Re: Camping reservations this morning

Man, what a hassle, within a few minutes of opening up the reservations their computer system went down for half an hour. People who had snagged a site but weren't able to complete all the info necessary within a couple of minutes lost the reservation and had to keep trying. I was lucky and got what I wanted and completed the reservation before the system went down. I had another site in another window snagged for one additional night but before I could complete that reservation the system went down. Kept after it and when the system started working again my shoping cart said "time expired" but I was able to snag the site again before someone else got it...lucky. How'd everyone else do?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/2012 07:54AM by mtn man.

No luck here even starting at 7 am...what a bummer. This has got to get fixed.

The solution is more campsites. It appears the powers that be don't want to go that route. The old trailer park in El Portal would make a great campground.

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Dave
The solution is more campsites. It appears the powers that be don't want to go that route.

Wasn't there a promise to replace the lost River campsites?

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eeek

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Dave
The solution is more campsites. It appears the powers that be don't want to go that route.

Wasn't there a promise to replace the lost River campsites?

They promise lots of things.

Like this page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Reserve-America-Sucks/298261430208

I was lucky enough to get a site right at 7am for early June.
The site I got said it was "rv only" with no option of choosing tent in the equipment drop down. I am hoping there are no issues with using a tent in that site. It is in the last loop of Upper Pines. We'll only have a small 3 man tent, so hopefully there will be space to pitch it.

Looking forward to this trip. It will be our first in the Valley. We stayed in TM last September.

We camped in a tent last year 2011, on an "rv only" site. Last loop in Upper Pines also. Have fun.

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LBFam
I was lucky enough to get a site right at 7am for early June.
The site I got said it was "rv only" with no option of choosing tent in the equipment drop down. I am hoping there are no issues with using a tent in that site. It is in the last loop of Upper Pines. We'll only have a small 3 man tent, so hopefully there will be space to pitch it.

Looking forward to this trip. It will be our first in the Valley. We stayed in TM last September.

When we camped we always tried to get a site in the last loop of Upper Pines. Some of them that are close to the road to Happy Isle have large boulders in them but we have never had a problem with fitting in one or even two tents between the boulders. What site number did you get?

Sorry to hear you all had problems this morning. I've always hated that website - don't get me started - its a lot more like TicketMaster than you may know. If it's any consolation, the Valley in the summer is a smoggy zoo. There are better places to go.

That "RV only" thing with the sites in the last loop - ignore it. In my book, those are the only inhabitable sites in the Valley, shhh, they are gone in seconds as it is. The "RV only" tag only appeared in recent years and is absolutely not enforced, nor is there any reason to do so. I've arrived via YARTS, walked over with my backpack, set up my tent among the monsters, and then strolled back to the kiosk for my tag. No problem. Just throw rocks at them if they leave their generators on.

The River campsites are long gone, never to return.

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QITNL
its a lot more like TicketMaster than you may know.

Maybe TicketMaster owns it?

Well, you could start here
http://www.ticketmaster.com/camping/
or follow the money, but like I said, don't get me started.

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parklover
What site number did you get?

Site 216

Thanks for all the info. Looking forward to this summer.

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LBFam

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parklover
What site number did you get?

Site 216

Thanks for all the info. Looking forward to this summer.

We never stayed in 216 but further down by 232 and 234. I am not sure exactly which one it was and would have to look in my travel diaries. You can go to http://yosemitecampsites.com/upperpines to see pictures of the sites. Have a great time.

add recreation.gov to my suck pile. Had my site, my reservation info completed and it was at the booking point, the the site crashed. I was not able to even get back into the site for about 15 minutes. Lost it.

I noticed while the the little booking bars were busy that the pic for my site was not the right one for the site # and thought "that's strange..."



I'll be in a bad mood for the rest of the day...

Anyone who books really needs an account with all the contact information in the system ahead of time. Definitely log in first. It's one less thing to get wrong.

I've spent time filling out web-based applications which flag entries that have problems. For something like Recreation.gov reservations, getting all that out of the way beforehand means fewer things that could go wrong when you "on the clock" and have to complete it before the system automatically cancels a request. It's a lot like TicketMaster ticket ordering. They put you on the clock for two minutes to complete your order, and they'll release any tickets if the process isn't completed in time. I tried buying tickets once without a pre-existing account, and I had to get in my name, address, credit card number, and ticketing request (will call, print at home, etc) in two minutes. If you're not familiar with it, mistakes can be made and there's little time to correct them. I think I made it with 15 seconds to spare.

I am very familiar with rec.gov. They change things around a bit every year too, and I check out the site frequently.


I was logged on this morning, as last month. When I hit "book theses sites" it went back and asked for log in again. I guess in today's particular situation, I lost time there before entering the rest of my information. But I was only a few minutes into my 15 minute window (before cancellation) when the site crashed.

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hikerchick395
I am very familiar with rec.gov. They change things around a bit every year too, and I check out the site frequently.


I was logged on this morning, as last month. When I hit "book theses sites" it went back and asked for log in again. I guess in today's particular situation, I lost time there before entering the rest of my information. But I was only a few minutes into my 15 minute window (before cancellation) when the site crashed.

Sounds like they had some serious issues with the booking system. When I've booked before and was previously logged in, I had no problem with it having all the information ready.

I am going to try for the February 15th booking date, but I've had problems in the past. Mostly I'm confused about which web page I should be on when the clock turns 7am. If I have a particular site in mind, should I be at the "book these dates" page (even though the campsite status would still be set at N) at 6:59:59am?

Also, why do some sites have an "R" past June 15th? I thought they couldn't be reserved yet.

Thanks!

They are showing reserved because you can make a reservation for arrival on the 14th and then go up to 6 more days into the next booking window. I made reservations for arrival on 6/14 with departure on 6/21. Definitely have your curser on the Book These Dates button. Good luck!

First thing I thought upon reading this is the prick scalpers crashed the servers trying to nab the sites up, but I haven't seen anything on craigslist yet other than one person tying to buy a campsite on the Los Angeles page.