Fritz's Island Campground, Sparks

We just returned from our weekend trip to the Niobrara, had a GREAT weekend, with the exception of all the problems we had with this campsite. We had 12 campers with four RV's, and this certainly wasn't a cheap campsite to stay at. Our first encounter at the office was our 20 minute wait while the 4 people that were already there got checked in, then we began our tedious process, with a rather unfriendly woman. We got to our campsite finally and were pretty pleased with the location, however as someone else mentioned the firepits are not in convenient locations at all, and its a fine if you move them, and there were sambers everywhere. Later that night, approximately 10:30, we were sitting around the fire listening to music from one of the campers, which had to be a little loud because our firepit was so far away. A man from the camp, we assume since he did not tell us that at the time, came to our campsite and instead of just asking us to turn the music down, very rudely told us we were kicked out unless it was turned down immediately, which we did, even though their posted rule is "quiet time" at 11:00. The next day we were bussed to where we would start tubing, only to find out that we could only have 10 of our tubes hooked together, the other 2 had to float seperately. We floated for 10 hours, mind you we are all 20- somethings and had had a few beers, and since no one had told us either way, we were expecting to be able to get out at our camp that was next to the water, instead we had to bank at a designated spot. After being on the water and drinking for 10 hours, we now have to walk back to camp with our seven coolers, because we are not bussed back to where they picked us up at, and where we left a vehicle. Then when we do get back to camp we find out our electricity, which we paid a pretty penny to have, has been off for who knows how long. We know its been a while becasue the food we put in smokers to cook while we were gone is not even close to being done. We reported this to the office and were treated very rudely, like this was our fault for being so "unruly" the night before. The power was off & on again for the next hour or so. This night, because we are aware they are strict about the music we kept it low, and close to us, but had the "drive-by" every few minutes after 10:00. Even the drive out with the RV's was terrible, I presume due to all the busses using the road the day before. Don't plan on having any suspension left by the time you get back to the main road. We understand that they have to try to make everyone happy but no one wants to go on vacation to be constantly hounded, or to be treated so poorly. And the accomodations were nothing special for the amount of money we paid to stay there. We would never stay here again and wouldn't recommend it to others, especially crowds looking to have fun and not just on a family vaca.

We just spent a weekend at Fritz's and it was a HUGE disappointment right from the start. Our weekend started thursday when we arrived to find that our "campsite" was basically a weedy, sandy field where they cram a bunch of campers in a row on top of each other. No shade for the campers, trash and cigarette butts everywhere. We were camping with our friends who also have a camper, so we reserved 2 spots together. Our fire pit that we shared was not between our campers, but rather on the back side of our camper but closer to our neighbors than to our actual spot. So seeing as the firepits are portable non-permanent fixtures, we moved it so it's between our campers so as not to bother the neighbors. Peggy, the employee, stood and watched us with binoculars, and immediately came over. There was no "Hi, how are you?" or, "Hello, my name is Peggy," but instead she immediately started chewing us out for moving the firepit and told us it's a $45 fine. Now she knew darned well that we'd just arrived and didn't know the rules, but instead of treating us like adults and just politely asking us to move it back, she freaked out on us for several minutes and told us about a dozen times that it wasn't allowed. So we gladly moved it back. Then we went to use our somewhat nearby out houses and were horrified to discover that they were filled to within about 6 inches of the top. Both of them. So, I went to the campground office and let Peggy know that they were full and she tried arguing with me telling me that I must have seen wrong, they weren't full. When I persisted and told her that they most certainly were full, she said they'd have it taken care of. 2 days later it was still not taken care of, and now they also had no toilet paper. So, I went back to talk to Peggy and her response was, "Perhaps you don't have much experience with out houses, but that how they're supposed to be. They are supposed to be full like that." Yuck. This is not my first out house, and I'm fairly positive that out houses are not supposed to have other people's excrement floating 6 inches below the seat. And did I mention that we were paying $90/night for these accomodations? Even though our power was out all day while we tubed so that everything in our camper melted and made a huge mess. When I told her about the electricity being out, her response was, "Ok, I had 2 other people tell me the same thing but I wasn't sure it was true. Now that 3 people are telling me the electricity is out I will go check on it." We talked to several other people and everyone agrees that we'll never give that place another penny. They're complete jerks and don't maintain the campground as it should be. It's really disappointing considering how great the location is, but there's so many other places to camp around there that we'll be checking out next time. PLEASE don't waste your time or money at Fritz's/Stans Landing!!!!

We took 20 friends to this campsite!! We only got in trouble twice once for a couple of people wanting to take a shower together and the other for gathering wood. The staff just told us no and we were like OK, NBD! But everything else was great clean and had a beautiful view. Our tubes were nice and the bus was on time and they even helped us put our big cooler in the bus. It was the most fun ever! We just booked the same weekend this year. We were a pretty rowdy group and no one gave us trouble for having fun.

Rules are very vague and change as needed. Rules state "Pets must be on leash" and our very small toy poodle was on a leash yet we were kicked off the bus (which we paid $30 for) and had to drive and pay $10 more dollars to park and find another car to drive back to pick up the car 25 minutes away. Portapots were disgusting (overflowing by Sun morning). Staff was extremely rude and unwilling to help with a refund after getting kicked off the bus.

The staff at the campground was very rude and unhelpful. We will not return or recommend this campsite to others.

Absolutely the best campground in the area. Stan and staff are the best host's on the river. Campground is beautiful, almost all the camping areas are on the river or very close. Without a doubt the biggest most fully stocked camping store on the river. Clean showers and restrooms. All the years we have been going there we have been treated fairly. When you check in there you are given a set of rules to follow and are expected to follow these rules. The only thing we have observed is that if another camper breaks the rules, such as making too much noise, moving fire rings, not checking in when arriving , lying to the staff, they are dealt with asap. Very resonable priced, compared to other destination camping areas. We will be back but place is so popular it is hard to get into. We found you have to make reservations early spring to camp there in July and August.

The guest service there was very bad. Almost all of the staff was very rude. Way over priced for what we got. Rules and prices very vague and not explained well at all. Going up as a husband and wife with kids we felt the people that went up there with the intentions of getting smashed were treated better and with more respect then a reagular family taking a regular family vacation. I was in tears when I left because I was so disrespected.