I spent a few days at Desert Sun Resort over New Year's, splitting the holidays between my place in south Florida (a few miles up the beach from Haulover) and Palm Springs. I arrived in Palm Springs mid-afternoon on New Year's Eve and left on Monday morning. Unlike my summer trips, I came alone and didn't adjust my body time to the west coast.
Because of the latter, I didn't attend the New Year's Eve party, but was told by those who did that it was sparse from 9-10 PM and then was standing room only until 1 AM. The band was well-liked.
The weather was cool in the mornings (around 45) and warmed up to around 70 by the middle of each. By 4 PM the sun set over the mountains, but the trees and buildings made it hard to find sunny patches by a little before that. It was sunny most days, but clouded up on Saturday around 1 PM.
The resort was rather full when I arrived and stayed that way through Friday, with fewer people on Saturday and fewer still (less than a half dozen) on Sunday. We're coming into what's the very dead season for the resort. Interestingly enough, this is the high season for the non-nude resorts, but people were saying that many resorts in town that are usually nearly full are having occupancy of around 15% this year.
When I was last at Desert Sun, they hadn't quite gotten their liquor license, but now the bar's set up and I like they way it's done: unlike in previous years when you faced a wall of bottles, the most prominent feature is a mirror with the resort's logo on it, though nearby shelves do remind you that you're in a bar. For the low season, the larger area of the restaurant (with the glass walls) has been converted into a "Starbucks" type lounge, with custom oversized chairs, tables, lamps, a poker table, and a chess table. There are still four restaurant tables in the smaller ("bar") area.
Since I've last been there, they've also redone the decking around the activity pool. It looks like what was there before, but is in much better condition and is a "cool deck", so it should stay cooler in the summer. Work started yesterday morning to remove the fountain near the restaurant (that used to have the statue). The concrete's in bad shape and isn't worth repairing. It's going to be replaced with some type of fire pit (possibly with a water feature). The restaurant is closed until January 16 because of the demolition of the fountain and other nearby construction.
Work also started on renovations of the Chapparal rooms (the building adjacent to the activity pool). This will finish what was started when the resort was reopened: then they replaced the furniture and now they're doing a lot of work in the bathrooms, replacing some fixtures, and redoing the carpet, painting the walls and some other things. This will be done a few rooms at a time, so there will be no major closures, except for all the Chaparral rooms this week. The Courtyard rooms and condos will always be available. (The Courtyard rooms are older and need more work. The last I heard, there's still no decision on whether to repair them or replace the buildings, but that's for another time.)
Finally, for those who're curious about Jack, I'm told he's now gone back to being a Jehova's Witness and won't talk to nudists anymore.
