Me and my wife have visited Fiesta Key Campground several times in the last few years, looking to experience what the Florida Keys have to offer, and I was definitely a customer (not anymore), and believe me, during our last stay there, their General Manager didn’t fail providing us with an experience!

I am a retired United States Air Force Officer with over 33 years of dedicated service to my country, and can’t deny that I have never been so humiliated and discriminated in my life. I felt like we were punished for being Hispanic, and that is not only not fair, but a very unjust and prejudicial treatment.

To make a long and painful story short, the general manager denied our visiting guests the opportunity to get together with me and my wife and other friends staying at the campground. We asked for them to be allowed to visit us and were denied the opportunity; we asked to allow them to go to the restaurant so we could meet with them there and were told that they knew that we were trying to “sneak-them into” the campground and that “there were more restaurants down the road.” When I complained about that attitude, I was asked if I wanted to check out and get a refund, which was extremely rude and discriminatory.

I contacted the restaurant manager and the owner and was told that they have problems with the campground general manager attitude and disrespect to some restaurant guests, denying them the opportunity to visit the restaurant.

While consumers are not a protected class (such as age or gender), businesses should be concerned with treating patrons with dignity and thankful for their support. I know that it is not uncommon for companies to refuse to serve someone even if they’re in a protected group, but the refusal can’t be arbitrary and can’t be applied to just one group of people. To avoid being arbitrary, there must be a reason for refusing service and you must be consistent. There could be a dress code to maintain a sense of decorum, or fire code restrictions on how many people can be in your place of business at one time, or a policy related to the health and safety of your customers and employees. But you can’t just randomly refuse service to someone because you don’t like the way they look, dress, or speak.

I suggest that Equity Lifestyle Properties, Inc., the owners of Encore RV Resorts and Thousand Trails RV Campgrounds, take a note from the Starbucks racial incident and make sure that their employees receive formalized training and learn what discrimination looks like, so they can avoid committing discriminatory acts in the near future.

We will definitely not be going back to Fiesta Key! I know that probably their general manager won’t care about it, but businesses always need to remember that one satisfied customer will attract a few other customers, but one dissatisfied customer will be the worst advertisement any company or corporation will have.

We are not asking for an apology for us, but I wish they offer one to the people who were treated like criminals at the gate only for trying to be good friends and enjoy a good time with us…or was it because we are Hispanic?

José M. Cintrón, Lt Col (R), USAF

I am one that gives reviews continually, both for praise and negativity. Shady Acres is just that…shady!

The best thing about this park is the pool area. The spaces are jammed together. And so your parking is at a premium, they allowed someone to park in our space the entire time we were there; I asked two separate employees to ask it to be moved, nothing was done. I called regarding this several times, and asked for a one night refund to offset the issue, but my calls were never returned. Also keep in mind that if you don’t get there by 5pm (which we were never told) that you will have to camp in there parking lot overnight, even if you have already paid for said night!

Also, be advised they do not have an AED on the property. Keep in mind many retired folks are there for the winter, but they have no medical devices that could save a life.

Due to the lack of staff, rules that apparently don’t apply to everyone and the lack of responsibility to there campers, whether refunds or safety, I would camp on the street first!

We absolutely loved everything about Goethe Trailhead Ranch RV Campground. You can come with or without horses, we just came with our dogs which they had a dog park for.

Campsites are huge, and the grounds are very well maintained. The lady on the phone was very accommodating and tried to answer all my many questions. We didn’t get a chance to use the pool but it looked wonderful. We had unfortunately encountered a torrential downpour but was pleasantly surprised that there was no mud, muck or even puddles!

Overall I 100% would recommend it. We will be back!

We recently returned for our 15th stay at Pine Lake RV Park in Fountain, Florida. We always stay there when we go to Panama City. You can’t beat their pricing and we ride our motorcycle into town.

The staff is great and always treat us wonderfully. The park is always kept clean and the guests are always friendly. They have a great fishing lake (catch and release) and we always find it relaxing. We workout alot and found their gym to be top of the line. It is a pet friendly park and we enjoy other people’s pets. They always escort us to our site and offer to help us hook up!

If your ever going their way, STOP IN!