Hedo II - a Newbie visit 18 February to 25 February 2000
Friday 2/18 - The limo picked us up at 10 am. It started snowing heavily on the way to the airport. We were not sorry to leave that behind. They had to de-ice the plane and we were off but one hour late. When we arrived in MoBay we discovered the bag that we had to gate check at the plane gate did not arrive with us. It contained medication, toothbrush etc and all of Maggie's clothes.. The clothes were not too much of a problem BUT the meds were. We missed the bus that took everyone else from our flight to the resort because we were sorting out the lost baggage issue. We caught another bus and reached Hedo at around 9 pm. Had dinner, found our room then headed for the beach. Where we were promptly discovered by Bob, a fellow from the list that we had exchanged e-mail & pictures with prior to our departure. Wandered around for a while and headed for bed. We were assigned room 1227 prude side as requested in advance.
Saturday 2/19 - Got up and showered with hot water at about 8:30am. And went down for breakfast. We signed up for the clothing optional Catamaran cruise to the Pickled Parrot and snorkeling. It was a fun time even when it rained on the way back. We had a bit of shyness with going nude being Newbies but Maggie eased into it all right. Jon was still a bit shy but said he would go to the nude beach later. Maggie's bag had arrived after we ate lunch. Still raining so we went to our room for some afternoon delights. It was rainy and overcast for the balance of the day. We did venture into the nude and had a dirty banana at Delroys. It was still cool enough that we decided to warm up in the hot tub where we met some of our friends from Denny's list, Bob and Greta, and Wendy and Larry. At dinner we were introduced to the "new tradition" of the proper way to eat an clair by Bob and Greta and we adopted it too. After dinner we headed to the hot tub but it was closed temporarily for cleaning so it was off to bed as Maggie had too much wine at dinner.
Sunday 2/20 - Took Maggie out on a sunfish sailing. It was her first time. It was a hoot. Jon is a very experienced sailor and Maggie was a bit panicky about how things were going. Lunch then off to sun before cooling off I the pool with a drink at Delroy's. Stayed there until dinner. Looks like the Art Auction is back on Wednesday night so we tried to make a reservation at Pastafari's but were told we would have to do that the morning of the day.
Monday 2/21 - Midnight to 1AM we were at the hot tub. Monday morning we showered with hot water at 9:30AM. Went for breakfast and checked out the gift shops and the Jamaican food tasting. We watched half of the wet T-shirt competition. Maggie considered participating but changed her mind and the last minute after eyeing up the competition. After lunch we snorkeled around the rock jetty/coral at the east end of the nude beach. Afterwards it was a drink or two at Delroy's and a BLT at the grill. Hung out at the hot tub and pools will almost sunset. We shared a champagne sunset with Wendy and Larry again it was magnificent. Off to dinner and after dinner down to the pier to feed the fish. Hedo euphoria had finally caught up to us so we went to bed early.
Tuesday 2/22 - It was a cloudy morning until about 9:30AM. We went snorkeling at 11:30 on the reef. The medium surge limited the snorkeling to 40 minutes. Afternoon to the nude beach to sun for an hour and played in the pool and struck up a few conversations with new acquaintance's. We watched the sunset while eating jerk chicken and fries. Headed back to our room to play and rest up for PJ nighteyed Lorraine of Lorraine and JB spied Maggie from a distance and in the dark. We . Eagle chatted a bit hour and a half before. since they had just arrived an
Wednesday 2/23 - Up and at 'em at 8:30AM. We wanted to be at the tour desk at 9AM sharp to book a table at Pastafari's and contact TimAir with out CC info for our return flight to MoBay for Friday. After that we enjoyed a light breakfast and back to our room to get ready to go on the Island Picnic at 10:30AM. The Picnic was a disappointment. We had hoped to do some exploring of the Island and snorkeling but that was discouraged. Instead we sat around in a circle for 1 1/2 hours in the full sun playing drinking games. The lunch they provided was good but it was so windy it was hard to hold the plate to eat. After lunch we went out on the reef and took some pictures and then returned to Hedo. In a future visit we likely wouldn't take part in that particular activity. Once back at Hedo we took a Hobie cat out for about 40 minutes. The wind was brisk and it was a good sail. We were pretty hot when we got back so we went to the nude pool and had a few drinks. Did a hot tub soak and took in the sunset at 6:15PM. We took a leisurely walk back to our room to get ready for dinner at Pastafari's at 8pm. It was a good dinner. Not too heavy but something in it didn't sit well in our stomach's. It was a rough night. Not much sleep.
Thursday 2/24 - A slow start today. Very tired, not much sleep. Went for a very light tea and toast breakfast at 9:45AM. Then off to the Nurse's station to check with her on a rash Maggie had developed, which was caused by the sun, and our stomach problem. She said no one else had come to her yet with the problem we had but she thought we were just sensitive to something in our dinner the night before. Went back to our room to rest but too much noise, so we did some shopping, talked with some friends and came back to the room for a short nap. At 2PM our eviction notice arrived. Reality must start to set in. At about 2:30PM we started down to the nude side to sun, swim and soak. We sunned and it was so hot we decided to cool off in the pool and wait for the best buns and breast contest. It didn't happen. At 5PM we headed back to our room to prepare for toga night and to watch our last sunset where we saw our first one with Wendy and Larry. The fire alarm sounded at 5:30pm and rang for 20 minutes. We went outside to investigate and an employee said it was a false alarm but could not be stopped for a while. Sunset was shared on the beach with Wendy and Larry again. Bummer back to our room to pack to go home and get ready in our togas. But we had a memory failure. Can't prepare for toga night. Can't remember how to do our togas. We had practiced them before coming down. We got it figured out finally after some frustration and laughs. We packed our bags and readied them for 9 am pick up in the morning. Toga night was ok. We participated in most of the categories for judging but didn't win. Had fun trying though.
Friday 2/25 - Bags outside the door at 8:55am. Final packing and off to breakfast. At breakfast we were met by our favorite waiter Smiling Patrick he was the first Hedo employee we met when we arrived. Upon returning from breakfast our bags were gone and all that is left is the pre-boarding info and flying TimAir at 3:45pm. We had lunch and headed for the beach and pool (nude side) until 3pm when we got dressed and headed for the front desk. Took a taxi to the Negril air field. Arrived in the air Jamaica lounge and tried to call home. Basically you can't unless you call AT&T/collect. Jon's AT&T card gave a 412 number to call collect for help that didn't work either. After a brief discussion with the operator. This problem is not uncommon and it is due to the high rate of fraud in Jamaica.
A few comments:
1) The management staff was a bit disorganized as my daughter called on Saturday morning at 8 AM as we had instructed her to do. However, when the resort operator answered she was placed on hold for about 10 minutes, and then the operator informed her that we were not registered at the resort. Normally this is not a big deal but it freaked out a 10 year old. She called back later at about 9AM after checking around to see if our plane was canceled and after another 10 minute wait on hold, they placed the call through to our room.
2) The NEW room air conditioner worked fine and once set regulated the environment, and was not touched for the entire week "click here" for the settings we used. FYI, The temperature scale is in Degrees C NOT F.
3) On the message boards there were questions about the tune machine in the rooms. The tune machine plays in Stereo CD's, Cassettes includes an FM-Stereo and AM Monaural Radio. The cassette has the capability to record.
4) The room telephone worked normally as in any other hotel however, the message light on ours was very dim and we could not see the light until we turned off the lights at bed time. A bummer as we had received the message at 3 in the afternoon to call to confirm our flight on TimAire.
5) Calling home, this topic has been beat to death on The Message Board however a few comments. I furnished my daughter with dialing instructions to use my AT&T credit card and a calling schedule as suggested on the Message Board. The only problem was that AT&T saw an "unusual" dialing pattern on my credit card and did not allow it to be used until a bunch of hysterical screaming by my mother-in-law at the AT&T operator! It gets worse! We had not heard from my daughter in a few days and wanted to confirm that we were coming home and would pick her up in the morning. At the airport I attempted to call via the Air Jamaica 1st Class Lounge receptionist I was informed that I could only call collect via AT&T, the AT&T out of country help line to call for help, collect did not function (this is the number to call to get the local access number and help) nor did the "pay/credit card" telephones in the airport. After finally talking to a local long distance carrier it was learned that due to the high rate of fraud in Jamaica you basically can't use much of anything outside of the resort. The solution... is unknown at this writing maybe cellular (that would have some similar hassles I'm sure due do to cellular fraud) or a pre-paid telephone card.
6) Hot Water for showers was "No Problem Mon" at all! The water was a little bit hard as it is in many places in the world, which requires a bit more rinsing to get soap off you.
IRIE!
We're hoping to book again the same week next year!
Maggie & Jon