Madison L.
Yelp
We tried to plan a team cook out for our office and it was not a great experience. Everything was poorly organized. I had multiple phone interactions with members of staff trying to reserve a pavilion and they all seemed confused. When I finally reserved the pavilion, they had no option to email me the receipt. They simply had me hand write the confirmation number and told me I had to pick up a physical receipt at the park. This was a pain since I needed to record the business expense with my receipt long before getting it.
The morning of, I realized they hadn't told me which pavilion was ours, so I called. The ranger station told me they couldn't give me that information, but provided another phone number. I called that number and they told me to call the ranger station. When I informed them that I had just spoken with the ranger station, they apologized and hung up on me.
Booking a pavilion does NOT guarantee entrance into the park. I think it's ridiculous that they have you pay a non-refundable fee to rent the pavilion for the day, but won't guarantee you can actually get in to use it. If they're going to rent the pavilion, they should at least reserve slots for those paying for it. Half our party couldn't get into the park, so we didn't even get to have our event at the pavilion we paid for because the park filled up. Yes, we knew this was a risk from their website, but honestly they need to change that because who wants to rent something they might not even get to use?
Aside from the ridiculous pavilion issues, the other park rules weren't well abided. I entered the park to set up our pavilion before realizing my co workers couldn't get in and saw that many park rules were being violated. For example, no personal speaker systems are allowed, but three groups had them and were blaring loud music. I saw multiple prohibited items as well. I get the parks are large, but they need to manage the grounds a little.
Overall, I felt like it was hard to navigate their website and staff were unhelpful during the rental process. A lot of their systems related to receipts and refunds are archaic. I wouldn't plan an event here again simply because they can't guarantee you get what you pay for. I wish they could refine this process more to make access to the parks better