorts do not have access to the details of your particular membership. So they can give you the wrong rate information over the phone. When a member checks in at a TT resort - the computer system tells the folks at the gate/ranger/office station how much you will have to pay, if anything.
Your 'one year of free camping' is probably a 'Zone Pass' program.
A Zone Pass allows you to camp for up to 14 days at one resort for free. You then must be out of the TT/Encore system for 7 days before you can camp at another TT park. You cannot travel directly from one TT park to another unless the stays have been four days or less.
i.e. If someone had a two zone pass with the Midwest and Southeast, they could be traveling to Florida could stay two nights at Pine Country in IL, two nights at Horseshoe Lakes in IN, two nights at Diamond Caverns in KY, two nights at Hidden Cove in AL, two nights at Carolina Landing in SC, two nights at The Oaks at Point South in SC and then 14 nights at Three Flags in Florida.
That would be 26 straight nights. Each of the intermediate stops could be up to four days - so potentially - 38 straight nights. However when heading back north - that member would have to stay at non-TT campgrounds for seven days before they could us a TT property as a stopover.
With a Zone Pass we've stayed two weeks at an Encore Resort in the Rio Grande Valley while getting dental work done in Mexico. By staying at an Encore property for over four days - we were not able to use TT properties on our way back to Dallas. Now with a full membership - we stop at Medina Lake, Lake Whitney and finish at Lake Texoma - and it doesn't matter how long we stayed at other properties/ resorts.
The Zone Pass program includes 30 nights camping at 'no-fee' per year. After 30 nights there is a base fee of $3 per night for staying at any resort.
That 'no-fee' camping does not include utility fees for upgrades to 50 amp power. Some resorts like those in Texas charge $3 per day extra for 50 amp power. Las Vegas and most on the west coast charge $5 per day for 50 amp. Don't know about the East Coast parks.
Some properties like Lake Tawakoni in Texas have no 50 amp at all. Some like Bay Landing have only 33 50 amps sites out of a total of 224 sites. And 19 of those 50 amps sites are taken by Annuals - so really there are only 14 are available to members who move from park to park. Brutal in the summer in Texas with temps over 100.
A big advantage of the Membership programs is that we can travel from park to park with no 'out of system' time required. And we can stay up to 21 days. We also have 'no fee' camping for the entire year - not just 30 days.
If a person spends over 65-90 nights per year in at a TT property - the few thousand dollar up front costa and the $500-800 per yearly dues can be easily justified.
A medical problem caused us to spent 28 straight nights at TT Las Vegas in Nov and Dec this past year with 30 amp power. We paid nothing beyond our yearly membership dues for the first 21 nights, and paid $29 for the next seven nights.
We then had run our of available days, and had to move out to Nellis AFB where we stayed two nights for $42 as the final labs were being completed.
Two nights later we were at Pio Pico outside San Diego where we stayed 21 nights before the issue required we return to the Dallas area. Two nights on the road, and we were back at Bay Landing near Fort Worth.
As full-timers, you can see how the membership works to our advantage.
