[Fraugoofy]

Originally Posted by outlaw

I bought here about two years ago when the "build out" was a few months away. I enjoy being able to go to the town squares and have two-fers. On many occasions, we are treated to live entertainment in the form of a street fight exhibition. I have learned many self defense techniques from these exhibitions (free, of course). Then I can drive my golf cart home without worrying about a nuisance DUI like with an automobile. I also like standing in line for 45 minutes to play water volleyball. I have met many nice people standing in lines waiting for my free activity that only costs $150 per month whether or not I use the activities. I do enjoy the free golf, although the 2 hour rounds on a 9 hole executive course are a little long. Fortunately, I can sit in my golf cart on each tee for 5 minutes watching the "beginners" hit their third shot from the bunkers and walk out the other side, stepping over the rake. I pay another $150 per year so I can use my golf cart on these "free" courses that are also maintained with my $150 per month amenity fees. I have lost 10 pounds since I moved here, primarily from skipping dinners when arriving at a restaurant only to be told there is a 45 minute wait to be seated. But it was fun to drive my golf cart to the restaurant after having a few drinks to take the edge off of my 2 hour 9 hole golf round earlier that day. As for doctors, there are many. Just not too many from US medical schools, but if you enjoy other perspectives and alternative medicine, this is the place for you. I am still looking for a primary care physician that takes medicare and is a graduate from a top 50% US medical school. I have found recommended doctors who graduated from medical schools in Peru, Poland, Nigeria, Mexico, England (this school was under investigation as a diploma mill), South Florida (at least it's in the US), Spain, Philippines, China, etc. The good news is that I can drive to all these doctors in my golf cart! How cool is that? And anyway, if you get really sick, you can always go back north to your previous doctors. So come on down. If you are from a big crowded city, and are used to waiting in lines, you will love it here. If you live in a high cost area, you will think it is very cheap to live here.

I love this post! I am laughing so hard I am crying! Btw, I told you where to find $5.75 pitchers, right?

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[kaseydog]

Just returned from doctor's office located on 441. Receptionist put our names on a waiting list about 10 pages long with about 50 names on each page.
Developer touted the tv health centers (that took my insurance at the time of home purchase) as a selling gimmic. I have health issues & this figured into our decision on whether to buy in the villages. Were members of tv health for 3 years. Now we are forced to choose between my excellent health insurance and medicare advantage(2017 version). Medicare advantage(2018) plan is in the works but agents say they are not privy to the details.
Medicare advantage agent said it would be unwise to drop my plan & go with tv health plan. $0 copay is too good to be true when you analise all the delails of the plan. Moving at this time is not an option.

[John_W]

Originally Posted by outlaw

I bought here about two years ago when the "build out" was a few months away. I enjoy being able to go to the town squares and have two-fers. On many occasions, we are treated to live entertainment in the form of a street fight exhibition. I have learned many self defense techniques from these exhibitions (free, of course). Then I can drive my golf cart home without worrying about a nuisance DUI like with an automobile. I also like standing in line for 45 minutes to play water volleyball. I have met many nice people standing in lines waiting for my free activity that only costs $150 per month whether or not I use the activities. I do enjoy the free golf, although the 2 hour rounds on a 9 hole executive course are a little long. Fortunately, I can sit in my golf cart on each tee for 5 minutes watching the "beginners" hit their third shot from the bunkers and walk out the other side, stepping over the rake. I pay another $150 per year so I can use my golf cart on these "free" courses that are also maintained with my $150 per month amenity fees. I have lost 10 pounds since I moved here, primarily from skipping dinners when arriving at a restaurant only to be told there is a 45 minute wait to be seated. But it was fun to drive my golf cart to the restaurant after having a few drinks to take the edge off of my 2 hour 9 hole golf round earlier that day. As for doctors, there are many. Just not too many from US medical schools, but if you enjoy other perspectives and alternative medicine, this is the place for you. I am still looking for a primary care physician that takes medicare and is a graduate from a top 50% US medical school. I have found recommended doctors who graduated from medical schools in Peru, Poland, Nigeria, Mexico, England (this school was under investigation as a diploma mill), South Florida (at least it's in the US), Spain, Philippines, China, etc. The good news is that I can drive to all these doctors in my golf cart! How cool is that? And anyway, if you get really sick, you can always go back north to your previous doctors. So come on down. If you are from a big crowded city, and are used to waiting in lines, you will love it here. If you live in a high cost area, you will think it is very cheap to live here.

First off, 'paragraphs' should be your friend.

Second, there's a counterpoint to many of your observations. Fights at the squares, the only ones I've heard about were the woman line-dancers at Spanish Springs. I don't line dance, really don't dance much at all, and most times when there is trouble at SS, the Lady Lake Police will step in, or at least give you a ticket for going 26 in a 20.

Standing in line 45 minutes for an activity, doesn't happen at MVP. Of course it's not free, but it's the best $100 a month I pay for my wife and myself. There's plenty of classes and equipment for everyone to find something to do.

The 'beginners' at the executives holding up the regular golfers, don't you know the regular golfers are at the championship courses. We leave all the execs for the hackers. You have to spend a little money to get what you really want.

Long waiting lines for dinner. It's never happened to us. Then again, we never eat dinner out. We eat lunch out at least 3 to 5 times a week. It's cheaper, it's when I'm the hungriest, less customers, you have the rest of the day to burn it off.

The problem with doctors isn't just a Villages Health situation. My first VA doctor at the Villages VA almost killed me. He took me off of my Plavix (blood thinner) medication. He said, after 18 months you don't have to take Plavix anymore after getting a stent. He didn't know they have two kinds, a metal stent which is what he was talking about and a chemical stent, which is what I have and requires Plavix the rest of my life. My second Villages VA doctor was a 6'6" red hair woman from the Ukraine, but she was actually good but had to return to her homeland. The third and current VA doctor is from India and knows very little about anything I have a problem with. I usually have to do my internet research so when I see him, I know what to ask for.

[kaseydog]

Dear outlaw loved,loved,loved your post listing all the "wonderful???" things about the villages. I have lived here 3 years & things have changed & not for the better. I expect to be stoned to death by the paid i.e. Janet tutt & unpaid lakeys of the developer when i go to one of the squares for agreeing with you.
Do you know where i can buy a pair of rose colored glasses? They must come with blinders like horses wear so i can pretend the villages is perfect. Please keep these posts coming. Can't find a competent doctor either. So have to rely on the old adage "laughter is the best medicine" for now.

[kaseydog]

Dear outlaw p.s. I'm sure some retired english teacher will review my post for improper spelling,punctuation etc. I don't care whether you used paragraphs or not. Your post was truthful & entertaining.

[graciegirl]

Just think. If the developer wanted to be "greedy" he/they could build homes on all of the golf courses. Even if you don't play or it takes you two hours to play nine, they are a lovely thing for your eyes to behold.

What is the Villages Wine? A nice mellow glass of vinegar with your beef.

[Polar Bear]

Originally Posted by outlaw

I bought here about two years ago when the "build out" was a few months away. I enjoy being able to go to the town squares and have two-fers. On many occasions, we are treated to live entertainment in the form of a street fight exhibition. I have learned many self defense techniques from these exhibitions (free, of course). Then I can drive my golf cart home without worrying about a nuisance DUI like with an automobile. I also like standing in line for 45 minutes to play water volleyball. I have met many nice people standing in lines waiting for my free activity that only costs $150 per month whether or not I use the activities. I do enjoy the free golf, although the 2 hour rounds on a 9 hole executive course are a little long. Fortunately, I can sit in my golf cart on each tee for 5 minutes watching the "beginners" hit their third shot from the bunkers and walk out the other side, stepping over the rake. I pay another $150 per year so I can use my golf cart on these "free" courses that are also maintained with my $150 per month amenity fees. I have lost 10 pounds since I moved here, primarily from skipping dinners when arriving at a restaurant only to be told there is a 45 minute wait to be seated. But it was fun to drive my golf cart to the restaurant after having a few drinks to take the edge off of my 2 hour 9 hole golf round earlier that day. As for doctors, there are many. Just not too many from US medical schools, but if you enjoy other perspectives and alternative medicine, this is the place for you. I am still looking for a primary care physician that takes medicare and is a graduate from a top 50% US medical school. I have found recommended doctors who graduated from medical schools in Peru, Poland, Nigeria, Mexico, England (this school was under investigation as a diploma mill), South Florida (at least it's in the US), Spain, Philippines, China, etc. The good news is that I can drive to all these doctors in my golf cart! How cool is that? And anyway, if you get really sick, you can always go back north to your previous doctors. So come on down. If you are from a big crowded city, and are used to waiting in lines, you will love it here. If you live in a high cost area, you will think it is very cheap to live here.

My sincere sympathies.

[TomOB]

We lived in The Villages for 5 years to the day. Build out was promised, but it won't happen. We had a great time until it became a major metropolitan statistical area with too many people for us. We moved to a smaller development in Ocala and we are very happy here too. The Villages is a great place with a great business plan. I am not saying anything bad about The Villages. Enjoy it. We miss our wonderful neighbors, but we have wonderful neighbors here too. To each their own.

[outlaw]

Originally Posted by Nucky

I hope you don't mind but we didn't make your 2 to 5 years designation. We landed here in June 2016 and are thrilled fully. There is no Hocus Pocus with anything, the thing is we live with other people in a community and may be interrupted in our travels slightly and travel to a doctor may not be the perfection that was envisioned. I believe it's the way we all handle these ground shaking horrific challenges. It is better than we imagined before we arrived. Our expectations have been exceeded. You'll be fine in The Villages, the sky is not falling.

You're so right. The sky is not falling. The Morse bridge foundation may be collapsing, or another section of TV roadway may disappear into a sinkhole, but definitely the sky is not falling.

[outlaw]

Originally Posted by Fraugoofy

I love this post! I am laughing so hard I am crying! Btw, I told you where to find $5.75 pitchers, right?

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$5.75 pitchers of beer in TV!? Where?

[outlaw]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

Just think. If the developer wanted to be "greedy" he/they could build homes on all of the golf courses. Even if you don't play or it takes you two hours to play nine, they are a lovely thing for your eyes to behold.

What is the Villages Wine? A nice mellow glass of vinegar with your beef.

No one wants to be greedy. They just are. There's nothing lovely about watching beginners play golf unless they're behind you. Waay behind you.

[pauld315]

Originally Posted by asianthree

One can always move to dry counties in the south.

Where are those specifically ?

[pauld315]

I received this as a private message from somebody I will not name, that many on this forum would recognize, when I asked why he and his wife left The Villages in 2010. I didn't write it so take it as you want

After about 5 years, we felt that The Villages was aging us. That may sound funny because there are so many youthful things to do there. For us, however, every place we went, theater, grocery store, restaurants, golf courses, stores, there were old people just like us. We craved a little youthfulness around us once in a while. Even now, when we go back to The Villages to visit our friends, we sense the constant age grinding at us all the time.

There was another complication for us. Golf carts everywhere. There are 80,000 residents and about 35,000 golf carts. They zig zag everywhere. People don't consider them to be cars. To most, they are toys. It is a constant assignment to watch for golf carts. Some guys soup them up to double speed. Others have never had a license in their life, but now drive a golf cart. Then there are those who are legally blind or too old to drive cars, but they drive their carts. It was getting to be a real annoyance to us. But, there 79,999 other people who don't mind.

Since our home in NY was 2 acres, we really felt hemmed in at the Villages. Deed restrictions keep the community looking beautiful, but also keep active residents from being the "kings of their castles."

Most residents call The Villages, "The Bubble." They joke about "drinking the Kool aide" Honestly, I don't want to live in a Bubble. I am my own person and want to live that way. I want to live in the "real" world.

We built in Plant City on 1 1/2 acres. I can do pretty much what I want and when I want to.

For most folks, The Villages is heaven on earth. But it wasn't for us.

[Fraugoofy]

Originally Posted by outlaw

$5.75 pitchers of beer in TV!? Where?

1. Honest John's at LSL has $1.50 pints on Monday, so that's $6 pitchers 2. Right outside of TV in Wildwood at a place called O' Shucks at 1016 Main Street. Great wings, too. Not cart accessible...$5.75 pitchers... check it out and let me know what you think!

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[rubicon]

Expectations -expectations- expectations it all begins with expectations and of course your frames of reference. I believed the area I moved down from was the best place in this nation and national survey after national survey supported my belief rating this city the highest and the state the second best in quality of life. A large metro area but so well designed and planned that traffic moved well and the area always kept in pristine conditions. So we were use to a large geographical area and large population but one that was well managed and well planned

We never viewed The Villages as some sort of Disney World, in fact thought such an idea should be discouraged because its a fantasy and sooner or later all fantasies disappear. Nor did we believe all the hype about living like a millionaire on retirement income. We focused on the tax situation and the restrictions that preserve properties. Golf carts for us are used for golf nothing more .

So when I would read these glowing almost mystical reports about TV and the developer my thoughts moved to their disappointments when they discovered this place wasn't built just for them and that the incremental crowding in and around TV would eventually put all those expectations to rest.

Indeed the poster referencing a large homogeneous population as a problem is correct something also we took into consideration

The aptly termed "posse" is correct;albeit my belief is that they believe they are taking the high (positive) road blunting negative and unfair comments. The saying a pessimist is an optimist with experience comes to mind .

Love it or leave it" well in my view when one retires savings/replenishment's become almost impossible so financial decisions must never be taken lightly . We made our move with both eyes wide open weighing out the pro and cons . I miss the place I moved from but one always has fonder memories of the past. So we adjust because the most crucial aspect of life is adaptation

Those who ask should we move to The Villages ought to first ask why is it I want to leave where I live presently?

Personal Best Regards: