Cypress Trail RV Resort

Posted by Sparky on May 12, 2019

Awesome sunsets

This is my first ever review of an RV resort where we are residents. I will keep it brief as I can’t possibly be completely objective.

In a nutshell… we like it!

My hibiscus at sunset

How so? Let me count the ways:

A very nice community center with ballroom and kitchen.
An “omni” room with pool tables and cable TV.
A large, attractive pool.
A poolside patio with tiki (but no bar).
A small laundry room (but large enough) with very nice machines (and a broken coin dispenser).
A card room/exchange library with a large collection of books. We may never buy another book.
A very nice dog park with “large” and “small” sides.
Wide roads and sidewalks.
Very nice pickleball courts. Also bocce, shuffleboard and tennis.
Two beautiful ponds.
Fun activities (thanks, Michelle!).
Our site – spacious, private, nice pavers and beautiful landscaping, including a wonderful hibiscus.
Our shed. Next winter we will have our own washer and dryer!
Wonderful neighbors.
Awesome sunsets.

Also, the resort is in Ft Myers. We like Ft Myers. The Red Sox are here in the spring.

Ok, enough gushing. What is wrong with the place?

Poor cable TV. The cable TV is included in the monthly HOA fee, but it is very basic – about 40 channels, of which we view maybe 10. But… not all of the channels are viewable all the time. The signal is weak with the result that our living room TV picks up maybe 25 of the 40 and none of the network channels (switching from cable to antenna and back again is really, really annoying). And sometimes fewer. It isn’t weather that causes the problem; the signal is just weak all the time.
No tiki bar. This really isn’t that big a deal except that (1) Gulf Waters, which we regard as the standard for a really great RV resort, had a tiki bar by the pool that we loved and (2) we were told when we bought our site at Cypress Trail that a tiki bar would be there when we took up residence. A broken promise.
Weak WiFi. This is probably a corollary of the “poor cable TV” problem as they are both served up by the cable system. We were surprised and pleased, initially, that we got a free internet modem, but the quality has been mediocre (we sometimes can’t get Netflix when we want to watch it) and the WiFi has been nearly useless.
The developer. The park is relatively new – about 6 years old, I am told – and the developer (or, more specifically, the on-site developer agent) is universally disliked. The park is currently managed by a board consisting of 2 developer reps and 1 owner rep, so the developer still controls everything. But that will change soon – probably next winter – when the number of sold sites exceeds 90% of the total number of sites. The board at that point will transition to a majority of owner reps, so the owners will gain control. This is exciting, but also will be a time of turmoil and uncertainty. We probably should have paid more attention to how the park was managed before we bought in.
I mentioned the broken coin dispenser in the laundry room and I will use this as an example of a larger problem: the office management. The coin dispenser was broken when we arrived in November and was still broken when we left in May. I don’t know what the problem was or why it was so difficult to fix, but to have no coin dispenser in the only coin-operated laundry on the premises is really unacceptable – especially since the office staff was prohibited from keeping cash of any kind, including quarters. At the very least the machine should have been replaced or a second one obtained. But, as I said, this was indicative of the general disorganization and incompetence of the office staff. I had to make four separate requests to obtain my mailbox key when I arrived and finally had to stand in the office and refuse to leave until a key was in my hand. Unacceptable.

But, overall, we are very happy with out decision. The HOA fees are low ($200 per month) and should remain low even after transition. This dramatically changes the economics of RV ownership as we now could, in theory, stay in Ft Myers year-round for $200 per month. Of course we really don’t want to do this because (1) Ft Myers in summer is hot, humid and very wet, (2) we have friends and family in New England that we enjoy seeing and (3) we still like to travel. But staying year-round at no additional cost is now an option.