We are indeed back from Jamaica. It was a wonderful trip. We met some great people and made some lifelong friends. Our trip down was fairly uneventful. Both planes were on time. Jamaican immigration and customs are a joke. It took over an hour to get through the two lines. Not fun when you are trying to get to your vacation. We made it though. No bag searches, no hassles other than waiting in line forever. At the airport in Charlotte, met one of the couples we had corresponded with prior to the trip. Roy and Lisa from Mississippi. They are a hoot. They are into competition ballroom dancing. Damn, they are good! On the flight from Charlotte to Montego Bay, one of the Flight attendants dropped a tray of coffee on the head of a baby about 2 years old. No real damage, but it was tense for a while. Lisa came to the rescue.
We arrived at the resort, after the obligatory van ride from hell, at about 5:30. Just short of enough time to get out to beach to see the sun set. We dropped our bags and our clothes and headed for the hot tub This was no small task for us. Neither of us had been nude in public before. But we decided that if we were going to do it, we were going to do it NOW. As other trip reports have said, nude becomes normal so quickly. It’s amazing we ever started wearing clothes.
We were sitting in the hot tub with frozen alcohol drinks by 6pm. It was crowded too. Lots of people. It didn't take long for the fun to start either. There were body shots going around in no time. I think some of the people must have had trouble getting all the alcohol off. It sure seemed to take them a long time. ;-)
Some real positives:
The staff: From the entertainment staff to the housekeepers. All were pleasant and went way out of their way to make things super for us. I don’t think the entertainment staff ever leave the premises. They are there at 10 am (About the earliest we were up and about) and were still there at 1am. If they got any days off while we were there, I don’t know when it was. These folks just go way out of their way to make you feel welcome and to make sure you have a great time. They even get you to do things you never thought you would. I sure do wish we could do more for them than just say thank you.
The food: We didn’t have a bad meal all week. Even the buffet in the main dining room provided great food. Lots of variety. If you can’t find something you like, just look a little harder. It’s there. Pastafari and Munahana are excellent. The Jamaican version of a Japanese chef is a little amusing. But they put on a great spread. At the Japanese restaurant, you get Misu soup, salad, sushi, tempura, all the meats they have (fish, shrimp, chicken, beef (You can order any one or a combination of all) then for desert you get Green Tea Ice cream. (I know, it sounds strange. But it’s really good.) The only negative about the Japanese place is that you get 1 ½ hour for the meal. Period. If you are still eating your desert when the 1 ½ hours is over, too bad. You have to leave. Pastafari is super. They have a great variety of food. And it’s really good stuff. Make sure you make reservations for the two restaurants early. You can make reservations for the whole week in advance. Don’t skip the Scotch Bonnett. They have Jerk Chicken that is just wonderful. It’s a great place for lunch.
The facilities: The property is beautiful. Early trip reports complained of immature landscaping. That’s not a problem any more. The grounds are beautiful And they keep them beautifully manicured.
Some minor negatives:
“Come soon mon.” They only had one room key for our room upon check in. They asked us to check back in the morning. No second key in the morning. Check back later. Later in the day, still no second key. Check back later. I had to call out my “Nasty American” attitude and ask to talk to the manager before they offered to send someone out to re-key the room and give us two keys.
“Too Small” The nude beach, pool, pool deck and hot tub are just way, way too small. If you didn’t make it out early in the morning to claim chairs, you were just out of luck. The Nude hot tub was frequently filled to way over capacity with people left standing around on the pool deck talking to the folks in the tub.
“Where are the towels” They don’t have near enough beach towels for the resort when it’s at full capacity. You have to chase down the lady with the cart on the way to the towel cabinet to secure a towel most days. We re-used our beach towels 3 or 4 of the 7 days we were there because we couldn’t get clean ones. (Lesson learned on day one. Don’t give up your “old” beach towel to the cleaning crew until you have secured a clean one!)
“Too damned loud” I could not stay in the disco. The place is a very small room. In the ceiling of the room are speakers enough to have a rock concert in a football stadium. The DJ seems to have only one volume setting…. “All the way up, mon.” The sound was so loud it actually hurt my ears to be in there. We went each night. But didn’t stay long. We opted for the hot tub after midnight.
There was so much going on at Hedo III, we didn’t need to leave the resort much.
We only left one day. We went to Dunns river falls and climbed the waterfall. What a hoot that was. Around here rock which is under running water is always slippery and slimy. No way you could walk or climb on it. There the rock was like sandpaper. "No problem mon."
The trip back was just awful. We got to the Montego Bay airport at noon for our 2:40 flight (A requirement of the resort/airline or some damned fool.) We had to stand in an interminable line at the UsAirways counter. We found out why as we approached the counter. The plane had been delayed for two hours. It was scheduled to depart at 4:45. Damn. Nothing like spending 1/2 of your last day of vacation sitting at an airport. It sucks! When they finally began boarding our flight, they didn't even make an announcement. They just changed the display on the departures screen. We almost missed the damned plane.
The two hour delay meant we were only going to have 1/2 hour in Charlotte to claim our bags, clear customs, recheck the bags and make our next flight. God we were worried! No problem Mon. US customs was a breeze. We were through and had the bags rechecked in 10 minutes. Our next gate was right next to the one we came in on, so we were golden. We confirmed with the gate agent that our flight would be at D7. Shortly our flight appeared on the gate display. They indicated it would depart on time at 9:15. 8:45 came and went... No boarding announcement. 9:00 came and went, no boarding announcement. 9:15 came and went... Our flight disappeared from the gate display. What gives? Mike goes to the gate agent and asks. "Charleston? That doesn't board here." says the gate agent. "What the hell do you mean that doesn't board here? I asked at 8:40 and was told it boarded here. And the gate display had our flight listed over the door." says Mike. "Oh... Let me check." replies the gate agent. "Oh. I guess it does board here. According to the display, the crew has called for maintenance and they are waiting for maintenance on the aircraft." she says. "How long will the delay be?" Asks Mike. "I don't know. We'll make an announcement." Mike didn't like that answer, but he came and sat down. Our flight reappeared on the gate display with a departure time of 9:45. Ok. We say, that's not too bad. (I have to tell you at this point. While we were gone, Cheryl’s grandfather died. The funeral was scheduled in Mason county WV on Monday at noon. Mike was to be one of the pall bearers. His death was not a surprise. He has been very ill for a long time. The timing was unfortunate.) back to the airport in Charlotte. 9:45 comes and goes. No boarding announcement. And guess what. Our flight disappears from the gate display again. Off goes Mike for another discussion with the gate agent. Again, "The crew is calling for maintenance." says the gate agent. Mike says, "I have to get my wife home for her grandfather's funeral. I need to know how long the plane will be delayed. If it's going to be just a while, we will wait. But if it's going to be a long delay, we need to rent a car and start driving now. (Charlotte is just about a 4 1/2 hour drive from Charleston.) The agent says, "I can't tell you any more than what is on the screen." Mike says, "Can't you ask the crew if this is a major delay problem like the wing fell off or if it's a minor problem like a light out in the lavatory?" She replies, "I can only tell you what's on the screen, sir." Mike doesn't like that answer and asks to speak to a supervisor. Supervisor is located and arrives on the scene. Mike explains all the goings on and lack of concern on the part of the gate personnel. Supervisor looks up the info on the computer. Then says, "Hold on a minute. I'll go out to the aircraft and talk to the crew." 15 minutes later supervisor is back. Reports that the crew had called for maintenance at 8:15pm. Maintenance claimed never to have received the request. Only when the supervisor began asking questions did it become apparent that no one was talking to anyone else. Maintenance arrived in 5 minutes. Whatever problem there was was fixed in another 10. In the mean time, another gate crew had come on shift apparently. The gentleman took all our boarding passes. Then opened the door to lead us to our little commuter plane. 1/2 way across the tarmac, he stops us and sends us all back to the terminal. Seems they were about to taxi another aircraft. Talk about a screwed up bunch of people. Shortly we were back on the tarmac and off to the plane. Drinks were on US Airways.
Stepping back in time to boarding time in Montego Bay at about 4:50pm. It was 88 degrees at the airport. When they opened the door in Charleston at 12:30am it was 9! Brrrrrrr.... Nothing like walking across a windy airport tarmac in a light jacket when your body was used to temperatures 80 degrees warmer to say "Welcome home!"
Yuck!