Just back from Hedo III, January 22 to 27th. Had a great time, and found that all the trip reports I'd read before we left painted very accurate pictures of what to expect.
I'll stick to reporting things particular to our visit, and our personal impressions, without getting into a blow by blow. Others have covered the bases already.
Logistics were a snap. Air Jamaica was on time or early, customs was fast, ten minute wait for bus to Hedo, 4 attempts to sell my husband pot during that ten minute wait.
Arrival at Hedo typical, lunched and toured in the 2 hour wait for room.
Never would have guessed that it could be either solid, gray cloud cover or rain for the entire stay, but that's what we got. This resulted in our not getting the vacation we'd planned, but we had a great time anyway. Be warned this could happen though. We had a total of 4 hours of sun the whole six days. It helped that we got vouchers for three days for a future stay.
If you are hoping for lots of water sports, be sure you can be happy if you can't do any. With the rain and wind, we couldn't scuba, snorkle, kayak, sail, waterski, windsurf or anything but take a dip at the beach (didn't do that because it was too cold, too). High winds stop all the watersports at Hedo III. The protected waters at the nude and prude beaches are very small, and heavy breakers are immediately beyond. High winds and rain also stopped the circus workshop for almost every day we were there.
Be warned that there are rooms where unless you are an unusually sound sleeper you will not sleep until very, very late. We were in the quad, which is four buildings facing eachother with pool and hot tub in the courtyard. The noise from the boisterous nightly crowd in the hot tub bounces off the four buildings and the water so that it is very loud in the rooms. Our room was directly above the hot tub, the worst possible place noise-wise. Hot tub partying lasts until 4am most nights; the earliest night was 2am and the latest had the crowd yelping until dawn. You can't beat 'em, so you join 'em. I even tried cotton balls in my ears and that wasn't enough, with the windows closed and the A/C fan on high. If you want to sleep earlier, you better get building 6 or 7.
The staff is absolutely wonderful, bar none. Everyone goes way out of their way to make you feel welcome and to put a smile on your face. They really make the place.
I know this has varied, but on our stay we were told the quad area is clothing optional, and generally we found it nude, which was great. This varies with the crowd, so if the crowd is tending to be clothed in the quad you just have to be comfortable getting nude anyway. Quad hot tub had the hottest water.
Food was good in the main dining room, but much better in the restaurants -- make your reservations the moment you arrive.
Entertainment was super, especially the circus show, and the games are very fun. They may sound silly, but do them anyway because they will make you smile and get you to meet more people. If you can't be silly, you're probably in the wrong resort.
The best place for couples dancing, we thought, was the main dining room with the house reggae band. You get lots of room, the noise level is comfortable, and you can do more kinds of dancing than in the disco. Unfortunately, that only goes until 11:30.
Do the waterslide nude. I did it the first few times in my husband's wetsuit, because I was so cold. Then I said to heck with it and went over to do it nude. Twice as fast, wow! The slide is in the prude section, but rules at Hedo are meant to be broken. No problem, mon.
Alot of people didn't do togas, which makes me wonder why they're there. Just do it.
I thought I might feel uncomfortable because I don't drink much, but it didn't matter at all. There is no pressure to do anything (unless from your friends) you don't feel comfortable doing at Hedo.
We didn't find the wild side to be very wild, and we did our part to be some of the wildness. You will see sex if you look, and maybe even if you don't. One of the joys of the place is feeling free to be sexual in small or big ways out in the open, and enjoying the company of others who also enjoy that freedom. I don't know where else you can do this, and we loved it. None of this is in your face or offensive, but yes, people are enjoying eachother here and there.
We met great people, lots and lots of them. All ages, all different backgrounds. You will be with fat people, thin people, different races, buff bodies and sagging ones. You'll see boob jobs, body piercings and tattoos. It doesn't matter a whit what you look like, so check your ego at the door. One of the most fun things is seeing people who have never done naked take the plunge -- and love it!
Favorite memories:
The two girls who either are exotic dancers or should be, who put on an awesome show in the cage in the disco. My husband earned big points by continuing to dance with me when almost everyone else had stopped to watch.
Making some magic in the wedding gazebo by the ocean.
Winning prizes at the PJ party for most exposed. My husband wore the satin belt from one of my robes.
Seeing Romeo do a salsa dance routine with his partner, one of the entertainment directors whose name I never got straight.
Carol, AKA Tina Turner, doing her impression of same in the staff's part of talent night.
An absolutely great vacation, even though the weather totally sucked, which says alot for the resort.