There is a lot of room for improvement needed here and a lot probably has to do with staffing or lack of.
Arrived Saturday (check in was 3PM). We stayed in cabin 340 (2 bedroom: queen bed, bunk with full and twin). This cabin is located right next to the recreation building, dog park, & fitness center. There is a patio area off the bedroom containing the queen and also a large sit down patio with table, 6 chairs, gas fireplace pit, & gas grill. On arrival our gas grill looked like it hadn't been cleaned in some time. Here began our first encounter with maintenance. We later would find out our patio light was out (that took 3 attempts to get replaced).
Kitchen comes with dining table, 4 chairs, full size fridge, stove top range, microwave, toaster, single cup Keurig, & stocked with the necessities needed for cooking and serving along with dish soap and paper towels. It shares space with mounted flatscreen and a 2 seater couch that is a pull out.
Bathroom is single sink, small cabinet containing extra towels (think we had a total of 4 and ended up asking for more which was a 2 call inquiry). It's a shower only setup; there was wall mounted hand soap, body wash, shampoo, & conditioner. These were unfortunately empty on our visit; and part of the three tries to remedy.
Before I move on from our cabin we spent the last day of our stay with a broken AC (this took 2 calls; first determined it was working, second overruled the first diagnosis and found the unit was completely unresponsive). They offered to move us but at this point it was our last night and seemed pointless.
The pools (there are 2) were very much enjoyed but again staffing was close to nothing. We waited to attempt the pools after crowds started moving out Sunday. The pool did not feel heated beyond what the jacuzzi waterfall poured into it. This pool area contained the outside bar/food offerings. I found the souvenir kids cup drinks pricing very cheap (2 bucks and some change), you could get these at the inside counter. This pool stays open until 10PM.
The water zone which is where there is another sitting/kids pool and water park has very limited seating (I'd hate to see this place at capacity). Our group rented a cabana for the whole trip thankfully. I have to say the food we tried from the concession area here was delicious (cheese stuffed bread sticks, funnel cake fries, Buffalo chicken empanadas) and prices weren't bad. The water zone was freezing, I struggled getting accustomed to the water. I also noticed one of the small kids slides was broken, no water pumped into it keeping the slides fully wet and water pooled at end (it did catch water from the drop bucket). This kept it slick so when my daughter went down it she went flying out over the end hurting herself. This area stays open until 6PM.
Arcade; don't bother! More than half the games are broken, you can only buy a game card if you have cash from register (the machines that normally distribute those were broken).
General store was disappointing in souvenir offerings. I'm sorry I like things more location specific.
Golf cart, rent one. I don't know how you can get to everything this location offers without one. Unless your diehard walker (which we did quite a bit).
Outdoor sports area; my kids loved the bouncy floor it just was a trek to get to on foot.
Activities were very few and again lack of staff made it all very chaotic.
Ice cream store (pop up located near recreation building and park) wasn't open Sunday/Monday during our stay. This was extremely disappointing. Not sure if this is normal hours; or just again understaffed.
We saw Yogi bear 3 times during our 4 day stay, not once during the activities that were being held (I've heard he does a flag raising at other parks).
Gem stone mining; our group purchased the 21 dollar mining bag it contained enough for 4 kids ages 4-10. The mining activity is basically an at your leisure (there are 4 sluice boxes). It's located near the red train and look out tower (both great photo ops).
Sadly not sure my family will return to this Jelly stone location. We in total were a group of 18 ( 3 cabins & one rv site). Aside all the hiccups it's a lackluster location in terms of scenery; if you like trains, coal trains are a plenty to hear and watch at ALL hours of the day, and being right off the highway. Trees are almost completely clear cut and gone with many young trees, so in 20 years+ might make this place feel more of a "camp" like location. read more