Bill - December, 2009

Just returned on sat 12/26 from our 24th trip to Hedo 2. Just want to touch on a few of the things that took place. We flew 1st class on Air J out of Philly. Had a 7:25 am flight that ended up being delayed one hour. There were so many Philly Jamaicans returning to visit family and taking things back that they had a hard time fitting all the luggage on board. There were eight of us in 1st class and while talking we found out that three of us had retired from Verizon and that five out of us eight had been to Hedo 2. Before we knew it we had a mini hedo party going on in the 1st class section. The stewardesses enjoy all the stories we were telling but put their foot down when one of the people suggested we all take our clothes off. It was a great way to start the trip.

I think I set a new record of getting from the plane to the hotel. The wheels touched the runway at 11:55 am and we were sitting in the dinning room eating lunch at 1:15 pm. Wife and I were the first ones thru immagration, the luggage was the first bags off and we flew thru customs. Tim air had a shuttle waiting for us and a plane and pilot was waiting for us while we did the ticket paper work.

The weather was really nice.A little hotter than the last trip we took in Dec. We had been going in Feb but it started getting too crowded. Over Christmas you can have a seat at the pool, on the beach in the shade and another in the sun. There were cut backs in the staff but everything was still great. Food was average for the trip. The one big disappointment was Christmas dinner. It wasn't anything special. Infact a lot of the guests mentioned that they thought the hotel would have had something really special for dinner that night. We did go to Breezes one night for dinner. We go every trip and the food over there when it was the Grand Lido was always great. This trip it was disappointing. Wife asked for her steak to be rare and they said they cant do rare but med rare. When it came out it was over cooked. So it looks like that place has gone downhill.

All the EC's were great in the way they mingled with the guests. They spent a lot of time down on the nude beach. The lunch time spins were lacking in people but the keep away games in the nude pool had every one taking part. There were at least five EC's in the pool playing along with the guests. We did manage to win five bottles of rum but we gave two away. She also gave some Hedo bucks to another guest so they could get a bottle also. We hadn't been in two years so I don't know when they changed the Hedo bucks. Instead of going by the dollar value they counted each one as one dollar and 15 got you a bottle of rum. In the past they had more gifts to choose from but this trip just rum. They did give out a lot more bottles as prizes this trip. Even for the games as ring toss first prize was a bottle of rum.

Water slide wasnt that great. They did do a couple of 3 pm runs but it wasnt turned on at midnight. The disco was lacking people but the piano bar was rocking the nights that Dion was playing. What was nice about him was that he could play a song in the key that a guest was use to singing it in. Some how he managed to get me to drop my pants for two songs. One being YMCA with a female on each side of me.

Only one out of the 12 days we were there was a washout. It rained from dawn to dusk. The following day there was a sign up sheet for a voucher for a sunless day. It asked for an E mail address so most of us figured that they would send it to us some day. It was a big surprise when they handed the voucher to me the day I checked out. There was a pile of other ones waiting for guests to pick up.

The trip was relaxing and a lot of fun. Met a lot of new friends who we hope to see again next Dec. Everything was going great til it was time to head over to the Negril airfield for the flight back to Mobay. When I checked out they gave me a slip of paper giving me a ride over to the airfield. When we unloaded over there I handed the driver a three dollar tip. He told me it wasn't enough. I said what do you mean. He said the drive costs five dollars. We got into a heated argument with me telling him he was trying to rip me off since the hotel pays him to drive us over. I told him to get his money from the hotel. He had already pocketed the three dollars or I would have taken it back. It was a shame that the last thing I will remember about the trip is some one trying to rip me off.