Hedo III 11-18, February, 2006
An explanation as to why we chose to go to Hedo III at this time.
We missed the WWW-W 2005 trip due to volunteer obligations. Friends of ours invited us to go to Hedo III with them and we thought it would be a great trip as we hadn’t been to Hedo III in almost 6 years.
We drove down to Chicago on Friday night and stayed at a hotel so we could actually have a couple hours of sleep before we left for our week of R & R. We met Bill & Anna, our friends from the Chicago Suburban Hedo Club, on the plane. We were delayed 20 minutes due to de-icing. The pilot didn’t make up the time in the air as we had hoped and we arrived a few minutes late. Customs/Immigrations didn’t take long at all due to all the open lanes!!! I think the Jamaican’s have finally figured it out!!!
We arrived after an hour and 20 minute treacherous bus ride with memories of the Hell ride on the old road to Hedo II bouncing in our heads!!! Check in went great! We had a quad room on the 2nd floor and were to be moved to a swim up room the next morning. When the time came to move, we decided not to change rooms. We both enjoy the fresh air from our open windows.
We hit the nude pool within minutes and met a few of the group we had joined prior to our trip. After a few mudslides and a couple hours of being there, we notice Jerry walking toward us with this HOT HOT HOT, very SHORT SHORT SHORT haired blond!!! WOW Edie that hair cut is amazing on you!!! We also met Cliff & Patty that first night! They are a wonderful couple and now our new friends, too! By the way, Patty is also a very HOT Lady! Our first day we met all our old friends and some new friends, too. And our vacation began.
As go all our Hedo trips, our friends are what make the trip the best!!! Edie, Jerry, Bill, Anna, Manny, Trish, Cliff, Patty, and about 5 other couples and a few singles! We always have a blast no matter what! But the best part of any trip Bruce and I take together is the time we get to spend with each other!!!
I will try to keep this to just highlights and lowlights and comparisons of the two Hedo’s.
Highlights
Christine, Karen and Stacey at the side desk, (don’t know the name of the desk so am calling it the side desk) were very accommodating. They took us under their wing and made sure we had the rooms we wanted and reservations for the restaurants! We also had a platter of goodies waiting in our rooms every evening before dinner!!!
The female bartenders and grill chef at the nude pool were wonderful!!! And I mean wonderful! They treated us with respect as we did them! They actually knew me by name. They never made my mudslides with bananas and that made me a very happy camper, indeed! The grill chef actually had her helper run to the dining room to get a couple pats of butter to make my grilled cheese. (NOTE: They don’t have butter at the nude grill and they prepare grilled sandwiches without butter on the bread) The menu has grilled fish, grilled chicken pattie sandwich, hamburger/cheeseburgers, Caesar salad, crab salad, and sometimes grilled chicken breast. Very nice selection. Just for the record, we tipped them on our last full day there.
Manusan’s was simply fabulous!!! We ate so much food there that we weren’t hungry for breakfast the next morning. The service was actually at a normal (American) pace there! We ate there twice.
The piano bar was great! The bartender there (only male bartenders in the place worth their weight in gold) was/were awesome! I do believe that there were two different bartenders that work there, though not at the same time. They allowed me to teach them to make a chocolate martini. I started a trend in the piano bar the first night we were there and noticed a few other women drinking them. I turned on my partner in crime, Edie, to them and we slammed quite a few over the days there. Karaoke was pretty good and Glen, the pianist, reminded me of Dave at Hedo II. Of course, there are always exceptions, and the exception in the piano bar is that Glen didn’t do piece by piece.
One of the two nights we went to the disco we had a wonderful time. The music wasn’t ear splitting and the selection was great. I also did a pole dance for Bruce at the disco.
Breakfast is still the best meal the dining room has to offer! The service was pretty good during breakfast. I must say, we did have to ask for more juice every morning but our water glass was always full!
The midnight buffet lasts until at least 3 a.m. It may go on longer than that but that was about the latest we were there. They actually made grilled cheese and hamburgers for you on the grill. They also had some fruit, cheese, soup and eggs and bacon! I was impressed!!!
Lowlights
By the end of our first day at Hedo III we noticed a lack of interest in service from the male bartenders throughout the compound. We would wait patiently for them to serve us to no avail! We had to actually wave them down to get a drink. We know they don’t like to be waved down but it truly did get to that point. Our second evening there, Bruce was told by a male bartender at the nude pool/hot tub, “you take care of me and I’ll take care of you.” This pissed Bruce off but the next night he did take care of him and the service didn’t improve! I guess the tip Bruce gave wasn’t enough to make him notice us. Our last night, after we left the piano bar, we stopped at the main bar to get a drink. There were about a dozen customers sitting at the bar. Most of which were guests with night passes. We waited and waited. Of the three bartenders (all male) that were there, two walked past us twice each. The third was talking to three customers. Everyone had drinks in front of them. Two women walked up to the opposite side of the bar and were waited on by one of the tenders that had walked past us twice earlier. At that point, Bruce had had it!!! He waved the other over, as he was about to pass us by for the third time, and asked his name. He gave it to Bruce. Bruce then told him that he was reporting him to management, along with the other two bartenders, for having ignored us for so long. All the guy did was shrug his shoulders! When Bruce went to the front desk to report them it fell on deaf ears with no comment from the desk clerk. Luckily, as we were walking away, another man behind the desk who had overheard the conversation asked us our names and room number. He logged it and said he would take care of the situation. We aren’t sure what transpired as we left so early the next morning to catch our plane.
The female bartender at the quad pool named Lisa was also a poor employee. She had an issue taking orders from me. Every time I went up there she took her sweet time waiting on me and usually screwed up my drink order. I had asked her, on three different occasions, to rinse out my mug and give me ice. She never once rinsed out the mug but just put ice in it. She was too busy drinking and dancing to her favorite songs that she turned up to eardrum popping levels!
Getting a drink in the disco was quite the challenge. We actually left the disco due to lack of service one night!
Pastafari’s food totally sucked with the exception of dessert! The service is painfully slow. ‘Nuff said!!!
The main dining room. Ate lunch and dinner there three times each. We usually had to get our own silverware. Had to beg for a napkin most of the time for lunch. Dinner service wasn’t much better. The food for lunch seemed to have a better variety than dinner. Even though I usually have no trouble finding something to fill me up, this trip proved different. I walked away hungry two of the three nights and we had to come back for the midnight buffet around three a.m.
The Scotch Bonnet had very slow service. So slow, in fact, that one of our friends got the beer she ordered with lunch as we were getting ready to leave after eating! Otherwise the food was typical.
PJ night at the disco pretty much sucked. The music selection was all over the place and way too loud! We left early and went back to our room. We were on our third night of rain and pretty depressed!
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (I know, not original, but it works)
The Good of Hedo III:
Everything is situated very close to everything!!!
The Saturday Night Buffet was served on the patio by the basketball court.
The towels are sooooooo much thicker here.
The quad buildings/hot tub for quieter times. It is still clothing optional and not many prudes around.
Munasan’s, I feel, has better food and service.
Volleyball in nude pool.
The Midnight Buffet.
The Good of Hedo II:
The WWW-W group.
The beach.
The calm water.
The nude hot tub.
Robert’s grill has butter for grilled sandwiches and MUCH better French fries.
While I still think the buffet lacks, it is still better here.
Pastafari’s.
The Bad of Hedo III:
The service by the male bartenders and the female quad bartender.
The manmade nude and prude beaches.
The stairs to the piano bar and disco.
The ocean being so damn rough.
Not enough chairs/room by the nude pool.
The nude hot tub.
Hit or miss on hot water.
Only providing one bottle of premium brand liquor at each bar per day.
The Bad of Hedo II:
The towels are sooooo very cheap and thin.
The lack of hot water a lot of the time.
Limited Premium liquor.
The Ugly of Hedo III:
This goes without saying but I’ll say it anyway! The male bartenders!!!
The Ugly of Hedo II:
In all honesty, I can’t think of anything ugly here!