Starlight Campground and RV Park — Hotel in Mancelona Township

We arrived there Friday, July 27. Worst and RUDE camp ground I’ve ever experienced in the history of me ever camping. We rented the space for Feral Fest as a back up for the kids to stay, and the time we barely were on the camp ground we were stopped and verbally harassed by the older middle aged worker Vince (so called owner) about breaking some sort of rule. He honestly singled us out right from the beginning along with the help from a worker seasonally living there directly from our camp site. More like a peeping Tom then someone constantly peeking out his sun shade visor in his RV window. It was complete non sense. It’s hard for me to be so judgmental about this campground and how we were so miss treated. I have to let everyone know. I come from working the hospitality industry as management for MGM Grand for 12 years, and our whole experience being negative and walking on egg shells was ridiculous. We are all full grown adults aging from 30-65 years old and definitely know the difference between acting immature and what’s right, and what’s wrong. I honestly think the main problem was due to us having one black gentleman with us seemed to be the main reason. I believe it was a race thing because as I was walking out of the changing room. My African American was walking up to the pool and immediately stopped and harassed by the same gentlemen and told him for no reason that he needs to leave for breaking rules, and said “you’re not even suppose to be here”. Mean time other people were walking out from the changing room from our site and jumping in the pool. So if this doesn’t sound like a race issue then what does it sound like to you. We all paid for our stay and I promise you everything was uncalled for. The only rule that was broken to my knowledge we did was one time supposedly speed above the 5mph while pulling into the campground where there was no campers present on the all most empty campground. Yeah I was the one who was going maybe 8-9 mph, and didn’t even know. I was just driving my friends car back from the festival. I tried to apologize to the upset mid aged gentlemen and told me myself and the vehicle was no longer aloud back. Didn’t matter on my sincere apology. He was completely out of line and didn’t even give a prior warning. Being from the city. I suppose I was maybe the wrong shade white for his campground qualifications. Let me remind you the festival we attended is called “Feral Fest”. It’s a hippie like atmosphere that plays acoustic, violins, harmonicas, and ect. I’m just appalled on how we were stereotype and singled out, right from the gecko of our stay. Sad and really disappointing. This would be my 4th time camping this summer and this was definitely not fun camping experience at this campground. I hope they look more into my connections and network of people, and know they made a mistake. Because I will not recommend this place, and even though it’s been a week sense our awful experience I been telling everyone who asked how my vacation was for my family, friends and kids. Thank god we had our spot at Feral Fest. We ended camping out the remainder of our trip there. Which we wise now that we just went there from the beginning. They need a crash course on the book for dummies “business 101”, and be reminded it’s 2018 and racism/stereotyping individuals really shows how truly not smart and arrogant, a human...

An Extraordinary Experience ! A Wonderful Camp Ground, RV park. We have been here 4 days now, and have to say that, we have been completely taken aside from the hospitality provided by our host (Russ & Staff). From the camp site delivery of ice, store goods, fire wood and even a ORV trail map the owner printed for us personally ! If your a bit of a night owl, you can enjoy your fire while stargazing into the beautiful skies. Providing you are respectful and courteous of others, and maintain a reasonable tone. Which is for everyone's benefit. If you listen closely, you will actually hear why this Amazing place is named "Whispering Pines" You'll have to come and hear it for yourself, not gonna give up 1 of most amazing things of this great place ;-) If you are a mature adult, who can adhere to the simplest rules that are in place for the benifit of everyone here. Whispering Pines is "A Must" experience !!! We thought the gentleman that informed us of the 5 mph speed limit was a bit adament, but we quickly understood/appreciated/respected thier wishes !!!. It's not just imposed for safety, it's a huge factor related to dust control ! Have to admit, all my years of camping, I have never been to a single camp ground were dust wasnt a problem !!! Until now, we appreciate the rules in place here at Whispering Pines. Been here 4 days and counting, has been a fantastic experience to say the least. Russ and all staff have been amazing at providing us, as well as assuring our stay here is a very Memorable one !!!. When we 1st seen some of the negative reviews, we thought maybe we should stay somewhere else, but as we read on, they were pretty much all related to the same senerio.....guest that are/were unable to respect and appreciate the simple rules put in place for "EVERYONES BENIFIT"... We then realized, these negative reviews were obviously written by people that will make stuff up and complain no matter where they go if they cannot be allowed to run freely with disregard, lack of common courtesy of other guest within the grounds !?. We have witnessed it for ourselves, also witnessed staff give multiple opportunities to these folks. And when they take thier kindness repeatedly, they are politely asked to leave the grounds. And I can assure you from personal experience, I would have kicked them out long before the staff did !!!. We were actually here the day when this gentleman Mike Ameel was asked to leave, and to our surprise, we were very dishartened when we seen/read his completely untrue review of Whispering Pines !!! We noticed he couldnt be honest with himself !? So how in the world can he be honest with his review, we took further investigative measures, just to see he is nothing more than a security guard at MGM hired thru a 3rd party company lol. Very discouraging to see people can be so hateful from cause of thier own actions of behavior. Unbelievable !!! Needless to say, we felt it only appropriate to inform the general population who love camping as much as we do, that Whispering Pines is simply "a must" experience !!!. Would like to thank Russ and staff in advance for proving us this Amazing experience here at Whisperine Pines. You have given us a Memorable experience that will bring us back every year, multiple times at that !

Fabulous Job Folks. Keep up the hard work and unbelievable efforts you all...

I hate to give negative reviews at it can effect ones business, but I need to share my experiences.

Previous experience 2012-2013: I've stayed at this campground a couple times with a recreational organization that I belong to. The owners were extremely accommodating to our club and were very nice and helpful. They have a propane fill station, bath house, pool, kiddie pool (wasn't open when we were there this year though), and lots of room. Need firewood or ice, call up front and they'll bring it to your site!. I do like this campground, but would "love" it if there were more things to entertain the kids like a playground or structure.

Latest Experience 2016: This campground is on a beautiful piece of property and has very nice sites. They have tent sites, water/electric sites/ and full hook up sites. I've stayed at this campground a few times over the past several years with an organization that I'm a member of.

They have a nice pool, put on a tennis court, have an area to play some basketball, a volleyball court, and other games/activities. The front office sells, ice, snacks, has a propane fill station, and they will deliver wood to your campsite for your bonfire.

The current owner took over this campground several years ago and has been making changes/improvements since he acquired it. With that said, I'm a bit disappointed that the bathroom/shower house located nearest the camp sites is still not completed nor operational. There are port-a-john's for campers to use, but the showers are up at the main office which is located 100-200yrds from the campsites.

The campground is nice, but the hospitality was seriously lacking towards our organization. I received a number of complaints from members regarding feeling intimidated by the staff and or they felt they were harassed. I had the misfortune to witness a member get, what I do consider, harassed by the owner due to not stopping at the front office and getting a visitors pass when coming in to look for another member. The owner chased him down in his Kubota side-by-side. I would have considered a friendly reminder adequate, but I witnessed something much different. This seemed to be the attitude toward a number of our members over the course of the weekend.

One other thing that I noted on this particular stay was that they now have staff that were patrolling the campground all day. Normally I would consider that a good thing. However, the staff just keep driving around in circles all day in their side-by-sides keeping a very close eye on everyone. I felt we were being watched at all times so they could come and yell at us.

A bit about the organization I am referring to. We camp all over the Northern Michigan at a variety of campgrounds and I've not ever witnessed this type of behavior towards us before. The average age of said group is toward the mid-50's. This is not a rowdy group of people that are up all night drinking and playing music into 2am. We are a very family oriented group as many of have children/grand children along.

The overall feeling towards us made me uneasy and intimidated and ruined what should have been a very enjoyable and...