I've been negligent in not posting a trip report after my second spring trip to Paradise Lakes and Caliente, especially given some rumors and changes around that time, but waited until now, when I've completed my two fall trips there.

There've been a number of changes at Caliente. The single most notable, in my opinion, is that the large pool is now heated, as previously reported. We've been hearing reports for over a year that this would be done and I've been skeptical about it until I saw it, but this was done sometime in the last few weeks (it wasn't heated when I was there last). However, the waterfall isn't running. I don't know if this is related to the pool being heated or just some mechanical issue.

As was mentioned in another thread, the piano bar is still there, but there's no longer a person playing the piano, so the ambiance there is a bit different. There are now a few dozen double-width chairs (more like futons) around the pool area that can be rented, but I've never seen one used.

There's now an illustration of their proposed new building in front of the site where it'll be. Given how long Caliente itself was "about to break ground", we'll see when it actually happens for this structure. In the original plan, this was to be a shopping area to contain restrooms, so they had some port-a-potties temporarily near the outside bar. Those have been removed and replaced with a less temporary set of restrooms right behind the drawing of the proposed building, but they still don't including plumbing. Amusingly, the drawing shows people in bathing suites.

Paradise Lakes has fewer physical changes. The most notable is that the Boutique has been closed (the person was running it since January gave up) and been replaced by a sales office for a (new) Paradise Lakes Vacation Club (similar to Caliente's). That means there's no longer a place to buy such things as beach towels, sunscreen, and other sundries on the property. The only other change I noticed is that the beach chairs in the newer pool area have been replaced with new ones.

There have been more major changes in operating hours. The club is now closed every night except for Friday and Saturday, though it may reopen on Thursday in the higher season. The restaurant is no longer open for lunch, but you can order take-out at the bar. That may change back as well.

The biggest change at Paradise Lakes has been in management and this was the subject of major rumors flying through the naturist community in April. The rumors were that the owner of the resort was involved in a legal matter that was threatening their liquor license, so they leased the club and restaurant to a swinger's organization. As a whole, that's false, but pieces are true. The resort owner did have a legal issue at that time. All I'll say about it is that it's since been resolved, was never a threat to the resort's liquor license, and that anybody who's curious enough can find out more information from online public records.

However, the club and restaurant have not been leased (and, from what I know, it didn't seem likely that it had). What did happen, back in April, was that the resort's General Manager was fired and replaced by a couple that owned one of the companies that promoted some of the parties at both Paradise Lakes and Caliente. The previous manager mostly had experience in restaurant management and so there was concern about his ability to manage an entire resort, but it's not necessarily clear that an experience in party promotion is any better!

Both resorts were fairly empty when we were there. Both the Friday and Saturday parties at Caliente were busy, but less than usual. When we got back to Paradise Lakes on Saturday at 1 AM and stopped by the club there, it was totally empty and I'm told that the party was "dead" that night. However, this was a bad weekend, both because it was much colder than normal and because it was the weekend after a major weekend. Indeed, I was told that they had just under 3,000 people at Paradise Lakes for the Halloween party.

There have been a lot of people talking about the increase in sexuality at both resorts, but I think that misses the point. Yes, both resorts are being increasingly marketed as if they're lifestyle (swinger's) resorts rather than nudist resorts, but the marketing and reality are different, in my opinion. I've been going to Paradise Lakes for over 20 years now. If you were to make some "sexuality index" (whatever you want to call it), you'd find that it varies somewhat over time. But those variations don't seem to be correlated to the marketing strategy. For example, even despite the present marketing policies, I'd say that index is not at its high.

What I think is much more relevant to potential visitors is a significant and continuing change in emphasis from a general resort that people want to visit for vacations into a nightclub, which mostly gets and attracts locals. For example, the number of things you can do at Paradise Lakes has gone down each year. When I first went, a popular activity was taking canoes and paddle boats out on the lake and some of my friends would spend hours doing that. You can't today.

Both many of friends and I feel that the old pool area is the best of the two: the pool is better to swim in, the surroundings are more natural, and you don't have people trying to sell you things or blaring music. But that area is becoming less and less pleasant: the hot tub has been off for years and looks extremely dirty at this point, the pool isn't heated (it was 66 on Monday morning), there are less than 20 lounge chairs there, and the only available water is from the bathroom sinks. It's disturbing to see the area that many like the most decay so much.

The boutique is now also closed, so you can't buy things there. That was what another friend of mine liked the most. You also can't eat lunch in the restaurant anymore: yes, you can eat in the Key West bar, but eating lunch from takeout containers in a bar is very different than a restaurant. There used to be a laundry available in the RV park. That building also contained the only restrooms and water fountain that didn't need carrying passes. But it's completely closed and is now for sale as a commercial building.

The club is another example. If you're thinking in terms of running a "hot nightclub", you want it as busy as possible. But if you want to provide a club for people visiting a resort, you want it to be able to be a place where you can easily sit down and enjoy yourself. It used to be that Wednesday and Thursday were in the latter category. But now it's closed then. So there's no good time enjoy a club that's not packed.

And this is also an area where the desire to bring in a lot of people who aren't nudists is relevant. If you're going to be clothed at the club, the lack of seats isn't always a serious problem. But if you're nude, you need to have some place to put your towel and there usually aren't any to be found. The temperature of both restaurants (but mostly at Caliente) is also meant more for people who aren't nude, and that's unfortunate.

I spent a lot of time over the last three trips chatting with Jay (the new Paradise Lakes General Manager) and feel he does have a good sense of the need to balance the two groups. However, financial realities are what they are and the sense I get is that, right now, if something won't generate alcohol revenue, they have to cut it back. I hope that as the economy continues to improve, they'll be able to put back some of those things that many of us most liked about the resort.

A few other comments. All my friends felt the restaurant at Caliente had much better food than that at Paradise Lakes. On the other hand, it's almost twice as expensive. I got a lot of complaints from my friends (who, admittedly, are "NY food snobs") about the quality of the food at Paradise Lakes, especially on Sunday. However, they just hired a new chef who ran a restaurant at a country club for a number of years. He has a lot of changes he wants to make, so things may change for the better in upcoming months.

For a while now, Paradise Lakes has had plans to build over the current restaurant and club, for another 2-3 floors. This is now tentatively planned for June of next year. The idea would be to build "the largest club in Tampa with a large VIP section". We'll see whether or not that happens and, if it does, what it does to the atmosphere of the resort.

Speaking of atmosphere, like LoveLifeover50, I also didn't see any explicit sexual activity in either resort. However, my friends report that they did see some at Caliente, both in the hot tub and in the club. There used to be a lot of Security people around at Caliente keeping an eye on those areas, but they seem to be gone.

As I said, I find the marketing, especially at Caliente, particularly offensive, though it hasn't changed the atmosphere that much. However, there are now web sites owned by both resorts that act as if it's just another nightclub or lifestyle resort. The latter leads to problems where guests assume that everybody there is a swinger and that's annoying to nudists and the former means that few people will be nude there (when I was there last month, there were more than usual nude, but it was very hot then). The Skinny Dip Sundae at Caliente is particularly annoying. They describe it as "Tampa Bay's only Topless and HOTTEST POOL PARTY in the southeast each and EVERY SUNDAY... the party starts at 12noon and continues until 8pm or later???" and say "nudity is definitely NOT required however if you want to get topless you can". Around the resort, I've also seen fliers that use language like "lots of skin", "hot babes!", "bikinis galore". To those of us who are nudists and go there, it makes us feel like zoo animals.

However, that being said, we were there last month on a Sunday (because of the 5K race that morning) and didn't see what one might have expected: yes, there were some people around who weren't nude, but I'd say it was less than a dozen and many of them became nude as the day went by. Nevertheless, I find it disturbing that for resort that still wants nudist business to market in such a way that, if successful, would make the place inhospitable for nudists.

As to economic viability, I'm not concerned about Caliente for the medium term. I'm much more concerned about Paradise Lakes, but they've survived the hardest part of the year, so I don't see a short term problem. Longer term, however, there's a significant risk in turning a nudist resort into a "hot club". Nudist resorts have loyal followings that continue coming for decades. Hot clubs only stay that way for a few years and then go out of fashion. If they keep making things less attractive for nudists, there may be none left that'll go there once the "hotness" of the club wears out.