Corps of Engineers new policy

[Izzyblueye]

Originally Posted by two2go

For the original poster, COE and other federal sites are through recreation.gov, not RA. No reservation fee when I did it last month and I got my Senior Pass discount. I agree with most gripes about RA, but they are the only game for state parks (many or all?--Colo. is one). But, the site works and is informative, and has helped us for reservations at times that are crowded. They are the Ticketmaster of camp sites, a slightly helpful evil to drain off more consumer money. But nobody is forcing me to camp.

No one is forcing you to camp, but you should not have to pay a middleman to use the facilities that taxpayers bought and paid for. I prefer to deal directly with the campground of preference.

[tom41]

I have just stayed at 4 different COE parks (Defeated Creek,Tn, Dale Hollow,Tn, Baileys Point Ky, Holmes Bend, Ky. I made reservations at all parks. You can go to ..Reserve.gov
I have been using them for several yrs now. Its easy to do and right on the computer. hope this helps I'm sorry, it is "recreation.gov"
Tom

[69RoadRunner]

[LillyTomlin] We don't care because we don't have to. We're the phone company, er, government. [/LillyTomlin]

[tiger63]

I thank you all for your comments, however the reservation problem still exists. Try it yourself.

Not my first time in dealing with the Corp and their parks. Our last 6 week outing involved 5 Corp parks in MS, TN, NC, SC (twice) AL. The first three were reserved in advance and the last two were requested and we found the system had chainged.

The Corps office at Warriors Creek assisted me in arrangements for the last two as they were aware the new policy is " First come first serve".

What I understand, it has nothing to do with the size of the park, the Corps has chosen to not pay anyone to establish a reservation, and they intend not to handle it themselves.

[Ray,IN]

Originally Posted by saydiver

It's cheaper for USACE to outsource the work. It doesn't mean they can't do the job.

I made reservations with Reserve America in the past few months and was very satisfied with the system, except when I needed to change sites, I had to call, instead of handling it online.

Sue <--- retired USACE contractor

We agree. Outsourcing admits the contractor can do the job more efficiently.

[saydiver]

Originally Posted by tiger63

I thank you all for your comments, however the reservation problem still exists. Try it yourself.

Not my first time in dealing with the Corp and their parks. Our last 6 week outing involved 5 Corp parks in MS, TN, NC, SC (twice) AL. The first three were reserved in advance and the last two were requested and we found the system had chainged.

The Corps office at Warriors Creek assisted me in arrangements for the last two as they were aware the new policy is " First come first serve".

What I understand, it has nothing to do with the size of the park, the Corps has chosen to not pay anyone to establish a reservation, and they intend not to handle it themselves.

Which website did you use?

There were multiple reservation systems, so a contract was awarded to Reserve America to implement one reservation system, recreation.gov and phase out the old systems, including reserveamerica.com. It was initially a three year contract with extensions up to ten years, so I seriously doubt the contract was been taken away, even with the latest PRESBUD cuts.

When making a reservation, recreation.gov is the correct website to use. When you call the number on the recreation.gov website, you'll get a Reserve America employee, not an USACE employee.

Sue

[mrschwarz]

I believe that recreation.gov is run by the same folks that mismanage reserveamerica.Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

I have had many conversations about them with the Texas Parks & Wildlife phone reservations people (when I can get through). They feel the same way about reserveamerica.

[flagypsy]

I have used RA for years without any issues. Recreation.gov handles all Fed controlled parks that accept reservations

[Jody & Jeff]

It is so strange to me that so many people have trouble with Reserve America.

I have been using them about 5 1/2 years now and never had a reservation messed up - ever..........

And I have used Recreation.gov when directed to by a particular website
and no problems with them either.

I must just be a lucky person !

Jo

[Noelj]

For those of us that are traveling, what we hate are the reservation only campgrounds that are empty all week and have the two day weekends booked solid, with no walk-ins. We don't reserve too far ahead, because we usually don't know where we will be by the weekend. Last year, we had to spend several weekends at Wal-Mart because they kicked us out of the parks on Friday mornings. They would rather give up a weeks camping fees for two weekend only nights. Louisiana is our prime complaint.

[Jody & Jeff]

I can understand that problem. We now have friends who are fulltimers and they relate the same to us every now and then.

Having said that - I live in South Florida - no decent campgrounds anywhere near me that aren't booked solid 11 months in advance! It is a pain for us as we are weekend ONLY campers due us working fulltime.

Jo

[darbyjudy]

I use recreation.gov for all of my COE Campground reservations and if I book early enough I have no problem. But you certainly don't want to wait until the last minute to book at a popular campground like Defeated Creek, you just won't get anything and all that will be listed on the site is the first come sites. I also book a lot of State Park Campgrounds here in FL, and like one of the others said it is getting hard to book a site. My camping club uses State Prks and we all book 11 months out. Right now I have several sites booked for 2010, you have to do this or you don't get a site.
Also I have ran into the campgrounds that are empty through the week and booked solid on Friday and Saturday, so it is hard to find one that will let you stay 14 days like I normally do.

[CrossCountryNomad]

Originally Posted by Ray,IN

"reserve America" I think that company is a rip-off. Indiana went to them for state park reservations. Now it's more expensive to camp in IN state parks, and_ people have learned how to manipulate their system to lock-in a specific site for most of the year. Just try to make a reservation on a holiday weekend. When a governmental unit "out-sources" their responsibilities it is an admission that they cannot do the job efficiently.

I wish Georgia State Parks would outsource their reservations system to http://www.reserveameria.com. At least with ReserveAmerica you can reserve the site you want. With the Georgia system you can not reserve a site, you can only reserve a 'type of' site ie 40ft campsite that allows RVs.

This really doesn't work well. We are the typical weekend campers and only get to the State Park late on Friday evenings. Which means the 'type of' site we made a reservation for is now gone, typically being used by a much smaller RV or even a tent. We are often forced into the left over and much smaller sites that no one wants. I've talked to the park rangers when this happens and basically I'm SOL, better luck next time. They will not honor our reservation for the 'type of' site we reserved. This has forced us to stop using the Georgia State Park system.

We use ReserveAmerica for Florida State Parks. The price is the same if you made a reservation through ReserveAmerica or if you are a 'walk up' at the state park.

BTW in the six plus years RV we have made extensive use of ReserveAmerica without any problems.

[WCVonderburg]

We use the web site frequently for Corps of Engineers parks in Alabama and have had very few problems. Sometimes there are software snags, but my wife has her senior pass and the half-price off the excellent federal amenities at Corps parks is worth any hassle.