We originally booked Jetty Park hoping to see a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral as well as to spend some time on the beach. While we accomplished the latter, we missed the opportunity to see a rocket launch by just a few days and had to move on. Luckily we didn’t move far though and we plan to come back to Jetty Park on launch day to see United Launch Alliance send a GPS satellite into orbit aboard the final launch of a medium configuration Delta IV rocket. We will have more about that in a future blog post.

We weren’t too sure what we’d get into at Jetty Park since many of the sites including ours were grass and the roads were dirt. It turned out to be about as we expected with numerous small pot holes in the road and at least some of the sites were in bad shape due to recent rains. Ours turned out to not be too bad and we managed to get in and out without leaving deep ruts. The other issue was that we were only able to get a 30 amp site instead of a 50 amp site. Because of the way 50 amp connections work you actually get 100 amps of power to work with. So, 30 amps was less than 1/3 of what we normally have. What this means is that we could only run one AC unit at a time and with temperatures reaching into the 90’s they each run full time normally. We managed by just running the AC in the area we were using – bedroom at night and living room during the day. Lucky for us, we had rain nearly every afternoon and that helped too . The one night it didn’t, it took a while to get the bedroom cooled down from 90 degrees.

Of course one of the main draws to the area is the nearby beach. During the week it was largely deserted as primary school is already in session. Weekends were quite a bit busier but it still wasn’t that bad. We had a day where they flew red flags indicating dangerous currents and waves but we found them to be much smaller waves than we have experienced along the gulf coast. Water temperatures varied from somewhat warm to almost cold but that was very refreshing on hot days. One day we even saw some dolphins nearby and a couple jumped all the way out of the water.

When not at the beach, we had fun hanging out along the jetty area watching the cruise ships and boat traffic. We had one cruise ship make an unplanned stop that we think was possibly due to a passenger having medical issues. One afternoon we watched the Harmony of the Seas leave about 4:30PM on schedule then we woke up at midnight only to see it leaving the port again. Looking at the maritime tracking map we saw that it headed toward its destination for about 2 hours before turning around and coming back, leaving again an hour or two later. We never did figure out why that happened. Anna loved waking at 5 AM most mornings to see the cruise ships all lit up coming into port.

Nearby the campground was plenty of shopping (beachwear, groceries, etc.) as well as quite a few restaurants. We had good meals at Salsas Mexican, Rusty’s Seafood & Oyster Bar and Rising Tide Tap & Table. Rusty’s offered great seafood with views of Port Canaveral from inside or outside seating. Rising Tide offers 60 craft beers and specializes in Street Tacos, Stone Baked Pizzas, Smash Iron Burgers and Handcrafted Cocktails. We had lunch there and found their burgers and fish tacos to be excellent.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Site Quality:  Dirt roads with quite a few pot holes. Grass/dirt pads with some having a concrete pad. The west end of the park has larger sites and satellite access whereas the east end has smaller sites and more trees so a site large enough for us could be challenging to find. Water and sewer seemed to have been laid out by a drunken sailor. To save on water spigots pair of sites share a single spigot. For us that meant we had to run water to the opposite side of the trailer which wasn’t too bad. Our sewer (site 130) was positioned well for us but the neighboring site’s sewer was right at our door despite the fact that the power pole was 10′ away and would have been the traditional place to find the sewer connection.
Type:  County Park
Access: From Interstate 95 take FL-528 east to the George King Blvd exit then follow it east into the park. There were no traffic issues on this road but they are building a new Port Terminal beside the park which could cause congestion on cruise days in the future.
Staff: The staff were friendly and helpful.
Amenities:  Shuffle board, horseshoes, community fire pits, dump station. Playground and picnic area along with a fishing pier adjacent to the campground. The beach is off the east end of the campground.
Cellular/WiFi:  Verizon and AT&T were both decent at about 4-6 Mbps.
What we liked: Full hookup site (not all are), stores and restaurants nearby. Lots of things to do nearby particularly hanging out on the beach. In mid-August the beach was not at all crowded during the week although it was on the weekends. It rained almost every day which turned out to be pretty good because it helped cool down the temperatures. Otherwise, it was quite hot and humid. It might be better to come here in the spring of fall before the winter floridians arrive.
What we didn’t like: Our site was a 30A site – meaning we had less than 1/3 of the power available than we normally do. This means that only one air conditioner can run at a time and using the microwave may even shut that down. In spite of that we managed pretty well by only running the AC in the area where we were spending time – bedroom at night and living room during the day. Previously mentioned connection layout was just odd. The site next to ours needed some dirt to level it out and fill in some ruts. Mowing grass in the campground on a Saturday when the park was full vs during the week when it was fairly empty.
Verdict: Despite the low rating for the park, we would come back just because of the access to the beach, watching cruise ships, local restaurants and shops.