Hedo is deserted. Last Wed we were the only ones on the bus from MoBay. Wed. evening at sundown there were only 7 in nude pool and hot tub. The most we saw was 15 at sundown. Official reply was 18% occupancy. We dont think it was that much. On Sat night we counted 35 people in dining room at 8:00PM. We would go out to beach about 9:30 or 10:00AM and there were maybe 5 lounges with towels on them. At sundown the cabinet by the hot tub still had dozens of towels.
We were told that 3 hotels down the beach were closed. Each day we took our beach walk and noted that the Beaches Hotel was closed. Sandals was open but had very few guests (certainly no more than Hedo).
There was some speculation that elimination of the free days after 10 nights was the cause of the low occupancy, but the consensus was the increased hurricane activity.
One night we went to Pastafaris at 7:30Pm with no reservations and were immediately seated. The main dining room was open, however as someone previously noted, Charlie cooked scrambled eggs on request as opposed to having a tray full as in the past.
The spa staff has been cut back to 2 days per week rather than the usual 5. They were on the beach recruiting, but with so few guests, had little luck. My wife and I each got a massage and those were the only ones we saw all week.
We went to the piano bar at 10:30 one night and the only person there was the bar tender. The ECs just sat and talked to each otherthere were no guests to entertain.
One knows it is slow when the art auction is the most exciting thing all evening.
On the positive side the resort looked great.little or no evidence of last years hurricane. The rooms were improved, there was hot water and the food was great.
We watched the Internet each day for hurricanes, which was way too much stress for a vacation. When we saw Rita forming we came home 2 days early. Our Cingular phone using GSM had no signal at the resort. It was further stress trying to get our flight changed without a cell phone. We lost connections several times and once we were connected to a grade school. It took over 2 hours to finally get through and change our flights.
We will never ever go back during hurricane season.