Jellystone Park™ Androscoggin Lake

Definitely, a very positive surprise awaited us this stay. We rented a rustic cabin near the end of the season and a heater was there for us to use. But, the happy meter went to 5 stars when a 3 or 4" mattress topper was now on the bed. The staff were wonderful and helped make the trip relaxed and fun.

This is the only campground that we go to. We’ve had a camper for three years and spent the first two years trying different areas with our family. Jellystone Androscoggin Lake is by far the most family friendly place to stay. Our daughters (9,3) have a blast every time. This is largely because of the staff at Jellystone. Aili and Chloe are great with kids and are always very helpful with the different activities from arts and crafts, bear appearances and everything in between. Alice, the Assistant GM, is awesome. She is always out and about and greets everyone when she is out in the campground. If we ever have an issue, she is quick to find a resolution. Paul works in Maintenance and also helps with bear appearances and driving the tractor for the Hey Hey Rides. Paul is always nice and extremely safe with his duties. Camping with two young kids and two dogs can be stressful, but these individuals always find a way to help, any way they can. We will always come back to Yogi Androscoggin Lake!!

Stayed in 2023, if I reviewed then I probably would have gave 1 or less stars. Reviewing today since google asked. To start I have stayed at numerous Yogi Bear resorts and many more campgrounds both family owned and corporate owned. Our overall experience here would probably be at our top three worst ever stays at a campground and this has to do primarily with the staff. Hopefully this has changed since we stayed. The representative at check-in seemed devoid of hospitality. However, later visits to the Ranger’s office as it’s called was improved by some very polite staff as I would expect out of the hospitality industry in Maine. We even extended our stay prior to our disheartening interaction with a supervisor. Things we liked: -campground had traditional campground Field winding roads, but easy access to sites though there was some washout issues do the reins, but that is understandable and they were fixing them towards the end of our trip. -Limited lighting made for a dark campground, which is what we prefer, especially considering we’re camping and we want to be in the woods and see the stars. -Most sites were spacious with a decent amount of separation in between. Dislikes, I’ll save the worst for last: - to access the campground you must drive down a long access road that is not improved while this normally wouldn’t be a large issue. It was heavily eroded due to the rains and urgently needed attention when traveling into the campground with our trailer I had constantly cover the break because idle speed was too fast with the ruts and potholes. I wish I would’ve been more mentally prepared for this. They could’ve easily sent out a blast notification via text or email. -Many of the amenities at the campground were closed during the week in August supposedly due to limited staff. Restrictions on activities that were otherwise available to our kids at other Yogi Bear resorts were not posted on the website prior to our arrival or make clear to us leading to a later issue. -sites were very dirty. I even made note of this too the staff upon our arrival, but they made no effort to clean. Our site was loaded with garbage and bottle caps hammered into stumps and trees not what I expect in Maine. - now for my big issue. We had extended our stay because of poor weather and some upcoming nice days on our nice day. We decided to use the pool with its waterslide open for the first time during our stay. Our young kids who were very accustomed to waterslides were super excited. We sent them to the use to slide, watching from across the pool both boys with their lifejackets in place not swim vest. Lifejackets went up the steps to use to slide only to be yelled at by staff for not reading a sign. keep in mind our kids four and five while meeting the height requirement for the slide Could not read and did not know they were not allowed to wear lifejackets for some reason. The one staff person continue yell at our child as if they are where their parents while we made her way across the pool to find out what was going on and why our children were crying. We pulled our kids away and reassured them. However, this experience was very offputting and felt that it needed to be noted as it could’ve been avoided in first place by the staff paying attention rather than being in their phones. When I spoke to the supervisor, who was in charge that day, I explained to them the situation and how displeased we were and how this is unexpected compared to our previous days at Yogi‘s as well as some of our other issues that we’ve had at the campground that were never corrected. I can’t recall the exact words he used, but he made me feel like I was some city slicker from NJ and felt that I was entitled to do whatever I want. He immediately ate his words when I explained to him my background in the hospitality industry in his state of Maine working for a family business. Well, he stopped defending his staff, there was never an apology given. Not sure if we’ll ever return to this campground.

I felt I need to write this after reading so many negative reviews of this place, because we had a blast. The kids did not want to leave! This was our first experience here with our two boys (4 and 9) and another family with similar aged children. We booked a camp site for two nights in August down by the beach and it was perfect - tucked away with a small private sand path to the beach and dock. We had access to electricity and water at our site and plenty of room to setup two large tents and a 12x12 screened room. We rented a golf cart since we were a little ways from the facilities (but really just a short walk), which was helpful when we needed to get there fast. We really enjoyed this place and made some core memories for our kids! Cooking breakfast over open fire, canoeing to an island, meeting Yogi, swimming around a pool, and enjoying ice cream were some of the highlights. The staff were very nice and informative, but also laid back. We weren't looking for a ton of stimulation, just some classic tent camping with some perks. Renting a canoe for half a day was $25 and that was a lot of fun to check out an island. The pool was clean and our oldest loved the slides. The golf cart was fun to drive around and check out other people's setups. The Ranger Station provided some missing items (and hot coffee). Overall, we had a really fun time and will most likely return next year!

We had an absolutely great time at Jellystone, we were on our way to another campsite with two trucks and campers when 1 truck lost an entire tire and called Jellystone who was the closest campsite to us and she was like get here and we will get you in don’t worry. They gave us 2 semi private sites for both of us and the dogs which was perfect. Every single person we dealt with was extremely friendly and great and so helpful during a tough situation and they did they’re absolute best to make our trip into a good one, the Halloween displays and walking trail was really nice and fun to see and we will definitely make it back for future trips