Kris & Quintin - October, 2011
Trip Report Hedonism II October 2011
For those who know Quintin and I, we normally travel
to Hedo in December with the DennyP WWW group and hang with the
Beachloafters on our little bit of sand down on the beach. This
trip was at a different time of the year and just us as a couple.
I wanted to share some of our observations and thoughts on one of our
favorite vacation spots.
We flew down on Sunday afternoon, Fort Lauderdale to
MoBay on Carribean Airlines/Air Jamaica/Suncountry Air.....check in was
a breeze! Quickest,nicest and easiest ever....short pleasant
flight and landing in MoBay to a fully staffed Immigrations and Customs.
We checked in with customs, grabbed our bags and off we went with with
Clive's transport to stay a first night at Firefly. We
dropped our bags at Firefly, checked out the room and the hotel....quite
cute, rustic and simple but clean and pleasant. We then walked
down the beach to Margaritaville Negril Beach for our annual visit.
Watched the sunset, drank many 'Rita's, ate nachos and caught up with
our friend Neil of Ray's watersports.
Monday morning, we woke fairly early after 11 hours in
bed and checked out of Firefly and taxied down to Hedo!!!! Yeah!!!
We were checked in, unpacked in H block and on the beach by 9:30 am!
First impression of Hedo after being gone for almost a year, was that it
was so quiet! We heard that occupancy was just under 25%. We
have never been there when it has been so mellow.
The rooms were clean and well supplied with towels,
bar soap finally appeared after 3 days. The maids were great.
The grounds looked amazing as usual. The bartenders were always ready
with a drink, service was quick and friendly. The food was good,
selection seemed a bit limited but as occupancy increased thru the week
so did the selection. The new Chef was really hands on, very visible in
the dining room at lunch, dinner and the repeater's party. Friday
night grand Buffett was pretty damn good....the grills for Jerk Chicken,
Pork and Lobster were all out on the pool deck. That made for really
nice flow.
We go to Hedo for the friends, beach and the
relaxation.....not for 5 star resort or food, we get decent value for
what we pay for but the staff seemed to go out of their way to help with
the little things. Sophie Haughton, the guest relations manager, was
amazing with helping us get dinner reservations at the Cave's for
Quintin's birthday! (AMAZING PLACE!!!) The Food and Beverage manager
(Jeffrey Johnson) was understanding and a fix it guy when we complained
on Wed morning that the night before there was NO Absolut, Bailey's,
Grand Marnier or Rum Cream at the main or piano bars. By Thursday, they
had it all on the shelves and some other stuff that we hadn't noticed.
We were told it was a supply problem....I guess they found a "new"
supply. The bartenders were actually thankful for the assist as
some of them told us they were upset when not able to pour what a guest
wanted.
A couple of groups started to arrive midweek.....an
interesting balance of guests. The International Delights
were just that, an international group of pool people! They all
seemed pretty nice but we didn't mingle too much as we almost never
leave the beach and they don't seem to leave to pool! The other
group was the Black Swingers Group sponsored by
BlackSwingersClub.com. The were just what they sounded like, black
swingers. They were friendly and welcoming to anyone....we over
heard one of the group leaders talking with someone who approached their
table in the lobby and she stated that if you were open minded and like
to have fun then you were welcome to join their group, and that the name
just gave you an idea that there were alot of them, they are black and
they like to swing. We did see a first at Hedo, they were having a
Swing beach party with a DJ and Hedo seemed to have hung curtains around
the prude pool and cabanas to block the view from the rest of the
beach....I had heard this occurred during times of "increased activity"
but had never actually seen it.
We had to leave very early on Saturday morning for a
10 am flight back to Fort Lauderdale. My biggest complaint would
be that a 6 am bus is obscene and no one should have to leave that
early.....and that maybe the resort could set out a few cups that are
disposable that we could take "to go" for coffee or water. The
check in, again with Caribbean Air was quick and painless. We had
time for shopping and breakfast at Air Margaritaville (another
tradition). The fight was a little rough as we flew into a
tropical depression that was dumping rain at home, and customs was slow
as molasses, but other wise getting home wasn't too bad, especially
since we were unpacking by 1pm.
A couple of last observations, Hedo seems to have
found a TON of beach chairs.....No chair saving needed, there were so
many right down on the beach that you could hardly get to the water.
There were very few chair cushion or floats though. Running into
old friends who become better friends is great. Great to see Annie and
Paul. Also, there is a guy staying at the Point Village who would
float over to our beach and bash Hedo to anyone who would listen almost
every afternoon. We mentioned it to Lorna Clark, the hotel
mananger at lunch one afternoon. If someone wants to tell him to
shut the hell up, I would appreciate it!!!
We had a wonderful trip again and we love Hedo and we
always will. We had a great time, it was a very different and a
bit mellower version of our usual trip. Would we go again without
our friends? Yes! Will we go again with our friends? Yes!
October 2011