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Online Reservations Advice Needed

PostPosted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 9:44 pm
by mountainmama
How do I get an online campground reservation?! Any tips out there? I tried last Feb 15th and was shut out within seconds. I had my mouse on Book It! and it was full, so was my second and third choice and by 7:01 when I went to look at everything, the entire valley floor was booked! Argh! So my only hope is March 15th, and then no hope! I have a walk-in site at Hodgen Meadows. My problem is that I'm with my two small children, or else I would be backpacking! So I need something more solid than a FCFS.

Re: Online Reservations Advice Needed

PostPosted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 12:06 am
by dan
Don't know what to say about the quick shutouts. April 15th allows reservations for August 15-September 15th and it's still nice. In Sept. it's less crowded, although Yosemite Falls is pretty dry by then.

PostPosted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 7:14 pm
by Wickett
You have to start hitting book before they are released. I start about a minute out and click it constantly, that is what everyone else is doing.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 12:41 am
by mountainmama
so you don't have to refresh the page first? maybe refresh was our problem...my husband's idea! ugh!

PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 9:52 am
by hotrod4x5
You also need to try again at like 7:07 because when a person starts the reservation process, the site is held for 7 or 8 minutes, so I have been told that at about 7 or 8 minutes after 7, some sites will open as people change their minds or their partner gets sites and they don't need to, etc.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 4:36 pm
by Wickett
mountainmama wrote:so you don't have to refresh the page first? maybe refresh was our problem...my husband's idea! ugh!


No refresh, just keep hitting book. Even if you are doing it right it is still the luck of the draw as to who gets it.

PostPosted: Tue Mar 01, 2011 8:15 am
by Nacci
Set up multiple computers. You're on one and your husband is on one. If one of you is successful, stop. If one encounters trouble, the other keeps trying.

PostPosted: Fri Mar 04, 2011 9:41 am
by Wickett
Oh yeah one other thing that just got me, if you have previously booked with your profile already in the last year, you will not be able to book again, it doesn't tell you until the sites are gone!

PostPosted: Fri Mar 04, 2011 3:18 pm
by hotrod4x5
Wickett wrote:Oh yeah one other thing that just got me, if you have previously booked with your profile already in the last year, you will not be able to book again, it doesn't tell you until the sites are gone!
What? you can't make additional reservations?

PostPosted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 11:16 am
by Wickett
One week per year... I was not happy. And they wait to inform you until after the sites are released... So that is why I did not get one. My wife and kids are flying out for our last Yosemite hurrah for a while, military transfer, and I didn't get a site... I am watching recreation.gov like a hawk but I don't think that it is going to happen.

PostPosted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 10:11 pm
by fluxfluxa
Wickett wrote:Oh yeah one other thing that just got me, if you have previously booked with your profile already in the last year, you will not be able to book again, it doesn't tell you until the sites are gone!


Yeah, there is a 7 day camping limit in Yosemite Valley from May 1-September 14. If you booked the previous summer, you are ok.

PostPosted: Thu Mar 10, 2011 5:56 pm
by justin_ruch1180
Never ever click refresh!! Learned that the hard way!!!

Any luck yesterday?

PostPosted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 8:28 am
by JFK1965
Hoping that you got a spot with yesterday's onsale. We almost always get shut out from our first choice at 7AM but then get ones that dropped out up to 15 minutes later.

PostPosted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 9:34 pm
by mountainmama
I did get a site, my first choice too. My first choice was something I thought looked 'gettable', inside loop, Upper Pines. But I was SO excited! My husband was at work on his high speed connection and didn't get anything.

Can't wait!

PostPosted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 7:04 am
by Nacci
Congratulations! Have a wonderful time. Yosemite is so much fun with kids (and with adults as well!)