Through Camping World, we were offered a stay at Styx River RV Park (or a few other locations under Ocean Canyon Properties) in exchange for listening to a 90 minute sales pitch about their membership program. Me, being the cheap financially frugal person that I am, very rarely say “no” to free. So this wasn’t any different. I quickly called and got us signed up for our free 3-night camping trip. A few weeks later, I started googling the management property. Why? I haven’t a clue. I read gosh awful things about everybody’s horrible experience. Being pressured even after saying no, the 90 mins quickly turning into 4 hours, etc. After reading all this, I almost cancelled because I was worried it would be too much of a headache, even for a free trip. I decided it was worth the memories we could make that weekend, and we’ would survive a pushy salesman. Oh, and I forgot to mention that we would also receive a $100 Camping World gift certificate. So they’d be paying us for our trip. So…we were off!

We really enjoyed walking around, biking, and exploring the resort. There was a lot to do and see, aged…but still usable, nonetheless. We played basketball, ping pong, volleyball, and putt putt. We walked and biked all over their trails and paths. And yes, we did our 90 minute tour, said no, and left…after 90 minutes. No pressure, enjoyed the rest of our stay, and got our gift certificate. I think Ocean Canyon did themselves a disservice by adding this property to this promotion. I say that, without ever seeing the other properties. They told us all their plans to redo/fix/revamp Styx River, but there was nothing done yet, nothing tangible. I will never spend a small fortune on promises, I just won’t.

We did the whole campground thing the first two days and headed into Mobile for a few hours to explore! We ate lunch at some lunch at Ed’s Seafood Shed, a place recommended by a local friend, then hit up the USS Alabama because who doesn’t love a large ship with weapons everywhere? We had high expectations on this trip. We had plans to hit up the Exploreum which is a science center, and maybe even walk around downtown Mobile. Well, that didn’t happen. The nerds that we are, took hours upon hours to tour the USS Alabama, and hardly left ourselves time to step foot on the Submarine USS Drum before they closed up shop for the day.

We had a nice trip! Would I recommend this RV resort without the membership? Yes, if it was opened to the public. Would I recommend this RV membership program based on this resort? Probably not.