Florida State Parks Early Reservation

[Dutch_Oven_Man]

We’ve been camping for over 30 years, so not a newbie here, but apparently I still have not learned the tricks for Florida state park reservations.

Back in the day (pre-COVID) we could almost always find a reservation 3-4 months out for even the most popular State Parks outside of maybe the Key’s or a few other places. Nowadays, it’s seems you have to attempt to reserve 11 months+14 days at exactly 8:00 EST AM to even have a chance. But what is really odd, even dates that would not be considered popular and “out of season”, like February in the Panhandle on a Wednesday, are snatched up quicker at 8:00 AM than you can physically even hit the buttons. I just don’t see how it’s possible that every single site for every single day on a one day reservation in the middle of the week can be snatched up so quickly.

Is there some trick I’m missing, or a bot running in the background that is grabbing all these sites? Forget a holiday weekend, I never see reservations open for those. I’ve been running a “test” getting on at exactly 8:00 AM 11months+14 days to book a site preparing for a holiday weekend in 2023, and even just random dates I can’t seem to get a site quick enough. What gives?

[Lwiddis]

I agree that it is time for Florida to clean up their state park reservation act.

[agesilaus]

First there are bots that people use to grab sites, there is a fee attached to use these. I probably should not mention this since it will encourage people to use them.
Second FL Parks are very popular and hard to reserve
Third the FL Park reservation system seems to be ...ah fouled up. We tried to reserve a spot at a local park, Pad length 30 feet site length 61 feet. the website showed openings. But we could not log in since the software insisted that our address was not in the official US list of addresses. A big surprise since we have been getting mail there for 30 years. Tried a neighbors address, same response.
Called the reservation phone number, the women there was adamant those sites were tents only?! Drove out to the park and looked at those sites, they had RV's in them. The sites are dirt, no pads, and plenty long enough. And wide enough to park truck next to the RV which is 30 feet long.
Gave up.

[goducks10]

Record RV sales for the last 5 years has a lot to do with it.