Here is a picture of our site at Swan Bay RV Resort, a nice park along the US side of the Thousand Islands near Alexandria Bay in New York State.

Site number 202. Arguably the best site in the park. Nice corner lot, right on the waterfront.

This was our view:

We paid about $150 Canadian per night at this sight. Definitely expensive however the Swan Bay RV Resort website makes the following claim:

Swan Bay Resort is the premier resort community designed with the discriminating traveler in mind. Residents and visitors of our luxury resort will enjoy: Resort-style pool; Exclusive marina access; Expansive river views seen from throughout the resort; Close proximity to the Canadian border and all that the 1000 Islands Region has to offer.
​
​Swan Bay Resort is your destination location for great times and luxurious living! Our gated community offers fantastic views of the St. Lawrence River, close proximity to all the attractions of the 1000 Islands Region, best-in-class amenities, and four-star service. This translates to some of the best guests and accommodations in the northeast.

So was it a premier resort? Almost.

Here is a shot of our site from the rear. To the right of our coach, in site number 201, was a travel trailer.

Looks okay though. Slideout on the service pedestal side and access door to the trailer on site 201’s patio side (outside the frame on the right).

It was a bit odd to see them pull in. Travel trailers are fine for back in sites and pull through sites. I was surprised that they were able to reserve this pull in site for their rig.

But pull in they did.

There wasn’t much room for their pickup truck to pull the trailer up onto the concrete pad and find a way to get the truck back out of the site. They managed. The grass was wet and soft. Lots of damage to the front of the site from the tires of their pickup truck.

The following evening at around 8pm there was quite the excitement on site number 201. A thunderstorm had entered the area and it was raining heavily. For roughly an hour or so, our neighbours proceeded to move their trailer out and reposition their rig as if they were now in a back in site. In the pouring rain. They seemed frantic.

Why did they decide to move their trailer at that moment?

And what did that mean to us?

For $150 Canadian a night, we were now sharing our patio with site number 201.

Apparently another travel trailer, also on a waterfront pull in site, had been told by management that they had to back in and use the patio opposite their entrance door side. They complained to management that the travel trailer in site number 201 had “pulled through” when they had been told that they could not do the same on their site.

Management then apparently told the folks in site number 201 that they had to reposition their trailer or leave the park.

Well, we were not all at happy about having to share our patio side. We asked management to request site number 201 use the patio opposite their entrance door so that we did not have to share our patio. They refused. We asked management to move us to another waterfront site alongside some other Class A vehicles. Management refused. We were told that all of the waterfront sites were booked (which was not the case).

Management did provide us credit for one night’s stay for the inconvenience. However, we were not looking for a discount. We had paid a premium price for a site with what we thought was a dedicated patio.

We spoke with the people in site number 201 about how we would go about sharing the patio and they assured us that they would be at another site for most of their stay. And sometimes they were.

As we checked out on the Friday, management told us that they had put in a new rule. They named it the Cleaver rule. Effective immediately, all of their pull in sites would be restricted to Class A, B and C motor coaches only.

I went on their site today and sure enough, the Cleaver rule is in effect. Their waterfront sites are now MOTOR COACH ONLY (their emphasis).

When we had booked the site, there was no mention that we might have to share a patio side with a neighbour. If that had been the case, we would have opted for a different site where we wouldn’t have to share the patio.

Other than this incident, our experience at Swan Bay was fine. Great waterfront views. Excellent Internet. Good services at the site. I would definitely go back and I would also book the same site assuming that we wouldn’t have to share the patio.