Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort

We stayed at Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort in Clermont, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)

TTO (as it’s commonly called) is the flagship Thousand Trails park, with over a thousand sites.

Dates:

  • Check in: 2024-01-07
  • Check out: 2024-01-21
  • 14 nights

Weather:

  • Mostly cloudy, some rain, mostly drizzle
  • High temps ranging between 63-80°F, lows around 35-65°F
  • A little wind, gusts to 38 MPH

Noise:

  • No road noise
  • No train noise
  • Some neighbor noise, dogs and kids
  • Distant fireworks from Disney some evenings

Site:

  • #178, back in, asphalt
  • Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
  • Rather unlevel, high on right and front; used hydraulic leveling
  • Asphalt driveway about 50 feet long by about 18 feet wide
  • Passenger side to next site’s driveway about 10 feet
  • Driver side to next site’s driveway about 20 feet
  • No picnic table (but apparently available upon request)
  • No fire pit
  • Steep drop-off next to rear of site
  • Mostly clean site

Utilities:

  • 50 amp power, very inconveniently located; needed to use my extension cord
  • 75 PSI water, inconveniently located
  • Loose sewer connection, inconveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

  • Starlink: 47 Mbps down, 6-14 Mbps up, 50 ms ping
  • T-Mobile: 24-30 Mbps down, 0.5 Mbps up, 60 ms ping
  • AT&T: 1 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 80 ms ping
  • Verizon: 2 Mbps down, 10 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
  • Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

  • Garbage dumpsters only in a central location
  • Package delivery to office, for $5 per package (we got a local mailbox)

Our review on Campground Reviews:

The flagship Thousand Trails park

It’s good to know what’s what before showing up at TTO. Half the park is older, with rundown pads and a kind of state park feel, and half the park is newer, like a perfectly manicured RV resort. And if you’re used to the usual Thousand Trails “first come first served” rigamarole, you might be confused by how they do things here. I prefer the orderly check-in process with the rangers knowing what sites are available and guiding you to what’s there. This place is so huge, that you’d be crawling the lanes for hours before finding one on your own. I hate having to find a place at other TT parks. Our site was on the “older” side of the park, backed up to some trees, which was nice. There was a bit of a drop-off at the end of our pad, but it was long enough for our 40′ coach, and we were able to park our truck on the grass alongside it. It was kind of downhill in a hollow, so cell reception was not great but Starlink was just fine. We camped at Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

A rather steep drop-off:

Our site

I needed to use my power extension cord for the first time ever (other than at Mom’s):

Power extension cord

I had fun tossing a ball for this very good boy whenever I went to top up our water tank or dump our waste tanks:

Dog

The nearby bathrooms were closed the entire time, but they had portapotties for the few people who needed them (and I did use one once, as we sanitized our fresh water tank while here):

Bathrooms

There were a few big storms that rolled through; here are a couple of screenshots of one (with a potential tornado southwest of us!):

Storm screenshot

Storm screenshot

Big checkers board:

Big checkers board

Rec center:

Rec center

Rec center

Mail info; they charge $5 per package, and suggest alternatives:

Mail info

Group fire pit:

Group fire pit

Mini golf:

Mini golf

Pickleball courts:

Pickleball courts

Boat launch:

Boat launch

Hibiscus flower:

Flower

Tortoise:

Tortoise

Grasshopper:

Grasshopper

A large crane-like bird:

Bird

There were several that roamed the grounds:

Birds

Other sites:

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Bathrooms

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

One section has buddy sites:

Buddy sites

A massive campground. We’ve already been back again since this, and no doubt will be back more times in the future.

Travel from Carrabelle to Clermont, Florida

We drove our coach 263 miles, about 5 hours of driving, from Carrabelle, Florida to Clermont, Florida. Our first travel day of 2024.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading southeast:

Map route

An interactive map, with possible stops:

We pulled our coach out to toad up:

Toading up

Bye beach:

Bye beach

Look out birds; you can come back to your tasty roadkill after we go by:

Birds

Birds

We stopped in front of a gas station for lunch:

Stop in front of gas station

Stop in front of gas station

Stop in front of gas station

Gas station lunch; not ideal, but not bad:

Lunch

Joining I-75:

I-75

A traffic cam, showing our coach:

Traffic cam

A rest area stop:

Rest area

Joining Florida’s Turnpike toll road:

Florida's Turnpike

The Villages:

The Villages

“Florida’s Turnpike, The Less Stressway” (maybe if they improved the road surface a bit):

Florida's Turnpike

Another traffic cam:

Traffic cam

Toll at the exit; our Freedom Pass transponder worked:

Toll at exit

Toll at exit

Toll at exit

Citrus Tower:

Citrus Tower

Arriving at our destination, Thousand Trails Orlando:

Thousand Trails Orlando

Thousand Trails Orlando

Thousand Trails Orlando

Normally in Thousand Trails parks you roam around to pick your own site, but TTO is different; they have people guide you to a site. We were directed to this parking lot to await a guide:

Thousand Trails Orlando

Guided to site:

Guided to site

Arriving at our site:

Site

Not ideal, but nice to not have anyone behind us:

Site

Fixing TV lift

One big issue that we got Davidson RV to investigate was that our main TV lift wasn’t going down reliably; it would often stop partway, requiring pressing the down button several times. They investigated, and determined that the lift controller was bad:

TV lift controller

Here’s the TV laying on our bed while they investigated:

TV

They couldn’t get a replacement in time, so as a temporary workaround, they installed a switch to bypass the controller:

TV lift switch

I contacted the manufacturer, Venset in Denmark, and they referred me to their US distributor, Wood Technology.

I emailed Wood Technology, and Mike Fisher replied. We exchanged several very helpful emails, photos, and documents, discussing the issue and solutions. He provided me with a replacement controller:

New controller

The new controller, installed:

New controller

It was super easy to sync our existing remote control to the new controller, then I was able to successfully raise and lower the TV:

Remote

Here’s a peek of the lift mechanism:

Lift mechanism

Another potential issue that Mike discussed was that the curly cord could get tangled, preventing the lift from raising. So he recommended either cutting it out, or detaching the lower portion and rerouting the wire:

Wire

I did the latter, bundling the curly cord with the other wires coming from the TV:

Wire

That should avoid that issue. And we’re very glad that the lift mechanism is working properly again. Much appreciation to Mike at Wood Technology!