Robert & Vicky

First, we must have had an angel on our shoulders somewhere because we managed to hook up with De Zoo Bares, and we're proud to be able to say that we're one of their founding members. The whole thing started with a random email or two between some folks (thanks Denny for providing the trip schedule pages so we knew who was who). The next thing you knew, and thanks to some absolutely herculean efforts from several people (for which we can take absolutely NO credit), we had a name, a banner, lanyards, hats, t-shirts, a web page complete with pic pages and a chat room, and just about everything else. The speed at which this group came together, and then stayed together, absolutely boggled our minds. This group was also without question some of the nicest, wildest, classiest (you pick the good adjective and insert it here) bunch of people that we've ever been honored to be around. For all of you Zoo Bares that are reading this, please accept this as fact: You are already missed more than you can possibly know, and we both thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for making this trip an experience we will never forget. We are already counting the days until we see you again next year.

Air Jamaica - did its usual first class job. When we arrived at the Atlanta airport to go "home" we were advised that the AJ plane was down for maintenance and that we were going to be flying on a chartered Champion Air 727. Great I thought - lets all fly to MoBay, over the ocean, on some shitbox that's older than I am and has more cycles on it than my grandmother's dishwasher. Shouldn't have been worried though - AJ had chartered a really nice aircraft and the flight down left on time and arrived early. Coming back? No problems mon and the same deal. We really like this airline and will fly them again whenever we can.

The "road." - can't comment on it this year - we flew TimAir both ways, although as noted below we had second thoughts about flying back to MoBay. Anyway, just in looking at the road from the air you could tell that they've continued to do some major work to it - I saw huge stretches of brand new-looking black top. It doesn't seem to be cutting the time down much though - we talked to some folks that took the bus and they said its STILL an hour and a half at best. Even with that we ended up spending around 240 bucks and didn't save a lot of time over the bus. By the time we got to the desk in MoBay and then waited around for the shuttle and then waited around for the TimAir plane I'll bet we didn't save 30 mins, and it was the same deal coming back. I'd just as soon save the money and stay at Hedo another day personally. Here's another reason - TimAir had a really bad plane crash at Negril the day before we left, although to be fair to TimAir from what I've heard it may not have been pilot error - to the contrary the pilot's quick thinking may have saved some lives. We had been floating in the bay that morning and the wind had really kicked up and was changing directions all over the place. I'm talking about 15 knots or so and it was constantly shifting all around. We were watching the planes try to fight their way in all morning and you could tell from the ground that they were having a REAL rough time of it. One of them didn't make it. We talked to the passengers the next day that were in it, and evidently after making about three passes and not being able to put it down, the pilot decided to make one more stab at it. Right before he flared the whole plane was slammed into the ground by a downdraft, resulting in tail damage. Fortunately the pilot realized that he couldn't go around, so he cut the ignition and fuel and just put it down. That's where the quick thinking came in - if he had tried to do a go-around with major fuselage damage God knows what would have happened. By that time though they were too far down the runway to stop and they ran off the end. The plane spun and then flipped over - the wings evidently went one way and the engine went the other. Everyone wound up in the bushes upside down in the fuselage. Even with all that there was no really serious injuries - at least from what the Jamaican doctors could tell - both passengers were treated and released from the hospital that night and we ran into them at the resort the next day. Not a good way to start your vacation though. Vicky almost had a coronary when we were taxiing out the next day to fly back- I thought she was gonna jump right out of the plane when she saw the wrecked one. I seriously doubt that I'll ever get her on one of those things again.

Enough of that for now, on to the better things. What about the "improvements?" Man Hedo did one GREAT job on those things. The water slide is absolutely first class (talk about a speed rush, especially if you're doing it nekkid). There's all kinds of little pools here and there around the towers, and the new prude pool is really nice. Of course it hardly was ever in use, which is a shame, but its really a good job nonetheless. The rest of the stuff looked great too, but of course like the prude pool we never saw a soul using any of it - the putt putt golf course, the ice rink, the rock climbing wall - didn't see anyone using any of them all week. They're even working on the rooms too - nothing major, but the new curtains and bedspread in our room was a real nice touch and they've even managed to do something about the water pressure. We had normal showers in our room, just like here in the states, all week. The new gym is clean and AIR CONDITIONED with brand spanking new equipment that I'd be proud to work out on all year long. The spa area looked really slick too, although they've jacked massage prices way up to pay for it - 50 minute massages at the beach are now a whopping 85 dollars US.

Food - again we saw some major improvements here. If you'll look at our trip report from last year you'll remember that the food SUCKED. This year it was a lot better we're glad to say. There was a really nice selection of entrees and vegetables at every dinner - some nights to the point that we actually regretted having made reservations at Pastafari. Pastafari and the new Japanese restaurant were both excellent as well. Service in the main dining room was adequate, and excellent at Pastafari and the new Japanese place. Robert's grill was its normal kick ass self - if there's a better place in the WORLD to get a double cheeseburger and fries I don't know where it could be.

Robert & Vicky - April, 2002