Hedo trip Report May 7th to 14th.
Just back from another week of abusing our bodies with the rays of the tropical sun, unlimited food, booze and wonton sex. Well, at least we ate & drank a lot! For frame of reference, we are a married couple around 40 years of age. This was our 15 trip to Hedo. We usually visit Halloween time and Feb. This was our fist trip in May. This week was Nude week, sponsored by Go Classy Tours. They have been having these weeks twice a year (May & Sept) for about 3 years now. This year they booked in 200 guests for the week.
AJ & Genie provided for a serve-yourself full breakfast on the Nude beach from 8Am to 10:30 along with all the necessary ingredients for Bloody Mary’s, Screwdrivers & Mimosa’s. This actually extended the time to 21 hours a day you were able to get drinks! And Yes, the Red Stripe taps at the Nude Hot Tubs and Massage shack were also available, should you needed alcohol between 5AM and 8AM !
Other perks for Go Classy Nude Week clients consisted of Champagne ,Fruit & Flowers for your room, Tee shirts for the guys and Pareo’s for the gals. They also added some discounts on future bookings to go along with the regular Hedo Bucks for some of the weeks contests winners.
The week also proved to dispel some of the Hedo myths and some of the recent complaints about the resort. I will try to touch upon a number of these in the following:
Over-Booking - Not a problem this week as the resort was not full. As far as I know, there was no bumping and everyone got the category of room they booked. I was told that Hedo had perhaps their best April ever. This was probably due to lower resort prices combined with Jamaican Carnival, an Air Jamaica fare sale, double mileage and free trip raffle on each flight during April and up to May 5th. Staffing and room availability problems during those weeks resulted.
Attitudes of Staff - For the most part as good as usual. While staffing was lower than Halloween week, the number of guests was also. Several employees did seem to be on part time schedules. (perhaps mgtmt. trying to save on benefits?) Some seemed to be a bit annoyed and we did notice a few heated words between a few staff members. However, we found no one discourteous to us and nobody on Hedo’s staff even hinted that they should be tipped.
Service at the bars including the Disco & dinning room was very good. Waits were short and bar tenders fair. Courtesy and a Thank you go a long way.
Delroy & Scumba were a bit quieter than normal. They were helped out quite nicely by Donate & Stephanie.
Dining room service was for the most part very good. However, there were a few new waiters who were slow and inattentive.
Dinning Room manager, Ray Robinson has been out ill and we wish him all the best. Hopefully he'll be back real soon. He is an excellent manager and person and has been a fixture at Hedo for what seems like forever.
Service in Veronica's was great, with Veronica & staff making many trips to take drink orders at your table.
Nude vs Clothing Op. - We saw more people than ever before use the nude beach with swimsuits on. There were a few guys with bottoms on floats, there were plenty of women who only went topless with full bottoms or thongs. There were numerous couples who strolled the nude side clothed. The nice thing about it was they were either just checking it out or getting the nerve to try it out. There really wasn’t many gawkers, obtrusive or rude people or those looking for sneak a few photo’s. They did not stay past their welcome either. As a result, those of us that were nude, didn’t seem to mind or give anyone a hard time about getting naked. Several even got served at Delroy's and Robert's Grill. No shouting, No whistle blowing.
Consensual photography was not a problem, only once did I notice security giving a guest a problem with taking photo's unnecessarily in the pool area.
Guests are either Old, Over-Weight, a Couple or Single Guys
Not this week! We arrived on Sat and until Wed., I would guess that 50% of the guests were under 25 (crowd did seem to change a bit after that getting more single guys & a bit older). Also there seemed to be as many or more single females as males. There were several groups of 3 or more single girls (taking advantage of the 3 stay for price of 2 in same room offer) as well as groups of 2 and a few alone. Most of these were in the younger set and spent their time on the Prude side.
There were also plenty of couples and singles under 30 on the nude side. However the over 35 single male still outnumbered his female counterpart considerably.
I also just want to say how well behaved the younger people were. They had plenty of fun but were not rowdy and did not intrude on anyone else’s fun.
Yes there were couples & singles in their 40’s, 50’s 60’s 70’s and 80’s also. In fact there was an 88 year old man who took offense at being called old. Said he won't be old till he turns 90! He did give me the "Thrill" of my life, when he decided to sit on my lap in the jet tub! (Why is it never a 25 year old female?)
Yes there were all shapes and sizes. But the myth that there’s nothing bunch of lumpy old folks on the nude beach couldn’t be further than the truth! In fact the views were so nice that even Mark (coordinator), had to leave to have some surgery on his eye! Seriously, we wish him well and hope he’s OK!
Can’t have Fun on the Prude Side
Well, we’re no experts on this, but it looked like the above mentioned people were having a ball! Also, just because they hung out on the prude side, I won’t necessarily call them prude’s. Several of the 14 contestants in the Wet T were from the "prude Side" and performed amazingly well! Also there was some "prude" females seen flashing and striping in the Piano bar, getting down & dirty in the disco as well as at the beach party and the Battle of Sexes game.
As one girl put it "The Young folks come for the sex, the older one’s come to get Naked! Can’t say I agree on the second part of that statement, but it does do a disservice to call these kids prude’s!
Hot Tub Police
Policing of the Hot tub was strong late night. Several couples were broken up for just kissing while we were in the tub. Enforcement supposedly was due to a recent article in an adult magazine which brought in some randy groups and an increase in prostitution and a few assaults over the last few months. There also seemed to be a few SuperClubs execs. on property which might have been a reason also.
Yes there were working girls in the house, but mainly on the weekend and mainly in the Disco. We didn't notice any problems with them as they just seem to be there should anyone need to partake in their services. They just hung out waiting to be approached.
Day time was a different story, no police in sight. Although there wasn’t a lot of activity compared with previous trips, there were a few displays of sexual activity in and around the tub and on the beach. The most pronounced for the week was in the cave during a rain storm. Sad to say we missed it as we took a bike ride to De Buss for some jerk Chicken and got soaked in the rain coming back. The major activity in the Hot Tub was a beach ball volley game and tossing some fabric type balls around. Quite a bit different from the type of balls being played with on pervious trips!
Footnote: Waterfall in front of cave was off all week due to a broken pump. Fountain in misting pool was somewhat weaker also and did not get much use.
Not enough or Too much, Hot Water
We experienced absolutely no water problems the last 2 trips! Used the shower in prime time before dinner, late night and early morning all without any temp fluctuations. Didn’t not freeze or get burned. Could they have really fixed this long standing problem? Now if you only could adjust the temp of the room A/C !
Food S**ks
Reality was that most meals were pretty good. While massed produced buffet food will never be haute cuisine, it was well prepared, fresh and enjoyable. Choices were somewhat limited compared to Halloween week, but always consisted of a couple of meats, fish, pasta, veggies and potatoes. Salads, fruits and deserts were about the same as usual. Breakfasts were a little weak except for Charlie's mastery of fresh eggs and omelets. A new feature at lunch time was a freshly tossed Caesar salad.
Pastafari restaurant was as good as usual with a menu that now changes every 3 days. They are opened to 1AM, but only have a pasta menu after 10PM. Comes in handy if you nap through dinner as we did the first night.
Wine and champagne were far superior to what is served in dinning room.
McMons grill on the nude beach was excellent except for the dried up hot dogs. The 6Pm Jerk Chicken (not really jerk but more of a pikapepper sauce) was quite tasty but had a little less heat than I remember it. Robert, Indiana and crew did a great job having everything prepared to keep the waits short. The hot dogs however seemed as though they have been on the grill since last Oct., dried up, wrinkly and limp…the hot dogs I'm talking about!
Note: Plates in the Dinning Room are now smaller! Appeared to be about 9" diameter (a little bigger than the only measuring tool I had with me J ). Actually this helped a bit, as didn't gain quite as much weight as pervious trips. Of course you can still fill it as high as you want or as many plates as you want.
PJ & Toga Parties
Both were a bit different from what we're use to. There's probably more skin showing in a Britany Spears video than what we saw at the PJ party. Unlike Halloween ,where people tend to be more daring very few people were going for the most revealing prize. Call me shallow, but the statement "it's sexier to conceal than reveal", proved true with all the younger girls looking fine in their bra's & panties and nighties. They wore them well. Most of the younger Guys were also looking good sporting some sort of boxers (wife made me put that in). Nobody seamed to mind and all had a great time. We had fun sporting leather outfits and using our whips on some very willing subjects.
The same held true of the Toga party. Although most participated, the majority used the sheet to its full covering advantage. There was No most revealing category. Several people wore underwear or lingerie under their Toga. Definitely a No No!
Air Jamaica????
After swearing off Air Jamaica in the early 90's, this was the 4th straight trip in just over a year and a half that we flew AJ. Each time has been a pleasant experience. The airline is much improved since being bought by Butch Stewart (owner of Sandals resorts). They have been on time (we had a short delay on a very crowed flight out of MoBay, but still arrived in NY on time), haven't lost or damaged any of our luggage, have convenient flight times out of NY and serve complentary Red Stripe, Champagne, Wine and a free movie in coach.
They also offer flight check in at Hedo. You pay departure tax ($21 going to $28 on June 1st), check bags and get your boarding passes at Hedo the morning of your flight. We did have a small problem with this time. The procedure is to have you bags outside your room at 9AM and check in with AJ between 10:30 & 11:30. Well the Rep. showed up 30 min. late and then with a rather large crowd waiting, it became cumbersome as to your place on line (people kept leaving a coming back) and we didn't get processed until around 12:15 loosing some valuable last day sun. The good part is we took a late flight from GNAT to Mobay as once at the airport you can go right to the gate.
New At Hedo
Midnight snack now from 12 to 2 AM features made to order eggs and omelets alternating eves with the burgers and dogs.
New hand rail dividing steps into and out of the Disco. Very useful with the 6" spikes and after 21 hours of drinking. A/C in Disco working fine but Disco bar area still very warm.
Wait & bar staff are sporting new colorful shirts and short pants (although some shorts come within 4" of the ankle)
Female employee’s are wearing those deceptive skirts that are actually shorts.
Shania Twain, No not in person but CD constantly played for a least 3 straight days at the nude Beach bar. No truth to the rumor that Delroy was seen wearing a cowboy hat!
The lovely Marie is the newest addition to the entertainment staff and Paul (Arnold- Different Strokes) is back after a 3 year sojourn to Costa Rica.
There are several new members of the circus crew, headed by Vladimir. Can’t evaluate them, as afternoon rain showers cancelled the 4PM Clinics almost every day. Also we were not at the resort on Fri. eve for the circus show.
On the Horizon as outlined at repeat offenders party:
280 new room air conditioners
Expansion of the Disco
Remodeling of all bathrooms (only dropped one towel in toilet this trip)
Refurbishing of the Prude Pool
Also mentioned that Hedo III still on time for Sept. opening. The resort will feature some rooms with a built in slide into the pool. A water slide that goes thru the Disco and a Hot Tub above the Disco with clear walls and floor for viewing from below!
Well, now its time to start working on our Halloween costume. Only 5 months to go!
See ya there!