Encore Vacation Village

RV park located near the beaches and close to Tampa or St Petersburg. Nice pool, maintenance works really hard to keep this place nice and clean. Office stuff is nice and helpful. Spots are mostly back in, grass there is a couple of paved spots. Full hookup, good Verizon and T mobile, not a lot of trees. There is no speed bumps and people drive fast through the park. Park is located on the busy street, road noise is significant.

We love this place and stay here every winter. Leslie, the manager, is friendly and great to work with! She's here just about every single day and is the hardest working person we know! The rest of the staff is great too!

We got here on a Saturday to find the office closed. Found our paper work and proceeded to the site we were assigned. Sites are so tight and cramped together. We can't put our awning out or we will hit the neighbors rig. Old abandoned cars are allowed to be sitting. People drive so fast on the roads, day one we lost power in the park. No email or call to let us know what was going on. We live full-time on the road and this is the first time we have experienced something like this. Very disappointed and so not worth the prices they charge.

In May I booked a 5 month stay. June 1st - October 1st. First, I have a 43ft rig & they put me in a lot that has a light pole in the middle, splitting the concrete & grass. So it was extremely difficult to back in. I actually had to ask the people across from me to move their cars & patio furniture so I could back in.

Secondly, my neighbor directly next to me started harassing me eventually leading to him shooting a 9mm round into my camper. The round tore through my bedroom walls, king mattress and lodged in the other wall. All while me & my two young kids, aged 2 & 7 were inside the camper. I called the police and had him arrested on a felony charge. Leslie. The manager. Admitted to my face, she was present, in her office when she heard the gun shot & seen all the police entering the park. But she got in her truck and went home. She didn’t care to check if anyone was hurt. I went to the office to explain what happened, she never offered to move my spot, offer a refund or just provide a safer environment for the parks visitors. She also did not kick him out. They allowed his camper & all his belongings to remain at the site for 3 weeks after the shooting occurred. I checked in June 1st. Made contact with the neighbor June 4th. & he shot my camper June 6th. Still actively dealing with a pending court case for the shooting & the bullet is still currently lodged in my bedroom wall. $3800 worth of damages.

Moving on…. The water spigot was broken and I could not turn off the water. I let the office know immediately… the old man in the front …. He asked me when do I check out, and I told him 10/01. He said great. That’s when we will fix it….. okay a little time has gone by and there’s police in the park every other day. Constantly arresting people, there was a stabbing that occurred. Just all types of crazy stuff that made me realize this is NOT an RV resort, it’s a TRAILER PARK. I cancelled the rest of my reservation! On the day I was checking out, I had to go back into the office to let them know about the water spigot not turning off. Leslie sent over the maintenance man to fix it. Great!!! Well not only did he fix it. He also cut my black tank hose on without my knowledge and flooded the entirety of my camper with waste, hazardous water. The water was pouring out of my slides and front door. I had to throw away all of my son’s shoes, household carpets & all of my towels as I used them to soak up the waste water. I went back to the office to let Leslie know what just happened …. She said “what do you want me to do?” & all she offered me was a bottle of Mr. Clean.
I took my camper in immediately to be inspected for damages. I had a crack in my black tank from it being overfilled. $250 to fix it. No type of apology or nothing.

CHEAP is not good. Vacation village is the cheapest park in the area, and it comes with the most hostile environment. So while I might have saved a couple hundred bucks on rent, my camper endured $4K+ worth of damages. And my kids a lifetime of trauma from a bullet ripping through our camper! The park is filled with drug addicts, drunks & people who don’t supervise their children. I will never return & I will never recommend this park to ANYONE!!! If you love your family and your belongings, STAY FAR FAR AWAY.

I’ve attached pictures of all 3 bullet holes & the police tearing up my mattress looking for bullet fragments. & also attached a picture of the flooding.

We have stayed here before and stayed here this year for Christmas. Everyone was so nice! Even some of the guests, residents were wonderful! They had several holiday activities that we really enjoyed. The people in the office were great, Archie, Kahmtha and others. See you next year!