A seasonal camping agreement covers a lot more than the site rate. It sets your season dates, who’s allowed to stay with you, what happens to your rig once you pull out, and what you forfeit if your plans change. Priority Enrollment for returning seasonal guests closes September 30, and Open Enrollment opens the site to new guests October 1. Before you call the front desk, here’s what the agreement itself actually covers.
What’s Actually in a Seasonal Agreement
A seasonal site is a season-long agreement covering roughly 6 months at a stretch, and most of them cover the same 7 things, even though the specifics shift from park to park:
- The term. Your set-up day and your pull-out day.
- The site. Which one, and what’s included on it.
- Occupancy. Who’s allowed to stay there, and for how long.
- Guests. The rules for visitors who aren’t named on the agreement.
- Storage. What happens to your rig once the season ends.
- Insurance. What proof the park needs from you before you set up.
- Cancellation and renewal. What you’re on the hook for if you change your mind, and what you get for staying another year.
Read the whole agreement, not just the rate sheet. Here’s what each piece usually means in practice.
The Term: Set-Up Day to Pull-Out Day
Season dates track the local weather, so they shift by region. In the upper Midwest, most RJourney seasonal parks run mid-April to mid-October: Pearl Lake and Baraboo close Oct 14, Coconut Cove runs a day longer to Oct 15. Farther south and at year-round parks, the seasonal window can stretch longer or disappear entirely into a monthly rate. Our guide to how seasonal camping works breaks down the regional windows park by park.
The agreement should name your exact set-up date and your exact pull-out date, plus what happens if you need either end to flex. Some parks build in a grace window. Others don’t. Ask before you assume.
Occupancy and Guest Limits
Your agreement names who’s actually camping on the site, usually the RV owner plus any immediate family living there for the season. That’s occupancy, and it’s different from guests: the friends and extended family who visit for a weekend or an afternoon.
Most parks cap how many people can be on a site at once, and many charge a per-person or per-night fee once a visitor stays past a certain number of days. A few require guests to check in at the office, especially at family-oriented parks with pool and activity headcounts to manage. None of this is universal. Ask your park what counts as a guest, what’s free, and what isn’t before your first cookout gets crowded.
Winter Storage: A Separate Line in the Agreement
A number of RJourney parks, including Pearl Lake, Baraboo, Coconut Cove, and Splash Magic, offer on-site winter storage for seasonal guests once you pull out. It’s priced and arranged as its own line, separate from your seasonal site rate.
A few things are consistent across the parks that offer it: storage is priced separately (and lower for seasonal guests than for the general public), it’s arranged in person at the front desk when you pull out rather than booked online, and it runs on its own calendar, typically opening the day after pull-out and closing right before next season’s set-up. If keeping your rig on-site over winter matters to you, ask about it before you sign, not after the season ends. Our RV winter storage guide covers costs and options across the network in more depth.
Insurance: What Most Parks Ask For
Nearly every RV park, seasonal or nightly, asks for proof of insurance on the rig itself before you set up: liability coverage at minimum, sometimes with a specific coverage floor written into the agreement. Seasonal agreements tend to be stricter about it than a weekend stay, since your RV is sitting on their property for months at a stretch instead of a few nights.
Some parks also carry their own liability coverage for common areas and ask seasonal guests to acknowledge it as part of the paperwork. The details vary by park and by state, so bring your current insurance card when you sign and ask the front desk exactly what they need on file.
Cancellation and Payment: What “Deposit” Really Means
This is the section worth reading twice, because it’s the one that costs money if you skip it. Most seasonal agreements run on a tiered cancellation structure with a few distinct checkpoints. The shape is usually something like this:
- A short grace period. Cancel within the first 48 hours of booking and most parks refund everything you’ve paid.
- A deposit that holds your site. A minimum initial payment is due when you reserve, separate from your final balance.
- A window before the season opens. Cancel after the grace period but before that deadline, and the deposit is typically forfeited along with a cancellation fee calculated as a percentage of your first billing period. If you’d paid more than the fee, the difference comes back. If you’d paid less, the remaining balance is still owed.
- On or after the deadline. Cancelling this close to the season generally forfeits everything paid so far, and some agreements still hold you responsible for the unpaid portion of the season’s rate.
The exact deadline (RJourney parks commonly set it around 30 days before the season opens), the deposit amount, and the fee percentage are all park-specific, and they’re spelled out in the agreement itself. Ask the front desk to walk you through the cancellation policy line by line before you put money down, and get the numbers in writing.
Payment structure is usually your choice, too: pay the season in full for the best rate, or spread it across installments for a small premium. Neither changes the cancellation terms.
Renewal Priority: Why Current Guests Get First Call
If you already have a seasonal site, your agreement almost certainly gives you first right to renew it before anyone else can book it. At RJourney parks, that Priority Enrollment window runs September 1 through September 30 each year. Renew inside it and you keep your site, your dates, and typically a loyalty rate for coming back.
Miss the window, and your site can open up to Open Enrollment on October 1, first come, first served, same as a new guest. Seasonal sites turn over slowly (a park might have only a handful of openings for the coming year), so the renewal deadline is the one date on this whole page worth writing down.
Before You Sign: 6 Questions to Ask the Front Desk
- What’s my exact set-up date and pull-out date, and is there any flex on either end?
- How many people can live on the site, and what’s the guest policy for visitors?
- Is winter storage available here, what does it cost, and how do I arrange it?
- What insurance do I need to show, and is there a minimum coverage requirement?
- What’s the cancellation deadline, and what exactly do I forfeit at each stage?
- What’s my renewal deadline for next season, and does it lock in a returning rate?
Get answers to all 6 before you sign anything. A 10-minute conversation at the front desk is cheaper than finding out the hard way in October.
Where to Find a Seasonal Site for 2027
Several RJourney parks are running Priority and Open Enrollment for the 2027 season right now. Each park page has the season dates, phone number, and office hours:
- Pearl Lake RV Campground (Redgranite, WI)
- Baraboo RV Resort (Baraboo, WI)
- Coconut Cove RV Resort (Hazel Green, WI)
- James Creek RV Resort (James Creek, PA)
- Splash Magic RV Resort (Northumberland, PA), waitlist only for 2027
Our seasonal camping enrollment page has the full 2027 timeline, and what is seasonal camping covers every park in the network that offers season-length stays, including the year-round and winter-season options.
Seasonal Camping Contract FAQ
What’s the difference between a deposit and the seasonal rate?
The deposit (or minimum initial payment) holds your site when you reserve it, and it’s credited toward your seasonal rate rather than charged on top of it. The rest of the balance is due either in full or across installments, depending on the plan you choose.
Can I get a refund if I cancel my seasonal site?
It depends on when you cancel. Most agreements offer a full refund inside a short grace period right after booking, a partial refund (minus a cancellation fee) if you cancel before a set deadline, and no refund if you cancel on or after that deadline. Ask your park for its specific deadline and fee before you sign.
Do I have to renew my seasonal site every year?
Yes. Seasonal agreements typically run for a single season, and renewal is a separate step you take during the park’s Priority Enrollment window. Missing that window can mean losing your site to Open Enrollment.
Is winter storage included in a seasonal agreement?
Only where a park offers it, and even then it’s a separate add-on. You typically arrange it at the front desk when you pull out, and it’s priced apart from your seasonal site rate.
Every park runs its agreement a little differently. The structure above is what to look for; the numbers are a phone call away.
