Ontario parks reservations, grrrr

atreis wrote:

camp-n-family wrote:
What's going on with the reservation system? It's becoming next to impossible to book a campsite these days. You can book in advance starting 5 months, to the day, ahead starting at 7am. I've tried booking for 3 days in a row on 2 different computers with no luck yet. A friend has spent 6 days on 3 computers with the same result. It's getting very frustrating. Might have to sell the tt and rough it just to get a site.

I just had some fun booking a site at Killarney PP. Started two weeks in advance, noting my site preferences and winnowing down the list as The Day approached and sites got taken. The morning of, there were exactly 4 sites left. I brought it up the list of available sites (the one that has a "Reserve" link next to each one that is active even if the time hasn't come yet) and prepared to click... Opened the clock ... Watched it count up to 7 ... CLICK! Missed. Someone beat me to it. I quickly refreshed the page to see if any were left and grabbed the 4th (last, least desirable) site before it occurred to someone else to do it.

Three of the sites were gone almost instantly. At least I got one!

It's not just camping, it's an adventure. :)

That's been my morning routine for a week now. Finally managed to snag a site this morning. Not really desirable, back of loop away from the water, next to the extra parking and across from the pit toilets, but better than nothing. Might not even be big enough to get my tt into.

camp-n-family wrote:
What's going on with the reservation system? It's becoming next to impossible to book a campsite these days. You can book in advance starting 5 months, to the day, ahead starting at 7am. I've tried booking for 3 days in a row on 2 different computers with no luck yet. A friend has spent 6 days on 3 computers with the same result. It's getting very frustrating. Might have to sell the tt and rough it just to get a site.

I just had some fun booking a site at Killarney PP. Started two weeks in advance, noting my site preferences and winnowing down the list as The Day approached and sites got taken. The morning of, there were exactly 4 sites left. I brought it up the list of available sites (the one that has a "Reserve" link next to each one that is active even if the time hasn't come yet) and prepared to click... Opened the clock ... Watched it count up to 7 ... CLICK! Missed. Someone beat me to it. I quickly refreshed the page to see if any were left and grabbed the 4th (last, least desirable) site before it occurred to someone else to do it.

Three of the sites were gone almost instantly. At least I got one!

It's not just camping, it's an adventure. :)

booking provincial parks in AB was the same. May long booking opened and minutes later pretty much everything was booked! Sadly there are less opportunities to "wing it" and just show up or book last minute anymore here. Having a 35' rig I rarely travel without reservations and at $12 per booking they are making a TON of extra cash for doing basically nothing.

That said I love my camping, so I stay informed of the booking window and deal with the frustration of battling for sites online.

Daryll

The national parks are different , camping fee is not part of admission like in a PP.

GaryKH wrote:

2gypsies wrote:
With the free entrance pass this summer, the parks are going to be full.

Those Park passes are for the National Parks. They are discussing the Provincial Parks in Ontario. But, yes the National Parks are promising to be very busy this year! Advanced planning is highly recommended.

I'm not sure that logic works.

The admission is free, but you pay for the camping, BUT, admission is included in the camping fee.

So there is no advantage to someone with a 'free pass' wanting to camp at a National Park.

2gypsies wrote:
With the free entrance pass this summer, the parks are going to be full.

Those Park passes are for the National Parks. They are discussing the Provincial Parks in Ontario. But, yes the National Parks are promising to be very busy this year! Advanced planning is highly recommended.

With the free entrance pass this summer, the parks are going to be full.

The exact same thing is happening here in BC. We haven't been able to get into our favorite park in 2 years and it looks like this year won't be any different. I have pretty much given up on it.

Jebby14 wrote:
5 months to the first day. 21 day max meaning someone with a longer stay has booked prior to you because their arrival date is before yours. it sucks. I am assuming you are going after specific high demand sites at a popular park?

The max is 23 days but what happens now is people that want to book 1 week are booking the 2 weeks before just to get it and then cancelling the 2 they don't need when they can and paying the penalty.

I gave up on being picky about sites. I'm going for anything I can get, without luck. Smaller tent sites are available but trailer sites with hydro are becoming next to impossible to reserve.

For the popular sites it has been like this for years. I know I have been working on Sandbanks Outlet for 2 weeks now almost every morning. For a province covered in forest there are just not many sites out there.... and the private campgrounds are too often basically parking lots (even if some are well equipped parking lots, it's just not camping to me!).