Fort Lauderdale Has Always Been The Place for This Hot Sunday Tradition

Royal Palms is the first luxury gay hotel on Fort Lauderdale Beach offering a  T-Dance since 1992. With a full service bar and grill on premises, a fierce deejay and ample parking- its sure to be legendary!  The history behind the T Dance is certainly fascinating...

Fort Lauderdale’s rich history includes some of the hottest t-dances around. Back in the 1970s through the ’80s, the place to be on a Sunday afternoon was the Marlin Beach Resort. Located on A1A, Beach Place now fills the space that used to be packed with gay men out to have a good time. The T-dance at Marlin was so packed, no one was even able to dance. Men would come up from Miami to be part of the party, which had a glass wall that overlooked a swimming pool. The hot hotel was even featured prominently in the film “Where The Boys Are.” Entertainers from disco darling Sylvester to Dana Manchester to Pamela Stanley all made appearances at this 70s legend. In the 1980s, partiers started to head down to South Beach, which had then become popular. The hotel officially closed in 1992.

After Marlin Beach Resort closed down, Club Caribbean Resort picked up where it left off. Located on Federal Highway (where the Harley Davidson Store now resides), the T-dances at Club Caribbean had a lively crowd until it shut down in the mid-1990s.

Since then, several t-dances have come and gone at local bars in the area, including Jackhammer/Steel and Sea Monster, but none have reached the heights of the Sunday afternoon t-dances at Marlin Beach Resort.

Royal Palms hopes to duplicate the excitement of the Marlin and maybe even surpass it. Our first t-dance is on Sunday, May 29 at 4 p.m. See you there!