Charlie - January to March, 2010

Summary:

If you haven’t read my first installment, see it under “February” Trip Reports. That one has some mid-stay observations and some tips for “survival”.

This trip was for a total of 11 weeks (78 days) – all at Hedo II. This was the best decision for a wintering location I could have made. The constant flow of new folks in / out of the resort made the time fly by. It always seemed that I just arrived “last week” – amazing. I had a basic beach-front room (no terrace / Jacuzzi) outfitted with a refrigerator on wired internet (for secure banking transactions). The joy of waking-up to the view of the Caribbean Sea every morning, while my friends in PA were waking-up to snow, made every day more precious.

I particularly liked the nice mix of Europeans visiting the resort during my stay – made for some interesting and educating conversations – while we were sober enough, anyway. The Hedo staff became a second family – to a point where it took me twice as long to make the trip to / from the dining room as anyone else, by the time I said hello to all the “family” along the way. When my stay was over, I had to sneak out to avoid spending a day saying “good bye”.

As my first installment report notes, I had my daily routines and occasional off-site jaunts to break-up the monotony, so – unbelievably – I never felt bored.  The generosity of the management at Breezes Grand (the old Grand Lido) also provided another mini “escape” if I needed it.

Barring any life catastrophes, I definitely plan on doing this “wintering” stay again next year. For me personally, it was a great way to avoid the ugly Northeast winter weather.

Pluses of Wintering at Hedo:

·         Beautiful, predictable and consistent weather

·         Friendly staff and guests

·         House Band, Piano Bar, Winston!

·         Martino’s is a good refuge when you get bored with eating off “the line”.

·         Easy to get away if you get bored – plenty of places within a $10-20 cab ride. Also several you can walk to. Try dinner and Jazz every Sunday nite at the Palms.

·         The gym, spin classes and Yoga – you need to do this or you’ll turn into a blimp!

Negatives:

·         For a long-term stay, the EC run games at lunch and dinner become loud and annoying. While newer and short-term guests appear to enjoy them, everyone else complains.

·         Food variety can get boring. It’s good, just not designed for someone staying three months.

·         The longer you stay, the more the “little things” get on your nerves. As I said in my earlier report, make sure you report things that bother you to management – otherwise, you become part of the problem.

·         While laundry service is easy to come by, dry cleaning is another story: requires a cab ride into town to drop the stuff off and another cab ride to pick it up. Of course, I never did that and stayed away from my silk shirts!

Things I’d Do Differently Next Year:

·         Fortunately, this is a short list! I did several months planning in advance, so I had plenty of “supplies” and I didn’t have to buy toiletries from the gift shop (although they were well-stocked).

·         I’d bring better iPod speakers – I travel with some very small ones, which are fine for short stays. But, since I don’t watch TV, I always have music on when I’m in the room (not all that much actually) – for the longer stay, I’d like to have some better quality sound.

·         Since I was never bored, I never did any sight-seeing excursions. I should force myself to do some of these next year.

·         Like I said a short list.

Economic Notes:

·         The big discount factor for a longer stay is the 14 day, 3 free program – which applied to several 14 day segments over my stay.  Assuming this lasts into the future, that’s an 18% discount up front. If you’re a loyalty club member, that’s another 5%.

·         In my experience, Denny did a very nice job of securing me very attractive rates for the weeks I was there.

·         I normally would have done two shorter, separate trips over the winter. Doing only one saved on airfare.

·         For my personal lifestyle, I didn’t spend over $5,000 not being home (daily living expenses, restaurant, bar, grocery, gas etc).  Of course, this number will vary on your lifestyle.

 

If you have specific questions, feel free to either post to Denny’s message board or send me a private message. Please don’t ask about the specific financial arrangements I made – that’s Denny’s job J