02/15-02/24  

We were at Grand Lido Braco last year and this year our SuperSurprise plus was Hedo III.

We were very surprised, disappointed and scared mostly because of all the stories we heard about Hedo III. Before we start our report, we would like to point out that our original reservation was for February 15 through 22^th. We ended up extending our vacation at Hedo III for extra two days and stayed until the 24^th.  In short -  IT WAS A VACATION OF A LIEFETIME. For those of you who need more information and especially for those who are scared to death going there, we present this lengthy report. We know it’s long, but you should read our original draft. We just wanted to acknowledge everybody and we still feel like we have not tell you everything. Drop us a line if you have any questions. We’ll be glad to answer them.  

Ok, telephone from our travel agent few days before we were scheduled to leave:

Travel Agent:  “ You are going to Hedo III.”

Ivona: “Oh, no!”

Couple hours later Ivona calls travel agent:

Ivona: “Could you please do something about it? Can you transfer us? I’m not sure if we want to go to Hedo. I know it’s a SuperSurprise, and we took the risk. But if there is anything you can do....”

Our travel agent called us back and said that unfortunately there was nothing she could do about it. We are going to Hedo III and that’s that.

I started surfing the web to get some more information about the resort. That’s how I found Denny’s web page. Thank you Denny! Most of the reports were fantastic and I thought, ok, how bad can that be if so many people loved it. Then, I hooked up with Trouble Tribe (a group that was traveling to Hedo III during the same time). Philip and his wife Jane invited us to join their private yahoo club – Trouble Tribe – Hedo III February 2001. It was great to meet some people on line. We got more excited about our trip and were looking forward to meet the people we have been “talking” to on-line. Although we still thought that if the transfer was available...  

DEPARTURE: We got up at 3:30 a.m., got into the taxi cab and went to O’hare for our 8:35 flight. It was around 27 degrees that morning and even though we were going to Hedo, we were so ready to leave the cold and the snow behind. We were still thinking about getting off the bus at Hedo III and begging for transfer.

Our flight left on time, like last year. No problems. It took a while before we were served breakfast this time. We had couple of mimosas and we were officially on vacation. The plane landed in Montego Bay around 11:30 a.m. Greeted by singing ladies we were pleasantly surprised that most of the custom windows were open. It was Thursday, but still there were quite a lot of people going through customs but everything went very smoothly. Please fill out your immigration forms on the plane. It saves EVERYBODY time. Be considerate. Everybody wants to be on vacation as soon as it is humanly possible. Seeing people filling their forms at the window is almost heartbreaking. It adds additional few minutes to the whole process.

We went to SuperClubs desk, were met by SuperClubs official who told us to put our luggage by the wall and wait few minutes until our bus is ready. Shawn went to get a drink, and I started talking to a young couple, Bob and Michelle from Green Bay. It turned out that they were going to Hedo III also. It was their second time to Jamaica but first time to Hedo III. They also had some reservations and were a little scared. I said: “Ok, let’s be scared together, then.” We got some more beer and boarded our bus. Relax, the ride is not that bad... but that maybe because I was born in Poland  and our roads back then were not great either and I am quite used to that. Some people on the bus were pretty scared, though. We had a good driver and he got us there in one piece. Our bus stopped for some Red Stripe on the way. We had a wonderful conversation with Bob and Michelle and found out that we are pretty much living parallel lives. We had so much in common, it was unreal. Soon we were on our way to Hedo III. Oh, Boy, here we come.  

CHECK-IN: Michelle and I really had to go the bathroom, from all the beer we drank on the bus. By the time our bus approached the entrance, we were standing by the door. Once the door open, the bellman yelled: “To your left, to your left!” – that’s where the bathrooms were. We figured it was not the first time that happened. Check-in was a breeze, but no cool towels and no drinks, like in Grand Lido Braco. I think it was due to the fact that there were a lot of people checking-in and out of the hotel at that time (around 1:30 p.m.). Resort looked beautiful and quite frankly we forgot to beg for that transfer. Thank God. We were escorted to the Quad building, our room number was 326. The room was nice, clean, with king size bed with the distorted mirror over it (great fun while making love and my boobs looked much bigger when I was on the right side of the bed), little sofa by the window overlooking fantastic pool, and the bathroom with the jacuzzi and another distorted mirror above. No problems with water temperature whatsoever – at Braco that was a problem – either too hot or too cold. Quick change of clothes (I think that’s what it was – too much beer) and we are going downstairs to the main bar to meet our new friends, Bob and Michelle.  

ORIENTATION: We were soon approached by Kevin Bailey, one of the entertainment coordinators. What a guy, what a smile! He gave us a tour of the resort. I have to give him credit for putting up with us that afternoon. We were pretty intoxicated and wanted to stop everywhere to give our oohs and aaahs. He was so patient, even when Michelle and I insisted on trying the slide in the middle of our orientation. No problem, Mon. The slide is awesome and we recommend it to everybody. I have to agree with Philip here, best done naked in the middle of the afternoon.. Look at me, little Ms. Scared of going to Hedo in the first place. Then, I don’t exactly remember what happened but Michelle and I got separated from our husbands and found ourselves in the gazebo talking to a very handsome man, named Jim. He was just sitting there looking at the sea... We introduced ourselves and asked him to take his sunglasses off. We could not believe how beautiful his blue eyes were. Jim told us a little bit about the resort. He was vacationing with his girlfriend Joanne (both from Canada) whom we met the next day. Lucky them, they were staying there for two weeks. They are a wonderful couple and they definitely made our vacation there. After that Shawn, my husband, found me and said that I should really get something to eat. What a guy my husband is. He was concerned that I was drinking too much that day – I usually drink water with dinner and maybe a glass or two of wine on the weekends- and he wanted to make sure that my stomach wasn’t empty. I was really getting into vacation mood. We went to Scotch Bonnet.  Shawn had a jerk burger, I had jerk chicken, both fantastic. And the view – to die for. We went to our room about 7 or 8pm to relax a bit. I guess it was a long day for us and we fell asleep. Shawn woke me up around 10pm.

We were both hungry but I was too tired to get up and so out of it. I even asked how come it’s still so dark in the morning. I thought he was waking me up for breakfast.  Later, Shawn brought some food to our room, but I wasn’t able to eat much. I had a cup of tea instead and fell asleep. They have a coffee maker, coffee and tea in the room as well as ironing board, hair dryer, soap and shampoo. No conditioner ladies, so you might want to bring your own. There is a TV in the room, and there is a Playboy channel. We did not spend much time in our room, except for shower, getting ready for dinner and some nookie. Aaaaah....

Next day – meeting at the beach. The prude beach is small, man made. A lot smaller than at Braco. So is the nude side beach. We did not have the courage to go to the nude side yet, which I regret to that day. We eventually made it couple days later but I wish we had done it right away. Nevertheless, we met great people at the prude beach also.  

RESORT: Beautiful grounds and vegetation. Everything looks so new. Great idea with different color buildings. Just follow that yellow brick road at the end of the night. Gift shop – located in the 300 building. They converted two guest rooms on the ground floor to the gift shop. Strange but I guess it works. Swim-up rooms – not so much. Yes, you are on the ground floor, just two steps from the quad pool, but they are not swim-up rooms. Restaurants are nicely decorated. Beware of slippery tiles. We’ve heard that they are working on it, but they are still quite slippery. Stairs to the piano bar and the disco. Who came up with this idea? Looks nice from the distance, but try to climb them after many dirty bananas. At least light hem up. It’s an accident waiting to happen  

WATER/ SPORTS: Snorkeling, sailing, kayaking, glass bottom boat, catamaran. Snorkeling was great. We loved every minute of it. It lasts only an hour – which in our opinion is perfect. You get to do something but don’t feel like you are missing on the action at the resort. Circus trapeze – looked like a thrill, we did not do it though.  

TRIPS: Shopping in Ocho Rios, Glass Bottom, Booze Cruise, Sunset Cruise, Horseback Riding, Waterfalls, Martha Brae River, and many others.  

SPACE AND TOWELS: Resort is very compact but very well laid out. It was full yet never felt too crowded. Both beaches are small. Towels are constantly “missing in action”. Really, the best way to get a towel is to go to the slide in the middle of the day and slide down naked. Once you leave the pool, there will be somebody waiting for you with one. See, being nude on the prude side is not permitted. Rules get broken though, and after midnight it’s like – what rules? Do we even have a prude side?  

POOLS/HOT TUBS:

Main pool by main bar. Great pool with grottos, pool table (yes, we played a round of pool in the pool), chairs and tables. But the pool is pretty much deserted. All the fun IS on the nude side, people. Clear bottom hot tub is located on the flight of stairs leading to the disco and to the water slide.

Quad pool – another great pool, with sun decks – but again – pretty much deserted. We saw few people there in bathing suits on couple of occasions. It is very quiet. It get louder at night when people are using the hot tub. Have mercy – voice really carries in the quad building. The bar there closes at 4 or 5. That did not stop us from having a beer party there one afternoon. Quite a few people joined in and we had a blast. After that, Bob (Michelle’s husband) was an unofficial bartender there, working the afternoon shift.

Nude Pool – way too small for all the people that loooove to hang out there. Hot tub is adjacent to the pool. Can they do something with the temperature? It’s either too hot or too cold. Only on couple of occasions the water in the hot tub was perfect.

PLAY ROOM:Pool tables, board games, kickboxing – open air. My husband who is addicted to pool kicked some serious butt there on few occasions.  

SAUNA/MASSAGE/MANICURE – didn’t use it. Too much was going on in the nude pool. But it’s there if you want it.  

RESTAURANTS: We tried them all.

Pastafari – Great Italian place in Jamaica. I guess we are a little bit spoiled by living in Chicago. We really have great food here. But we must say that the food was very good so was the service the first time. Second time we got there late because somebody screwed up our second reservation for the Japanese place. They put us in Pastafari instead of Munahana. By the time we figured that out, antipasti bar was closing and they weren’t too happy about us being there at 10 pm.

Munahana – great Japanese. Similar to Beni Hana in Chicago. The table sits 8 and the food is prepared in front of you. Portions were smaller than at Braco but overall great sushi and great food. They put quite a lot of soy sauce in the food – if you don’t like your meals too salty ask them to take it easy on the soy sauce. No problem, mon. I must agree with one of the reports, whoever said that Japanese place was at best mediocre must have been on crack or got some bad ganja in Jamaica. We weren’t happy about our reservation screw-up. We really wanted to eat there for the second time.

Scotch Bonnet – Great open air restaurant overlooking the sea. The terrace upstairs is a great place to sit down with a drink and watch the sunset. Great, great, great snack food. Both Jerk beef and chicken burgers were fantastic, jerk chicken was great, beef patties were awesome. According to my husband Shawn, with the view like that you could put the jerk sauce over the cardboard and he would still like it. They also have some great finger food there and cheese boards. Yum! Upper terrace is great for mooning. One afternoon Jim, Joanne, Shawn and I were enjoying a drink at Scotch Bonnet, on the upper terrace. All of the sudden we saw a boat from Breezes coming in. They do bring people from other resorts from time to time because everybody is so curious about Hedo. No problem, mon – whanna see crazy Hedo people? At your service. Four of us took our bathing suits off and gave a great welcome to our guests from breezes.  Take a walkway from Scotch Bonnet to the Gazebo and get quite for a few minutes. The view is breathtaking.  

Main dining room – buffet style. Great variety and lots of food. Great desserts and fruit trays. Try pasta with creamy tomato sauce. Out of this world. It’s difficult to get the table if you come after 7:30. First seating which starts at seven just doesn’t leave the table. People wait for the show that starts I believe around 9:00pm. So if you want a table at the main dining room, get there early. Don’t expect gourmet food here, but the food is really good. Again, if you have a table full of friends, great laughs, cool breeze, food is really secondary to the whole experience.

Many thanks to the manager who took great care of us when our table for 8 was accidentally given away. He served us champagne all evening long with apologies once we found another table. People do screw up sometimes, but it’s the recovery that counts. And recovery was awesome. If they do something wrong, give these people a chance. Ultimately, they want you to have a wonderful time.

Beach Party Dinner – Great circus show. Food was good. But again, we think that presentation and quality of food at the Beach party was much better at Braco. Lobster tail was good but a little dry and no liquid butter was offered like at Braco. But hey, they serve you a lobster tail for gods sake. Just have fun. Attitude is everything at this place. If you let a small thing like that bother you, you’ll probably be unhappy wherever you go.  

FOOD AVAILABILITY: You won’t go hungry – no way.

Breakfast: continental breakfast can be delivered to your room, starting at 7a.m. Breakfast at the main dining room lasts till 11:00 (great for late sleepers). Great variety. Try vanilla French toast! There is an omelet station, all kinds of cold cuts, bagels, toast, cream cheese, fruit. Impossible to list everything.

Lunch: starts at 12:30 and lasts till 3:00 p.m.

Food is also available all day long at Scotch Bonnet (till 7:00pm) and nude pool grill and bar. Try Jerk chicken Caesar Salad.

Dinner: Your call, main dining room, Pastafari, Japanese.

Midnight madness – again -  buffet style in main dining room.

Snack attack – available at the front desk from 3:00 am till 7:00am.

No hungry people here.  

PEOPLE WE MET:

Jim and Joanne from Canada – we love you guys. We had soooo much fun with you. We miss you terribly and hope to see you soon. Thank you for stimulating conversations and many many laughs –Jim do you remember swallowing the hangers with Shawn? You know what I mean, right?  Joanne you are a true friend and I am so sorry that we live so far apart and can’t hang out together. We were both crying when it came time to leave. We enjoyed our breakfasts and dinners together. So much fun. And our routine gazebo time and nude hot tub every night.  Great call Joanne on the PJ night – we were among very few people in our lingerie at dinner that night. At 7:15pm I think we were the only ones. Too bad people dressed up just for the disco. Oh well, it was fun and now we have to explain to people that look at our pictures why we were eating dinner in our pijamas (if you can call it that). Thank you for letting us stay in your room once we decided to prolong our vacation and the resort was overbooked. We got a great deal for it but let me tell you, two people sleeping on the twin bed... we know that it must have been uncomfortable for you also yet you never let us know. You were fantastic. We felt like we were at the summer camp.

Jim we’d love to stare at some new gates with you again – any time in fact. I told Shawn that he really wants to and I’m sure that Joanne told you that you really want to also, right?  

Bob and Michelle – guys, it was a lot of fun to be scared together. But what happened? We truly wished you guys tried the nude side. It was so much fun. We tried to divide our time so we could spend some time with you on the later part of our trip, but we also wanted to get to know our new-found friends on the nude side. It was a blast. Next time we will drag you there if we have to (just kidding, remember that at Hedo nobody will force you to do anything you don’t want to do or feel uncomfortable doing). But trust us, we wish we dropped our clothes on the first day. Looking forward to seeing you at our house for the weekend. I promised Bob my spicy grilled quesedillas.  

Carmen and her husband from Canada – sorry guys you were leaving the next day .

We had some great conversations with you at the beach and at Scotch Bonnet. And Carmen, thanks for the hat.  

Paula and Ed – What a fantastic couple. We sure hope we will stay in touch. Remember our private beer party at the Quad pool? Ed got his scuba certification at the resort and was “missing” under water for few hours each morning but was a leader in all the fun we had in the afternoons. Paula, we loved your story about taking your boys to Disneyland and stopping for the night in you van at the trucker’s stop. And the fact that your boys told you that that was the best part of the trip. Go figure. Next time just ride around Wisconsin and stop at the rest stops. A lot cheaper, ha?  

Dr. Mike – You are truly special. We wish that when we are your age we have your stamina and courage. Dr. Mike came to Hedo alone, but by any means was not lonely. What a guy. Thanks for many laughs.  And thank you for the lecture on the pregnancy. We are trying for the family. We won’t be shooting blanks anymore, although Shawn says that practice makes master. I think we practiced enough while at Hedo. Time for teh real work. Hope to see you again.  

Tim from Seattle – we already exchanged few e-mails since we got back. What a great guy. He was also traveling alone and had a flight from hell going down there. Missed his connecting flight so he flew to Atlanta to catch the last flight to Jamaica. Finally he got to Hedo after.. what was it Tim 36 hours or something like that? We had dinner with him that night and were hanging out with him on the nude side ever since. Thank you for being my dancing partner at the PJ party at the disco. We can’t wait to see you again.  

Jane and Philip – O MY GOD! Firstly, thank you for inviting us to Trouble Tribe Club on line. And we are sooo happy that we finally found you – thanks to the T-shirt, Betsi! You guys are something else. Philip, I don’t know what it is about you but only you could talk me into that oil body wrestling thing. I still don’t know how the hell you did that. Must have been your incredible charisma. Thank you Philip and Jane for taking us in and making us feel so special and comfortable. Each time we were at the nude pool I saw you looking at us and if you thought we didn’t have enough fun you were right there to crack the joke. Yes, we saw that and we know that you both were looking after us. You guys know how to party. Philip you put us all to shame. We would love to keep in touch. You are a special couple and Jane is a true angel for putting up with your craziness. She must love it as much as we all do.  

Rita & Clark from Nova Scotia – you crazy couple, you. So who’s the sub this week?

Thanks for the great ideas. Rita, you were all over the place. Thanks for the laughs.  

Craig and Catherine from Nova Scotia – it was great to finally meet you. Too bad we did not have a chance to talk more. Catherine you lit up the place wherever you went with your radiant smile. And don’t you dare to loose that hat! Craig – thanks for delivering the laughs during the games.  

Mike and Betsi – we were briefly introduced and we hope that we will have the opportunity to talk more next year.  

Marshall from Chicago – it was great to meet you. Another fine example of a guy traveling alone. We hope you had a blast and all your friends are green from jealousy.

Bring them over next year and if you read this, drop us a line. We can meet for a drink.  

Mike, Annette, Jean, Randy, Bill and Joanne, and entire Trouble Tribe – thank you for making our vacation so special. Mike and Annette – you looked so beautiful on your wedding day. We wish you all the best. Bill – that oil wrestling- I got couple of bruises and a scrape. Do you guys have any pictures? We have not seen them.  

Rick and Nancy from Illinois and Eddie and his wife from Boston – thanks for the tunes at the nude beach and great jokes in the hot tub. We hope to see Rick and Nancy soon, we live so close.  

Mr. and Mrs. D.C. – thanks for being good sports during our beer party at the quad pool and by the main dining room.  

Patrick – the guy that won his trip on MTV. Hope you got home ok and have a lot of stories to tell. Let us know if they have a follow up show so we can watch you on TV!  

Steve from L.A. – this guy is already a legend at the resort. He came for a week, extended his stay for another week and then for another. He stayed at Hedo III alone for a total of 21 DAYS!!!!! Way to go Steve. You also kept my husband up that night – that’s why he was in the dog house.

If we forgot to mention any names, we apologize. There were so many of you. All great and a lot of fun. We made more friends during the first two days at Hedo III than during entire week at Braco. Braco is a great resort but great people are at HEDO, Mon.  

DOG HOUSE: My husband returned to the room at 5am one morning. He was hanging out with Tim from Seattle and Steve from L.A. You owe me Tim big time – I already collected from Shawn. I have to admit that my husband was in a dog house for only few hours for that little escapade. I really tried but it was sooooo difficult to stay mad down there. And one dog house for a 10 day trip – not bad.  

STAFF: Everybody we came in contact with was polite and always happy to see us. They always addressed us by name. Remember, your job is to introduce yourself, they will remember you. Please, please say please and thank you. It means a lot to people that work there. We saw some instances were people had this strange sense of entitlement and were treating the satff poorly. Some of them work 16-18 hours day and a simple smile or thank you can really make their day. If you choose to tip somebody at the end of your trip, please be discrete. They can and will loose their job.

So:

Sorena – from prude beach – thank you for being such a sweetheart. You always were ready to assist us in anyway you could.

Ann, Marie, Kevin, NOLA, Suzette, Antoinette – from the nude bar – thank you for your fantastic service and for your always smiling faces. Oh, those dirty bananas and humingbirds. Got to keep that potassium level up.

Debbie/Mischief – thank you for always finding the time to sit down and talk to us, same goes for Carol/Tina Turner, Foxy – you were the greatest at the beer party, we hope you feel better, Crazy Sean – you are the man. Hopefully you won’t be forgetting that oil for body wrestling again or you know what’s gonna happen (20-30 of us went naked to do the slide on the prude side, in the middle of the afternoon – Oh you should see all the prudes, with their cameras and pointing fingers at us. Little did they know that we had a blast just watching them. Now, in their slippers, showing pictures to their friends, saying – man, this place is wild-. That’s how those wild stories are created. By the time they got home it was probably 100 of us having an orgy in the main pool and going after people in clothes because we did not have enough) – sorry Sean – next time remember to bring the oil. Kevin Bailey – thank you for a fantastic orientation, your beautiful smile and a great song you sang to me at the piano bar. We love you, man.

Romeo – thank you for painting my body. It was beautiful.

Boris at the main dining room and Kevin at the bar – you guys are the best.

Our maid – thank you for keeping our room clean and for making all these sculptures from the towels. WOW.

We still don’t know how they manage to remember all these people by their names. Take your time, talk to the staff, find out about their lives and families – they will make your stay there unforgettable.  

ACTIVITIES: Many. Volleyball, scuba, Battle of the Sexes, Scavenger, Toga party, PJ party at the disco, Wet T-Shirt contest, Mr. Hot Shorts or Hot Butt – whatever – that’s not the point. Try to participate. You get hedo bucks, or a bottle of rum (which I won at the PJ party), but most of all you will have the blast. Remember what happens at Hedo stays at Hedo. Be wicked, be crazy, soon enough you’ll be missing all the action and wish you had done more. Most of all you will wish you were still there. So enjoy it while it lasts.  

SINGLE VS. COUPLE – We mostly saw couples. We don’t know if it changes by the week. Our observation is that there are more couples in the resort than singles. We saw more single men than single women. Single men that we met, Tim, Dr. Mike, Steve, Marshall were awesome and we don’t think they felt lonely or left out. If you are polite and respectful you will have a blast and consequently greater chance of “scoring”. Being rude and disrespectful has no place at Hedo. If you are looking to get laid every day and for an 24/7 orgy – you won’t find it in this resort.  

FLYING HOME: That’s the only bad thing about our trip. Never fly on Saturday. Last year we flew on Wednesday, no problem. This year – getting in on Thursday was great. Leaving on Saturday on Air Jamaica – forget it. We will never fly Air Jamaica again. I don’t want to bore you with details and quite frankly I am still getting upset when I think about it.  

EVERYTHING YOU HEARD ABOUT AND ARE SCARED OF BEFORE YOU HEAD DOWN TO HEDO III:

You could not find anybody that was more scared than I on February 10, 2001 when we found out that our SuperSurprise was Hedo III. Shawn was kind of – not a big deal – but I was mortified. We traveled extensively in Europe, in America, and Mexico. But we never went nude. We have NEVER had so much fun. Quite frankly we don’t want to go anywhere else but to Hedo III from now on. There is something magical and spiritual about this place. You get addicted to it. - Yes, there is sex, but not in your face. There is sensual touching going on in the hot tub, between the couples that are together, sometimes not. If that bothers you, you can just change hot tubs – no questions asked. Nobody is obnoxious. We saw this guy once in the hot tub one night. He got pretty drunk and rude and obnoxious. People did not appreciate it at all. We haven’t seen him since that night. He mysteriously disappeared. Security is present but never in your face. There will be some games, like body shot (I’m sure you know by now what that is from other reports), but you don’t have to participate if you don’t want to. Hot tubs can get pretty “hot” late at night, but not always. It all depends on the crowd. People are nice and always very considerate. They try to feel you out. If they see that their touching, kissing, caressing bothers you, they switch to a simple conversation or telling jokes. That’s the crowd at Hedo, great, considerate people that want to have fun and want YOU to have fun also. If you get approached by swingers and it’s not your thing – simple no will do. Nobody feels offended.

Nobody will make comments, nobody really cares if your breast are standing up or went south. If they are fake or real. If you are 90 pounds or 300. If you are a 20 year old or a 60 year old. That’s not what this place is about. It’s about strangers getting together and becoming great friends. No matter their age, size, or profession. We are honored and feel very lucky to have met you all.

I remember a funny scene one night at the nude side hut tub. This Russian couple came in. First in their robes. They were walking around and scouting the place and us. Nobody said anything about them wearing clothes at that time. It was obvious that they wanted to try it just weren’t yet sure how to go about it. Finally somebody gave them some words of encouragement.

They came in. The Russian guy was in his late 40 early 50, his wife early 30. I heard him talking to Duane, I think, in the hub about how many drinks they had that day. They were not drunk but they had some buzz going. He said: My wife said to me” there is no way we are going to end up in the nude hot tub tonight.” Needless to say, ½ hour later they were pretty frisky and I think that her head disappeared under the water while her husband continued to carry a conversation with Duane. I’m telling you there is something about this place. I wonder who was walking around the resort late at night pouring love potions into our ears. For us it was A midsummer Dream, in the middle of the winter.

There are quiet areas in the resort where you can read a book, get some zzzzs. Prude side was pretty deserted, lots of loungers available there.

We were scheduled to leave on Thursday, February 22. In no way were we ready. We went to speak with Simone Sutherland about extending our stay. She was so accommodating and so helpful but the resort was overbooked and she could not give us any room. We came back to our breakfast table with a grin on our faces. Jim and Joanne were waiting for us. When we told them that it didn’t look good they right away offered that we could stay in their room with them. We realized that it would be a great inconvenience but they insisted. You should see Simone’s face when we told her. “That’s the first” she said but didn’t bet an eye. No problem, mon. Our bags were moved to a new location – ocean view room that Jim and Joanne had been occupying for almost two weeks now. We were so happy and so grateful to Jim and Joanne for their kindness. Although they told us that they were selfish, because they had so much fun with us that they didn’t want us to leave just yet.  

ONE PIECE OF ADVICE – drop your clothes off on your first day. At least try it. If you don’t like it, you’ll know it and will find plenty to do on the other side. But if you do like it, you will not come home regretting that you didn’t do it right away.  

ONE MORE THING - Before we left I had to promise our travel agent that we would call her as soon as we get back. She’s been our travel agent for years and always managed to provide us with an excellent vacation experience. This time she was very concerned about us, mainly because of us being so scared. HA! Well, I called and told her to sit down if she weren’t sitting. I told her that the reason I am calling on Monday was that we did not get back until Saturday night. I told her that we extended our vacation. SILENCE. She could not believe it but was thrilled that we had such a wonderful time. I told her that if she ever had a client that was scared of going to Hedo III, to give him/her my phone number. Hey, if anybody at Hedo is reading it, I volunteer to be your spokesperson in the Chicago area. Do you think I could get couple of free nights for doing that? (ha, ha)

Go with open mind, love and respect and you will have a vacation of a lifetime.

Once again, to all the people that made our vacation so special – Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.  

OUR POST HEDO REALITY CHECK:  

1.      Hedo bucks will not be accepted at your local grocery store. Sorry

2.      While leaving a restaurant or a bar – don’t forget to settle your bill.

3.      Don’t lie down on a bar and insist on body shots. They’ll probably call 911.

4.      Don’t forget to tip your waiter. You don’t have to be discrete.

5.      5 minute-long hugs showing your appreciation of service in the restaurant will probably be not welcome in the U.S.

6.      Don’t be surprised or disappointed if your waiter doesn’t address you by your first name.

7.      If you happen to touch somebody else’s private part while passing by, say “I’m sorry”, not “Thank you”.

8.      Put your clothes on. No, you can’t go naked to the beach. Same goes for your office.

9.      Tell people where you just came from. Believe me, after watching you on your first day in the office, they will be dying to know.

10.  Start a Hedo Saving Account the minute you get home. You will most likely want to go back as soon as possible, won’t you?

See you all there soon!  

Look, Ma! No Tan Lines!  

Shawn and Ivona

ivona@excellenttranslations.com