Decent on a Monday night but nothing special

The second stop of this winter’s trip to Florida was Cocoa Beach where I visited Cheaters on Monday February 17, 2020 from about 9:30 to 11:15 pm. This Monday was President’s Day and also the day of the Daytona 500 stock car race up the road to the north. Of the 3 clubs in Cocoa Beach recent tuscl ratings seem to say Inner Room had gone downhill and Lido and Cheaters were about equal, so I chose Cheaters for no other reason than it was right next to the motel I was staying the night in. The club is kind of in the center of Cocoa Beach, on A1A near Cocoa Beach Causway (hwy 520) and the Cocoa Beach Pier. It’s a new looking free standing square building with its own free parking around it. Parking was about half full and also had been about the same full when I first arrived at the motel around 4 pm. You enter through a door in the center of the street side into a small vestibule with a desk where a $5 cover was collected. No ID check or security scan.

Entering the main club the stage is slightly to the right. The stage is rather low off the ground and is surrounded by a raised tip rail on 3 sides with chairs. There are several rows of 2 chair tables on the left side of the stage and a few more tables in back of the stage, which is the side with stairs that the dancers go up a few steps to get on the stage. Along the right wall of the building is a row of raised booths that were roped off and not being used this night. The entrance to the dancer’s dressing room is in the right back corner of the room. There are 2 bars, a smaller one near the back wall beyond the stage and a larger one along the left wall of the building. Near the larger bar there is one pool table which was in use most of the time I was there. The lap dance area is near the center of the back wall. There were many TV screens throughout the building which for the first part to the time I was there were showing some ordinary channel that had one of the Star Wars movies on it. Later they switched to the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game, the game was in Denver so didn’t start until late.

Waitresses efficiently circulated. I had a generic bottled water for $4. I’d guess about 30 customers including some female customers and about 20 dancers which seems fairly busy for a Monday night. I don’t know what the shift schedule is but a number of dancers in street clothes seemed to be leaving early on in my visit. The dancers were mostly white with perhaps some Latinas and 3 or 4 AA. They tended to the slimmer side but otherwise mostly in good shape. Dancers did 2 song sets usually removing the top pretty early in the set. The two poles on the stage were put to good use although the ceiling is fairly low. The music was pretty loud and it was hard to understand what the DJ was saying, I think at some point he was advertising drink specials but couldn’t make it out. Smoking was allowed but ventilation was reasonable. Customers were doing quite a bit of tipping at the stage.