Charlie & Ginger - April, 2011
C & G Trip Report 4/7 to 4/16/11
This may
be a little long, but nobody seems to mind long trip reports. I know we
don't. We made our first group trip ever this time and it was great! We
can only go in August and April and there had never been a group at H2
during our weeks. The H3 groups that are coming over are looking for
weeks in which there are no H2 groups in house so they're not competing
with a long established group and we were lucky that Kitten & Angel's
Spring Fling chose the week we usually go as their week. I can't say
enough about the great people in this group and the absolutely fantastic
group leaders. BIG, BIG ups to Fred, Patty (Angel), Paul and Joan
(Kitten). These folks are some of the most hard working and organized
people we have ever met, especially at Hedo! They went well above and
beyond from the group's first day which the spent all of in the lobby
greeting members as they arrived with very cool and creative gift bags
(including terrific insulated mugs, a very pleasant surprise), to the
last day when they got up at some ungodly hour in the morning to moon
every member as the bus pulled away. The group is very into costumes for
the theme nights which is something we had never really gotten into
except for PJ and Jamaican colors (because it was easy). The costumes
were out of this world (literally, on Futuristic night) and completely
over the top. The group certainly got noticed every night in the dining
room. The night of the group dinner on the prude pool patio was
terrific, especially when power to the whole resort went out momentarily
a few times and our battery operated fiber optic centerpieces were the
only light on the property! Mo Lester, you are a legend in your own
time! Fred, how you walk in those boots remains a complete mystery to
me. Paul, I still can't believe you managed to stay in your emotionless
Spock character the whole Futuristic night. I had a blast being Slash
for a night and being on stage with Winston and the crew for their
performance of Guns N Roses' Sweet Child of Mine on Friday night was a
"forever Hedo memory" for me and I wouldn't have even been in that
costume if it wasn't for K&A. Tom and Di, you are super fun (no
reference to the "new H3" LOL) and fantastic people. Dick, you are the
coolest single ever to have graced the grounds of Hedo. Thanks to
everyone in K&A for helping to make this our best trip ever.
I've never been one to do the day by day trip reports because, frankly,
I can't remember each day so here are some observations. There were some
hot water issues while we were there. We had none for our first 24 hours
(4/7 to 4/8) and there was none on our last morning (4/16). My
understanding is that that it was out for at least a couple of days
before we got there. It appeared to affect only the prude side, but it
did affect the entire prude side apparently. However, after day one and
before day nine, pressure and hot water was plentiful at all time of the
day and our A/C worked well.
The evening entertainment has improved GREATLY since our last trip in
August, 2010. The new H3 EC's are doing a great job and having a very
positive influence. G fell in love with Fifty (not hard to do since he
has a body that anyone, male or female has to appreciate. He is like a
work of art carved out of marble). The newest member of the EC staff,
Michael, had only been there for a couple of weeks, but his rapport with
the guests was amazing. He spent long periods of time just hanging out
with us at the pool. Sadly, Stephanie is gone, but our favorite EC,
Sticky Niki, is still there and in rare form. Niki, you have the
greatest smile (and your butt is beautiful too! LOL) It was also nice to
be checked in by Sunshine who is at the front desk now. The new
entertainment manager (I was introduced to him, but I forgot his name)
is doing an outstanding job. The entertainment is new, fresh and very
high energy, especially Rock Star night (Fridays). We also enjoyed the
quiet dinner music before the shows which allowed everyone to enjoy
dinner have conversations about the day before the show started. Roots
Explosion is a group of very talented musicians.
On Wednesday we went on the nude catamaran cruise for the first time
(again, thanks K&A for finally getting our butts on the boat). It was
lots of fun and the caves are awesome. It was the first time we had ever
left the property and we're glad we did. It was fairly tame PDA-wise,
but there was some girl action up in the front. Everyone seemed to have
a great time and we would highly recommend it. It's worth the fight with
sand gravity.
The beach party (Monday night) was fun. We also actually got up early
enough to eat breakfast about six times during our 9 day stay. What the
hell is up with that??? That's more breakfasts than we have eaten at
Hedo in four previous trips combined!
The EC's involvement on the nude side as well as personal interaction
with the guests is much greater than it has been on our last couple of
trips and that's a big positive for us. There are many more EC's now
than there were before the closing of H3 and they can effectively cover
both the prude and nude sides simultaneously. Most afternoons there was
a happy hour at the nude pool that was a lot of fun. The music could use
a little work though. I'm a huge Bob Marley fan (I even have a big
tattoo on my leg from my knee to my ankle of Marley with his dreads
flying), but the same half dozen Marley songs over and over get old
after a while. Interestingly, they played name that rock song trivia on
Friday at the pool (since it was Rock Star night) and the songs they
played snippets of were GREAT! If only they would play all those songs
in their entirety it would be perfect. However, the music isn't all that
important because it's basically just background for the great social
scene in the pool.
The bridge between the prude pool and the beach was essentially
completely dismantled while we were there, and all three foot washes
around the nude pool have been filled in with concrete. Much safer that
way. The slide is closed during the demolition and it appears that it
will be quite a while before it reopens. The supports for the bridge are
apparently the same supports that hold up the slide.
The gas line to the nude grill apparently had a leak and for the last
five days or so of our trip, they were grilling hamburgers and jerk
chicken on a large charcoal barbecue grill alongside Nigel's grill
shack. This actually improved the taste of the burgers and chicken, but
no grilled cheese or some other usual nude grill offerings were
available. The french fries were being brought over from the prude side
in a large stainless steel serving tray and were self service since the
deep fryer runs on gas as well. The fries were cold and soggy. We saw no
effort being made to repair the gas line as of Friday afternoon. I
wonder if they have it fixed yet. We did discover nachos and cheese from
the nude grill on this trip and I have a feeling they contributed to my
7 pound weight gain in 9 days! I miss the jerk chicken badly!
Food at the buffet varied but was generally quite good. The lamb chops,
shrimp linguine and pork at Pastafaris (Martino's, but I can't get used
to calling it that) were excellent and the temperature in the restaurant
was comfortable. Munasan's was also excellent (as always in our opinion)
and temp was comfortable early in our trip. The last two nights it was
quite warm (i.e. HOT) in the dining room and the useless, droopy fans
are still in place and moving no air at all. We hope they get them
replaced before the really hot weather comes (and before our August
trip).
The average age of guests appeared to be younger than our previous
visits (before H3 closed) and the energy level was high. Kitten &
Angel's organized a couple of lively nude volleyball games in the
afternoons in the prude pool. This was our first time being naked in the
prude pool. In fact, it was my first time even being in the prude pool
at all! Participation in the theme nights seemed to be up, partly
because of Kitten and Angel's, but many guests not associated with the
group were involved as well.
The "prude side" appears to be officially (or unofficially) clothing
optional. We saw nude people all the time on the prude beach and walking
nude from the prude side to the nude side was not an issue at all as it
was when we were there last August. Security never said a thing to
anyone who was nude on the formally prude side as far as we saw. Prudes
and nudes seem to coexist with no problems at all and we thought it was
a great improvement to the resort.
Water temperature in the nude jacuzzi ranged from too hot to wonderfully
comfortable on Friday night. Generally though, we were able to spend
more time actually in the jacuzzi (as opposed to sitting along the edge)
than we have on any of our last three trips. Again, a great improvement!
Water temperature in the nude pool was a little chilly, especially when
the sun went behind a passing cloud and late in the afternoon. This is
one thing we like about our August trip - the pool temperature is warmer
in August. We had about five minutes of rain for the first 8 days of our
trip and about an hour long shower on our last day. Great weather for
our 9 days!
They are in the process of replacing all of the jacuzzis in both the
nude and prude jacuzzi rooms and two were already installed by the time
we left in two of the three nude jacuzzi rooms closest to Delroy's.
Top shelf Vodka (Absolute and Stoli) were plentiful all week at all bars
as was Crown Royal (which we don't drink but apparently there are many
guests whose trips depend on it)
J.
There was a surprising shortage of Ting for a couple of days, though. If
you can't get Ting in Jamaica, where can you get it? My favorite drink
at Hedo is vodka/Ting.
We had a few "challenges" on this trip. G was getting over a cold and
had to deal with a cough for most of the trip and I didn't bring enough
of an important prescription medication (just dumb on my part). That ate
up a lot of time one day and we never were able to get it resolved. I
just had to make do with what I had and it wasn't pleasant. Lesson
learned - check and double check prescription meds when you pack because
there's a decent chance you won't be able to get it in Jamaica unless is
a very popular and current brand name.
PDA's both in the pool and the hot tub were plentiful and we tried to do
our part.
J
We seemed to be "Canadian magnets" on this trip. Other than the
K&A members, it seemed like almost everyone else we met were Canadians
and we had a blast with them. CarribbeanBuffs (aka "Raw Explosion and
Velvet"), thank you for a terrific time and a very memorable night at
the hot tub
Jand
for putting a new word into our vocabulary - "peeler". ("Killer and
Silky" we love you guys! How is it that G and K didn't really "get close
to each other" until about two hours before you had to leave? We need to
fix that next year.
J
J & J, you're terrific and you made our trip and especially our
last day very special. J, you were G's first, but I'm very happy to
report that once she did, she did "go back" (to me).
J
Seriously, you guys should all plan a trip to CA late in the fall when
it starts to get colder than a witch's tit in Canada. We can sip Hedo
drinks and run cream and play reggae in our hot tub. Hedo West! A
highlight of the trip was our chance and surprise meeting with R & H
whom we had spent a whole week with last April It was SO great seeing
you guys again. You're two of our favorite people on the planet. H, you
are the funniest, highest energy person I know. "I'm hot! I'm
available!" ROFL Kelly did it for days after you left and it cracked us
up every time! They should hire you as an EC and put you in a pair of
those little booty shorts! LOL
Overall, it really was perhaps our best trip ever. It truly is about the
people and there was no shortage of great people on this trip. We're
counting the days now till August (106). If you read this all the way to
the end, you have way too much time on your hands, but thank you anyway.
