[Archived]

Yes, we stayed there in November 2015.

The only slight negative is some tight turns in the park to get to the water front sites. If other people parked poorly with tow or towed vehicles sticking out could be very tight.

Other thanthat great place to stay in the upper keys. Spots are large enough for 45 foot rig with towed vehicle without any problems. Nice people, and good location.

[Deleted User]

I looked at it with google earth last night, and was wondering if it is real dusty? It looked like no pavement, just gravel or some sort of rock for the whole area….how did you find it to be?

[Tim]

Sorry for short delay, but was traveling for work.

It was only slightly dusty. We had water front site, so no one could pass in front of the bus, and the bus was towards the front of the site. Dust was not a significant problem.

[Archived]

Thanks! After I saw that google earth photo I was worried it would be too dusty for my taste. I have been at a couple of places I will not visit again because of how bad the dust was.

Glad you were happy with this one. Thanks again!

[Peter]

Mark: We’re at Venture Out on Cudjoe Key, in what I guess is called the lower keys. 22 miles from Key West. The gate guard, Vance, led me to our lot, was prepared to have a nearby lot owner move his boat that was parked in the road if necessary. I was able to drive in without stopping and backing up. The development was originally done in the 1970s. I haven’t been here since the 1980’s. Pretty well maintained.

Just realized you have slides. I have the front of the coach facing the canal. To our right is a permanent park model; slide on the curb side would make things awfully tight as we have the front bumber within 2 or 3 feet of the water to get the coach and toad off the street. Street side is a large fifth wheel with slides of his own.. Slides on the street side might be doable.

In talking to Vance, he said I should have been put in another part of the park which has longer lots and more room. If you consider coming here, I would recommend talking to someone from the park who understande how big 45′ actually is and how wide slides on both sides are.

We arrived during mail call, there are over 600 sites in the park. I got the impression there are lots of owners who are here. Place is run pretty tight; which is not all bad. Its not Myakka River RV Resort, but Myakka River isn’t 21 or 22 miles from MP 0 in Key West!

Update: After being there a few days and looking around, Venture Out really isn’t as tight as I first thought. Most of the sites are pretty wide, just not really deep. A 45′ with a short toad (HHR) fit in the site we were assigned with a front and rear setback variance from the main office. A 45′ coach with slides would have required some jockeying back and forth to get it in the center of the site.

[Tim]

Thanks Dick. I think we will try Bluewater Key and see if we can get in there. We have 3 slides and it can get tight if the site isn’t wide enough. I don’t like to have stuff rubbing on the coach when it is parked.

Have a good time there. We are thinking of late April or first week of May, so it will be a bit before we get done that way.

[Bernie]

Mark,

Don’t know how you could go wrong at Bluewater Key, with the exception of your wallet having a major hit. I took the attitude that Bluewater is the best there is in the Florida Key’s. Our last trip to Keys we were unable to book Bluewater and went to Grassy Key which is all rock. It’s OK but tight, doesn’t have atmosphere of Bluewater.

The 2 rental pools you asked about was a legal challenge by the Assoc. rental and people who owned sites then went around the Assoc. a few years ago. I believe it went all the way to the state court arguing over placement fees was the issue.

AL

[Archived]

A bit off topic, but are the strip malls along the the highway down thru the keys as bad as I have read or is it just exaggeration as usual?

[Archived]

Here’s my 2 cents…

Bluewater rates run 135 – 155, beautiful place and in the keys.

Everglide Isles rates run 105 – 143 and you get airboat noise non stop from 8:30 am until 6:00 pm 7 days a week with skeeters and no-see-ums making you run for the bus exactly at dusk. No way to even carry on a conversation during the day, forget settiing around under the awning unless you’re willing to yell at each other.

You’re heading to right place Mark….

[Corey]

Now if I can get them to answer a phone call or return an email I will be happy. They don’t answer the phone because they say they may be busy, and you get a canned reply from the email saying that if they don’t get back to you it means they may not have any availability for when you want to go there, but they will put you on a wait list and may call you back, or you can give them some other dates you might be able to be there and they might be able to get you in then.

Not a very efficient way to do business IMHO. Especially when we have to have it nailed down since Kristi works and we have to clear her schedule. We need to know now, not some time in the possible future….

[Chip & Pam]

Actually that is a delaying tactic to verify you meet their standard and the coach is newer than 10 years.

When I was in business why couldn’t I reat customers like I was doing them a favor? Wouldn’t that have been nice?

[Gerald]

I have never seen this when I have called or emailed for reservations. Here is part of the canned email from Bluewater rentals (bluewaterkey.net):

At this time of year, we receive far more requests for reservations than we can accommodate. This is especially true if your request includes the time between December 20, 2015 and early March, 2016, when we are quite heavily booked. Rest assured that we actively maintain a wait list and carefully check each reservation request to see if it will match any current cancellations. If you do not receive a personal reply from us within a day or two, this means that we currently have no openings. It also means that you have been added to the wait list and will be contacted if an opening that closely approximates your request should become available. You will be emailed or called if any opening close to your dates occurs.

That may work for those who full-time or are retired and don’t care, but we can’t do that. We need to get dates confirmed. I gave them dates starting April 30th, so that is way beyond the “heavily booked” period. I guess I will see if I get anything back by tomorrow morning. If not, I will go somewhere else.

[Archived]

Well, just for kicks, I called the Bluewaterkey.com folks today. I still have heard nothing from the .net people. The .com bunch won’t make a reservation either. They won’t do anything until sometime in March. No guarantees of dates or sites until at least then.

I don’t have the luxury of waiting 3 months to find out if I can even get in, and then not even know what site they would give us…it may not be one we even want.

Time to look elsewhere. Back to Key Largo next I think….

EDIT………..

Just called Point of View. I was told that they are closing as of May 1st. Maybe for good. They owners are deciding what they want to do with the property…maybe a new hotel or something else.

[Steve]

Mark & Kristi, you are experiencing now what we have learned about during the past 3-4 years. And it is getting worse with every year. More and more people come to Florida each winter and it is nearly impossible to get a reservation anywhere, that is to say in the nice places, unless, you do make a reservation several months ahead of the time of your stay.

When we started to look at our 2015/2016 winter schedule, we started to look around in July of 2015.

We had to adjust our schedule a couple of times because there was no availablitiy when we wanted to stay somewhere.

This applies to the keys, too. We are going to stay for a week at Bluewater. That reservation, for the first week of May was made this past July!!!

We have also wanted to stay at John Pennekamp State Park for several years but despite of concentrated efforts, we were never able to make an online reservation. Regardless of the date and the length of stay, everything was booked.

Last August I was finally able to make a reservation. It is from May 8 to May 22 … !

About 3 years ago, we tried to make reservations in the keys for the months of February/March and tried this in October. They just laughed at us.

The above does also now more and more apply to the “nice” places in Southwest FL. Many of the nice places do give preference now and first to people who will book for 3 months and longer!

We did stay for the month of December at the Myakka Motorcoach Resort in Port Charlotte. We were able to make that reservation in August and were told right away, that they would be booked solid starting with January.

Yesterday, they sent out an email to everyone who has rented there in the past. Right now, they will not even take any reservations at all for 2016/2017. … ! The email states that the reservation window for people who will reserve 3 months or longer will open on January 25 … And so on.

We would much rather travel without such restrictions and stay where we want, when we want and for however long we want. That has become a daydream.

Cheers

Ronald

[Ronald]

I finally got an email back from the bluewaterkey.net people. They have nothing available, and just could not understand that we were going to only stay for 3 nights. They seem to think you have to stay longer for some reason, and wanted to have me tell them some other dates we could come.

I politely told them that we already booked at Grassy Key in Marathon for the dates we told them since they didn’t respond until 6 days after I sent the email, and didn’t have any availability anyway.

We are heading down the end of April after I stop in to see Jeff for an oil change..