Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park™ Camp-Resort: Kingston

Very expensive for cabins without a bathroom. Next to loud major highway. Not ideal camping location. I imagine homeless encampment would be more more peaceful. Slides and kids games not open until mid day and canteen is overpriced.
Entire establishment is low value for the cost.
Kids like it but unfortunately they don't open to public even for certain days/hours. Really a shame.

We recently stayed at Yogi Bear Campground with another family to celebrate our friend's daughter's 3rd birthday, and unfortunately, the experience was extremely disappointing.

The main reason we booked this trip was for a Yogi Bear birthday visit that had been arranged for Thursday, June 11 at 6:45 PM, along with a birthday cake. Around 6:00 PM, the maintenance staff drove by and mentioned there would be no staff on duty for the remainder of the evening. My friend confirmed with them that the Yogi Bear visit was still scheduled, only to discover after several calls to management that Yogi Bear is apparently only available on weekends. This restriction is nowhere clearly advertised on the website.

To make matters worse, management claimed there was never a Yogi Bear visit booked, despite our understanding that it had been arranged, and informed us that the cake cost $30 rather than the $15 advertised online. After a lengthy phone conversation with the manager, the only resolution offered for a ruined birthday celebration was a $5 refund and a bouncy ball for a heartbroken 3-year-old. We requested a refund for one night's stay due to the circumstances, but this was refused. During the conversation, the manager hung up the phone on us twice.

The maintenance staff were kind and did their best to help by bringing the birthday cake. Unfortunately, the cake was expired and still had an $8.99 price sticker attached, making the $30 charge even more difficult to understand.

There were several additional issues around the campground:
• The pool area appeared poorly maintained. The concrete around the pool was crumbling, and the water had visible buildup and scum by the end of the day.
• The mini golf course, food hut, and recreation center were only open on weekends. This information was not clearly communicated or advertised when booking.
• The rainbow jumping pillow/trampoline sat in direct sunlight with no shade. It became so hot during the day that children could not safely use it because it was burning their feet.

What was most disappointing was not just the mistakes that were made, but the way they were handled. A child's birthday celebration was ruined, concerns were dismissed, and customer service was severely lacking. The campground itself has potential, and some of the staff were friendly and helpful, but our experience with management left us feeling frustrated and unheard.

Unfortunately, based on this experience, we would not return or recommend staying here.

Room had the perfect cabin feel but dusty and not cleaned the best. The only thing to clean if you wanted to tidy up before unpacking is a broom. No dust pan or mop or anything. Ac is nice but has tons of black gunk and dirty inside and needs a deep clean. The staff are meh, they need staff to watch the pool. The rules no one follows, tons of kids Un supervised, fighting and spitting water on each other's faces. Wresting in the kiddy pool while toddlers are trying to play. Pool is falling apart and dirty same with all the equipment here. Parents not around to deal with their kids or care what they do. Parents drinking and smoking on the park with the kids and stumbling around drunk. Food is over priced and the foot long hot dog is just a standard normal size dog.

It would be alot better if the rules were inforced and things were clean and repaired.

I know lots of people who stay here every year and the kids have the time of their lives and we did enjoy ourselves however we stayed in the cabins and our cabin in particular while mostly clean did unfortunately stink of air fresheners which made me very sick. I normally wouldn’t be bothered, just throw them out and move on but the smell leached into all our clothes and bedding and our pop up cribs for our kids. It’s been a week and I can still smell it on things. I spent the first night throwing up from the smell as strong fake scents make me anxious and sick and in a one bedroom cottage with babies that led to no one getting sleep. In the morning we discovered there was an another scent pack attached to the back of the fan provided blowing stinky air on us all night. This kinda ruined it for us to be honest. Asides from that the kids events and everything else was fine. It’s a very kid oriented park, if you go on a weekend it’s much busier than the weekday but that also means week days not all the activities are always going on. Canteen is good in a pinch and the icecream hits the spot on the hot days. Also a cool spot to see and hear all the local air planes above.

We booked Jellystone expecting a fun family camping trip. Instead, we found overcrowded campsites, poor quiet-hour enforcement, confusing activity schedules, little respect for campsite boundaries, and a second night that ended with RCMP attending after an altercation. Most of what we experienced wasn't bad luck. It was poor management.

The campsites are packed incredibly close together, with vehicles, tents, and neighbours squeezed into every available space. Most of the grass was dry, and every passing vehicle kicked up enough dust to season everyone's marshmallows. It often felt more like camping in a parking lot than in nature.

Quiet time is listed as 11:00 p.m., but on our first night it appeared to be more of a gentle suggestion. Campers were yelling until nearly 2:00 a.m., and we never saw anyone enforcing the rules.

The staff we spoke with were polite, but many appeared very young. It seemed unfair to expect them to manage noisy or intoxicated adults without experienced supervision. That's a management problem, not a staff problem.

The washrooms were clean, which deserves credit. Unfortunately, the showers and toilets share the same private rooms. With one room out of service and the others occupied by people showering, families waited around 20 minutes just to use a toilet. Parents know that's about 19 minutes longer than a child can usually wait.

The waterslide was advertised from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m., but the schedule had changed to 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. without us being notified. Our kids missed it entirely. When one of your biggest attractions only runs for an hour, moving that hour without telling guests is a tough way to build excitement.

The second night summed up our stay. There were well over 100 children playing a campground-wide game. The game itself wasn't the problem. Kids will absolutely be kids.

The problem was that those games repeatedly spilled through occupied campsites, including ours. At one point, a child actually fell onto the back of our tent less than a foot from where my child was sleeping.

After asking the children to stop cutting through our campsite, we were approached by a golf cart carrying roughly eight apparently intoxicated adults who felt we were the problem. Apparently expecting your campsite to function as a campsite instead of a public shortcut is a controversial opinion.

Later that evening, another family told us there had been an altercation involving adults and children. RCMP attended the campground, and staff later told us several people had been removed from the property.

A family campground shouldn't need an epilogue that includes police.

One thing that genuinely puzzled me was seeing signage about cannabis restrictions while loud alcohol-fuelled behaviour continued well into the night. Personally, I'd rather camp beside someone quietly enjoying a legal joint than someone trying to host a 2:00 a.m. tailgate beside sleeping families. The issue isn't what people legally consume. It's whether they can behave like decent neighbours afterward.

The staff were friendly, and the washrooms were clean. Those positives deserve recognition. Unfortunately, several other guests we spoke with shared similar frustrations, and after reading recent reviews, our experience doesn't appear to be an isolated incident.

Jellystone has everything it needs to be an incredible family campground. Right now, it feels like management is relying on Yogi Bear to do a little too much of the heavy lifting.

We won't be returning, but I genuinely hope things improve because this campground has far more potential than it's currently delivering.