My parents are currently considering retiring to The Villages. The thought scares the heck out of me.
The parents of a friend of mine have a place at The Villages.
Every once in awhile, he and his twin brother (they're in there 30s) and their families with young children will use it for a cheap summer vacation. Just the thought of it is extremely amusing.
"The first thing you do here is buy a house. The second thing you probably do is buy a golf cart."
http://www.golfworldmagazine.com/golfworld/20120409?pg=51#pg51
Fairly certain The Villages won't be hosting any Hundred Hole Hike events anytime soon.
According to my friend, The Villages has gotten so expansive that the golf carts don't have enough of a charge to make it all the way across the property and back. Not sure how that's been resolved.
I don't think I'll be a target customer of The Villages down the road. However, my grandmother used to live in an independent living apartment along with other senior folks. It looked like fun; kind of like a college dorm for people in their 80s. Every time I visited her, there were people watching movies and playing cards in the main lobby. And they used to have quite a bit to drink at the parties (they were on such a first-name basis with the local paramedics that the EMTs were invited to the Christmas party). Once my grandmother learned what the term "friends with benefits" meant, she noted that there was a lot of that going on in her building.
After my grandfather died, she spent six years alone in her house not sure what to do. Once she decided to move to this place, she had constant activities and tons of friends. She was rarely in her room. She made it to 90; she probably would have gone a lot sooner had she stayed in her house.