Lyle - July, 2013
Trip Report
Hedonism II
04 – 11 July 2013
I flew from St. Louis to Montego Bay, via Charlotte, on US Airways and
all of the air travel went as planned and scheduled with no problems or
complications.
Arrival Immigration in Jamaica was moderately busy, so there was a
relatively minor wait for processing, but it all seemed to be proceeding
as smoothly as one should expect and there were no unexpected delays.
Customs was not busy and it was essentially a walk-through with
no waiting or delays.
This is the first trip I’ve taken since the change in the ground
transportation policy late last year, so I went into it expecting to
conduct a test and figure out the system I want to use for future
visits. For this first
segment, I booked ground transport via my travel agent who booked me
with JTL and I accepted (even though I’d heard some adverse reports from
friends about their service).
The bus used for the trip was probably realistically too large
for the roads in Jamaica and was heavily loaded, so it was virtually
forced to move fairly slowly.
If it wasn’t completely full, there couldn’t have been many empty
seats. We stopped at fived
(5) different resort locations to drop off passengers and I think I was
one of the last to get off the bus and may have been the only passenger
for Hedo. In all, it took over 2 hours travel time from the time we left
the airport parking lot until we were pulling into Hedo.
While the cost was very cheap, the service provided was
commensurate and I decided I’d not use that service for the return trip
(or probably ever again)
Even though reception was not busy at the time I arrived, it was less
organized and efficient than usual and the staff seemed confused about
who was doing what, when, how, etc., so all that could have been much
more smooth. My travel agent
had specifically requested a ground floor room in a general area within
the property when these reservations were made several months ago.
I’d also privately coordinated with a couple of Hedo staff a
couple weeks prior to my arrival, and they assured me they would and
could comply with my request.
Upon check-in, I was told there were no ground floor rooms
available in that general area (even though the hotel was nowhere near
full) and I was assigned 2226.
The shower control valve is failing and sometimes very difficult
to get the water to stop running.
The shower drain is also not draining properly and water backs up
in the shower during use, so that’s a bad combination and potentially
sets the stage for flooding at some point.
There were other relatively minor discrepancies with the room,
but all were consistent with just an older room in need of some
maintenance.
After a lot of conversation, the next day I was moved to 2177.
During those conversations, it appeared to me there were some
turf issues going on between various elements of the front office staff
in addition to the growth pains often associated with staffing and
assignment changes. Training
and experience can fix one part of that, but if there really are some
turf issues going on, someone further up the organization is going to
want to fix that.
2177 is a really tired room and needs some maintenance actions.
There’s no door on the shower anymore and it’s now using a shower
curtain. Frankly, I really
didn’t care about that one way or the other, but it makes it a bit more
challenging to keep the water inside the shower.
I know the history of the shower doors and that they leak, but
not quite like this. Shower
water pressure and temperature during the times I was using it were
excellent and I enjoyed some really nice hot showers.
Later in the evening, however, the water pressure in the room
would drop to the point where the toilet wouldn’t flush and the sink
taps would barely run from roughly 08:00 PM until roughly 11:00 PM and
there was a light sort of beige or rust color in the water.
There was also no thermostat for the air conditioner in this room and
there’s simply a toggle switch to turn the air conditioner on and off.
When the air conditioner was on, it seemed to work well and
didn’t seem to have the musty funk we’ve encountered in the past with
the air conditioning units.
Using the manual control, however, seemed like the room was often too
warm or too cold, so it was great when it was “just right”.
The room did have a new flat panel TV installed.
Frankly, I really never cared whether there’s a TV in the room or
not (and still don’t) so it worked well enough for me.
For some people, however, I think they’re going to find the TV is
mounted at a bit of a strange angle, depending upon where they are
laying on the bed, and the angle of the TV really can’t be adjusted
because of how it’s mounted.
I don’t think it will be a problem for most people, but I suspect some
may notice and may complain about it.
The staff seems to be energized and eager to please and everyone looks
busy all the time. The
longer I observed them and talked with them, I finally realized I’d seen
this situation and behavior before a number of times in companies that
had just had major management changes, layoffs, and staffing changes.
I suspect there’s an underlying sense of uncertainty and
discomfort among the staff.
In some cases I’ve seen in the past, that situation was unintentional.
In other cases, the new management instilled that intentionally
thinking it would help motivate the staff and improve performance (it
ALWAYS ends up going badly when this is done intentionally).
I’m not sure which it is in this case, but I suspect this may
take a few months for things to settle back into whatever the new normal
pace and rhythm will be.
I also talked to a lot of people around the resort and nobody seems to
have any genuine understanding of what the planned changes are for the
resort and the schedule for incorporation, and whether there will be
associated pricing or policy changes.
If nobody has shared the details of the plan with the staff,
that’s not good. If they
really don’t have an integrated plan, that’s worse.
None of this is a complaint; it’s simply an observation and my
perspective.
I looked at the construction work done and being done in a few places.
Some of it looks really good, and other parts of it may or may
not work out OK. I looked at
one of the ground floor rooms on the nude beach that’s being remodeled.
While it looks like a good idea, I think they’ve got a few
engineering problems with what they’re doing that will likely cause them
some problems later. I’d
urge them to get an additional trained and experienced set of eyes or
two to look at what they’re doing and how they are doing it.
If they’re going to expend the time and resources to make changes
like this, they should make VERY sure it’s going to work well for them
and do what they intend it to do, and I’m not sure they should have that
confidence right now.
The beach conditions are in good shape, but a lot of the soft sand is
washed away due to all the rain they’re getting lately, so the beach is
pretty hard and rough in some areas.
Volume levels in the dining room are great when they are just playing
background music, but they are very much too loud when they are doing
the other performances and announcements.
Personally, I find it unbearable and retreat to a quieter area of
the resort when that stuff starts.
Since there’s really no excuse for that, I can only conclude
nobody in the leadership chain has decided to fix this problem or they
simply don’t think it IS a problem.
Whatever the cause, as a paying customer, I know it’s a problem
for me.
Various people told me there’s a new sound system near the nude pool.
Whether that’s a fact or not, I don’t know, but I do know it’s
also VERY loud sometimes.
The staff started playing music by nude pool when it reopened at 11 PM
at night. Unfortunately,
they do that with the same vigor as whoever manages the volume controls
in the dining room, and it can be VERY loud sometimes; especially if you
happen to be sleeping in a room anywhere on the nude beach area down to
at least the massage shack.
One night, between the volume and bass levels, the sound was shaking
stuff dresser and night table causing it to move a bit.
Despite various things I’d heard about the food, I really didn’t think
it was any better or worse than it has been for quite some time.
I talked with various other guests about that and they had the
same observation. You won’t
go hungry, but the food really doesn’t seem to be improved or changed
since the management change.
We did have lobster on Friday night, but it was the same thing we’ve had
many times before.
We had rain and sometimes thunderstorms most afternoons, and all the
usual rainy afternoon things happened.
For much of this visit, I’d guess the resort was less than 30%
occupancy, and that compares with what some of the staff also told me.
When the rain would arrive, there would be small pockets of folks
continuing their activities, but place mostly emptied out as folks when
various places to seek shelter.
For my return transport to the airport, I decided to book a trip with
Rocky’s and scheduled pickup at the hotel on Thursday morning.
I hadn’t checked the phone in my room for any reason until the
night before my departure, and found it didn’t work.
I checked all the connections and did all the usual things, but
it still didn’t work. I
walked back up to the front desk to discuss it with them.
Being tired and little frustrated, I made a point to be sure to
be very calm and polite with the staff member at the desk.
I was told someone would meet me at my room to fix it if I would
please return to my room, they’d be there waiting for me.
I returned to my room and nobody was waiting for me.
I waited another 30 minutes, the phone still didn’t work, and
nobody had arrived to fix it.
I walked back up to the front desk.
Again, being tired and a little more frustrated, a different
person decided to get a bit snippy and told me that a Security guard
would knock on my door at 0700 AM to provide my wake-up call (and acted
like I was supposed to know that somehow).
The reason the wake-up call is important for me, is that the
little alarms on most watches and travel clocks is in a range and volume
that I don’t hear too well, and I really can’t count on that, so I
really do need a wake-up call I can hear.
Fortunately, I happened to wake up before the alarm on my watch sounded.
0700 came and went, and there was no knock on my door from
Security. I took a shower
and got dressed, and Security arrived at my door at 0720 proudly
proclaiming that was my 7 AM wake-up call……
Either the phone and wake-up call
service needs to work, or the Security guard needs be a little more
timely and accurate.
I used the computers in the lobby a couple times to check mail, contact
Rocky, and reconfirm my flight.
The computers and connections work about as well as they used to
previously, but the time-keeping and pricing has changed.
As I recall, it used to be $15 for 60 minutes, and you were
provided an access code and could log on and off using a few minutes at
a time until your time was consumed.
Now, the price is $5 for 15 minutes, so that’s an increase in
price. The real change is
that you must use ALL of the time you purchase in one session.
Once you’re logged on, the clock runs until all the time is
consumed. The prices for
WiFi, however, appear to be a bit lower to me than I remember them being
previously and I think I recall seeing that it’s now $80 for a week.
Check out was smooth and as expected and the driver from Rocky’s showed
up as promised in a very nice vehicle.
Since I was the only passenger, there was plenty of room in that
big van, but it was clean, comfortable, and in good condition.
The driver was very professional and efficient and I really did
enjoy the ride back up to MoBay.
Just based upon this one experience with them, I’d book with them
again and recommend them as an option if someone is looking for reliable
ground transportation.
Upon arrival at the airport, I was told there was a flight delay due to
weather in Charlotte and we’d be departing at 2:15 PM instead of the
originally scheduled 12:30 PM, and that would necessitate rescheduling
the connecting flight due to the late arrival.
Just before the inbound flight arrived, we received a
thunderstorm at the airport, and that put a little more delay into the
situation. Our arrival in
Charlotte was a little late, but processing through Immigration and
Customs was VERY smooth and efficient (probably the best I’ve ever seen
entering the USA). I hiked
down to the other end of the airport for my connecting flight to find
that it was still on the ground in Raleigh and was also delayed due to
weather. It eventually
arrived after a bit more delay and the rest of the trip back to St.
Louis was smooth and uneventful.
All in all, I had a good vacation and I’m glad I went.
Nothing I saw or experienced was surprising or unexpected, and
none of it was a major problem from my perspective.
I do understand, however, if someone is paying a lot for a
vacation and gets limited vacation opportunities, these things I find to
be relatively minor annoyances might be a really big deal.
When I think of it, I’d like and expect things to be better for
the price I paid for this trip, but I’ve got a pretty high tolerance
threshold and I find it’s easier on ME to just shrug it off and enjoy my
vacation anyway, rather than getting upset and arguing with someone
about this stuff. Again,
that’s what works for me and others may well find they need to use a
different approach to this sort of thing.
This was not the best vacation I’ve ever had and it certainly wasn’t the
worst. I enjoyed it, came
home rested and relaxed, and that’s what I went there for……… so, it all
worked out OK for me.
The End