Acres of Wildlife Campground — Hotel in Standish

Let me start by saying we have stayed here before and loved it. We have sent friends here on our recommendation and they enjoyed it as well. The lake here is nice, enjoy different playgrouns throughout and ability to rent boats for the lake too. We loved it so much despite the 2.5 mile dirt road you have to drive to get there, we booked a 2 week stay here. ||||The site we were given was a great size- no complaints there once you were in it. The super soft sand on a slope which you had to maneuver the camper up (we have a Travel Trailer) was definitely a huge challenge. One that clearly others have experienced as one family went by in their golf cart and told us about a previous recent family who bottomed out their camper trying to get in and out (scary!) But we made it up, set up and were happy.||||Unfortunately just a couple hours after setting up I went to take my 14 year old beagle mix dog for a walk and a Seasonal Camper's large dog broke loose and attacked him. We immediately reported to campground Security, who both advised there were no local vets they would recommend, and we maybe wanted to go back home for ours (2.5 hours away) and they did say we could call police ourselves. The mistake I made was not calling the police as I was so shocked and hoping my dog would be fine and that the seasonal campers would be decent enough to check in and exchange information (they were not). We did take issue with the security person advising it was our word against the Seasonal campers (mind you their dog was a large breed and broke his chain to get to my dog who didn't see theirs coming and many campers did witness it if they had asked anyone in that area, but sure, imply I am making it up). ||||Surprisingly, the Campground has posted in their rules, "Vicious or unruly dogs will NOT be allowed in the campground. Pet owners are responsible for all actions of their animals" And yet, the owners of the dog that attacked mine were not asked to leave (you definitely get the sense Seasonals are not bound by the same rules).||||We stayed the next day to let our dog rest. He could no longer stand up from laying down unassisted, limping, sustained a bite wound we kept cleaning and refused to go more than 15 feet from the camper. We made a vet appoint at home the day after that and packed up to leave as we knew our dog wasn't well enough to stay. We asked the owners of the campground if we could have at least half the cost back. We recognize they are a business and weren't expecting a full refund, but given the extreme circumstances of our dog being attacked, their refusal to enforce their own rules, and now having to disappoint the 3 kids by cancelling their vacation, plus incurring vet bills, we thought this was fair. To which they responded it was unfortunate but would only offer a future credit. When we made it clear we couldn’t see ourselves returning to a place our dog was attacked, they still stuck to their "no refund" policy. So they do enforce some rules they post when convenient for them.||||I honestly am not someone who jumps to write bad reviews, but what irks me is when businesses put such a high value on their end profit and refuses to act with any grace towards customers. And the risk that having the dog still able to stay on property. I really hope this dog doesn’t choose a kid next time it breaks loose and the owners cannot catch it (again) before it causes any damage.||||Last thing I will add- I did try to speak to campground owner to CONFIRM the other dog is up to date on all relevant vax and they said they wouldn't help me because I had posted a review sharing my experience on Facebook. So because of that- I no longer had the right to ask for any assistance- even where my dogs health was concerned and that if I needed this information I should have called the police when it happened. Lovely, right? Just how every customer hopes...

Let me start by saying we have stayed here before and loved it. We have sent friends here on our recommendation and they enjoyed it as well. The lake here is nice, enjoy different playgrouns throughout and ability to rent boats for the lake too. We loved it so much despite the 2.5 mile dirt road you have to drive to get there, we booked a 2 week stay here. ||||The site we were given was a great size- no complaints there once you were in it. The super soft sand on a slope which you had to maneuver the camper up (we have a Travel Trailer) was definitely a huge challenge. One that clearly others have experienced as one family went by in their golf cart and told us about a previous recent family who bottomed out their camper trying to get in and out (scary!) But we made it up, set up and were happy.||||Unfortunately just a couple hours after setting up I went to take my 14 year old beagle mix dog for a walk and a Seasonal Camper's large dog broke loose and attacked him. We immediately reported to campground Security, who both advised there were no local vets they would recommend, and we maybe wanted to go back home for ours (2.5 hours away) and they did say we could call police ourselves. The mistake I made was not calling the police as I was so shocked and hoping my dog would be fine and that the seasonal campers would be decent enough to check in and exchange information (they were not). We did take issue with the security person advising it was our word against the Seasonal campers (mind you their dog was a large breed and broke his chain to get to my dog who didn't see theirs coming and many campers did witness it if they had asked anyone in that area, but sure, imply I am making it up). ||||Surprisingly, the Campground has posted in their rules, "Vicious or unruly dogs will NOT be allowed in the campground. Pet owners are responsible for all actions of their animals" And yet, the owners of the dog that attacked mine were not asked to leave (you definitely get the sense Seasonals are not bound by the same rules).||||We stayed the next day to let our dog rest. He could no longer stand up from laying down unassisted, limping, sustained a bite wound we kept cleaning and refused to go more than 15 feet from the camper. We made a vet appoint at home the day after that and packed up to leave as we knew our dog wasn't well enough to stay. We asked the owners of the campground if we could have at least half the cost back. We recognize they are a business and weren't expecting a full refund, but given the extreme circumstances of our dog being attacked, their refusal to enforce their own rules, and now having to disappoint the 3 kids by cancelling their vacation, plus incurring vet bills, we thought this was fair. To which they responded it was unfortunate but would only offer a future credit. When we made it clear we couldn’t see ourselves returning to a place our dog was attacked, they still stuck to their "no refund" policy. So they do enforce some rules they post when convenient for them.||||I honestly am not someone who jumps to write bad reviews, but what irks me is when businesses put such a high value on their end profit and refuses to act with any grace towards customers. And the risk that having the dog still able to stay on property. I really hope this dog doesn’t choose a kid next time it breaks loose and the owners cannot catch it (again) before it causes any damage.||||Last thing I will add- I did try to speak to campground owner to CONFIRM the other dog is up to date on all relevant vax and they said they wouldn't help me because I had posted a review sharing my experience on Facebook. So because of that- I no longer had the right to ask for any assistance- even where my dogs health was concerned and that if I needed this information I should have called the police when it happened. Lovely, right? Just how every customer hopes...

A group of 10 friends and I (from near and far) booked a long weekend at Acres of Wildlife, we figured it would be fun to get together before the summer is over.

The booking process was easy, I was able to email Acres and have them select three sites that were next to each other (we were allowed to have 4 adults per site). We ensured we were paid in full and pre-checked in the day before going. I had figured that we would have an easy time with check in due to this, but I was unfortunately mistaken. The lack of organization between security and the check in area very quickly became our problem. For some reason, once our whole party arrived (again, 11 people total), security accused us of hiding campers. They were confident that we had to buy visitors passes, even though we bought 3 sites for 11 people. In fact, the front check in booth actually yelled at one of our friends/campers who was only trying to check in to get to the site (again, they were accusing us of trying to sneak in campers). We were highly confused as to why this lack of organization became our problem, as we did everything we could to make check in easier.

Our age quickly became a factor (we are all 20-27 years old) as we were visited by security 6 times over the course of 1 day. On Thursday night, once most of our campers arrived, we played "drinking games" with water and kept the night mostly mellow. We sat around the campfire at quiet hours and just talked at normal volume. This is when we found out that Security lived right behind our site, as we couldnt even talk at a normal level without being reprimanded. There were campsites just a couple over from us that were having burping contests until 1:00am, yet we never saw security over there.

The next morning, a security "officer" who went by Captain, accused us of setting a drink on the bumper of his car (again, they lived right behind our site). The drink was not ours, but he continued accusing us to the point where he set the cup down on our table and walked off. He said "it's the same cup" as he was walking off, as if the general store didn't sell the exact same cups just right down the road (they do). Security continued to visit us throughout the day (it felt as if they were trying to come up with reasons to kick us out - even though we did nothing wrong). At this point, we felt harassed by security. It felt like we were always trying to prove our innocence just because of our age.

On the 6th security visit of the day, we asked if there would ever be a point where we stop getting bothered. At this point, we just wanted to enjoy our day on the lake and do some campground activities. To this, Captain said "probably not." So we went our whole camping trip knowing we'd be on Security's "list." This night, we lost track of time and were a bit louder than normal volume until about 11pm (but we were only sitting around the table playing card games). When security came over to remind us of quiet hours, they threatened that we'd never be able to stay here again. We have no idea what we did that would warrant this kind of treatment, as there were other campsites just a couple over from us that were louder.

All in all, I give our time at Acres a 3/5. Our experience with security and checking in was a huge bummer and took up A LOT of our time, but we still made the most of it. Our favorite moments of the trip were kayaking, fishing, the cornhole tournament, mini golf, swimming in the lake, and hiking the trails. It's still a great campsite at the end of the day, and I'd definitely recommend going if you DONT have 11 twenty something year-olds (they might give you a hard time if...