I was at Desert Sun Resort from last Wednesday until Tuesday. I want to report on what I saw and how the resort's recovery is doing. However, I'm very aware, even before Carol made the comment on another thread, that since, as a homeowner, I have a financial interest in the resort, I have to be very careful not to make this read like a marketting piece since TTOL does sell advertising, so I'll try to stay as factual as possible.

Due to a business commitment, John and Elizabeth weren't on the property while I was there, though I did speak to John on the phone some during my visit. I spent many hours throughout my stay talking with many employees and that's the background for some of what I write below.

When you walk into the resort, it basically looks like it always has. However, the changes quickly become clear. Almost two man-months of painting has occurred and the "trim" color (e.g., that of the hotel room doors) has changed to a dark green. All the trim is that color, including such details as the hinges on the restaurant doors and it matches the striping on the pool chairs.

Speaking of the chairs, all the pool furniture is new. The style is like the chairs from a year ago, with only horizontal straps, because those are softer. There are umbrellas, but they are also a different style. The volleyball pool has been completely replastered and the other pool and spa have been cleaned. The volleyball net is a new style, more like the ones at Paradise Lakes and Caliente. I can't personally comment on its function as a volleyball net (though I heard no complaints!) but I like that it's slightly higher above the water since it makes swimming in that pool (when there's no game going on) much easier.

The hotel rooms all have new furniture (including matresses that get very good reviews) and TVs and look nicer than before. The major changes are in the spa and restaurant. I haven't been in the spa prior to the changes, so I can't compare them, but a lot looks different in the restaurant, though the basic layout is the same. Nearly everything in the dining rooms are new, though the kitchen and storage area are a mix of old and new.

The spa has been open for a while now. I saw the restaurant's first food delivery come in at 5 PM on Wednesday. They opened (with buffets due to the large group) for lunch on Thursday and served buffets for lunch and dinner through Monday dinner. Everything went smoothly, the food quality was excellent, and more than one person remarked that it looked more like a restaurant that had been open for months rather than one that opened a few days before.

We're now coming up on two months from when John and Elizabeth took possession of the property. During that two months, they've undertaken efforts both to recover from the last year by reopening closed facilities and also to do improvements, though sometimes these overlap (i.e., when you do renovations of a facility, you often have to either close it or delay its opening). I've discussed the improvements made so far. As far as recovery is concerned, there are only four areas I see that are yet to be fully back to normal.

As I said in other threads, the most important of them is the liquor license, on which there's nothing new to report. Another is Internet in the condos. Although many homeowners have their own DSL or cable (I have the latter), there's a hardwired (RJ45) connection in each condo. Dan and Laura cut wires related to those in the office area when they left. Those were repaired and Internet worked at some point in many or most condos. However, when I was there, it didn't work in mine and at least two others. The resort's IT consultant wasn't available then due to personal committments, so it wasn't clear exactly what's going on.

I had a serious problem in that my cable networking was very flakey (the cable company fixed it and found it was related to other damage that Dan and Laura did), but I found an open wireless access point with SSID "linksys" that can be received in some of the condos (including mine). Others have seen it over the last few weeks, but nobody knows who's or where it is (even using a signal-strength meter in my phone to find where the signal was strongest didn't help). Not knowing whose it is means one can't know how long it'll be there. I usually put away my cable modem and router, but I left it on this time with an SSID of "Richard Cable". It should be usable in the "circle" of condos around the fountain, though nobody is maintaining it while I'm away. Hopefully, between that, the "linksys" SSID, and pending work on fixing the hardwired lines, people who need access can get it. As I mentioned a while ago, there's work being done to determine the practicality of providing a wireless service throughout the resort or at least the hotel portion, but right now Internet access is only available in the condos.

Third, although the gift shop is open, it doesn't have much stock, though I understand a lot of items are currently on order and should arrive soon.

The remaining "recovery" issue has to do with behavior. Many guests got into very bad habits in the last year and the resort was attracting some people who shouldn't be there. I knew things were pretty wild (though I didn't report most of what I heard), but after talking to people on the property, I found that things were much wilder than I'd ever guessed. We're still seeing the consequences of a year where it wasn't just that rules weren't enforced, but where Dan and Laura were the leaders in breaking them!

There are many guests not respecting quiet hours and sometimes so many women wearing sarongs that those who want to be nude aren't comfortable doing so, but gradual enforcement of rules is the best approach for those issues. Inappropriate behavior, however, is treated very seriously and resulted in people being banned from the resort while I was there. But everbody's help is needed in the effort of weeding that out. As they say in NYC in a different context, "if you see something, say something". If everybody assumes somebody else is reporting it, nothing will get done. Inappropriate activity should be immediately reported to resort staff, who are trained to handle it without getting you involved. To avoid a "he said, she said" situation, what they'll do is arrange for the person or people in question to be watched. If they see anything more inappropriate or get more complaints about them, they'll be warned, asked to leave the resort and/or banned from future visits depending on what was done.

As to improvements, I already mentioned what's been done, so I'll talk briefly about what's planned. There's a contractor on the property who's been doing much of the work the last few weeks and has a long list of remaining items. They appear in the category where they collectively further improve the resort, but individually aren't very noticable. The restaurant is "finished" in the sense that it's open, but there's still work planned on wall decorations, mostly in the inside ("bar") area. It was fun sitting in the restaurant and watching the delivery crew put the soda vending machine in the office: they did a great job of getting it through a very tight fit in the doorway.

In the longer term, everybody understands that the hotel rooms are older and need work. The furniture is a good first step, but hardly the last one. The Chaparral rooms are in the best condition and mostly need work in the bathrooms, which I'm told will occur in the fall timeframe. The Courtyard rooms need more extensive work, whose details are still being worked out. That'll likely be done in the 1-2 year timeframe. In the latter timeframe there are also discussions of possible major renovations or replacements of the office, restaurant and spa buildings. Of course, the further you go out, the more tentative the details are. I'd apply a large grain of salt to anyone who says "for sure" what'll be happening and when: these are the sorts of details that'll inevitably change many times between now and when they're implemented.

In another thread, somebody asked about pictures of the resort involving people. As I said, I was involved in the effort to get them last weekend. I was very pleased with the quality, but disappointed in the quantity. I'll be helping get more later this summer and the ones we got may start appearing on the web site in the upcoming weeks.

I want to remind all guests that they have an important role to play in the resort. John and Elizabeth are giving very high priority to hospitality and customer service. A resort such as this is very much defined by its frequest customers. Coryn has made it very clear that when she serves a meal and asks "How is it?", she only wants the to hear "it's fine" if it really is fine! This is a new restaurant, with new food vendors, new ingredients, and new menu items. If anything's "off", she needs to know about it so she can fix it. Likewise if you want any dish that's not on the menu, tell her: it may well become the special later in your stay or on a later stay. The evolution of the menu will be a collaborative effort of not just the resort and restaurant staff, but the guests. Everybody understands the restaurant will only do well if it serves what its customers want to eat.

Similarly for the spa. If anything's not perfect, please let them know. If there's some spa service you want to see that they don't already offer, let them know. This applies to all resort operations. If you see some construction item that needs to be done, it's probably already on "the list", but it's good to mention it in case it isn't. Likewise for anything else you might want to see done differently. Obviously, no place can please everybody and there are cost considerations, but this is very much meant to be a resort that offers what its most frequent guests most want.

I also want to say something about the issue of children. One of the many things that John and Elizabeth have done is to restore the resort to a family-friendly naturist resort. But that doesn't mean that "anything goes" with children! This is a resort where people go for quiet relaxation. If children are making a lot of noise or running around where people are trying to relax, it'll disturb guests. If children are running around near the pool or young children are in the pool unsupervised, there are safety issues.

Parents are expected to decide whether or not this will be good experience for themselves, their children, and other guests before deciding to bring their children and are expected to supervise their children while on the grounds. The grassy area between the restaurant and spa is a good place for children to play; the grassy area between the back of the Courtyard building and the activity pool is not. There'll likely be written guidelines about children along the above lines. I'm told several homeowners felt children shouldn't be allowed near the hot tub after a certain hour because of behavior not suitable for children, but I take the exact opposite view: if there's such behavior going on, let's make sure there are always children around to discourage those activities! A good guide to acceptable behavior at a naturist resort is that which you'd be comfortable doing with children around.

I'll update this forum as the liquor license situation proceeds and also if there's anything new to report on my remaining two visits this summer. I also want to let people know that I only reported on a tiny fraction of what's been going on with Dan and Laura and that legal activities are very much ongoing (I'm told of a new lawsuit relating back to Dan's purchase of the resort last year that was served on Monday, but it's not online yet). The time will come soon where we can freely talk about the whole story. It's very important for this story to be known. As the saying goes "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it". Nobody wants this to happen to another naturist resort. There'll likely be a number of detailed stories written about this, by myself as well as others. It's not clear that TTOL is the best forum for those stories, but is likely appropriate for a pointer to them.