RV Parking at Wal-Mart

[YorkieMom]

Does anyone know if the Wal-Marts in either Lake City, Gainesville or Ocala allow RV parking in their parking lots ??? Not for camping, just to grab a few hours of sleep on the way to see the Mouse !!!! Has anyone out there tried overnight parking at Wal-Mart??? We will be arriving late in the area and trying to find a campground that is open late and setting up in the dark is a drag. This will only work for us if the weather is cool at night (Oct. 2.) as we do not have a generator in our TT.
How is the weather then and how are the crowds??? Should we use FastPass and Early Entry ??? 81 days and counting !!!!!

 

[rapriebe]

I have always heard that any Wal-mart will allow a one night stay in their parking lot for RV travelers. I've seen numerous Motor homes parked in the lots at night but never a travel trailer. I heard you just need to check in with the Manager of the store upon arrival. On the other hand, I doubt that the Wal-mart in Kissimmee would allow overnight camping.

It would be interesting if anybody has any firm info on this.

 

[John VN]

Parking overnight at many Wal-Mart stores is now prohibited. You can look in your local W-M for their map book that has a listing of all the W-M stores where the parking is allowed. We have a W-M about 1 mile from us and they now have a sign stating no overnight parking.

John

 

[Jordan's MOM]

A man that works with my DH and his wife died last week while parking their camper in a wal- mart parking lot. They were using a generater for power and died of carbon-dioxide poision. This man had told my DH that Sam club members are allowed to park in Wal-mart lots across america. Please be careful if you use this pratice.


Jordans' mom

 

[LMC]

Our last two trips we have stayed at a KOA en-route to WDW. This last time we stayed at the KOA in Lake City. It is about 8 miles out of the way but very secluded and quiet for a good nights sleep. We arrived at 10pm and selected a paved pull thru site and only connected our water and electricity. Of course, I called ahead of time to make sure that they had a vacancy. You can go to the KOA web site to get other locations along your route. Both of the different campgrounds had pull thru sites and I only used the showers at one but it was clean. We did the truck stop our very first trip in our tt and we will never do that again, we just did not feel safe the the kids couldn't get out and run around while we hooked up and loaded back up in the morning. These were very short stops (Only to sleep) and we will do it again because it is safe and convenient.

 

[beaglebiz]

I dont remember any details about this, but posted at a local campground we visit, was a newspaper article where a man and his wife were murdered in a Walmart parking lot (this was a few years old), parking overnight in their rv. I guess the campground was trying to make the point that paying 20 or 30 dollars for a night in a campground is worth it for the security.

 

[house_of_princesses]

The Good Sam Club Forum always has a thread going about WalMart. I'd read that carefully before leaving.

Happy Trails!

And welcome to the DIS!

 

[SouthernBoyBlue]

last summer I took my family out west to see the National Parks out there. I pulled our 31ft SunnyBrook with my F250 and I put my generator in the bed of the truck. We spent several nights in different Walmarts across the country. We would pull in and I would run my power cord up to the bed on my truck and plug it in to the generator. I would leave it in the bed of the truck and let it run. Now my generator is a super quiet Generac 4000EXL so it was relatively quiet. It has idle control so I would turn off the breaker feeding my power inverter, this way all of my dc components would run off of the battery. I also made sure that my Refrigerator was switched to gas. Then the only time my generator would come off of idle was when the A/C thermostat called for air. We were driving an average of 450 miles a day so that was enough time to recharge my batteries. Try it out. Just pick up their atlas at any walmart and it lists all of the stores across the country. It also has their phone numbers. Then just call ahead and make sure that it is ok with that particular store. At one time Walmart had a policy to allow RV'ers to stay 1 night in their lots, but some local ordinances prevent it. Always double check with the manager on duty when you get there. Also don't make it look like you are camping. You want to blend in. Try not to put your slides out. DON't put out your awning or fire up your grill. And if you have to use your generator, make sure it is a quiet one. Also make sure that you don't leave any trash behind. My kids and I would take 15 mins every morning and walk through the parking lot and pick up trash. And last but not least, go buy something from the store. My wife actually loved staying the night at these stores for 2 reasons.
1: She is the Walmart Queen
2: We were always needing something and Walmart was just a stroll across the parking lot.
Good luck with your trip.
Todd