State Park reservation system closing for 3 months!

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Check this out from the DNR. What is with these folks? So you wait until the contract expires before you make new arrangments? Most folks would lose there job if they ran things this way:

Minnesota State Parks Reservation system

temporarily unavailable after December 26, 2011

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Why will the reservation system be temporarily unavailable?

Minnesota State Parks reservation system is being upgraded.

The contract with the current vendor, Active Network (doing business as Infospherix) will expire at the end of December. The contract is rebid every three to five years. After carefully evaluating the responses to its request for proposals (RFP), the DNR awarded a three-year contract to US eDirect, whose product, Recreation Dynamics, best met the criteria for cost effectiveness, flexibility and user-friendly functionality.

What are the advantages of the new system?

When it launches March 1, the new system will feature interactive maps and show where to find available overnight accommodations at a glance, making trip planning much easier. The new system will also be less expensive to use. The DNR fee for making a reservation online or through a new automated phone option will drop from $8.50 to $7.

Will customers be impacted by the transition to the new system?

During the transition from the old system to the new one, for a couple of months customers will not be able to make reservations for the 2012 summer season. The DNR thanks everyone for their patience during the transition.

When will the DNR shift to the new system?

Here are the key dates to note:

Dec. 26, 2011:

Reservations can be made until 8 p.m. online at stayatmnparks.com and by phone at 1-866-85PARKS for all types of overnight accommodations (camping, cabins and lodging) for arrival dates through Dec. 26, 2012; this will be the last chance to make 2012 camping reservations until March 1.

Dec. 27, 2011-Feb. 29, 2012:

State parks reservation service will be temporarily unavailable.

March 1, 2012:

The DNR expects the new reservation system to be ready to accept online and phone reservations starting at 8 a.m.

How will state park gift card sales and redemptions be affected?

From Dec. 27 through the end of February, Minnesota state park gift cards, which typically are sold through the reservation system, will be available for purchase at Minnesota state parks or by calling the Division of Parks and Trails, 651-259-5600, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Online gift card sales are expected to resume March 1.

Recipients of gift cards will be able to redeem them without interruption for lodging, ski and snowshoe rental, and the nature-themed books, apparel and other items sold in at Minnesota state parks and recreation areas.

12/1/11

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

You can bet it won't be a seamless transition either

[woodsmanmn]

I work in IT. If we took a 3 month outage to cut over to a new system, I'd be out of a job and my company would be out of business.

[Hoey]

Woodsman - I am with you on that. We usually had to change the tires on the car while it was going down the road, no time to stop. Sounds like they hired volunteers....

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

"Dear Minnesota State Parks Guest,

The Minnesota State Parks reservation service is temporarily unavailable while technical issues can be identified and resolved. We apologize if you have been affected by these delays. "

Shocker

[woodsmanmn]

Three months, three months, three months to build junk!

[reinhard1]

i had a person PM me about a park up north. he then tried to make a reservatiion and found out about the technical difficulty issue. i'm not a computer wiz, but could it be that the site was overloaded with people trying to get on there? just a guess. still the state should have anticipated this if that was the case. good luck.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

I guess I was just expecting more at the start. I hope they can work out the bugs soon because I'm getting spring fever!

[DonBo]

Thought I hear you can still make reservations over the phone, just not online.

[SpecialK]

They talked about it on CCO this morning. Reinhard nailed it. The system was overwhelmed. They were planning on handling 4500 reservations a day and had 4500 people hit the system in the first hour.

Back to the drawing board as their system needs to be upgraded to handle the traffic.

[Redlantern]

People biotching about not being able to use the internet to set up a reservation to get away from the internet. Seems kind of ironic to me. We're too dependant on computers, myself included.

[itchmesir]

People biotching about not being able to use the internet to set up a reservation to get away from the internet. Seems kind of ironic to me. We're too dependant on computers, myself included.

man.. they're gonna be PO'd when all the electric sites are taken and they can't run their AC or watch TV while "camping"

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

This sucks. First the state shutdown screwed things up last year now this! Somebody needs to get their act together. A little foresite would have gone a long way here. They should not have waited until their contract expired before starting this. Sorry to rant, but this really bothers me. Makes Wisconsin look more and more appealing.

[Powerstroke]

Reservations can be made up to one year in advance. The state warned that they would be down for 3 months to do maintenance. Now people are complaining that it wasn't available for them when THEY wanted it. This is a once every ten years process. In another year, no one will remember anything about this. It will be fine.

[reinhard1]

i think some were frustrated when after waiting 3 month and the state told them it would be ready March 1st, they apparently didn't callculate the number of people contacting them the first day and the system was overloaded. so now they apparently shut it down again to fix this. someone said you could still reserve by using the phone however. good luck.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

No you can't even make reservations by phone. Regarding the whining, what else can you do this time of year when you don't ice fish

Yes, I will live through this and sounds like it is going to have some nice features when it is working. I just hope it's to much longer. Some of us can't make decisions like this a year in advance when other family members are involved.

[Big Dave2]

Makes Wisconsin look more and more appealing.

Did LMIT OUT take over this account?

[Powerstroke]

I'm one of those waiting for a reservation too, but there's nothing i can do about it.

I'm focusing on turkey hunting so these camping reservations are pretty low on my radar. However, we have been talking about camping alot lately. I can't wait!!

[reinhard1]

we have to skip the State Parks this year, and will be going for short 3 day trips to some of the islands we have stayed on up north. My mother-inlaw who lives with us is 85 and she went camping with us in the past but it's getting a little harder for her now. so week long trips are out this year.

our whole family loves camping, and look forward to it every year. hopefully everyone gets their reservation this year on the date they want. good luck.

[chasineyes]

Um the STATE is the one who went to a reservation system. NOT THE PUBLIC. When 66% of the sites are reserveable that kind of puts a kink in the system. What happened 20 years ago when NO reservations were allowed and you just drove up and picked a spot???

So the public is not to blame, its the STATE. Notice you can't even CALL and make a reservation.

Amazing how people will defend the State but go into a tizzy when gas, tuition, insurance, electricty, etc.. go up in price.

[Redlantern]

Good Grief, Chasin, I was just having a little fun, making fun of ourselves, myself included. No need to get all political in a camping forum.

[Powerstroke]

Huh?

[pikechaser]

Save yourself alot of grief and go to a private campground/resort...The whole Reservation system is a JOKE...Not worth the cost imo....Ive run into to many state park workers the where silly-me HOLES..finally said its not worth it...Havent ever looked back

[smallieobsession]

I think I was posted earlier but only a government organization could get away with something like this...taking a revenue producing system offline for three months to cut over to a new system? Give me a break. I work in consulting and you could never ever get away with a plan like this in the real world. We'd be out of business if this is how we approached it. Laughable.

[chasineyes]

Lets assess the situation from a dollars and cents approach. If people can't make reservations with the state (due to a f up in XYZ) they will BOOK their reservations somewhere else. Therefore the MN Park department will be short revenue. Then they will go to the State or Legislature and ask for MORE money to make up for this revenue shortfall. That is what people are tired of.