This was our 4th trip to Hedo, and we'd been counting down the days for months. We are quite proud of the fact that we have mastered the art of getting there. We flew out of BWI on Saturday morning, on AJ, for eight nights. The flight amazingly left on time and we arrived in Mo Bay at 11:30am. Chris from Tim Air whisked us away to our puddle jumper, and we arrived at the front desk by noon. We got our requested room in H-block and were on the beach by 1:00pm. Not bad. Now, the way we've made this possible, we don't check any bags (they slow you down) and we fly first class which insures we're off the plane early and first through customs.
The weather was pretty nice. We had two half days of rain, but were fine with laying in bed and reading. This trip report will not be complete for many, as we do not partake in many of the activities. And this time of year (Dec 12-20) the resort is less than half full.
We staked out our usual turf on the beach in front of the massage shack. We knew some of the folks from the previous year at the same time. This we found we didn't like, as it made it more difficult to meet new people. Our routine was the same as our May trip, beach during the day, pool in late afternoon, nap, dinner at 8:00ish, drinks in Veronica's and the hot tub til whenever.
Like I said, we didn't participate in the Toga party or PJ party. They get old after awhile. So our trip was somewhat uneventful.
Now to sum it up for you, here are the positives and negatives. And I won't lie, there are going to be some serious negatives.
Positives: Many of the people are great. The guests still make the place what it is. The food, in general was pretty good. We've never had a problem with the food. There is plenty of choice. We did, for the first time in 4 trips, have a lobster night. Our room was clean and the housekeeping staff great.
Negatives: Where to start? From the beginning I guess. 1. I found the luggage handlers that meet you at the front desk rude. We didn't need their assistance and they took great offense to that. 2. The bar service, at ALL of the bars, sucked this trip. This is an all- inclusive for God sake, pay a little attention to the guests. We stood at bars, mainly Delroy's, for 15 mintues waiting for a drink when we were the only ones there. And that was asking them for service. Pitiful. 3. There needs to be some control over the non-nude visitors to the nude beach. There were often more people in suits just hanging out for hours than nude people. Security didn't seem to care. 4. Hedo needs to spend a few bucks and buy more mats for the beach chairs. It has become an Olympic event to secure these things. Some people were taking them to their rooms at night to make sure they would have the mats the next day. 5. The singles guys are a continuing problem. Someone is going to get raped, it's only a matter of time. One night we were one of two couple in the hot tub with (we counted) 27 single guys. Oh boy, what fun.
There are other problems I won't go into, these were our main complaints.
I DO NOT recommend going the last two weeks of December. Both last year and this year the management was more concerned about preparing for the upcoming January crowd than those there. They do most of their renovations this time. The room under us was being jack hammered every morning at 9:00am. The soda/beer fountain by the hot tub was being rebuilt most of the week. Last year the misting pool and pool were being retiled and were waterless our last three days there. We filled out a comment card, but doubt that we will get a response. It seems that after Kevin gets the money they could care less about customer satisfaction.
In closing let me say how disappointing our trip was. As earlier stated, this was our 4th trip since June '97. That should tell you what a great time we had before. We noticed the decline last trip (May 16th - 24th), but were shocked at how quickly the resort has gone to pot (no pun intended). Yes we filled out the comment card. But the wife and I will not be returning to Hedonism II for a long awhile. It is no longer worth the money. We hope it gets itself together. It was as if because you've already paid for everything the staff felt it o.k. to ignore the guests. Many people we spoke with felt the same. I will leave my Hedoguy user name on line for a couple of weeks to respond to specific questions, but then I will retire it and delete the Hedo Boards from my favorites file. One day we could go back, but this trip definitely left a very sour taste in our mouths.
Respect Mon.