Gary & Mary - December, 2007

For those of you who do not like long trip reports, just skip over this one.

 

Our trip actually began with our return from Hedo last year.  Through out the year we often thought about our planned upcoming trip.  At one point after talking to our travel agent, she suggested we book no earlier than 6 months before our travel as often travel packages don’t come up before this time.  We were able to delay booking this trip until August. Once we had booked we became even more excited and suffered from frequent bouts of DIF.

 

On Christmas day before our trip, we received 8” of snow making for a perfect “White Christmas”.  Preparing to leave a couple days after Christmas for the airport in the predawn morning and the potential of weather delays didn’t put a damper on our excitement.  Getting to the airport was no problem; however, there had been a light snowfall at the airport.  The lines were manageable; we were soon off to the gate and boarded the plane.  It wasn’t until then we were informed that the plane would have to be de-iced and a ½ hour to 40 minute delay.  Now the worry began.  Would we make our connecting flight?  We only had an hour lay over at the connecting airport. 

 

We arrived at the connecting airport about the time our flight to MBJ was scheduled to leave.  We rushed to the boarding gate where most of the passengers had already boarded.  Whew, that was a close call.  Once on the plane, it was announced that they were still loading baggage and that the departure would be delayed for 20 to 40 minutes.  About an hour later we finally were pushed away from the gate.  After a few emotional ups and downs, we were really getting excited about getting on our way.

 

The 4.5 hour airplane ride didn’t seem long at all.  Soon we were landing in Montego Bay.  The upgrades and remodeling at the airport are really nice compared to what the airport was like when we first came to Jamaica 6 years before.  It is a long walk from the gate to the first stop at immigration.  There were only very short lines and we were soon thru immigration.  Then on to baggage claim.  There were a lot of people milling around and we didn’t notice any of the carousels running.  Surprise, the baggage had already been unloaded and waiting for us.  We soon found one of our two bags. 

 

We located a baggage agent who attempted to find our missing bag.  No luck.  Warren, as we later learned his name, guided us to the desk to assist us with filing a lost luggage claim.  Then Warren directed us to a domestic customs agent where there was no line.  Our delays at baggage claim hadn’t cost us any time as we caught up with others who were on our flight and headed for Hedo.  We hardly had time for a beer before our bus was ready!  There were a few Hedo travelers on the bus that wanted a Red Stripe stop.  Personally we could have done without the stop.  Soon we were on our way again.  We had a packed bus.  We made one stop and a little out of the way resort to drop off one couple.  The rest of us were Hedo bound.

 

Cheers were heard as we pulled into Hedo.  Check in went smoothly.  We always book ROH and there was some curiosity as to where our room would be.   Our first year we were in the H block, second year a room on the nude side overlooking the vendor area, and last year we were in the nearest room of the farthest building from the nude beach.  Luck wasn’t with us this year.  Room 1158 is only two doors down from being as far away from everything as you can be except Sandals.  It is really quiet though (Ha!).

 

Got to the room, opened the suitcase and discovered we hadn’t planned our packing well.  Only lady stuff in the one bag that made it.  Oh, well.   It is Hedo.  We undressed and one of us thru on a wrap, the other only a towel and headed for Delroy’s and the nude grill.  We were in heaven.  No shirt, no shorts, no shoes, no problem, mon.

 

The days all run together and at the end of the day we often comment between our selves questioning where the day went.  I love to swim and I swam the full length of the nude beach every morning.  Then we would go for breakfast.  On Saturday we went on the nude cruise.  We really enjoy going on this extra curricular event.  We enjoy snorkeling on the reef and swimming at the caves.  Just having a good time with a bunch of friendly people.   Following the cruise it was to the nude beach.

 

We took a cab to the Catholic Church on Sunday and New Years Day.  After Mass, we walked the beach back to Hedo.  We really enjoy seeing all the places along the beautiful Negril beach.  Firefly Beach Cottages is very near where we enter the beach after leaving the church.  Firefly advertises itself as being on a nude beach.  This year we counted a total of 7 nude people over the course of two days and they didn’t look like they were having any fun.  We commented that if they only knew how much fun Hedo is, they wouldn’t be here.

 

New Years Eve day was busy with a lot of people out and about.  The New Years Eve dinner was really nice with a packed house.  The staff really worked hard and did very well with the overflowing crowd.  We were impressed.  We actually didn’t stay long after the band started.  Maybe it is just that we are getting older (old), but we don’t enjoy the excessive volume.  We actually turned in before the New Year the same as we have done previous years. 

 

We went on a second catamaran cruise on Wednesday.  We had as much fun as the first.  The ocean was a little rougher not conducive for good snorkeling but for a great boat ride.  They do offer a discount if you are going on your second cruise.  Thirty dollars per person compared to the normal fifty dollars. 

 

Comments on Hedo:

 

The staff: We love them.  Since our room was almost adjacent to Sandals, sometimes it would take us quite a while to go from one side of the resort to the other.  Not that the walk was all that far, but if we stopped to talk to the staff, it was hard telling how long it might take.  Maybe it is because I am so long winded as this trip report is, but I really enjoyed visiting with the staff.  The EC’s, the water sports people, the cooks, the bartenders, the grounds people, the maids, security, and even members of the management were included in our conversations.  These people seem to always have a smile for us and more than one has recognized us from one year to the next.

 

The grounds: Very well kept up.  The resort is beautiful and very clean.  The beach was kept up very nicely.  I often wonder how the staff keeps such a positive attitude looking after guests who have so little regard for the beauty of the resort. 

 

The rooms:  First of all, we should say we don’t go to Hedo for the rooms.  They were very adequate.   The new safes are great.  You don’t have to be near as careful as to what you put in the safe as there is much more room than before.  Hot water, well most days we had, OK, well it was tepid.  Some days it was just a quick shower.  The air conditioner? Well, it was rattling when we entered the room.  We shut it off and never turned it on while we were there.  There was often a breeze which kept the room comfortable and the wildlife sounds were much more pleasant than the sound of a creaky old fan.   The maid service was excellent.

 

The food:  We never left hungry.  We are not picky eaters nor are we very adventurous.  Breakfast was always good.  The few times we ate lunch in the dining hall were good.  We ate our evening mean in the dining hall every night. We didn’t want to miss any of the evening entertainment.  Many of the choices are not what we are accustomed to eating back home in the States, however, we always found plenty to eat.  Most of the salads were very good and we were often satisfied by the time we finished with them.   The meat entrees including beef and pork were tough by our Midwestern standards, however they were tasty.

 

The people:  We had another great time at Hedo.  You can always make friends at Hedo. From our first time at Hedo, when we didn’t know what to expect, to our 4^th trip where we thought we knew what to expect.  Each trip has brought about different experiences.  This trip was much the same as those in the past, yet much different.  The group seemed to be more into relaxing than getting involved in activities than on previous trips.  Disappointing for me, but not a fault of Hedo or the EC’s, was that we never saw a volleyball game going on at either the nude or prude beach.   We never saw a nude waterslide run or most of the other posted events.  The EC’s were there trying to get people involved, but group people there were not interested.  The nude side was much busier with many more people than the prude side, however we thought there might have been more people on the prude beach than we thought in the past.

 

Beach towels and lounge chairs:  Both the beach towels and lounge chairs are plentiful and sometimes hard to come by.  I am not sure how Hedo should handle this or what they should do differently but at times it is frustrating.  On occasion we observed people reserving lounge chairs only never to see them use them thru the day.  Perhaps Hedo could establish a policy that if a lounge remains vacant for an hour, it becomes available, I’m not sure.  We just find it frustrating that people reserve lounges early in the morning and these lounges remain unused almost all day long.  Beach towels also continue to be a premium.  Again I don’t want to blame Hedo entirely for this problem because we observed guests abusing towel usage.  Once I was third in line to get towels from by the nude hot-tub.  There appeared to be a reasonable stack.  The first person ahead of me grabbed 7 towels.  The second person took the remainder of the stack which was similar in size to what the first person took.   We were left scrambling to run down a couple of towels elsewhere. 

 

PDA, PDP, PDS:  Yep, they were everywhere.  This year much more so than in our previous visits.  In the past they were more discrete and generally confined to the pool/hot tub area in the late afternoon and after dark.  This year we observed twosomes and moresomes becoming frisky out on the Hedo raft, on floating rafts, on the beach, in the pool, by the pool, in the hot tub, by the hot tub and even by the bar (if there were some on the bar, we missed them).  Various forms of PDA/P/S happened in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night.  Perhaps the EC’s were relieved as they didn’t have to work very hard to keep people occupied (Ha!).

 

Cameras on the nude beach:  The new policy as spelled out on the form we signed seemed to have little effect on camera usage on the nude beach.  It seemed there were as many if not more cameras as on previous visits.  A few times security was summoned only to have the picture taking offender discreetly hide the camera or leave the area before security caught them.  One time a fully clothed person was taking pictures and security was called.  Security talked to this person after which the person put the camera away and walked away from the nude beach. 

 

In conclusion, we are already talking about going back.  Our vacations at Hedo are always the highlight of our year and we look forward to the next year.  This year was no exception.  The weather couldn’t have been any better.  We had perfect sunshine for the first 5 full days we were at Hedo.  On our 6^th day the weather wasn’t as nice.  Big waves and cloudy all day.  Still a fun day, some of it spent searching for treasures washed up from the ocean floor and going to the market across the road from Hedo. 

 

The Good Lord willing, we will be back at Hedo next year.