Hawaiian Isles

My wife and I are on a 3-year full-time RV journey across the U.S. Hawaiian Isles RV Resort in Ruskin, FL was our 81st RV park. We will not be coming back to this park. This looks like a mobile home park with some poorly laid out RV sites sprinkled in. Misleading Resort Map The Resort Map misrepresents actual RV site availability. Their resort site map shows 745 “RV Sites” (marked in white) and 129 mobile homes sites (marked in pink) for a total of 874 sites. Upon touring the park, about 70% of the white sites/RV sites were actually single-wide mobile homes with permanent exterior attached structures. So effectively this 874 space “RV Park” only has accommodations for between 200-250 RVs (many of which were set up for annuals)! Additionally, the site map shows spaces for 7 RVs in their “Overflow Lot” when only 4 can fit, IF you can find any space due to the large numbers of golf carts that use the overflow lot for their own convenience and club activities. While the amenities are plentiful, the experience for seasoned and transient RVers falls well-below our expectations. Must BOIL the WATER: When we pulled up to the registration area, we saw a sign board that stated that water needed to be BOILED before use! Upon check-in, staff and paperwork neglected to mention this health hazard. If we hadn’t seen the sign, we’d be sick from the park’s water. Seasonals at the park confirm that boiling water is normal, therefore many of the residents use bottled water. Additionally, water pressure at our site was poor at 30psi. Reservation Fail: We made reservations for a “Standard RV site” 14 months in advance for a 7 day stay and arrived to be placed in an overflow site with no sewer hook-ups. The RVer in the overflow site next to us experienced the same problem of booking a site and being assigned to overflow at arrival. Management tried to find us a suitable spot for our 38 ft motorhome, but nothing was available or would be big enough for our rig. We initially paid $44/night (weekly rate) and ended up with water and electric hook-ups only. However, we appreciated that management admitted their mistake and refunded a significant portion of our fee due to their error. Connectivity Is Poor: Poor cell service on Verizon and T-Mobile. Connectivity is so weak that when we had to make a video call with our LTE data, we had to leave the park to get a strong enough signal for the call. WIFI only works at the clubhouse. No cable TV. Other Park Observations: As previously stated, we ended up in one of the four (4) overflow sites. Our site in the Overflow “camping” area was located next door to the clubhouse, pool and office and was noisy due to the numerous activities in this area. Due to our proximity to the clubhouse, pool and shuffleboard courts some residents parked their golf carts all around our rig with a couple of folks walking or driving through our site or blocking in our car. The water and electric hook-ups on our “Overflow” camping site (A) were laid out strangely! On our spot (“A”) the water spigot was 30 feet away from the power pedestal. We either needed a 50 ft power cord or a 50 ft water hose. Fortunately, we carry both so opted for the 50 ft water hose. We drove around the park and noticed that many of the RV sites with full hook-ups had sewer hook-ups that would be underneath the RV or lined up with the WHEELS of the rig. The park was very crowded, as we expected, given that it was peak season during winter in Florida (which is why we made reservations 14 months in advance). The situation might have been different during non-peak times. On our last night, several park members contacted us and told us that the next day (moving day) there was a scheduled All Park Bean Bag Tournament and our rig would most likely be blocked in from dozens of golf carts. We had not been informed of this and asked the manager to help direct parking so we could leave as scheduled. While he helped a little, my wife and I still had to ask residents to not park in front nor to the immediate side of our rig so we could pull out without hitting a golf cart. We counted 37 golf carts within 25 yards of our site, as well as a crowd of 150-200 people participating in the tournament. The most help we received was from park residents who felt sorry for us and sympathized with our predicament caused by management’s choice to put us in their overflow lot which serves as the park’s recreation field.

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Great park with lots of amenities and perfect for short or long term stay. Staff is great park is well-kept pool refreshing bird sanctuary adjoins property and is full of wildlife. One perk that is very helpful is the ability to rent a golf cart. Only issue is no safe house for bad weather or notification system of urgent notices like "boil water notice". We discovered it by accident as we came in from a day of adventures..office was closed so we have no details other than a sign in front of office. I will say lots of activities, full-timers and close to area attractions make this a comfortable place to stay. Highly recommend it.

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We spent an entire month at this resort, while the facilities are a bit dated they are very clean and well maintained. The staff is friendly and helpful. Wi-fi is only available at the office and is very slow so hard to do anything. Cable TV is only available to long term sites and has to be arranged through the cable company on your own. But the over the air brought in more than 20 channels so we were okay. The park is very large so hard to really get to know people but those that we did run into were friendly. All in all it was a positive experience and we will consider returning if in the area again.

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