We were at Hedo II from January 15th through 22nd. It was our first time.
GETTING THERE:
It began 6 months ago when we were at the local farmers market (St. Louis) and as the saleswoman handed us our melons, I glanced at hers and noted that her T-shirt said Hedonism II. A 6 year flashback to reading about this and thinking THAT is where I definitely want to go, too bad I got the wrong wife. So I ask the woman about it and she says No, I havent been there but my daughter went and she loved it. How many of you brought H2 shirts for your moms? Suffice to say, I have the right wife now and so, off we went.
We did a considerable amount of preparation, very out of character for the vacation we disclosed to the family at XMAS, when we told them we are going to Jamaica to lie on the beach and do nothing. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, know what I mean? Say no more.
We read Chris Santilli's book which gave us plenty of good insight and we recommend this to any newcomers. We joined 3 BBs including this one which gave us the chance to learn tons and MOST importantly to have a veteran couple to take us under their wings and get us going in the way of meeting people. We are eternally grateful to S&R for this.
We also read up on the Lifestyle at sexuality.org since, as it turns out, we went during Lifestyle Month at Hedo. Silly us, we chose our dates by our availability - not by the resorts schedule. Honey, it turns out Lifestyle does not have the same meaning as the section of the same name in our Sunday paper! I think we need to talk.
BEING THERE:
We concluded that we are not lifestylers and had some trepidation about going at lifestyle time but it turned out to be perfect for us. Everyone was friendly, sexy and there to have a good time. They pretty much all had just three things on their mind - sex, sex, and booze - and two out of three for us aint bad. We really like the PDA thing - watching and being watched, being outside in nature, on a beach, on a raft, on a beach lounge, by the hot tub, in a hammock, etc.
We had no problems getting our room. It was clean, located on the nude beach side which is what we had reserved, and exactly what we expected -nothing fancy, clean, of reasonable size with a shower that leaked. Our shower had multiple heads which would have been wonderful if we had ever had any hot water. One day, we didn't even have any water at all and this turned out to be a resort wide problem. Management seemed to get it taken care of reasonably quickly so it really was "no problem, Mon." The temperature of the water was way more of a problem for us than the supply (even though we tried not to shower at peak times).
Every night we had the pleasure of seeing nearly all of the Hedo women (all sizes, all ages, all shapes) and a few men dress up in fun, sexy, sometimes silly, mostly incredible costumes at dinner. Yes, there were themes but mostly, it seemed to us that everyone got into the "eye candy" thing, dressing to see and be seen. We believe that sexiness is a mental state, not a body type and abhor the concept that only young nubile females are worth viewing. We were thrilled to see so many people feeling so good about their perfectly imperfect sexy bodies. Thanks to the help of our mentors and Chris's book before going, we had packed plenty of perfect outfits and really enjoyed joining in on this kind of fun. Our advice for others - just empty your lingerie drawer(s) into your suitcase, add some high heels and you are ready!
The food was lousy, but who cared? We didn't go to Hedo for the food and we didn't expect anything to rave about. Mostly for lunch, we ate at the nude beach grill - convenient with serviceable French fries. BTW, Jamaican ketchup leaves much to be desired. We really enjoyed the jerk chicken and wished they would serve this for lunch and dinner because we could have survived on it! The Friday night "grand" buffet was better than the other nights - clearly the resort put a great deal of effort into this event. It was very festive and the food was presented with a lot more flair than on the other nights. Dinner at Pastafari and Munasen was fine, not exceptional - just a bit fresher since parts of these meals seemed to be made to order.
There was plenty of ganja being consumed and, unfortunately, for us, plenty of cigarette and cigar smoking going on. If we could change one thing at Hedo we would set up some designated smoking areas and make Hedo a bit more friendly to non-smokers. We would especially ask the cigar smokers never to smoke around others without their permission, and definitely not in the dining rooms.
The prude pool seemed to always be empty, and only the brave were in the nude pool principally due to lack of weather cooperation. We saw the guards on the nude beach regularly evicting obvious gawkers (dressed) who clearly did not belong there. But otherwise, we saw only one PDA being stopped - but it was not on the grounds she was doing whoever wants come and get it oral sex. In fact it was not on the ground at all. A woman in Shibari bondage (excellent rope work) was suspended from a tree at the beach. The guards politely asked that she be taken down and we think their concern regarding safety and liability is understandable and appropriate. Such activity is typically conducted in a designated SM playspace, where safety concerns are monitored and all attendees consent in advance to the presence of edge pushing sexual activities. IMHO, this kind of "in your face" SM activity does not belong outside, in public, in a non-SM play space and we were not at all surprised that management stopped this.
People seemed to often bring cameras to the nude beach but, for the most part, they seemed to be careful not to take pictures of others without their permission. I did notice a man taking our picture when we were involved in a PDA on a raft but we decided to let it go and hope either that the person has the decency to keep the photos for his own use or that he really couldn't get our faces. In retrospect, I would have preferred it if this would have been stopped, but we accept responsibility for our part: for doing it at the point during sunset.
LOOKING (AND GOING) BACK
Most important, we met some wonderful, interesting, intelligent and fun folks who were there to have a good time. We loved being in a sexually energized environment where people from all walks of life, of all shapes, sizes and ages, were living and enjoying life. See you next year (or sooner).