Howard & Kelly - December, 2007

Trip Report 12/22/2007 – 12/29/2007 (too short!)

Pictures

Day 1
Arrive Montego Bay 3 pm, Clear Customs 3:45 pm
15 minutes in the Super Clubs lounge (water only, no more cocktails)
$1/bag "tip" to the Red Cap guy
1 ½ hour ride to the resort – all newly paved roads the entire trip (took a 10 minute "beer" stop part way there – good time to stock up on other recreational needs – don't pay more than $20 for a bag though!)
We got the room we reserved, no problem mon (ocean front, nude pool) and everything worked fine (AC, hot water). Windows did not close too well though.
Cabaret show was so-so, disco was dead (music WAY too loud and unfamiliar, even to the younger folks) (this complaint was made by many, all week long, but to no avail) (disco was quiet every night, but got a little more popular after Christmas)
Made reservations for Italian dinner, tomorrow night. Dressed up for glitter night, disco was dead. Enjoyed the hot tub with new friends H&R and J&R

Day 2
Since we arrived too late to attend either of the resort orientations on Saturday, our plan was to go breakfast buffet at 7:30, then again at 10:00, then attend the 10:30 Sunday orientation. That was the plan. Here is the reality – woke up at 8, took a shower (took pictures of the wife taking the shower, from outside). Get a chair at the pool. Buffet at 9:15. Back to pool, got involved in water volleyball game (thank you Jonas & Laurie ("vater volleyball everybody!!!") and started to get hungry. Discovered that it was already 12:30. That's OK, grab some lunch from the nude grill and we'll attend the 5:00 orientation. Got tired of vball, sun and cocktails so we took a quick nap. From 4 to 6. OK, so who really needs orientation anyway, right? Went to dinner at 6:30 (invited new friend R to join us, he was by himself). Went to the show at 8:30 for Pimps & Ho's night, then to the disco with P&H costumes. Disco was dead, hung out at the waterslide where Kelli met (and then some) N – one of the water sport staff guys….At midnight we went to the quad pool hot tub with new friends K&J. N was there too. Since it was now after midnight, they all sang Happy Birthday to me (woke up C&A, who we haven't met yet but will before the end of the next day!). After 3 rum punches Kelli had a little trouble getting from the tub to the room (ouch!) but we had a whole bunch of fun (til 4 am) when we got back to the room!

Day 3
My birthday! Woke up late (8) again. Just a bit hung over. Got breakfast buffet for myself and fixed a plate to take back to Kelli (breakfast in bed!). Played water volleyball until noon, had lunch at the buffet. H&R had set up a special Wet&Wild catamaran ride with 15 other people, us included. Met C&A, CJ & T on the boat. Great people, good fun with them all the rest of the week! Got drunk, wet and wild all day on the boat (especially so since it was my birthday – it will be hard to forget my 50 strokes)  – got back just in time for a 6:30 Japanese dinner. Yummy! Tonight was Pirate night. We had some great costumes but we lay down for "quick" nap after dinner and never got back up!

Day 4
All day at the pool, except for food breaks. Today was lingerie day. We went in Santa bedtime gear. Kelli got offered $200 to dance with another lady in the cage. She declined. Darn!


Day 5
All day at the pool, except for food breaks, a one hour workout in the gym and one hour for scuba diving. Met up with T&S at the pool. Had touched base on line before our trip. T recognized us from our hats! Met the only 'ugly' person all week today. New neighbors next door to our room. Just arrived, started to chat outside our room. They seemed friendly enough and after about 45 min. they suggested we move into the room to continue the conversation. He started to make moves on K, she protested, he started calling us names and we through them out. Drunken, arrogant, chauvinistic redneck......Anyway, we dressed as Slut & Slave for fetish night and hung at the disco for a short while. Busier than the previous nights, but still quite dead and too loud. Did the midnight water slide with K&J.

Day 6
All day at the pool, except for food breaks. Many of the folks that went on the boat ride Monday went again today. We stayed behind but took a one hour Hobie Cat ride (with Kelli's new friend N). Toga night was fun, still quite quiet at the disco.

Day 7
All day at the pool, except for food breaks. Jamaica night, Kelli took 3rd place in the reggae dance off at the stage. We made C&A stay up late with us tonight instead of going to bed at 9 pm.

Day 8
Breakfast, packing and leaving. A very sad day. Bags were supposed to be picked up at 10:00 but nobody ever came for them so we carried them to the bus ourselves at 10:45. Front desk had apparently lost our departure information. We had a 3:00 flight, bus left at 11:00 for the airport. We had lunch at the airport. Our flight did not leave until 4:30 so we missed our connection in Charlotte and had to spend the night there.

Overall Summary
There are many reasons why the Hedo resorts have such a high rate of frequent return visitors. The atmosphere, food, service and guests are all great! This is right at the top of the list of my all time great vacations. It is by far the best birthday and Christmas I have ever had! We ate at the Italian restaurant two times and we ate at the Japanese restaurant two times. All four of those meals were outstanding! The dinner buffets were 'OK' (for buffet food), but not too accommodating for vegetarians. The breakfast buffet was excellent everyday (love those omelets Reggie!). The food at the nude grill and Scotch Bonnet was 'OK'. John was our nude pool chef and he was fantastic. Crab salad was good. Grilled cheese was OK – our choices were limited (being vegetarian). Bartenders were fantastic and learned your face/your drink(s) quite quickly. The nude pool bar stays open until the last person leaves or 5 am, whichever happens first. If the bar is open, the music is playing. Bathroom vents are always open, so the music is always in the room. Take ear plugs if you plan to sleep ever. Speaking of nude pool music - they seemed to have only 5 CD's and three of them were unplayable (skipping/repeating), but that didn't stop them from being played. So we heard two discs over and over, whenever security got up to bypass the skipping CD. We did convince her to play our own "island Christmas" CD's for a little bit on Monday and Tuesday....Clean pool towels were very scarce in the early morning hours. We learned to take two towels back to our room every night so we could have them for the morning. The nude hot tub was drained and refilled every morning. Good thing. Those of us who got there early enough to see it before draining learned rather quickly to never get into the tub after dark. I've seen thinner pea soup! Don't wear anything on the water slide; it will only slow you down. Keep your ankles crossed on the water slide or your legs will flail and bang against the sides. Always wear a smile, always be open to meeting new friends and just have fun! Oh – take a lanyard or wrist strap to carry your room key (my 'suit' didn't have any pockets).

Howard & Kelly