Elvis & Miss Prissy - December, 2013
Hedonism II
The week before Christmas, 2013
This was the second trip to Hedo for my husband and me. Our first trip was the same time (week before Christmas) last year. It’s a low occupancy week, and that’s what we prefer since we never have to wait in line or search for an empty chair. Still tons of fun people there, but the resort was not crowded at all.
The beach and pool areas have improved since last year. The staff did a great job of keeping everything picked up and clean for us all week. They were always raking the beach, picking up trash and leaves, collecting empty cups and plates, and spraying down the pool deck. The resort added two open-air cabanas on the nude beach. One is on the point, and the other is near the lion statue. They are fantastic lounging spots, especially early in the morning with a cup of coffee. The resort has also added new lounge chairs, lots of small plastic tables, and several beach and poolside umbrellas. Since occupancy was low, there were plenty of chairs, tables, and umbrellas available next to the pool and on the beach all day.
We also saw a lot of improvements in our room. We decided to spend a little more this year and book an oceanview nude room with a Jacuzzi. Best decision ever! We absolutely loved having our own private hot tub, and we especially enjoyed the beach access directly from our room. Damien (watersports) took great care of our hot tub all week, and he even left fresh towels on our patio chair each morning. So nice.
Our room had recently been painted with a different color scheme, and there were new linens on the bed. We also had a fridge in our room stocked with sodas, water, and beer – which we loved. I added some pictures of our room below. Some of the trim was still the old gray color, so they probably have a little more painting to do. The bed was incredibly comfortable and we enjoyed the soft linens and big pillows. We also liked the flat screen TV and extensive channel selection. Overall, our room was comfortable, clean, and cool.
As others have mentioned recently, there was a huge improvement in food and drinks from last year. I stepped out of my comfort zone and decided to try some of the local Jamaican dishes – callaloo, curried goat, oxtail stew, and lots of fish (which I rarely eat at home). Everything was delicious. We dined at the Italian and Japanese restaurants a couple of times, and they were both wonderful. The bars were well stocked and included premium liquors. They also had plenty of champagne, all day and night.
Dining room and bar service was great. The staff was on it – serving drinks at the bar, refilling coffee and water at the tables, and constantly clearing dishes from the table during meals. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming.
The piano bar was a lot of fun every night. I’m normally not a sing along or karaoke kind of person, but you wouldn’t have known that while I was there. The piano player is talented and picks up new tunes quickly. He had a computer with an electronic keyboard, and he could pull up just about any song you wanted and play along. He paid attention to the guests’ preferences and selected songs accordingly. The piano bar was closed on Tuesday night for the pajama party in the disco. There was a decent showing, (considering the low occupancy) and we had fun acting silly and dancing.
I have a lot of good things to say about the improvements I saw. The resort is looking much better than last year, but it is still a work in progress. There were a few things that caused some inconvenience. We had no water one evening and no hot water for our last two days there. The paint smell was overwhelming at times, but we just picked up and moved to another spot. It seemed like there were more locals on property this year. There were locals (I’m guessing prostitutes???) that did not blend in with the rest of the guests, and they were not shy about displaying solo attention-seeking behavior most of the time – singing loudly, yelling, dancing – anything to draw attention to themselves. It was annoying and disruptive. Also, on Friday night, the dining room was packed. There were no tables available. I’m not sure what was going on as the resort occupancy was still low. We saw several large tables of new people, so we thought they had just arrived that night. However, we didn’t see them after Friday night. We then assumed they were locals on site for dinner only. No idea. In any event, I hope in the future the resort will set more tables if they allow a large group of visitors nightly dining room access. We did not enjoy walking around the dining room with full plates looking for a place to sit.
In spite of the few things that didn’t go our way, we had an incredible time. We had no idea we could have more fun than last year, but we did! What a great vacation.
