Paul - September, 2010
We arrived in Montego Bay about 20 minutes early and were greeted
by a downpour just after getting on the van.
Sandy Bay had a small water issue- about 8-10 inches of water on
the road and several stalled busses and vans blocking parts of the road.
The driver did a great job in getting us through.
Upon our arrival arrived at Hedo we bypassed the front desk, which
was trying to check in two vans at the same time, and wandered into the
dining room to try to get some food left over from lunch. We managed to
get a few cookies as it was a few minutes after 3 and most was removed.
Lorna Clarke came over and greeted us. My respect for Lorna has
increased a great deal over the years- she truly makes an effort to meet
and greet long term guests. Michael is doing well, but has one more
procedure to go.
I would guess the resort was about 25% full, given the number of
table settings in the dining room. The crowd, though small, had a lot of
energy.
We began in room 1205, but the knob that controls the hot water
had, somehow, been bent. We were moved to OVN for a fee, but the water
situation was even worse.
The best we could get out of the shower was lukewarm water. It got
better at mid-week, but there still seemed to be some kind of a problem.
(Shades of the ‘90’s!)
We dined at the Japanese restaurant the first evening. For the most
part it was OK. The salad was smaller than I remembered, but the rest of
the meal was similar. The beef was very tough, the chicken was chewy,
but the shrimp were good. A second visit to Munasan a few days later was
better.
We ate at Martino’s on the third night and the food was
satisfactory, but the air conditioning was very weak and it was
difficult to stay there with no airflow. We left before dessert and went
into the main dining room for dessert and coffee.
We ate in the main dining room on the other four nights. There was
no shortage of food in the four nights we ate there, but the choices
were limited. One evening featured BBQ chicken, jerk pork, escoveitch
fish and curried goat- all of which I consider to be "B list". Hey, can
we get some type of meat that is on the “A list” every evening?! (Roast
beef, suckling pig, leg of lamb, roast turkey, etc.)
Breakfast and lunch choices were less abbreviated. Breakfast had
the most choices, from hot foods to cereals and everything in between.
Charlie Murray was his usual self. Lunch had fewer selections than
usual, but there were enough choices to put together a decent plate.
One major gripe I had was the shortages of liquor. At several
points in our stay, the
prude, nude, and piano bars were all out of CC, VO and Crown Royal, as
well as other brands. One very long term bartender was very critical of
the resort for allowing that to happen. (There was a shortage of
bananas, as well, with Dirty bananas being made out of banana liqueur.
The beach on the nude side had a lot of stuff floating in it -the
green slimy variety. After all the years at Hedo I got stung by a
jellyfish. Karl from the dive shack told me to get 151 proof rum for it
and it did take the sting away. (topically as well as internally)
If I had to rate this trip it would be a B-. Much of that is due to
the low occupancy and the difficulty in preparing relatively small
volumes of meat items. The liquor and hot water problems were the
greatest disappointments. Finally, the Wi-Fi was out of service for part
of the week.
All and all? Hedo is
not a first class resort, but we don’t go there for that. We go there to
relax, to have some fun, to enjoy friends old and new, and to leave our
troubles behind. We left the resort on 9/11. We still grieve our losses
from that day in 2001, but a respite from the horrors of the world we
live in is alive and well at Hedo. If you are going there for anything
else, or not going there because the food is only average you’ve missed
the whole point.