Two friends of mine and I visited Paradise Lakes and Caliente last weekend for the first of two trips this fall. I'll talk about the changes there since my last trip (in the spring). We used to visit Lake Como Resort, but they changed admission policies a couple of years ago to make it hard to visit for a short time and I understand they've recently made it even harder.

There were few physical changes at either resort. At Paradise Lakes, there are now barriers for the golf carts on some of the paths in front of buildings (such as K, L, and most of the C-G area), but some have combination locks so Housekeeping could remove them when needed.

The largest changes are in Club Reveal. There's now a fancy "archway" of sorts around the door and the (inaccurate) sign near the entrance has been removed. Inside, the tables are now curved high metal tables. All the booths are reserved, with two that can be reserved by asking a server and the larger one "reserved for PLR owner and his group".

There's now a deck between the conversation pool and hot tub (over the equipment area for the pools). It has lounge chairs, but I didn't see anybody use it while we were there.

At the "old" pool area (called "Phase I" or "Lakeside"), the barricade around the hot tub has been removed and it's now filled. However, that's apparently for show (perhaps for the "g-string contest" the weekend before) since it's still not heated. However, the area wasn't usable when we were there since both water fountains were not functioning and weren't fixed after repeated complaints (it was much too hot to sit there for more than 15 minutes without water).

I heard the entire old pool area was closed for much of the summer and had just reopened, with a story that's a good example of the bad relationship between the resort and condo association. It seems the resort owner wanted to heat the hot tub again, but wanted to use natural gas instead of propane and needed a gas line, which would have to run through condo association property. Since they've been asking for it to be heated for years, they should have gladly given permission for it, but they weren't asked. When the gas company came to install the line, they didn't allow them to because they weren't asked. In apparent "retaliation", the resort owner closed that area for the summer (that area is primarily used by residents, but unfortunately for him, other guests who were staying in the nearby rooms and like that area best, as I do, were annoyed, and aren't coming back).

According to the posted condo minutes, the legal battle between the condo association and the resort is still ongoing and there may be a bunch of nasty stuff going on based on some letters quoted there. Also, some residents tell me security is nearly nonexistant, with anybody being allowed on the property. And since there's no longer a requirement to be a member of the resort to live there, no screening is going on and an increasing number of people who are not only not nudists, but are significantly behind on their rent, are living there. This is of concern to people who've lived there for over 20 years. The condo association is starting the process of obtaining an AANR charter, so condo members who are AANR can stay in even though the resort dropped out.

The boutique has a "going out of business sale". The couple who runs it are giving it up at the end of this year. I've heard reasons varying from not having enough business to being tired of it after three years to disputes between them and the resort owner; I suspect it's some of all three. It's hard to see how such a boutique could make much money with such a high percentage of visitors at the resort being regulars. Another couple will be trying their hand at it starting January.

Despite the weather being good (though a bit hot), there looked to be fewer people around than usual. The restauarant is now closed for lunches except on Saturday and Sunday (you can still get food in the bar: it comes from the restaurant in take-out containers), but when we ate there Sunday for lunch, it looked like we were their entire "lunch rush". For dinner on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday, we saw maybe four tables in use, including our table and the resort owner's table. The club was almost empty on Wednesday, with nobody on the dance floor. There were more people on Thursday, but it was far from busy.

Also, given the discussions here in the past, let me say that we saw every variety of electronic devices in use around the pool and nobody complained or had a problem. Nobody bothered to check whether the device that people were using to listen to music was an iPod or an iPhone. Nobody cared when people used their "phones" as watches to check the time. Plenty of people were using laptops, including one of my friends who needed to do a lot of reading and was doing that nearly her entire time at the pool. There was no discrimination against people whose reading material were electronic, nor any suggestion that they violate copyright by printing it out.

Caliente had even fewer physical changes: I only noticed two. There's now a desk that you face as you walk in the recreation area which seems to be used for greeting groups. The other change is that there are now two poles in the club: one in the middle of the dance floor, on a pedestal, and one on the stage. For those who don't know how to pole dance, don't fear: they offer free pole dancing lessons every Thursday starting three days ago. We saw both poles in heavy usage during both the Friday and Saturday dances.

In other changes, the time of the Saturday karaoke is back to the old 5 PM starting time (it was 4 PM for a while) and you now get day passes on the weekend at the front desk of the recreation area instead of the gate. The latter means people can now stroll around at will in the residential area (as we did) without any screening or payment; I wonder how the residents there feel about that.

Two points about different DJ's. First, whenever the DJ in the club said something "on the mike", my friends couldn't make out a word he said. However, my lifetime of experience listening to announcements in the NYC subway helped and I was able to make out every third word he said. So at least I knew what he talking about even though I couldn't make out any of the details.

I was surprised that at least somebody is concerned about "family values", given a lot of the controversy at Caliente. One of my friends chose a karaoke song where you'd normally yell the "f-word". She was told (and then reminded) that there were still children around and asked to mumble it instead. She was also told many of the regulars had "after 9 PM" songs. It was encouraging to see this, but I think it's his personal views (he's a long-time Como resident).

We saw a much larger number of nude people at Caliente in the evening than usual. We arrived Friday just before 8 PM. Almost everybody inside was dressed, but there was a very large group of nude people sitting in the chairs outside on the upper level, which is unusual. There was a lot less clothing in the club, too. There were still very few nude people (though more than usual), but more partially-nude people and much less "club wear". However, it was also the hottest it's ever been when I've been there, so it may be related to that: I'll know on my next visit.

I want to end with general comments. As many know, I've been very concerned over the years about whether both of these large resorts can survive and I've been most concerned about Caliente. I've switched that now. I still worry whether Caliente will be able to have a sustainable long-term revenue given their expenses, but they seem stable for now. Paradise Lakes, on the other hand, seems to be having problems. I was told they're offering a special savings for a two-year membership, but people are reluctant to take it out of fear they won't be around in two years. I think they will, but there are real concerns.

The "g-string contest" event earlier this month didn't go well, from what I was told. Due to legal issues, they weren't able to sell tickets to the event or to play as much music as they wanted. They received revenue from the TV folks and sponsors and had a busy weekend, but not a huge one and may even have lost money. They certainly aliented a lot of people by doing it. The ongoing battle between the homeowners and the resort is costing them the support of those people who should be their biggest supports: their value can't be measured in terms of how much money they spend, as a succession of resort owners have done.

But my concern is not just one of these things, but the combination. Given both the bad economy and the very heavy competition by Caliente, just down the road, one would think Paradise Lakes' highest priority ought to be to retain the members they have, but instead they keep doing things that turn people off (the pool area closure, the way the gas line was handled, the lack of working water fountains, the g-string contest, the dropping of homeowner disounts, and the security issues for residents, to name just a few).

The owner tried to sell me the resort twice (though not recently) and I've often thought about what I'd have done if I had the money to buy it. My answer is that there's not much I'd change except that I'd immediately end the feud between the homeowners and the resort. I don't see him doing this, though, and I fear that if something isn't changed soon, they may well run into serious problems sooner rather than later.