Charlie & Bunny - November 2012
Trip report 11/4/12 to 11/10/12
This was our 15th trip and overall another great one. We’ve traveled this first full week of November quite a few times and it is always great to see so many familiar faces (both guests and employees) and friends that return year after year. One of the charms of Hedo that we like is that it is such a friendly place where passing others on the beach or on a walkway is always greeted with “hi” or “good morning/afternoon/evening”.
Highlights of the trip were started from our arrival. We’d book one of the 2 Ocean View Prude Jacuzzi rooms and our good fortune resulting from Hurricane Sandy that struck the US east coast is that the residents of our room were going to be without power for some time back home so they extended their trip…and H2 bumped us up to an OVN Jacuzzi.
Our room, 2159, was a great location, closer to the dive shack by where Winston the beach painter sets up. We’d relax most mornings until early afternoon right outside our room then move up to the nude pool in early afternoon. The pool was usually hopping with an outside dj (think his name was Mark?) brought in by one of the travel agencies. He did a great job of mixing up the music, a little bit of everything, and included some games along the way. He would play afternoons until about 5 when the crowd would move to the hot tub. Temps in the HT seemed pretty good all week but we spent very little late nite time there this trip so not sure how it was then.
FOOD…
We made it up for breakfast every day. If there is any variation from day to day I never noticed it. Bacon was in good supply, two egg stations going so there was never too long of a wait. Early in the week the self-service juice dispenser switched the pineapple juice to (what we were told by another guest) some kind of flavored Gatorade. I enjoy a 50/50 pineapple & OJ, so just stuck with the OJ.
Made it up to the buffet for lunch about half the time. Both lunch and dinner were about the same, food was not too bad – but selections seemed pretty much same old, same old. Not much variation – in presentation or selection. Salad bar was pretty well stocked most of the week and there always seemed to be various fruits available. Desserts seemed a little skimpy to us, don’t recall seeing cheesecake at all during the week (we do eat on the later side for dinner) and often no cookies (crumbled up cookie with the soft ice cream…yum). Food for the Friday night Grand Gala was above average, plenty of lobster and very tasty beef and turkey.
We ate at Martino’s and Munasan once each. My tenderloin at Martino’s was rather tough but still was stuffed when we finished, would rank the meal as “good” but the dining experience there as “great”, wait staff is always on their A game. We ate at Munasan with a group (which is always fun!) but must say it was the best meal we’ve ever had there. Between the two of us I think we had all the options (beef, chicken, shrimp & sea bass) and the beef and chicken (with the ginger dipping sauce!) were very tasty.
Had lunch at both beach grills and no complaints there (other than eating too many hamburgers!!). In addition to the meat patties there was also pizza available in the warmer by the nude grill, didn’t remember that – from past trips.
Entertainment…
We don’t pay much attention to the ‘schedules’ as most things on the daily schedule never take place – and our sand/pool gravity kicks in…so we don’t pay much attention to the EC’s (well, other than Fifty for my female half!). Can’t say I remember any of the female EC’s although a few of the guys have been around a while (Winston, Fifty, Dean). More and more of the evening entertainment is all EC driven…which gets a little old. With Kink in the Caribbean and Mary Ellen’s Pole Dancing group both in the house our week, those were two of the nightly entertainment. Unless we missed it the night we ate at Martino’s, there was no steel drum band. The Kink group seemed to permanently be set up around the prude beach bar/pool area. There was a large roll of fabric circling the entire are with some ‘equipment’ set up inside. They seemed to have a dj playing there too most days and often had some kind of nightly party. Only one night was there signage indicating it was a “private party” but we’d also talked to a couple of the members who said that was more for the ‘enter at your own risk/you’ve been warned’ to protect the resort from non kink guest complaining about what might be going on. Honestly, it all seemed pretty tame – the whole area could be viewed from the bridge and we never saw anything too shocking…lol, who’d be surprised by a little whipping at Hedo!
We were honored this trip to attend a vow renewal for friends we met a few years ago. The minister was great and the little reception following in the game room of the piano bar was excellent – we’ve known Sophia is a true Hedo asset, and this just reinforced it.
The disco seemed to be pretty dead all week and Thomas, the new addition to the piano bar (who also plays with Roots Explosion) is quickly getting the hang of playing for & working the crowd. He did play a little using the piano but often used the keyboard. He mixed in some sing along songs that did get the crowd going. Mark (the dj brought in) ran the karaoke night and that too, was a lively party…and rather entertaining with some of the kink performers! We really enjoy the bartenders in the piano bar, especially Eldon – who always seems to have another drink ready if you are anywhere close and he sees you’re getting low.
Odds and Ends…
Repeaters party was held on the main pool deck because of the high number of repeaters. I believe it was 18 trips that won the 5 day.
The SuperClubs lounge at Sangster was still open, but not much going on – we had booked before the change so our transfers were included. When we got to the lounge, all that was checked was our voucher (although there were people behind the desk, there was no checking-in) by the guy at the door & we got the “bus will be ready in 10 minutes…” we were on the road in about 30. We did not stop on the way. We had a big crowd leaving Hedo on the 11am bus, so much so that we had one of the big coach buses and a smaller van. 20 minutes into our ride the bus starts breaking down. After the 4th time pulled over to the side of the road (with the driver doing whatever he could with a wrench…) we were glad to see two of the regular size buses pull up behind us. We joked about the 25 minutes it took to load that coach bus…and the 3 minutes it took for everyone to get their bags off! A big shout out to our friend C (of C&L) who was a tremendous help to everyone getting their bags off the coach to one of the other buses – we were on the back of the coach and C was able to wrangle our bags, while L and G&L had saved us seats on their bus. As a result, it had us all running to our gates to catch flights.
We were at the resort when the news was breaking about the resort being sold – and there was certainly excitement in the air. Everyone was talking about it: guests, employees, beach vendors… all seemed very hopefully optimistic.
Our OVN Jacuzzi room was one that had been recently painted – still had the grey along the “headboard” but walls are a yellow with some green trim and the crown molding and room side of the exterior door painted a “wood” color brown. We used the slider extensively (it was very difficult to lock) and during the day had no problem leaving it unlocked. We did have a couple things disappear overnight. Pack of cigarettes/lighter, bag of sunflower seeds, clamps we use to secure the towel to our chair…nothing of real value, but seemed rather odd (in the dark, most of it would have been hard to see from someone walking the beach).
We’ve been travelling to Hedo twice per year the last 4 years (spring and this week) and will surely be looking to get back in a few months. We still talk about trying another resort (with C/O beach a definite and lifestyle friendly environment a plus) and will get rates for some others before our next trip but would not have any problem returning to Hedo twice in 2013.
Bunny & Charlie