Jellystone Park 2018- Our Experience & Cabin Review!

I have so many amazing childhood memories of Summers spent at Jellystone Park. My father and step mother wanted me to carry on the tradition with my own family, and graciously offered to pay for us to spend a weekend in one of Jellystone Park's cabins.

We had never taken Mason there before, but we've driven by it hundreds of times on the way to our parent's houses, and he remembered. For weeks before our trip, he talked about how excited he was to go!

This Spring, we looked at their vacation planner online to choose which weekend we wanted to go. You can view it on their website https://www.jellystoneparknb.com.

We chose the Halloween weekend, because I can't think of a better combination than camping and Halloween, plus our son loves trick-or-treating (what kid doesn't?)

We stayed in a cabin, and the only cabin they had left when we called was a "Premium Plus" cabin. Jellystone Park has 6 different cabin options to choose from, all with slightly different features. For anyone as admittedly indecisive as I am, it was overwhelming to have so many different options, so the fact that they only had one left when we called actually worked out in my favor.

All of the cabin options and pricing can be viewed HERE.

Our cabin featured a set of queen bunk beds, and a set of twin bunk beds. The bunk beds were solid wood and extremely sturdy and my husband and I had no problem sleeping on the top bunk of the queen set. We chose the top bunk because it's not possible to sit up on the bottom bunks, and also because the TV was situated on top of the fridge and more easily visible from the top bunk.

Our TV had access to Netflix, which we LOVED for relaxing in the evening before bed. It was also especially useful for keeping our 4 year old occupied while trying to get the cabin set up.

When staying in a premium plus cabin, they recommend taking everything you would take while tenting (sheets, blankets, pillows, towels, utensils, etc). I was a bit nervous about the bed situation, but all of the beds were covered in waterproof mattress covers and were extremely clean. The entire cabin was very clean, along with the porch area- there were absolutely no bugs or spiders anywhere in site inside or outside our cabin.

Our cabin did not have a bathroom, but was a short walk to the nearest campground washroom. Not having a washroom would be my only complaint about our cabin, just because it would have been more convenient.

TIP: Bring sneakers, or good quality sandals! Even though the bathroom was a short walk, the roads are covered in rocks and wore a hole through my flip flops! Closer to the bottom of the campground it wasn't as bad, but our area was especially rocky. It's not a huge deal, but something you should be prepared for, as there is a lot of walking involved to get to and from the different activities.

We loved all of the activities that Jellystone offers! Aside from the main attractions, they also have several planned activities for kids they announce over the loud speaker throughout the day. When you check in, they will give you a list of the activities for your stay, along with the times and locations for each activity. Throughout the park, they have several pavilions and areas to host different games, parties, and crafts.

On our first night there, our son went to bed saying "Jellystone Park is really cool!", so we know he loved all of the fun activities they had. One of his favorite things to do was the nightly hayride with Yogi Bear. I loved that they still use the same songs they used when I was a kid (and I still knew every word to all of them).


The cabin prices were all inclusive, and included use of the following: the two main water slides, mini golf, jumping pillow,  jumping pad, inflatables, target tag game, and the new water zone attraction.

We loved lounging at the water zone. It's completely gated in, so I felt secure being able to watch him from one of these chairs.

The winner of the campsite decorating contest won a free night of camping!

My only complaint about this area is I wish there was one more umbrella to sit under. They have two umbrellas, but you have to get there early to get a seat under one, otherwise you have to sit directly in the sun. We went in the afternoon on our first day there, which was great because it was less busy.

We also enjoyed sitting around the wading pool, as our son was a bit too afraid to go into the bigger pools. Between the water slides, camper pool, water zone, and wading pool, we liked that they had so many different water options

Since our son was a bit afraid of the water this time, we spent most of our time doing activities and relaxing at our cabin. We loved the activities they had for Halloween weekend, but our son's favorite was trick-or-treating! Before the trick-or-treating, they had a Halloween party with crafts, and pictures with Yogi and Cindy bear.

On our last night there, we met up with some family to go mini golfing. It was our first time going with our son, and he picked up on it immediately, and had so much fun. The mini golf is right beside the ranger station, so once we were done we were able to catch the last hayride of the night.

Overall, Jellystone Park was exactly as I remembered it, and we definitely plan on going back next year. I would definitely recommend staying longer than two nights, as we found it hard to fit in everything we wanted to do. Our son loved everything about being there, and we're so excited to make this a yearly tradition.

EXTRA NOTE:

One thing we noticed when we were there is that there seemed to be a lot of children walking around unattended, which terrifies me. Jellystone Park is extremely family friendly, and feels safe, but they even state on their website to make sure your children are not left unattended. I saw children who looked as young as 4-5 walking around or riding bikes around by themselves or other children. It's important to remember that there are cars and huge campers driving to and from sites, there are easily accessible pools and attractions, and there are strangers EVERYWHERE. Just because people who camp there have kids of their own, doesn't mean that there aren't dangerous people present. The mom in me wanted to go ask each unattended child where their parents were, but honestly there were too many and I would have been tracking down parents all day if I did that.

Even though we keep a close eye on our son, I was still super nervous that he would get away from me somehow, so I made sure to use Mabel's Labels safety bracelets! They had his name, and our contact information on them. There are more good people than bad out there, so we trusted that if he got away from us for a second, someone would be able to read his bracelet and get him back to us.

You can check out the safety bracelets and all of the amazing products Mabel's Labels has to offer HERE (affiliate link).

Happy camping, and maybe we'll see you at Jellystone next year!