A little membership help please

[prstlk]

Hubby and I have now been 1 month into our fulltime lifestyle and loving it so far.

We are now looking at various membership camping clubs so that we can start saving some money on our nightly fees.

I have done research on this and other websites and realize that purchasing one that is for resale will save us a bunch of money. Here is my issue though...

Thousand Trails has their zone and national memberships yet when I see the resale sites they have totally different names for them.

Some say things like "Thousand Trails/Naco/Leisure Time/Mid Atlantic/Outdoor World Elite" and "Thousand Trails/NACO/ Liesure Time Platinum Plus" and "Thousand Trails/Naco/Alliance/VIP Membership".

I realize that a few years back TT changed their sales to zones but could someone who has any of these quoted above help me understand that if I am to be purchasing one of them what I am getting.

My questions are -
Do they cover all of resorts nationwide?
Do they include the Encore resorts?
Do they have the 14 days in 7 days out like the current all zone membership has with TT or can you move from one to another without any out time?

Seriously - I know we need to get into something as we have already spent nearly half of what a brand new nation wide membership would have cost on RV site fees - but this was by choice. Decided to wait till we got on the road first and let the dust of home ownership settle before we made anymore major decisions.

We do belong to Good Sams and PPA already even though we haven't been able to use PPA yet (most of them exclude June, July and August).

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to respond!

[rvgrammady]

I would suggest you contact chadhoel at aol dot com
He has sold resale Thousand Trail memberships to several of my friends, I am
considering purchasing one myself. He is very nice and will explain/answer
all you questions. My friends purchased the "no time out of park" ones, you can go park to park staying (depending on park/season) 3 weeks then move on directly to another TT park.
and return to the park again and again. Hope this helps.

[Valkyriebush]

Sorry, mistakenly posted my new reply in the wrong spot.

[Cat_Lady]

Suggestion: Click here for BarbaraOK's, then on Full-Time RVing and read #9 Memberships. Barbara knows a lot about rv memberships. Very helpful.

Cat Lady

[BarbaraOK]

aviator wrote:
Encore park are owned by ELS the same corporation that owns TT and are pay as you go. They like to add the Encore parks to the listings to make you think you are getting more. They do give a percentage off but try to put you in the worst 30 amp sites they have. Many of the parks are run down like TT They have put Encore signs at the entrance to many of the TT, Outdoor World and Mid Atlantic parks. They have also added many seasonal sites to all the membership parks.

Most of the Encore parks will also take RPI and Coast-2-Coast ($10/night) which means even in those parks the cost is very cheap. Yes, they might not be the view sites, but for $10/night, I'll put up with that. In fact, at Pacific Dunes (just south of Pismo Beach, the 'best' sites were up on top and as C2C members we were down below the dunes - - wind started howling and we were protected from the drifting sands. Since we are almost always out all day exploring the area, doesn't bother us.

Barb

[BarbaraOK]

Valkyriebush wrote:

I think the NP access pass only allows disabled seniors free access to the park now?

No, we got our Senior Passes at age 62, have been to national parks all over the country for free. They also provide 1/2 off when camping in Corps of Engineers parks. Best $10 we ever spent!

Barb

[Valkyriebush]

Cat Lady wrote:
At 62, you and your hubby can each get the Senior Pass (Golden Age Pass). You can then camp half price and get free admittance to National Parks, etc. You can find out all the particulars on their website. If you're a member of ELKS or Moose, you can stay at their facilities. I believe I paid $12 or $15/night at the Elks Lodge in Westminster, CO. They also served meals that were very reasonable and good tasting.

I bought a used Platinum TT membership and can camp 21 days park-to-park, no time out. That's the way to go, in my opinion. I also have Resorts of Distinction (ROD) and RPI. I am also a member of Escapees (SKPs). You might want to go on their website and check out the Memberships for sale. Some folks give away their TT membership for the price of the transfer fee. You should check out the details of that membership before getting it.

Cat Lady

I think the NP access pass only allows disabled seniors free access to the park now?

[aviator]

Encore park are owned by ELS the same corporation that owns TT and are pay as you go. They like to add the Encore parks to the listings to make you think you are getting more. They do give a percentage off but try to put you in the worst 30 amp sites they have. Many of the parks are run down like TT They have put Encore signs at the entrance to many of the TT, Outdoor World and Mid Atlantic parks. They have also added many seasonal sites to all the membership parks.

[BarbaraOK]

Bumpyroad wrote:
Passport America certainly didn't used to exempt June, July, August. Perhaps it is only those parks the normally fill up with tourists during those months?
just checked a few in VA. holidays exempted, one was weekends. No sign of blocking entire months.

bumpy

Ah, try being in the northwest in summer. Lots of them either don't take it from Memorial Day to Labor Day or it is 1 or 2 nights and then Sunday-Thursday, etc. We use it strictly for travel from point A to point B.

Prstik,

There are lots of places to find used memberships. If you haven't already done so, get on the Escapees Forums. Loads of great information for fulltimers and there are often memberships advertised in their marketplace section of the forums.

As already said, for a regular used TT membership, get the contract number and call TT and asked about the contract. NO TWO contracts are alike. Do be sure that the membership includes NACO/Leisure Time -- that will give you the opportunity to also purchase a RPI membership which can be used at other affiliated parks. I would suggest you take a look at our blog page on Membership parks that will give you some good information.


Barb

[prstlk]

Yes the PPA month blackouts are for areas where it is more tourist trade right now - Washington and Oregon. But still, I am sure that PPA's in the southwest will block out the winter months as well.

Thanks for the info on TT. It almost seems like it's better to just go ahead and pay their price to insure that there will be no changes along the way.

I will need to check into the Encore discount thing though as over half of their places are Encore places.

Have looked into Escapees and will most likely join them as well.

Any other feedback will be appreciated.

[Cat_Lady]

At 62, you and your hubby can each get the Senior Pass (Golden Age Pass). You can then camp half price and get free admittance to National Parks, etc. You can find out all the particulars on their website. If you're a member of ELKS or Moose, you can stay at their facilities. I believe I paid $12 or $15/night at the Elks Lodge in Westminster, CO. They also served meals that were very reasonable and good tasting.

I bought a used Platinum TT membership and can camp 21 days park-to-park, no time out. That's the way to go, in my opinion. I also have Resorts of Distinction (ROD) and RPI. I am also a member of Escapees (SKPs). You might want to go on their website and check out the Memberships for sale. Some folks give away their TT membership for the price of the transfer fee. You should check out the details of that membership before getting it.

Cat Lady

[Valkyriebush]

Escapees Club might be just what your looking for. It was designed with full timers in mind. Membership is half price now until Oct. $29.99. Good deal. Renewals too.

[Bumpyroad]

Passport America certainly didn't used to exempt June, July, August. Perhaps it is only those parks the normally fill up with tourists during those months?
just checked a few in VA. holidays exempted, one was weekends. No sign of blocking entire months.

bumpy

[bdpreece]

Over the years TT has sold more types of memberships than you can count, each with different privileges. Since you already know that purchasing used is the best way to go; if you find a used TT membership you need to get the membership number and then call TT direct to find out what that particular membership includes. We purchased a used TT Platinum membership which gives us 21 days in and we can then go to another TT park with no time out. It does not include Mid Atlantic/Outdoor World Elite though,and we only get I believe 10% off at Encore resorts. Also be aware than on resales TT will disallow the freezing of dues, eliminate any cabin packages and anything else they feel like doing. These are no longer lifetime memberships and can be cancelled by either party after 10 years. Their statement is, if you don't agree to it we won't transfer the membership. I feel they are trying very hard to destroy the used membership market by offering the zone memberships.