I stayed at Paradise Lakes from last Wednesday to yesterday and visited Caliente on Friday evening and most of the day Saturday. As usual in these reports, I'll just mention things that have changed since my last visit (in November). Since that's not that much, this will be a short report.
At Paradise Lakes, the owner of the condo we stayed in (K6F) has done some further improvements in it and the main condo association put out more furniture on the dock and on the recently added patios, but those aren't noticable to most resort guests. The only thing I saw that would be is the addition of a photography studio for those who, as they say, "want a profressional momento of their trip" (or something like that). Unfortunately, they put this in the previous passthru between the gym and the corridor with the water fountain and bathroom, so the walk to those from the main chair section has gotten even longer (when it was first built, that corridor was open on both sides). There may also have been more lighting installed at the club since November, but most of it was put in then.
At Caliente, I didn't see any physical changes, but there was a change in day rates. When I was there last, the rate for coming in later in the day (after 5 PM) was cheaper than for a full day, but they were the same this time. I think, but am not sure, that the new rate is lower than the previous day rate but higher than the evening rate. There was also a change to the homeowner discounts on food and beverages: Paradise Lakes went from 10% to 0% and Caliente went from 25% to 10%. In my opinion, both 0% and 25% aren't reasonable, but 10% is (that's also the rate at Desert Sun).
I had a two-hour meeting with Steve Dorsey, COO of Caliente. We'd had email discussions about Eden Bay (Caliente Caribe), but had never met. We had an interesting discussion on a lot of topics about both Caliente resorts and, although we disagreed on a number of things, both got a better understanding of the other's position.
From what I saw, it looks to me as though Paradise Lakes was a little busier than it was in the fall and Caliente was a little less busy, but it's hard to come to any firm conclusion from a single weekend (and a single day and two evenings at Caliente).
If anybody has any questions about either of those resorts, I'll do my best to answer them.
