Charles - December, 2009

 

Trip Report:

 

As typical for my New Year’s trip to Hedo, the occupancy at my arrival was low (75%?) but built to capacity as New Years approached --  after the 3^rd of January, things dropped off pretty quickly to 65% or so for the first week in January.  Full capacity was forecast for the arrival of Tom’s Tours group starting the weekend of January 9^th.

 

Good News:

 

Great New Year’s Party!  The new chef (Randie Anderson) did a great job upgrading food quality.  I had some of the best beef, lobster tail and sushi I’ve had at Hedo in a long time. The New Year’s show was mostly in-house (Winston and “Roots”) but the quality of the show was excellent – great energy straight thru the night.  I’m always pleased with my New Year’s experience there.

 

Since my last visit in March 09, they’ve added considerable sand to the nude beach – now, they did have a couple days of strong “breezes” and some of that sand is gone already, but there are only patches of beach where the concrete is evident… hopefully the winds will behave and that sand will survive until I return in Feb.  Agustus is back after his mother’s funeral and seems back to his usual tricks.

 

Delete (former bartender, currently in tour desk) is back after her maternity leave (baby girl – her first) – and dealing with leaving her baby at home with a caretaker while she goes to work… the moms in the audience may want to stop by and offer support.

 

New EC assigned to the gym – he’s actually there by 7:30 to make sure the AC  and music is on, towels are out and the place is cleaned-up.  Sticks around and takes an interest in your work-out.  I think his name is “Ty” – nice guy – actually helpful!  Good addition.

 

Didn’t hear a peep from anyone complaining about lack of hot water (my experience was the opposite – almost too hot!). Oh for those old days….

 

 

“Other” News:

 

No soda / ice machine at the massage hut – removed since it was always breaking (or so I’m told). If you don’t want to bug Delroy et al for ice water or soda, you’ll have to go back to the nude hot tub’s self-service stand.

 

Scrambled eggs only available via Charlie at breakfast – I can only assume this is a cost cutting measure.  I also didn’t see any Johnny Walker Black Label at the bar during my 12 days there.

 

Elliptical Cross Trainer in the gym was not working the 12 days of my stay.

 

They’ve reassigned many of the maids between the nude / prude side – so your favorite maid / room combo may not come true this year.

 

Two of the three most popular “suites” on the nude beach didn’t have working  hot tubs for a whole week!  If you’re booking these, call ahead and make sure they’re fixed.  It’s not for lack of trying… they had 6+ maintenance guys on the case – what they needed was a fork-lift to move the tubs from the un-occupied suites to these popular one.

 

Airport check in gets ugly at boarding time… everyone gets carry-on baggage checked and patted-down.  Be prepared.

 

Also, for users of the Lending Library (at the Internet Café) – it’s looking pretty sparse!  Toss some of your old paperbacks into your luggage on your next trip down there – it could use an infusion.

 

BTW, Randie (the new chef) will be looking for someone to chat with at the bar now that I’m gone – so look for him around 8PM in the main dining room – “buy him a drink” and tell him I sent you!

 

Charlie