Hi everyone!
Just got back from testing the 2005 Caldera Tahitian and the Niagra.
Overall construction and layout is pretty nice and we did like the way they looked and felt construction wise.
When we got in though it wasn't like the dry test for us.
The Tahitian has the lounger in it. I have come to a firm conclusion that my wife and I are NOT lounger people. Our stints in the loungers in HS and Caldera may be unique but they look good in principle but we just dont get the benefits out of them.
The other seats were pretty good. One big problem we had was getting the Euro jets on the neck to go lower in pressure...they blew our skin off. You can, however, swap them out for the little rotating ones if you like.
No seat really blew our socks off in the Tahitian. One thing we did NOT like was the lack of adequate foot massage/therapy. It was hard to get to the big jet at the bottom to massage our feet and my wife could not reach the jet at all. Comparing this to the 2005 Optima where each seat can get foot from the jets and from the high flow whirlpool, the Optima took it for us.
Water fountain was more of an annoyance for us...it was louder than we would like and just really didnt appeal to us. Some may like it but we did not.
The diverters were not as intuitive to us in the Caldera line as well to us. It might be for some but for us it was not.
We then switched to the Niagra because the Tahitian would not work for the wife at all because of the lounger. The Niagra was ok as well but not "knock your socks off". The "swivel" seat was absolutely unuseable for either of us. We just could not get comfortable in it.
The other seats were ok but in each of them we found that we had to struggle to feel at ease and relaxed in them. The calf jets in both did not do anything for us either.
With all of this being said there is another Caldera model that they have that we will wet test...that is the 2005 Hawaiian. It is the same dimensions as the Tahitian but no lounger. The middle bottom has a foot mound similar to the Sundance Optima but not exactally.
We will try that spa later next week and see how that goes. Price on the Hawaiiian is $7100 with cover lifter, cover, steps, startup chems, CD ozonator.
Overall....average for us...not blown away by either.
