Kevin & Lori - September, 2010
September 25-October 2.
Trip Report – September 25-October 2.
Of all the beautiful women at Hedo this week, there was one that just wouldn’t leave us alone. She was relentless. Her name was Nicole. Tropical Storm Nicole. Affectionately called ‘Nicole, That Bitch’ by many. But let me start at the beginning.
We arrived on Saturday the 25th of September, our bus ride was the worst we’ve ever had (or at least the longest) and we vow to take TimAir next time at least TO the resort. Our time in the lounge was less than a minute, literally. But our time on the bus was more than 1:30 with two, count ‘em TWO stops, on the way. One at a bar for more than 10 minutes (probably the driver’s brother or something) and another random stop along the way, unexplained and unappreciated. We always tip the drivers, but this time we did not bother. He wasn’t friendly, or fast. He pointed out some information, but all we really wanted was to get our full bus to Hedo before the rain started for the afternoon.
We arrived a little after 4:30. Our friends were already there, with drinks and Nigel’s jerk chicken waiting for us. God love them. We headed to the nude beach to partake where it was already sprinkling, but we chalked it up to the standard passing afternoon shower of September/October. We were surprised to be hounded right away by the naked police. We have nothing against naked, as a matter of fact, we encourage it! But having just ‘landed,’ we were eating and wearing cover-ups and the nude beach security came over with their standard lecture. Hey, we can roll with it. Naked we will be.
The evening was OK, warm but not sweltering, and just a little rain, but overcast with the storm forming to the east of Jamaica. We ate Munasan Saturday night, freshly cooked of course, very good. But no fish in the sushi, just rolls of rice around carrots and cream cheese. But still tasty. The friend plantains and squash were both crispy and good. Usually there are two sauces, ginger and something (teriyaki maybe?) but we only were served ginger sauce. Our cook was less-than-enthusiastic, but sometimes that’s who you get. We’ve had some before that really got into the ‘show’ but this guy was just cooking. And that was fine.
Sunday was warm and overcast, with intermittent sun from about 9-noon. We cooled off in the ocean once, but the creeper hanging out on the jet ski at the far buoy rope was enough to make us come in. And the water wasn’t clean or clear. Apparently the storm was already affecting things. It started to rain, hard, around 1pm and we headed for lunch up at the dining room. The lunchtime spin was fun, lots of people participating, the food plentiful. It is clearly not fruit season, as the fruit was there, but in spirit only, with little flavor or sweetness. But hey, it’s September. That’s that we expected! Most of the afternoon was spent under wraps, or walking in light showers. I think we hit the hot tub again for awhile, but the weather wasn’t cooperating. Rumor had it there was a Tropical Depression (T.D. 16) forming and if it formed into a hurricane, would be out of the area in no time.
It did not form into a hurricane, however. Instead, it churned. Monday started out iffy, and stayed that way all day. We sat in the hot tub, like most people, and talked and drank, but again in the afternoon the rain started. And it rained. And rained. And rained some more.
Over the course of the next 5 days, we saw more rain than I’m not sure I’ve ever seen at one time in my life. Pounding day and night, wind whipping, thunder and lightning that shook the walls and rattled the windows. By Tuesday afternoon, she was officially upgraded to a Tropical Storm, and named Nicole. The rain was so intense at times that there was no walking in it, sitting in it, or suffering through it. You just had to get out of it. With little warning, the boats hadn’t been moved to the river as is the resort disaster plan. Instead they were anchored out in the water, far enough apart not to crash into each other, but close enough that the boat watchers could dingy out every few hours to make sure all was well.
Most people either stayed in their rooms or, like our group, tried to make the best of it and camped out in the dining room during the day. We purchased three decks of cards from the gift shop and played hours and hours of cards. The EC’s worked their butts off entertaining the crowd. The food became more and more sparse as the week went on, but nobody starved. As Tuesday started, the storm was really heavy, but the beaches didn’t really show any damage yet. Just a lot of wind and very high waves sending everyone to their rooms or the dining room for cover. By Wednesday, things had gotten very bad, and many of us were losing our sense of humor. We walked the beaches when the storm was lighter and were amazed at the damage from the past two days.
Limbs, whole trees, piles and piles of seaweed full of rotting sea life. Chairs upturned, of course, but not as many as you would have thought. The lifeguard stand at the pier was crumpled into a twisted mess. The snorkel/glass-bottom boat is now at the bottom of the sea (except the pieces that washed ashore). That was very sad. The dive boat and big cats survived unscathed. The ski boats were pulled out of the water on Tuesday and were on trailers up by the watersports shed. Fortunately, they were spared too. The nude beach dock that floats out in the swim beach had been beached on the sidewalk that goes from the watersports desk to the pier, a good 100 yards from its normal spot. A big tree in front of the nude beach massage tent was all the way down, but somehow missed the massage hut itself. Lots of limbs and palms snapped off throughout the resort. Rumor has it there were 12 boats that sank in the area. We are lucky that only one of the Hedo boats didn’t survive.
We wandered down the prude side where another large branch was down, narrowly missing the building. Minor roof damage, but the tree was pretty trashed. A police boat had been beached at the far end of the nude beach, just next to the security gate to Sandals. Standing water everywhere back behind the prude and nude buildings. We were on the ground floor in H-block and had water coming in under our walls for most of the week. Nothing a few beach towels couldn’t sop up, just a testament to the intensity of the storm.
A side note – Sandals’ beach was horrible. Apparently the direction of the wind, combined with the shape of their beach allowed tons and tons of seaweed to pile up. And it was deep, a few feet in places and piled up like Midwestern snowdrifts. They had some moderate roof damage and all their little thatched umbrellas that are anchored in the beach were toppled. They had large equipment on the beach midday Thursday trying to move all the seaweed, but it was going to take a long while to fix it all up.
Thursday brought less wind, and less rain, but still very stormy and ugly conditions for a tropical beach vacation. The Hubs and I decided to say ‘screw you, Nicole’ and we built ourselves a shelter out of a couple of beach chairs and some floats at the nude hot tub and spent a few hours Thursday afternoon just sitting in the hot water while it rained. Scumba was at the bar, but was mostly taking cover in the grill building. And yes, Scumba was still smiling, even through all the mess. J
Friday brought more of the same, but the seas were calming. One of our couples left that day and I’ve never been jealous of someone leaving Hedo, but I actually was that morning. I’d had my fill of playing cards, watching TV, and dashing from door to door trying to stay dry. When we left on Saturday, it was still raining, with rumors of another tropical low forming nearby. I’m not sure when it stopped raining in Negril, or if it even has.
Now, for the good news. We are frequent visitors to Hedo and have always been impressed with service there. And this was no exception. These people worked SO hard all week to make a lousy weather week work for everyone. Entertainment was tops. Campy, funny, silly, and sexy…the new dancers are super-hot, both guys and gals. Winston was a fixture all week. He and Rennex (aka Smooth) and Mega and so many others must have slept for just a few hours a day. The shows were really fun and made the dinner hour special, despite what was going on outside. Everyone, I mean EVERYONE pitched in. As a matter of fact, even the Gen Mgr’s wife was waiting tables by the end of the week! And she was as charming as she was beautiful! Gen Mgr Kevin Levee was there as well, surveying the damage and helping out where he could. The staff shifted to essentials like food and beverages. The store closed early, the restaurants were closed most of the week, simply because they didn’t have the people to pull it off. But rooms were still clean, hot water still (mostly) on, and the bars still open.
The food got pretty sparse by Friday. Friday lunch had 4 different rice dishes and two different potato dishes, with only one protein (what appeared to be leftover pork in a jerk sauce). It was all tasty, but you could tell they were stretching because of lack of supplies. No hamburger buns, but the grill was on, so you could have a burger on bread. Friday’s night’s gala buffet looked pretty normal, so I think they must have gotten some supplies Friday afternoon. Martino’s was open Friday night and we ate there. The food was marginal, as always. The A/C was barely pumping, and the wait staff was uninformed and inexperienced. Again, we understood that staffing was an issue so there were no complaints.
It was very impressive to see everyone working so hard to clean up the mess. Mega was on the beach Friday morning with a chainsaw, hacking the green off all the trees, even those without visible damage. Apparently something called ‘Sea Spray/Sea Frost’ will kill the trees if the foliage is left on them after a storm that intense. The boatloads of seaweed were being scooped up with some heavy equipment and hauled away or buried in the sand. This was no job for rakes and shovels, but Augustus was back at his post on the nude beach with lots of extra hands to clean up the mess anyway. Countless ECs and watersports guys and gals were picking up, scooping up, and working their butts off to restore the resort back to normal. By the time we left Saturday morning, it looked like just a heavy thunderstorm had passed. Not as much shade, but that will grow back. The pools were chemically balanced and all the debris cleaned out, the bars were opened, and the regulars were back at their posts. The tree from Point Village that fell on top of the Nude Beach men's room is going to take some time to clean up (bathroom still workable, just a tree on the building), and there seemed to be some minor roof damage. But we saw no broken glass, nothing irreparable. Except our poor sunken snorkel boat. :(
We had to laugh that during the heaviest of the storm, when we ventured out to witness mother nature’s fury, we still found people having sex on their beachfront patios, or in some other out-of-the way location. You just gotta admire Hedo people for that. Neither rain nor hail nor dark of night…blah blah blah.
The biggest bonus of the week was the activation of the famed SuperClubs ‘Sunshine Guarantee.’ We’ve heard about it, read about it, but never thought we would see it. We went daily to the front desk, starting on Tuesday, to put our name on a list, and had under our door at checkout a voucher for a full four days. No hassle, no begging, no fine print. Just a hefty amount of Hedo cash to apply to our next visit, which we already know will come next June.
Of our 6 trips to Hedo, this was the first time we have ever experienced anything close to a hurricane. I know it was called a Tropical Storm and nothing more, but to the locals, this was a full-force hurricane. They mentioned they had not seen anything like it since Ivan, back in 2004. We didn't see the sun, not REALLY, for the entire 7 days. But the resort staff was top-notch and the property survived. Bruised maybe, but not broken. It is still the place that we call our second home and we can’t wait to return.