HEDONISM III TRIP REPORT – OCTOBER 29 THRU NOVEMBER 4, 2000
Cherre & John
We returned to Hedo III for Halloween on Sunday October 29th, after helping to open the resort last October, and we must say it is looking good this year. The landscape has grown in nicely, except perhaps for some of the ocean/pool front rooms that our good friend John W. now calls “hedge-front” rooms. But even those hedges give extra privacy to the ground floor rooms, so all is not lost.
We flew Air Jamaica this year out of Miami, and as usual the airline’s performance was great – on time, easy check-in, very friendly employees, and of course the free drinks and hot meal. For us it is a toss-up between Air Jamaica and American – we have had good experiences on both. Customs was a breeze, with a pleasant addition of a singing troupe as you entered the Immigration Room. SuperClubs desk put us on a bus within 10 minutes, with four of us going to Hedo and about eight people going to GL Braco. We made the usual stop for Red Stripe about 20 minutes into the ride – not really long enough to need a stop, but the bartender there was friendly and we decided to ease into Island Time. GL Braco looked as good as always; they are keeping it up well. Then it was on to Hedo….
We arrived at Hedo III at 2pm, and our room was not ready, but no problem. We asked to be moved to a building other than 8, and even though the resort was fully booked, we were accommodated with a smile. We ended up in 529, one of the ‘suites’, which basically means you have about 5x6 ft more room in the corner, and you have a refrigerator that never gets opened. Our room was ready within an hour, and we were on the nude beach by 3:30pm. Our friends had arrived earlier in the week, and they found us by the pool and informed us they had made the quad pool nude for the day, so we worked our way over there. After a few too many TTT’s (the official drink of the Third Tit group – Tanqueray, Tonic, Two limes) and no food all day, we crashed around 7pm, only to wake up at 2am. No problem, we just went down to the hot tub, which was busy all night, every night, and finally returned to our room about 4am. For those who are curious, we never saw any ‘sex police’; in fact some of the guards seemed to change the path they walked in order to get a closer look. Everyone, guests and guards alike, was respectful to each other, and those who chose to ‘partake’ in PDA’s seemed mostly to do so in the shadows beyond the pool. If you want to watch, no problem, you will probably see it; if you prefer not to see it, you probably won’t.
Monday we were informed that we were in John W. and Victoria’s ‘wedding’ – actually a renewal of vows. Luckily for us we had brought our “formal” costumes, since John was the Best Man. The ceremony was so nice, Christine was wonderful, and Hedo III does a great job. The Father of the Bride – Mike – had a tux painted on his body for the ceremony, although the minister insisted no nude people could be in the wedding, so he added a ‘pouch’. Hedo had a body-painter on retainer the entire time we were there; he was very talented, and always busy! Halloween costumes were very creative, and painted bodies were the norm each evening.
Kink in the Caribbean was at the resort this week – 150 strong – along with the Lifestyles group. There were a few problems with demonstrations by the Kink group in very public locations, which the resort handled discreetly but firmly, asking them to keep it behind closed doors. We have to hand it to Simone, she worked overtime this week trying to please some very diverse groups of people looking for a good time in very different ways! The only time we felt ‘pushed to the side’ by the large group was on Friday, when they invited all the guests to the Masquerade Party. This turned out to be strictly a Kink costume party, with prizes going only to members of that group, and a very strange, amateurish show that took over an hour to set-up on stage after dinner. Kudos to Tristan who had a tough job filling that hour of dead time without losing the whole audience. You go girl! ;>)
The Halloween party fell on the traditional PJ night, and the staging and judging of this costume party was much improved over last year. Two guests who were there for their fourth trip judged the costumes during a mass parade similar to toga night. No one had to sign up for a particular category, and the choices for winners as a whole made sense this year, as opposed to last year’s farce. Wednesday night became the PJ party, and Thursday was Toga night. The pieces of sheet given to most people were too small to do anything with. Thankfully, I had brought something to wear that passed for a toga; only one piece we got was large enough to wrap around John’s waist, while the other two pieces were too small and had never been cleaned from the last party! Participation was not as good as in the past….this party needs to be looked at carefully and perhaps revamped in some way.
Now for some observations………
The food in the restaurants is still of very high quality; however, the buffet in the main dining room seemed to have the same choices every night (different sauces sometimes, same meats, the salads were always the same). The service in all dining areas was exemplary.
The entertainment staff is mostly willing, but seem young and inexperienced in the art of encouraging participation. The standouts are Tristan and Pee-Wee, who have been at this game a long time. Congratulations to Pee-Wee, who doesn’t want anyone writing about his leaving. He is still there and is very active with the guests. Our biggest complaint every year for 13 years now is that there is too much time between “showtime 1” and “showtime 2”, etc. Without the continuity of one entertainer flowing into another, the audience tends to leave early each night. There did not seem to be a problem in stage set-up, other than the Friday night fiasco, so we have to wonder why the house band (the best entertainment there) ends up playing to an average of 6-8 people each night?
The Hedo Bucks used to be good for T-shirts and Water Bottles, now they are only good for rum. A bigger selection of items would perhaps promote more participation. People used to flock to the games for a chance to win a Hedo shirt!
The tiles still are and always will be a problem. We did not see as many falls or injuries this year; people are arriving forewarned. The scraping seen during the days is to take off a surface sprayed on about 8 months ago, which unfortunately turns green every 6-9 months and must be removed and re-applied.
The nude beach and pool look very nice, with landscaping filling out and pool attendants cleaning and raking daily. It is still much too small an area for the 80-90% of the resorts’ guests to be crammed into, especially when the resort is full, as it was last week. The quad area was topless at all times, and sometimes nude, but it is removed and isolated from the action, so rarely used. Also, the bar is under a deck, not a roof; when it rains they close the bar. If the deck above was made into a solid surface, the bar could become a big attraction during the rain, as a large area of the pool would then be under cover. Also, if they experimented with leaving this bar open later, say until midnight, this could become one of the most popular areas in the resort. It is a better layout than the nude bar and pool by far. The main pool will never become nude because of its proximity to the front lobby, although management probably would like to find a way to switch it. Maybe we can come up with a way to relocate the lobby? Any architects out there?
As we have found in the past, the staff at the resort was friendly and always willing to make the effort to enhance our vacation. A smile and respect go a long way towards getting what you want or need. Despite being fully booked, check-in and check-out were mostly painless; transportation to and from the airport was efficient and mostly on-time; the dining areas did not seem to be overcrowded (maybe due to the restaurants all being open now); and the staff did a wonderful job of integrating some very divers groups this week. We cannot say enough good about Simone, who seems to be all things to all people! Be sure to stop by and meet her when you go, she is the biggest asset to the resort. Remember, slow down to island time, get to know the people who are serving you, even the busboys. You are on vacation, but they are at work; a smile and a kind word can truly make their day!
On our last night at Hedo, we promised each other we would go back; hopefully in the spring. This resort is developing its own unique personality, and truly exemplifies what the SuperClubs chain is all about.
Feel free to e-mail any questions you might have: cecerec@bellsouth.net