Rupe & Patty - 05/01

May 5th to the 12th  - our 3rd  Go Classy Nude Week!

A special thank you to AJ & Jeannie Hutchinson of Go Classy tours, they sure know how to throw a party! I love mimosas for breakfast! And also thank you Denny for giving us a place to share our experiences with others. You are the MAN, since I dont know Matt the previous mayor to Hedo I will support you as the new mayor for Hedo!  

OK, this trip report should have been written a month ago but the DIF was too strong. Rupe has been making Dirty Bananas drinks almost everyday and weve been reading the message board just to survive!

I guess the best place to start it the beginning We left CT very early in the morning to make our way to JFK in NYC for our 8:10AM flight. We were suppose to be there & checked in 2 hours pre flight time but of course we arrive at the terminal at just before 7AM. Why is it we never seem to get to bed early the night before? Check-in takes about 5 minutes so Rupe still has time to go outside to smoke one more cigarette pre flight. Me, I head to the very long line for some coffee. I look around and recognize some familiar faces that when we get to Hedo I realized why they looked familiar But hey everyone looks different with his or her clothes on. By the time I get my coffee it is time to board & Rupe is waiting for me, we get in line & I am told I need to finish my coffee before boarding the plane! As I gulp my steaming coffee that I watered down to cool off I am thinking this just isnt worth it, I could wait until we are airborne for the little 4oz cup the airlines serve. (NOT) We find our seats & Rupe proceeds to fall asleep,  Wake me up when they come around with the champagne & food he tells me. We take off about hour late, all that hurry up just to wait Hedo soon com mon!

After an rather uneventful flight, no movies but no crying babies either, we arrive at Mobay & make our way to customs, since we are running late there are two other planes also unloading. We are usually about 10 minutes ahead of the other 2 flights & manage to breeze through customs but this time we had to wait in the lines! Ugh! I wanted to be on the beach by noon! Oh well, Hedo soon com mon!

We collect our luggage and go to the TimAir desk to check in for our pre-arranged flight to Negril. Since our flight to Mobay was late we again have to wait. Oh well a cold Red Stripe, maybe we should make that 2..  Hedo soon com mon!

Finally, we are on our way to Negril. Our pilot informs of the safety procedures before taking off, he explains about how to open the doors, fasten the seatbelts etc, etc.  Since we will be flying over water to get to Negril he tells us (with a smile) the bathing suits are next to the life jackets if needed.  We tell him we are going to Hedo & dont need any bathing suits.

We finally get to Negril airport & are whisked away to Hedo Yeah!  We fill out the necessary paperwork at the front desk. We are delighted when the Sizzler a.k.a. Marc, comes by with a kiss and Welcome Home. It doesn't get any better than this! Christopher at the front desk is his usual friendly efficient self. As he is searching for an available room in H block for us I find our suitcase & the 10 boxes of bic pens I promised him. The little bit of money I spent for pens was well worth the smiles I received from the front desk staff! Needless to say, we not only got our preferred room in H-block; we had the keys in our hand. We were requested to give them another hour to finish making up our room but we did not have to get redressed to go back to the front desk for keys. Thank you once again Christopher and the wonderful staff at the front desk.

One thing I would suggest that everyone bring with them to Hedo is a SMILE, PATIENCE and RESPECT. People do not move as fast at Hedo as they do at home. Sometimes it takes a while to get a room assignment. The front desk does their best. Relax, go to the bar and get a drink or if it is real busy when you arrive, fill out your paperwork and go grab some lunch. You will get a room. Perhaps it will not be the one you wanted.  I have seen some people get real demanding and obnoxious to the employees somehow they never seem to get the room they requested. I wonder if they feel any better for being so demanding? Sometimes they will have to move the next day in order to get their favorite room. I would rather spend my next day enjoying my vacation! How much time do you spend relaxing in the room anyway?

We stopped at the room long enough to unload clothing and put the important stuff in the safe and we were off to Delroys. As we bellied up to the bar we were greeted with warm Hellos and It is good to see you again! remarks from some familiar faces from previous trips. This being our 5th trip it felt good to be home. I am still amazed at the number of people that Delroy, Scumba and the rest of the staff meet everyday and that they remember so many people.  Augustus, the keeper of the Nude beach was there. He said a quick Hello, told us about his new grandchild and said he would see us later, it was time for him to go home. With a quick reminder to Rupe to not dispose of his cigarette butts in the sand he was off. (He tells all the smokers not to litter on HIS beach. He would rather have to pick up a dozen cups full of butts than one or two in the sand.)

During the course of the week and a half that we were there we meet some wonderful new people and renewed some friendships from previous trips.  We ran into many faces that were familiar; some we even remembered names for < G>.  After a couple of cocktails and some food from Roberts grill I was ready for the afternoon nude volleyball game. This is one of my favorite activities at Hedo. We run into a few old friends heading towards the volleyball court. Wayne,Renee,Dean & Phyllis a few friends from previous trips that we look forward to seeing every year. Wayne, Dean and myself play volleyball and Phyllis, Renee and Rupe are the cheering section. They are also responsible to keep sand out of our drinks. It is the only responsible thing they do all week <G>.  They also remind people walking by that they are now on the nude beach. I did make the mistake of packing an extra whistle this trip for Rupe, he became the official greeter to the nude beach, blowing his whistle at prudes, then yelling, "SECURITY! PRUDES ON THE BEACH!" Of course in true Hedo fashion it was all in fun and everyone enjoyed a laugh. Somehow the cheering section manages to collect almost as many Hedo bucks as we do playing.

We meet up with The Slugs not too far from the nude volleyball court in Slugville.  We had met most of the Slugs last year at various times during our vacation but this year we decided to join in on their theory of totally doing not much. Slugville is an area under the trees with easy access to the water. The only problem is it is a long walk to the bar. The Slugs have very few rules, no one moves too fast or does anything that is outside their box or comfort zone. Thank you to Kris, Joe, Christie, Brett, Greg, Terry, Ken, Steff and Don & Diane (aye?) for your friendship and sharing Slugville with us. We are already looking forward to being Slugs with you next May, and a get together sometime over the summer.

Of course our May trip to Hedo would not be the same without seeing all our friends from previous trips. The HedoDocs, Bob & Rhonda our neighbors this trip. A doctor/lawyer that can sing, Amazing! What cant you do Bob? Whatever it is I bet Rhonda does it better anyway! <G> And then there is the Boston group, Chris, Julie, Mike and the lovely Lisa, Is this the best day of your life or what! This place is cool!

We celebrated our 26th wedding Anniversary while we were there. Also celebrating anniversaries the same week were Glen & Connie, Dub & Sandi, and Stu & Robin. We met all these couples on our first trip to Hedo at newbies in 1999 and look forward to seeing them each year. Lucy and Ricky brought more newbies with them this trip Fred and Ethel, an excellent addition to Hedo. We are already looking forward to next year when they return! LuAnn now has all kinds of new material for talent night!

We had some newbie staff members this trip to break in. There was one REAL newbie, he used to be an accountant or something like that, I think he will do just fine as an entertainment coordinator. The other newest member to the entertainment staff Rudy, arrived only a day or two before us. He was a transfer from another resort. A wonderful asset to Hedo he is. Of course we still miss seeing Marc on the beach everyday! It was lovely to see some familiar faces still on staff like Anton, Lucky, Diva, Angel, Paul and Teddybear to name a few. You guys are the best. Jason the Giant had moved on to another resort but he was a guest at the resort the week that we were there along with his lovely fiance.

A quick overview in our humble opinion After a discussion started on Dennys board re the cloudy hot tub water Rupe decided to check it out his self. He packed our hot tub test strips. He got caught testing the waters and lead to him being able to have a lengthy discussion (does he ever have a short discussion? <G>) with the pool staff. He was shown the filtration system and it is an older style sand type and it may not be up to the task. (size wise) The skimmers wont do their job because when the bubbles are on the scum is pushed away from the edge where the skimmers are; this explains why the scum is always floating in the center of the hot tub at night. During the day when the bubbles are turned off the tub is clear. There are a whole lot of the technical/chemical reasons for the cloudy hot tub that he explains in the cloudy water thread on Dennys board. The long and short of it is the pool staff does the best that can be done working with the time and materials they have.

The food was good and plentiful. I enjoyed a few of Charlies omelets during the time we were there. Rupe prefers the scrambled eggs and bacon, available every day. There was plenty of fresh fruit every morning also. We ate dinner at Pastafaris a few times. We enjoy eating there because it is quiet enough to carry on a conversation. Also I love having champagne with my dinner, something that is not easily available in the main dinning room. If you plan on eating at Pastafaris make your reservations as early in the day as possible. We usually ate lunch at Roberts Grill; you can not beat his fries! Six oclock was the best at Roberts Grill, jerk chicken time! Everyone laughed at me for wearing a watch (hey I need some tan lines to show <G> when I get back to work!) BUT I was the most sought out person as it got close to Jerk Chicken time! Everyone wants the chicken and once the prepared chicken is gone that is it until tomorrow! I also ventured up to the main dinning room a few times so that I could enjoy a salad for lunch. Of course that meant putting something on, Rupe put his towel on.

The entertainment is fun but the staff must get tired of the same stuff every week. With the little spare time they have they did manage to add a few new things into their shows. If this is your first trip catch as many shows as you can. The staff is extremely talented! On Thursday, toga night, it is also guest talent night. This is one show I really enjoy and you never know what you might see! We saw this past trip some good Rock n Roll, Thanks to Chris a very talented musician. A talking penis from Chicago, Way to go LuAnn! We were treated to some real talent and some not so real talent but it was all very entertaining. I give credit to anyone that gets up there to perform. The other entertaining thing we enjoy is Dave in Veronicas. He is the piano man! He does a wonderful job at getting the audience to participate. Some more so than others! Believe it or not there were a fair number of people participating that can actually sing! Some amazingly so! We were treated to Chuck singing about Lucille a few times and his lovely wife Liz doing a duet with Dave, it was great!

We really laid low this trip since we know we will not relax much in December with the WWW group. The week flew by I treated myself to the massage services twice. I tried the trampoline, played topless Prude volleyball against Sandals resort, WE WON! There was one fellow playing with only a towel on, he did loose it once and no it was not Rupe. Rupe was standing on the sidelines with his towel on his shoulder as usual.  I did not read as much as I had planned but that is OK since I was making new friends instead. I still can not believe that Risca was a newbie this trip. She really showed us all the best way to jump right in and have fun! Are you sure she had never been there before Roland? Art and Jennifer are another couple we met for the first time played volleyball everyday. NO, Jennifer is not my sister! I think Rupe needs to start wearing his glasses full time. She is a shorter and her cap did not have the YANKEE logo on it. We met so many wonderful, friendly people that I can not possibly mention them all but you know who you are & thank you to each and everyone of you! Rupe still is having a hard time leaving his clothes on <G> he answered the door the other day in a towel to some door to door salesperson they handed him some leaflet and offered to come back at a more convienent time.

All in all we had a blast! As far as what we did day to day, I dont remember. I swear that as all the days blend into one so do the drinks but I never did feel like I was drunk. A word to the wise DRINK THE WATER and plenty of it, it will save you many a hangovers.

Hedo soon com again

Patty & Rupe