Jellystone Park North Port Huron — Hotel in Forester Township

📍 Port Sanilac, MI (North Port Huron location)||📆 Dates of Stay: July 4–6, 2025||||As a returning guest since 2019, I never imagined I would feel compelled to write a public warning. But after the deeply distressing experience my family endured over this past weekend, I feel a responsibility to share our story—so that others might be spared similar trauma and disappointment.||||⸻||||🛶 GROSS NEGLIGENCE IN SAFETY PRACTICES||On our very first night, guests were seen using canoes well past midnight, with no supervision or security measures in place. Watercraft were unsecured and left fully accessible. This lack of oversight represented a major liability and foreshadowed the even more serious failures to come.||||⸻||||🧼 UNSANITARY CABIN CONDITIONS UPON ARRIVAL|| • The floors were so dirty that towels turned black after wiping them|| • Human feces was present in the toilet at check-in|| • Only half the beds were made, despite pre-paying for linen service|| • No towels were provided, despite our prior confirmation with staff||||One staff member, Julie, a housekeeper, stood out as a beacon of professionalism amid the chaos. She was clearly overwhelmed but made a sincere effort to assist. She promised to return to clean the floors—though understandably, she never did. Her efforts, while appreciated, were hampered by lack of support. Ultimately, we cleaned the cabin ourselves and left it in better condition than we received it.||||⸻||||💧 POOL CONDITIONS DEEMED UNSAFE||The swimming pool was cloudy, murky, and clearly unfiltered. Out of concern for health and hygiene, we chose not to allow our children to enter the water.||||⸻||||🛝 INACCESSIBLE AMENITIES WITH NO STAFFING STRUCTURE||The jump pad remained closed the entire weekend, and during peak afternoon hours, all water slides were shut down simultaneously for staff breaks. There was no communication, no signage, and no staff available to oversee activities. Families were left confused and children disappointed.||||⸻||||🛟 TRAGIC DROWNING WITH ZERO EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS||On July 6th, a 24-year-old man tragically drowned during the Wibit water activity. There were:|| • 🚫 No lifeguards|| • 🚫 No staff monitoring the lake|| • 🚫 No visible safety guidelines or instructions|| • 🚫 No emergency protocol or coordinated response||||My children and I witnessed this tragedy firsthand, along with several other guests. The emotional impact was profound. Even more heartbreaking was knowing that this incident was entirely preventable with the most basic safety standards in place.||||⸻||||🍽 INAPPROPRIATE STAFF CONDUCT & LACK OF SUPERVISION IN THE CAFE||Just five minutes after the drowning, I was sitting quietly with my children and a small group of fellow guests, respectfully processing the traumatic event we had just experienced. We were not near any other parties, and our discussion was private and subdued.||||A café staff member approached us and instructed us not to discuss the incident.||||Her timing and tone were deeply inappropriate given the emotional distress surrounding us. She was not invited into the conversation and lacked the sensitivity such a situation demanded. Later, another café worker used profanity toward a guest who respectfully defended our right to speak. There was no manager on duty, and staff were visibly unsupervised and unprepared to handle any level of guest interaction—let alone crisis response.||||⸻||||⚠️ MANAGEMENT DISPLAYED HOSTILITY, AVOIDANCE, AND COMPLETE LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY||When I requested to speak with a senior staff member, the woman on duty (blonde, glasses) who claimed to be the acting manager:|| • Refused to contact or locate the on-site general manager|| • Declined to provide any corporate contact or complaint channel|| • Became visibly agitated and created a public scene in front of other guests||||Soon after, we were asked to vacate the property early. No resolution was offered.||No refund. No apology. No accountability.||||⸻||||📎 FORMAL COMPLAINTS HAVE BEEN FILED WITH:||✅ Sanilac County Health Department||✅ Michigan Attorney General’s Office||✅ Better Business Bureau||||⸻||||💔 A young man lost his life. My family saw it happen. And the park’s response was not one of leadership or care—but of deflection, silence, and hostility.||||This facility is not safe. It is not professionally managed. And it is certainly not suitable for families seeking a secure, respectful, or sanitary environment.||||Please think twice before making a reservation...

We stayed for 5 days in one of the cozy-camping style cabins. Cabin was super clean, well maintained - surprised to find it even had a little tv up in the corner. My little one LOVED the ladder up to the loft (though as an adult I would not have wanted to sleep up there - for some reason there was no light in the loft even?). We paid the extra $25 to choose which cabin we had - just to make sure we were right next to the bathrooms for the kids. So the shower/bath house was right near us, with a nice little playground right next to that. ||Unfortunately quiet hours are not really enforced, so being next to the playground was a huge pain. Kids were out playing on it and yelling til 1am.||I had read complaints about there not being enough bathroom stalls and/or showers - and about them not being kept clean. There were only about 3 stalls in the womans, but we never had any issues or had to wait for one. I never heard anyone else using the showers at all. And they seemed well kept up the whole 5-days we were there - mid-July which I assume would be a busy season. My only complaint about the bathrooms is that the showers are motion-activated, like the sinks. Its a bit of a pain to try to wash yourself when every time you move to grab a bottle of shampoo or whatever, the water turns off lol.||We enjoyed the pool, 5-year old adored the splash pad. We never even made it out to hunt for the bounce pillow, or had time to check out puttputt. We spent our days at the beach, the pool, and then made some trips out to neighboring towns to see the area. We did pay the extra $7 for the two 5-year olds we brought to check out the kiddie obstacle course. I agree with other reviewers that it seems a bit crazy to have to pay an extra fee for that...and then to make it even worse, they were only interested in it for about 30 mins and then wanted to go back to the pool. I could see older kids being more interested in the bigger course maybe would make it worth the price.||For the most part we really enjoyed the facilities though. Love the cute bears placed around for photo ops. Bought TONS of Yogi themed souvenirs. ||Not so impressed with the teenage staff, the food, or the activities.||We did dinner one evening at the little food court. The white-board sign said their hours were 9am-9pm right in front of us, but at about 7pm the young woman at the register started cleaning up. We watched her give away a pizza for free to a family stating it had been made and she didn't want to dirty the pizza case it was supposed to go into. Then she tells the next customers they are out of pizza. She also specifically told us there were no tacos because she did not want to thaw out the taco meat. Every thing about the menu appeared to be whatever got her to be able to go home early....and we were rushed out an hour before they were supposed to close.||As for activities - which Jellystone is supposed to me known for - these were also severely disappointing. My little ones were very excited about crafts, so we tried to partake in quite a few, but the activities are not run well. Every time we stopped by they were being manned by teenagers who looked to be between 12-16 years old. We never saw any adults. Two different days we waited 15 mins to do bird houses, only to be told both times they just didn't have the materials for the craft. You would think the 2nd day they would have known they were out and scheduled something different.... We did get to do tye-dye, though there seemed to be a lot of confusion about finding us correct shirt sizes. We tried to pop in for movie night and were told they couldn't get the sound to work so it was not happening. And we stopped in for trivia, but it was so badly run we didn't stay long. The little kids immediately felt left-out because the girl running trivia would only call on the child who happened to be sitting right in front of her (kind of made sense as that was the person she could see best....but also seemed super obvious she could not see the whole room to tell who had their hands up first). They definitely need a better system for trivia, if they are going to keep offering that.||All in all, I would recommend the campground but if you are choosing them for the added activities....especially if you are paying more here for that...

Where do we begin. Many updates have been done here since our last visit a few years ago, having the Wibit and water slides along with their pool and water play area is a good addition. Would love the mini golf area fixed up! Cabins are beautiful, soft beds. Our experience this time was interesting though- First we tried calling for 2 weeks prior to our reservation with no answer or call back. My mom finally got ahold of them the morning of and asked housekeeping if we could do an early check in, which she said shouldn't be a problem and she would call us back and let us know. No call back, so we get there at 2pm thinking if check in is 4 we should be good. Nope, they said no way, the policy is 4pm. So we left for 2 hours or were offered to pay $25 a person to use the amenities while we waited. Next, we check in and get to the cabin. It's flooded outside and around the fire pit. The next day we went and asked for maintenance to come look at the hose so we can have a fire without sitting in water and he said oh we've been meaning to fix this for awhile.

The next day the power goes out. We walk in to the store and the first thing they said was there's nothing we can do about anything the power is out. But I kindly asked if I can purchase a bag of ice or pay with cash so she called a manager and they ended up providing a bag of ice to keep our meat cold for free.

Whole time, the check in lady had a "can not do" attitude so we hated to go in the store and see her no matter how friendly we were. The ice cream was closed when we asked. The store sign said the store closes at 7pm but they were still working at 8pm one weeknight. The day that lady wasn't there was Thursday night and we were happy. We asked for ice cream and a different lady said yes. She sends a guy to scoop it for us. He gave us the smallest scoop I've seen in all my 37 years 🤣 the lady goes to check us out and says how is the Skittles. I didn't get any so she says let me get you a scoop, with 3 Skittles in it!! That was sweet of her, at least. She was the best and most thoughtful worker here. I have to say, with some negatives, we made the most out of our stay. Even when most of the activities were not available. The ice cream contest was cancelled, there wasn't a glow parade, or a color run. My kids showed up for a game of Wiffle ball and the lady said it was at a different location so they go there and nobody was there. The tie dye is advertised as $5 but when you get there it's $5 for the dye if you bring your own shirt. Shirt price should just be stated.

We rent a kayak and the little lady over there says it was double the price, we question it and then she says oh the system was messing up. Then says I'll go get the life jackets.. then says I'll go get the boats ready and comes back 5 minutes later and walks past us saying excuse me.. we stood there for too long before another lady comes over and says what are you waiting for. We said our boats to be ready, she says go help yourselves lol.

The wibit was free for everyone on Tuesday due to pool closure.. but Wednesday when the power went out so the other areas were not running for 3-4 hours, that day we had to pay $15 per hour. There were only maybe 4 kids out there. Basically, we feel the employees need to get on the same page and communicate.

Everyone here sends off a greedy attitude instead of a family friendly, generous, helpful attitude. Nice scenery here at this park but we don't care to go back. Would love to hear that things improve in the future. Some activities could be free like the candy bar bingo. Instead of buying your own candy bar to pass, you could provide some mini candy bars for the kids to come play without being turned away. Also a walk way/path from the pool parking lot to the water slides would be wonderful for bikers.

Lastly, if you like camping with limited food options at the park and nothing around the area then this place is for you. Bring lots...