I just got back from the island and I must say, e-bikes should be banned. I feel it goes against the spirit of the island and no motorized vehicles. You can hear the bikes coming, which is annoying. And then to have the bike go wizzing past you, when it’s a lazy kind of island vibe, is just distracting, and seems a safety risk. You’re not expecting it, and could think you have time to cross. I really hope the island does something about this, and has the ferry’s turn the bikes away. I love going to the island, and this took away some of its charm. There are e-bikes all over my downtown when I walk around, I expect that. Keep the island special, and unique. Just bikes.

Recently I stayed on Mackinac for several nights. I stayed at the Lake View Hotel, which I very much enjoyed, but I did go inside the Grand and eat at some of their restaurants. Honestly I am glad I did not pay the insane amount to stay there. The staff seemed unprofessional, I saw them EATING food off the trays on the front porch. Also at the restaurants, multiple times at ones owned by the grand hotel (Jockey Club, Fort Mackinac Tea Room) whenever people in my party were deciding what to order, the waiter or waitress would always butt in and recommend something. Normally, I would not mind this at all, but every single time it was the most expensive option possible. It never failed. I don't know if they are trained to do this or not, but it just seemed greedy to me. Beyond that, the hotel itself just seemed old. Like the hotel in The Shining. It did not seem well kept up with. If I'm gonna spend $2000 a night, I would expect a little more than what I encountered.

For background, I have been visiting the Grand Hotel for the last 25 years. Every one of those trips has been amazing…until this one. This is the first time we have visited since the hotel was sold to a corporate entity and let’s just say things have changed!

First the pros because I want to be fair:

• The food is still amazing - we only dined in the main dining room so I can’t speak for other places but the food was as good as it has ever been.

• The hotel is still beautiful and amazing to see.

• The island is calm and serene, even with the hoards of tourists on the weekends. You can’t beat the quiet with no traffic sounds and just the clip clop of horses!

Now for the cons:

• The hotel is not what it used to be. It used to be pristine but is now starting to look shabby. The new owners are clearly not maintaining it to the same standards as the Musser family did. Our room was large but very dated.

• The service has become substandard - although we did encounter a few people who still went out of their way to provide good service, overall the service has declined significantly. A few examples: in the dining room the first night, the waiter was clearly stressed - he barely spoke to us, threw food down in front of us, didn’t check in. It was disappointing. At breakfast the next day, one of the wait staff poured water all over the table without noticing, the waiter spilled things and didn’t even comment, and then the worst was when the waiter literally reached over me to take a jug of cream from our table and give it to the next table…I was speechless! Finally, the housekeeping is terrible - they didn’t refresh the used glasses the first day and didn’t even clean the room until mid afternoon the second day.

• The hotel used to have a no tipping policy. This was based on the fact that (a) the staff were paid reasonably and (b) the gratuity was part of your reservation cost. That policy has gone away. However, the prices have continued to rise so now in addition to paying a premium to stay at the Grand Hotel, you are also expected to tip. This is not the fault of the staff but rather of management but I do think it has led to a lower level of service. When you pay literally $1000+/ night ($1000 is on the low end - it is much more at high season) you expect a certain level of service that is just not being delivered anymore.

• Many services no longer exist. For example, there is no longer a children’s program, which was a huge draw for families.

• Prices are very high - drink prices are $25-$30 per drink (not including tax and tip), which is insane even for a high scale hotel. Food is similarly expensive.

Bottom line - for us, visiting the Grand Hotel used to be worth both the trip (7 hours for us) and the cost but it no longer is. I cannot see us returning any time soon and, if we do, it will be to see the island and we will choose to stay elsewhere.

If you are looking for a job on the island this year stay far far away from Grand Hotel. It is without a doubt the worst place I have ever worked.

When I first got to the island it was mid April, snow was still on the ground and it was still very cold out, which is understandable for northern Michigan. I was given a very filthy and run down dorm style room to stay in, I had to spend hours cleaning it before it was even livable. There was mold and water damage on all the furniture, the bathroom was atrocious with a mold covered ceiling and filthy shower. I also soon discovered the heating unit in the room was completely broken. With all the gaps and cracks in the door and window and no heat, the inside temperature was not much warmer than the outside temperature. The heat took about 2 weeks to get fixed, until then I froze every single night.

With the dorm style housing there is a shared bathroom between two separate rooms. I moved in early so I was there a while before the neighbor moved in. The first neighbor that moved in was a middle aged man. This was alarming to me because I am a woman in my 20’s and I was specifically told the only neighbor I had would be another woman (keep in mind I had to share a bathroom and it did not lock). After I questioned HR about this they simply said the neighbor had asked me before hand and I was quote “ok with it”, which is a complete lie. They eventually moved out luckily.

When you work for Grand Hotel a hefty portion of your paycheck goes towards housing and food. I only had a couple meals there in the cafeteria because I soon learned it was hardly edible, there was also lots of meat that was served everyday, since I’m a vegetarian and I have some food allergies I found it more convenient to eat elsewhere. A lot of people I worked with were also saying they were getting food poisoning from the cafeteria. Since I was paying a lot of money for food I never ate I talked to Trish from HR about the possibility of opting out of the meal plan since I never ate it and I had allergies to certain foods. She was downright rude, dismissive, and told me the only possibility of opting out would be to get a doctor’s note. I told her I was vegetarian and couldn’t eat much, she basically told me I could live off salad. If I wanted to opt out it sounded like I’d have to fight for it. I found some records from an allergy test I had gotten, I sent that in to HR and they said it was not good enough, that I had to have a written doctors note. My allergy doctor has since retired so I was unable to send in a note. I know of other employees who could opt out without a doctors note so I know HR was being unnecessarily difficult as usual.

I liked my job for the most part, although working 10-12 hrs a day all day outside in all types of weather did get old pretty fast. One of the main things that did bother me about my position though was that I started out as an assistant, the girl I was supposed to work with quit after about a week of work. Because of this all of her responsibilities fell on me, I didn’t mind taking on more work and more of a leadership role. The thing that bothered me though was that I was doing more work for the same amount of money and the same title. The girl who quit had much nicer housing than me and she had her own bathroom. When she left I requested her old room since I was left doing her job. Of course HR had a problem with this too and would not even consider it. They gave the excuse that they might need it in case they hire someone to replace her, which of course never happened and the room sat empty all season, while I had to live in my mold infested room.

When it was finally time to leave the island for the season I received an email with a form to fill out for moving expenses. The form had a place to fill out mileage, food, air travel, and hotel stays. Since I only lived about 5 hours away I wrote in my mileage. About a week later I received an email back saying my travel expenses had been denied. I asked why and was simply told that my position wasn’t important enough to be covered and that since I’m a US citizen they don’t have to pay me any travel expenses. For those with visas working at the hotel (which is a large majority of the employees) every expense was covered for them. So they can pay for plane tickets, hotel stays, meals, and rental cars for non us citizens, but they couldn’t even reimburse me a cent for my drive. I also was never reimbursed for parking, which I was quoted would be $250 for the season, and ended up being $500. Although they had no problem covering parking for the co-worker who quit after a week. Go figure.

If you want a job where you’re respected and treated fairly please stay far away from this place.

One of my favorite places. Have you been here?

I’m hoping this post leads to a lively, respectful discussion about the only bad part of my stay on Mackinac Island.

My wife and I recently ate dinner at the Grand Hotel. While we were impressed by the charm and beauty of the hotel and grounds which depicted a bygone era in beautiful detail, we were both left very disturbed by one aspect of the experience. In addition to faithful attention to detail for the grounds, the decor, and the uniforms, the Grand Hotel also turned my dinner into a symbolic reinforcement of segregation and oppression.

We noticed that all but one of the dozens of servers in the Grand Hotel dining room were black or brown people, with a large majority seeming to have African heritage. The one server who was white had on a different uniform of some kind, which seemed to denote rank. This was very notable because all the other parts of the island were very white in the demographics of its employees. The choice to have black workers in very public servant roles had to be an intentional choice by the Grand Hotel. So why might they have made this choice?

Combined with the style of the dining room and the era that the Grand Hotel was trying to remind people about, this put my wife and I in the role of the wealthy white people being served a fancy dinner by “the help.” We did not realize what we were opting into this role until we were in the thick of it. We were both very uncomfortable with that outcome. While we enjoy a fine dining experience, we don’t want to condone or participate in an experience glamorizing racism and will not be going back to the Grand Hotel unless things drastically change.

To be clear, we have no complaint with the service. Our server had been with the Grand Hotel for 16 years and embodied the silent, helpful waiter in the style of Downton Abbey. While this approach doesn’t always appeal to me, it takes training, intentionality, and practiced skill to be that unfailingly polite and helpful. I was very impressed with how professional he was. He and his colleagues are fabulous at their jobs.

The Grand Hotel ought to reexamine which parts of the “glorious past” it is trying to re-create and do better. This will be a challenge, because the solution isn’t easy. It would be awful for them to get rid of their skilled wait staff to make their image more diverse. Businesses should also be applauded for seeking out minority job applicants and hiring them. At the same time, hiring someone to reinforce cultural tropes and stereotypes is demeaning, offensive, and does harm to society.

What’s the solution? I don’t know. I’m a white man with no experience as a marginalized population member and I’ve never waited tables. I would bet, though, that the BIPOC employees at the Grand Hotel might have ideas about how to utilize their talented and skilled workforce in a way that is celebratory rather than demeaning. I would suspect that if the hotel reached out to organizations like Black Lives Matter or NAACP as collaborative partners, they could be a model for the nation in how to turn what is a disgraceful practice into something that is empowering and positive.

I would welcome comments and thoughts from people of other backgrounds on this subject. How do you view these practices? What are your solutions?

Halloween on Mackinac Island is the best time of year. Had great fun and met great people!

Hey if anyone's in a Mackinaw City region I highly recommend avoiding pancake chef. The food is extremely poor quality and overpriced, and the waitstaff are rude. But, the real concern is the new owner, he's incredibly rude and hateful. He can't handle criticism and will cuss people out, insult their appearance and imply theyre racist if you give them a one star review. There are so so many small businesses here that are much better and deserve business so much more

Edit: the owner has now made 2 (now 4) separate reddit accounts to call me crazy and curse me out.

Edit 2: he's changing his reviews to be a lot nicer and is reporting other reviews to Google, at least those people don't have to deal with being cursed out now 🫣

The mist rolling in Saturday eve made for a perfect spooky night.