TRIP REPORT (June 2 -- 11, 2000) from Beth and Kenneth
It has taken me a week to get over my depression from having to leave so that I can half-way do justice to a trip report, Denny. Here's my best shot at it. Feel free to edit and take what you wish from it or don't put any of it on the board if it is boring or whatever.
BEFORE STARTING THIS TRIP REPORT, you must, I repeat, MUST try a new drink when you get there. Ask for "The Judge." If they don't know it by name, ask for pineapple juice and coconut rum. You won't regret it. It is sure to be a hit for you. We're having it right now, actually. June 2 -- We took Air Jamaica for the first time (last time we took U.S. Air). Overall, Air Jamaica had good, friendly service. We especially liked the check-in at the hotel for your flight home. It saved tons of time on our departure day. The food was good too, as far as airline food goes. Funny tale, though. When we landed at MoBay, we were taxiing for what seemed like a long time. Then, the plane stopped, in the middle of a taxiway and the pilot came on and told us that he'd gone down what appeared to be a closed taxiway and he was going to have to "back the plane up" and try another one, but we'd have to wait a bit because some other planes were landing right now. The scary thing is, we ended up not backing up at all, we went straight. Go figure. Welcome to Jamaica, mon. We took TimAir this time (bus last time, I STILL recommend the bus for your first trip, after that, forget it!). The TimAir man who greeted us was nice and funny and hurried us along faster than any Jamaican ever has. We were all prepared for the "Soon come, mon" mindset and here is this Jamaican hurrying US along. Great staff at TimAir and funny pilot. (Brief note -- some friends we met later --Rich and Shawn -- happened to be on our Air Jamaica plane which arrived in MoBay at 5:00. They took the bus and arrived at Hedo at 8:30; we arrived at 5:45 ). When we arrived at Hedo, I was greeted with a WONDERFUL "Welcome home" hug from the guy at the door. I know Sunday is getting long, but bear with me, the rest is short (this is the only day I actually took notes for my trip report). While we were checking in, the phone rang and it was someone complaining to a VERY nice and funny front desk person (I won't name to protect her identity for later). She tells the person on the phone, "No, we don't have tv . . . You're supposed to go outside . . . Go outside, have some fun out there . . .o.k., open your curtain, there's the entertainment . . .(she started to giggle to herself at this point). O.K. actually, we do have tv's in the rooms. Are you sure you didn't get one? Yes? Look on your ceiling. ARe you looking? See that? That's your t.v." We died laughing as she said goodbye and hung up on the person. At that point, in appreciation of our lauging at her joke on this poor guest, she gave us a FREE room upgrade (good for the whole 9 days!) -- and some of you had us convinced we were going to get bumped this year. We did, we got "bumped" up. After dinner, we met Mike and Lee Ann, some other friends we met and hung out, but it all runs together after the first few drinks. Saturday, June 3 -- this is about where all trip reports start sounding the same -- eat, drink, bake, etc. Some highlights of Saturday, it rained all afternoon and we stayed in the hottub and ate jerk chicken for the first time (how did we miss it last year?). We met Rich and Shawn (mentioned above). We got reservations at Pastafari with Mike and Lee Ann for eight and met Jessi and Scott and Carol Lee and Keith. They had all gone on a moped ride into Negril in the rain, but that is their story to tell. That night, we stayed in the hottub until about 2 or 3. At this point, I should mention that we have the East Coast, parent-problem of waking up around 5:30 EVERY morning in Jamaica. Sunday, June 4 -- my 31 b-day. Mark "The Sizzler" gave me tons of Hedo bucks for games on this day and for my b-day. Mark is the greatest, you need to get to know him. For the trivia contest, the answer is "Mark has the third largest ______ in the world for Jamaica." We squeezed 10 people in at our table that was decorated for my b-day. The dining hall staff was very cordial. Again, hottub until 2:30 or 3:00. Oh, and every day was Jerk chicken (and fish) at 6:00. Monday, June 5 -- The Wedding of Ken and Amy. It was supposed to start at 11:00. Soon come, mon. Actually, this was one of the highlights of our trip. We really appreciated being made a part of this. I cried and I NEVER cry at weddings. This wonderful couple has been married 17 years and renewed their vows on the jeddy. If they don't send some good pictures with their trip report, I will. It was just beautiful. Ken made it VERY hard for all of our husbands to measure up. Nice reception at Veronica's and then, they invited us all to dinner at Pastafari's. Hedo really did a great job on this, making it special. If you are considering doing this, it is definitely a "DO." Went snorkeling for the first time. It really was cool. We thought it would be dumb; we were wrong. Unfortunately, Jessie got sea-sick; Kenneth almost got left. Up again in the hottub until about 2 : or 3: At this point, we don't do a very good job remembering. We went 5 nights straight on only 3 hours sleep a night. We couldn't understand how we were able to function. Maybe we didn't function. Ask the people who were our friends. Tuesday, June 6 -- THE CAT CRUISE -- missed it last year. Won't miss it again. Went to Pickled Parrot. Water slide, rope swing, a cliff jump. I actually slept late, Kenneth brought me breakfast in bed. I was almost late for it. I woke up at 10:15. We hung out with Rich and Shawn on the cruise. Shawn bought herself some Miller Lite at Pickled Parrot and had fun for the rest of the day. This is the same Shawn who was told by the Hedo nurse NOT to go on the Cat cruise because she had sun poisoning and when she decided to go anyway, she promised the nurse she would stay out of the sun and report back immediately following the cruise to see the doctor and get a shot (NOPE, she didn't go back to nurse OR stay out of the sun, but she's still alive last I checked). Kenneth wants everyone to know that on the boat trip back he saw a huge blown-up Miller Lite bottle. I'm not sure about the relevance here, but, hey, it's SOMETHING he remembers. After we got back, we spent the only hours we spent on the prude beach (about 2, we guess -- just didn't make it past there getting off the boat) getting drunk with Rich and Shawn and noticed after about 2 hours the table was covered with empty cups (approximately 40). Kenneth says we stumbled down to the nude beach and floated on rafts after that for the rest of the day. Jessi and Scott found us out there floating and joined us for a bit until they had a small problem with some cd's (their story). That was also PJ night. We sobered up enough to have a good time there. Wednesday -- kinda sad day, Jessi and Scott left. Not really sure what happened Wednesday, but we know we had fun doing whatever it was. I'm sure it included the beach, pool, hottub and jerk chicken. Thursday -- I (Beth) won the "Best Buns" on the nude beach contest in the afternoon and the "most virginal toga" contest that night. Don't try to figure that out, this is Hedo. We met Dawn and Todd and hung around with them and Rich and Shawn. And, we met Mark and Beth somewhere in here. We think we went sailing this day. Friday -- Not a clue, I'm sure it included jerk chicken and the beach, pool, and hot tub. Saturday -- ULTIMATE MEN OF HEDONISM II contest that night. This was a laugh-a-minute. I really enjoyed this. We met a couple who were on their honeymoon and had gone on the Saturday (or is it Friday?) cat cruise. She jumped off the cliff and "split" her ______ (rhymes with split). No, really, she did. She said she had 3 lacerations on it, bleeding. Pretty much ended the honeymoon part of the trip. They were cool, though. No names mentioned due to the humiliation factor. Sunday -- We sulked around with Ken and Amy because it was our last day. Actually, we only mentioned them on the wedding day, but they are great friends we will return to Hedo with. We hung out with them every day on the beach in the a.m. We found out we were on the same flight home. So, we shared the TimAir plane and got a refund. Imagine, only in Jamaica can you get reimbursed for sharing a plane with your friends. (Kenneth says, "yeah, ten whole dollars.") BY THE WAY, this was Kenneth's 30th birthday. You think your 30th sucked???!! Imagine spending it on a plane returning from Hedo; I can't believe he didn't just end it all right there. Kenneth says I'm leaving a lot out. But, some things are better kept secret. :)!!! You'll just have to go to know. We'd like to give an "honorable mention" to all the people we met but didn't mention by name in the report.
Note to Denny -- really, thanks for all you do by having this board. I was kinda upset to see all the negativism when I returned. I had told Scumba to come visit and he did lurk. He checked in on your Denny cam. He promised to write something to all of us soon. I gave Delroy the address, too. AND, I really did get DDBF -- Dreaded Denny Board Fever -- I missed checking the message boards WHILE I WAS AT HEDO. Is that sick or what? Lots of the friends we met did, too. Seriously, this board made our trip 10 times better this year because we didn't "waste" the first few days trying to meet people -- we had already met so many ahead of time from here. Thanks a million, Denny. Keep up the good work. And, we WILL come for WWW one year. -- Beth