Charlie & GG - July, 2010
July 29 to August 10, 2010
I apologize in advance for the length of this report, but our trip was 12 days and I wanted to write this in a way that would help newbies better enjoy their first trip.
We just got back from our fourth trip to Hedo 2 (7/29-8/10) and as always it was great! We took a redeye flight from Ontario, CA to Atlanta and after a two hour layover boarded a plane to Mobay that got us in at about 10:30am. We did have a Red Stipe stop along the way. Unlike our trip in April when we arrived on a Saturday, immigration and customs were a breeze this time. If you can avoid traveling on a weekend it will save you a lot of time getting out of Sangster airport in Mobay. The bus ride to Hedo was uneventful, but SLOW. Our driver seemed to refuse to pass anyone, regardless of how slowly they were going, but we did get there in one piece. Most of the people on the bus were going across the street to Breezes and we spent the bus ride trying to talk them into coming over to Hedo on a day pass (unsuccessfully). We arrived at about 1:00, well before the check in time. Our room wasn’t ready, but, no problem, we had some lunch in the buffet and by the time we were done we were able to get our keys.
We stayed in a Prude Jacuzzi room as we had in April. We like these rooms a lot because they’re close to all the public areas (dining room, Piano Bar, Disco, gift shop, specialty restaurants, etc.) and only a short walk to the nude side. Because of the controversy on the boards recently about how far it is from the prude to the nude sides, we timed our walks one day. It was exactly 4 minutes from our room to Delroy’s using the paths and 5 minutes using the beach. Granted, the prude Jacuzzi rooms are not the farthest prude rooms, but the walk was pleasant. The room was clean as always and everything worked just fine! There were a few minor and brief power outages, but even a one second outage will screw up the clock/radio – bring a battery operated travel alarm. We also had to use the extension cord we always bring because there weren’t enough accessible outlets for all the “gear” (rechargers for phone, ipod, camera, etc., curling iron). Another claim made by some on the boards is that prude side rooms close to the disco are noisy. We found this not to be true both in April and on this trip. Our room was so close that we could have thrown a rock from our room and hit the disco, but we found that with the front door, the patio door and the bathroom door closed we couldn’t hear a thing and slept soundly.
Security leaving Mobay was extraordinary. Just prior to boarding the plane every single person getting on was patted down. Every pair of shoes was manually inspected, and every bag was manually searched. This was in addition to the usually screening at the “official” security check point. They WILL find your cigarette lighters (no they’re not allowed on flights out of Jamaica as they are on domestic U.S. flights) and they WILL find any liquids that exceed the amounts that are allowed. They most definitely will find any illegal substances you may be bringing out so don’t even try.
Rather than go day by day which is impossible for a 12 day trip, I will categorize our experiences.
Occupancy: Generally low for the whole 12 days, but there were enough fun people to make a great party. Lower occupancy also means shorter lines for drinks, ease of getting into the specialty restaurants (we actually got seated at Pastafari’s/Martino’s as walk-in with no reservation on two nights.), better seating options at the piano bar and dining room, etc.
Jamaican Holiday Week: We were very concerned about going during the holiday week because we were there last August the week after the holidays and we heard from people who were there the week before that the “sex police” were out in full force (even carrying whistles to blow at people who were too close to each other!). The assumption was that this crack down was because of the holidays. In fact, it appears the crackdown had nothing to do with the holidays and everything to do with the lawsuit which was in full swing during holiday week last year. The “sex police” were nowhere to be found during our entire trip and there were plenty of PDA’s everywhere. There were many more Jamaicans on site than we had ever seen before because of the holidays and they tended to stay on the prude side with a couple of exceptions. They were all very nice, and friendly (well, except for a couple of young single men on the prude side). The increased presence of locals actually added to our enjoyment of the trip. The prude side was very busy all week, both with locals and a much larger than average tourist prude population. As a result of all the activity on the prude side, there was music there practically every day and on the weekends, Mega MC’d. It added a very lively and fun vibe to the normally quiet and frankly, boring, prude side. The one night when it was noisy was the Saturday night before Emancipation Day. The noise wasn’t from the disco, however. It was from Negril, all the way across the bay. There were many BIG parties in Negril that weekend and the booming from the speakers (over a mile away!) sounded like thunder. There were a couple of celebrities staying at the resort that week also because they were playing at the parties in Negril. Elephant Man was there for about four days and one of Bob Marley’s sons stayed there as well (but we never did find out which of the sons he was).
Food: This was our only disappointment of the trip. There was much less selection than usual and there was a greater emphasis on Jamaican dishes, probably because of all the locals on site. Nothing wrong with this, but we found that we didn’t like many of those dishes leaving less to choose from on the rest of the buffet. Foods ran out by about 8:00 to 8:15 pm most nights. This added pressure to get ready and get down there at a specific time, something we have never experienced before. The carving station ran out of meat, and the pasta bar regularly ran out of certain ingredients and one night even ran out of pasta! There was a period of about four days when there was not a tomato to be found anywhere at the resort – the grills, the salad bar, the pasta bar, etc. Fish was rare at the nude grill and the jerk chicken was usually gone by about 3:30pm. On only one day that we were aware of was it replenished after it ran out.
Weather: There was the obligatory short rain/thunderstorm virtually every afternoon at around 3:00. They seldom lasted more than an hour or so. Other than that, the weather was fine and there seemed to be a lot less humidity than we experienced last August. Last year things wouldn’t dry at all, but this year everything dried overnight. The dining room was HOT and Munasan’s was unbearably hot. G almost passed out one night. (That’s right, H3 fans, Munasan’s at H2 is not enclosed or air conditioned). We brought a small rechargeable fan with us and it was a lifesaver. I highly recommend it. Ours was an O2 Cool brand, about 8” to 9” square and it has an included chip that can be recharged (more than enough time to eat dinner). It also takes 4 D batteries, but we didn’t use that feature. I am going to buy a second one for our next trip because the fan was pretty directional so we had to keep turing it so we could share the breeze).
Staff: The staff was great as always. Delroy was back from his suspension on our second day and was there for the remainder of the trip. His smile just lights up the whole nude pool. Nigel was doing his thing in the excellent way he always does it at the nude grill. Agustus was patrolling the beach and nude pool area everyday and was up to his usual antics – always fun, even when he drops an ice cube down your back when you’re sitting in the pool. All the bartenders and wait staff were excellent, friendly and smiling. The EC’s did a super job as well, except that they spent the majority of the time we were there on the prude side because of the high occupancy over there and because they’re understaffed awaiting the transfer of some of the H3 EC’s after the 17th. Three or four of them are coming over to H2 after H3 closes. We miss Stephanie, Sticky Nikki and Chrystalina. Winston was terrific as always and we thoroughly enjoyed his performances on both the main stage and the Piano Bar. Dion did a great job as well. Ferrario, who was brand new when we were there in April had a much bigger presence this time and was great! He’s a super addition to the EC staff and a damn fine country music singer (believe it or not).
Physical plant: The disco is still stiflingly hot, but it didn’t have the musty smell we experienced in April. As mentioned earlier, the dining room was extremely hot. No big changes to anything that we saw, and the grounds and beaches were very well kept. The hot tub temperature was great for the first four days and then it heated up to the boiling point that we’re all accustomed to. There were always people (on some days all the people) sitting on the sides because the water was too hot to get into. It tended to vary widely from day to day, but I took this as an indication that management was at least trying to control it and we were grateful for that. We were happy for the few days that we were able to get into it because in April we didn’t go in at all during our 8 days. On day 2, someone reported seeing a shark swimming within the area of the white buoys and another person reported seeing a sea snake. We didn’t go out into the ocean after day one.
PDA’s: Many and everywhere including the pool on a daily basis. No sex police at all.
People: This is why we all go to Hedo. As always the people we met were terrific and very friendly/sociable. I usually mention people by initials in my trip reports, but since this was a 12 day trip, I know I will omit many people who added a lot to our trip so I won’t even try to identify anyone. This was our longest trip yet and the changeover of people was interesting. By day 6 of our trip, there was NO ONE left who was there when we arrived. In all, we saw three complete changeovers of people during our stay, but great people were always replaced by other great people. The party continues with the only change being the attendees of the party. We also saw two weddings and two vow renewals.
Recommendations: Bring two rechargeable fans. Bring an extension cord. Bring Tinactin (athlete’s foot cream/spray) – I got a case of athlete’s foot early on in the trip and the Tinactin we brought cleared it up quickly. Use water shoes in the ocean. Yes, they look goofy, but we saw two people having sea urchin spines tweezed out of their feet and they didn’t look happy. Dress up and have a great time with it. The more outlandish the outfits, the bigger hit they were. Participate as much as possible! It makes the trip much more fun. Bring your large insulated cups – it always amazes me how many people don’t have them who aren’t even first timers. Get your food at the nude grill early before they run out. Smile, be polite and try to improve the day of the staff. They work very hard and are extremely appreciative of simple human kindness.