Newport Marina RV Park

October brought us to Newport for nine days (October 7-15) in the motorhome.  Our last visit to this wonderful Oregon coast town was in September 2015.  The week's forecast was a combination of sunny days with the occasional rainy one thrown in, and we were very much looking forward to the cooler weather.

Newport Marina RV Park

I contribute to online reviews of RV parks (i.e. www.rvparkreviews.com, www.rvparky.com, and www.parkadvisor.com).  I mostly do it to counter the reviews by people who must go through life seeing the glass always half empty based on the horrible things they write sometimes.  I strive to write an honest review, that doesn't forget to point out what I really liked about the destination.  Reading RV park reviews reveals that tastes vary widely.  Those with satellite dishes will complain about heavily forested sites, and those staying in a park with great satellite dish reception will complain about the lack of trees.  It is the Kobayashi Maru no-win scenario, you just can't make all of the people happy all of the time.  Fortunately, it is pretty easy to filter through the unfair reviews and discount people's bias, in order to gain a general sense of what to expect when you arrive.

Pull-in site #21 was our home for the week.  We'd stayed in site #22 two years ago.  Situated next to the marina, the RV park provides great walking and biking opportunities, and the facility serves as an excellent home base from which to explore the region.

Lots to see on walks

We stayed in site 21

The odd thing about the layout of the RV park is that it is mistakenly pointing in the wrong direction, which means your rig is facing away from the marina and the iconic Newport Bridge (sites 6-12 and 27-36 are exceptions). Despite any shortcomings pointed out in reviews about the park, it was full on the weekends, and about half full mid-week.

Typical pull-thru sites

These prime sites (#27-36) are all back-in sites which are unless for motorhomes.

Perimeter sites are wide enough to park the RV and the toad on the pad.

Wi-Fi Access, Quality, and Performance

Online reviews warn of the spotty Wi-Fi, and that was our experience yet again two years later.  The Wi-Fi varied from so slow that you couldn't even browse the Internet to just OK.  Unlike two years ago, I was able to do some work via the park's Wi-Fi.

At home I'm a Comcast/Xfinity Internet customer, so normally when the "free" Wi-Fi is useless, I look for an Xfinity access point in the area.  I've outfitted my Safari with a dedicated Wi-Fi antenna connected to a router inside the motorhome.  The antenna connects to the up and down TV antenna mechanism (see photo).  This arrangement helps us connect to weak and distant Wi-Fi access points.  Unfortunately, Xfinity isn't available in the Newport area, and there didn't seem to be any commercial ISPs offering pay-for-use Wi-Fi either.  Fortunately for me, the Verizon 4G/LTE was a solid 3-4 bars with good data performance, so when the Wi-Fi was unreliable, I turned my mobile phone into an access point and used my mobile data plan.

Live well, Laugh often, Love much