Monica - April, 2012
Hedo’s Mojo/Hedo Events
April 21-28, 2012
Hedonism II
Well... I have a few minutes on my hands, so I
might as well start my trip report. Of course, this will be a
labor of love that will span many days, but hopefully I'll keep it under
control this time. I'm going to try to write more of a "general
impressions and memories" type report rather than a day-by-day
recounting. We'll see how it works.
The trip down was actually
MUCH better than expected. I have to give kudos to Air Tran- they
got us there and back with no flight delays whatsoever (actually, every
flight was early), great customer service, and friendly flight
attendants. We were really pleased. Our 7 hour layover in ATL-
yeah, you read that correctly- is what worried us the most, but even
that ended up being just fine. When we arrived in Atlanta, we took
a little nap (the airport there was FREEZING), we had some of the Air
Tran free (yet bad) coffee, and waited for our friends K&S to arrive.
They were also coming from the West Coast and had a long layover.
Once they arrived, we headed over to their concourse, where Moe got some
bad McDonalds, and we all trooped down to the Delta Sky Lounge, where
they were members. What a great setup! We spent the next several
hours there eating snacks, drinking (I had a few Bailey's and coffee),
and just shooting the breeze. Time flew by. We stopped by
the duty free shops where the guys picked up Patron and Crown Royal, and
parted ways.
I bought a blanket and we went back to the gate, where we waited for our
other friends, V&T, who were on our flight. Apparently, T had
forgotten his passport and had to drive home to get it! I didn't think
they were going to make the flight, but they strolled in like nothing
was wrong about midway through boarding, to our delight and a rousing
round of applause.
Immigration was a Beeyotch! The lines were really long, and although
moving relatively steadily, it took us about 45 minutes to an hour to
get through all of them. Once we did- it was off to Hedo! We took
a private van (Courtney is a great driver, email us for his contact
info), and we were at Hedo in short order, with a quick stop for a
drink, a purchase of some local product, and later a pee break.
Check in was a breeze, with
our friends G&J waiting for us in the lobby, and all of our rooms were
ready. We got upgraded to a FABULOUS ocean view nude side
room, right outside of the H-Block. An easy to remember room
number, too: 2222! Of course, the rooms are dated, the bathroom
tiny, but it was clean, functional, comfy enough, and we were at Hedo!!
Another drink at the main bar, and a check in with Hedo Events.
This was our first time partnering up with them, and I cannot speak
highly enough of them. They collaborated with Hedo's Mojo, Topless
Travel, and SLS. They were SO awesome! They had beach bags,
towels, water bottles and name necklaces for us. Everyone was charming
and friendly (and very easy on the eyes, to boot!). More to come
about Hedo Events....
After getting settled in the room, taking a shower (warm, but not hot),
and changing into fewer clothes, we made our way down to the nude side,
where we took them off with haste! The party was already rocking
down there, and we saw many of our old friends and exchanged hugs.
D&L showed up shortly thereafter, and we stayed out until the sun went
down and it was time to get ready for dinner. Ah, and speaking of
showers, the water was pretty good all week. Only twice during the
week did we not have hot water (lukewarm showers, ugh), and the rest of
the time, the water was downright SCORCHING! I'm a big fan of the "burn
your skin off" shower, so I was a happy camper. One day our safe
stopped working. We called down to the desk in the morning, and
they came to fix it later that afternoon (during my naptime!). I
let the guy in, he did his thing with the safe, and left. Of course, he
came back 10 minutes later because he'd forgotten something. So much for
naptime! Oh well.... The housekeeping was great, and pretty much figured
out our daily schedule so the room got cleaned while we were out at the
beach. Only one day did they come quite late in the afternoon--I think
that was the same day that the safe got fixed, actually!
Our daytime activities started to follow a predictable pattern.
I'd usually wake up between 7 and 8, then hit
the gym for an hour. Moe only
made it to the gym 2 or 3 days, but I went every day of the trip. Yay
me! (it still didn't stop me from gaining 9 lbs, lol!) The gym
definitely got some good usage over the week. There were a few
days when almost all of the cardio equipment was in use. All of the
treadmills were working, as were the elliptical and stair master. 3 of
the 4 stationary bikes were working. The AC was not working very well
in the equipment area, so I definitely worked up a good sweat. The
AC worked fine in the aerobics area, though. There was also a visiting
Spin instructor there, who had good attendance to his class almost every
morning.
After I finished at the gym, I'd take my shower then go down to the
dining room for breakfast.
Breakfast isn't quite the same without Charlie, but I saw many
familiar staff faces, which was great. Although I ate my fair
share of bacon, I actually didn't get any omelettes this trip, opting
instead for either hard boiled eggs (if I was too impatient to wait in
line), or scrambled eggs with cheese. I found the "sweet spot" for
breakfast- right around 10am, the crowd seemed to thin a bit, so the
lines for eggs weren't too long. My beloved French Toast wasn't
quite as tasty, but between that, eggs, bacon, and maybe a croissant, I
definitely ate my fill.
After breakfast, I'd usually try to get a quick nap (but as the week
went on, I often opted out of the nap), then head down to the
nude beach and pool, where I'd spend a couple of hours there before
getting lunch and a real afternoon nap later in the day. The early
afternoons on the nude side were rather mellow, with a speaker set up
and a laptop playing music. One of the guys from either Tom's
Tours or Biff's Bunch (I'm sorry, I can't remember which), would take
requests. This was definitely for the more relaxed crowd, with
lots of country music, classic rock, and a few top 40 songs. They also
played games, but I didn't really see what was going on from my perch on
the beach. I will say that one afternoon, Moe and some of our other
friends were in the nude pool while a game was getting organized and
were told that if they didn't plan on participating in the game, then
they needed to leave the pool. They were pretty upset about this,
and I agree- how can you dictate that others can't enjoy their time in
the pool just because your group is playing a game??
We didn't see too many clothed
gawkers, although we did see a few. Luckily, security usually
told them that they had to undress or leave. One afternoon these
two young ladies came down to the beach and hung out for quite awhile,
dressed in swimsuits, and one even had on a fishnet coverup. They
decided to enter into the booty shaking contest, but of course the crowd
was not having them up there with all of those clothes! Cries of "take
it off, take it off!" rang out. They took off their tops, but not their
bottoms, and the fishnet girl even kept on her coverup. Booo!!! We
ended up talking to them afterward and found out that they were newbies.
We managed to get one of the girls to take off her swimsuit, but the
other was having none of it. The one who got nude confided that she
would have done it awhile ago, but she felt her friend would hold it
against her and use it to gossip about her when they got back home. We
told them both that if they came back, they needed to get naked, and
they promised that they would...tomorrow. Of course, we didn't see them
back on the nude side after that. Shame.
I only went to the prude grill
once. The prude grill has a new system where you MUST sit down and
let the waitress take your order rather than ordering directly from the
cook. This system ended up being kind of chaotic, especially for
people who just wanted "to go" orders. The nude grill was pretty quick
and efficient, though. They had grilled fish (pretty tasty), as well as
the usual burgers, sandwiches, jerk chicken, fries, popcorn, nachos, and
patties. The patties went fast- I think I may have only gotten 2 or 3
during the entire week! All of the other times, I'd either getting
chicken and fries at the nude grill and take it to the room, or go to
the main dining room (they had cocoa bread!!), and taking it to the room
to eat. It was my relaxation time- eating in the AC, watching a
little tv, and taking a nap.
After my afternoon power nap, it was time to head back to the pool,
because from 3-6 was time for the
afternoon pool party! Hedo Events had their DJ set up, with a full
DJ booth and an MC. It was AWESOME! Tons of people in the pool,
the music was mostly dance, top 40, with some hip-hop, reggae and latin
flavor thrown in as well. People were dancing, there were booty
shakin contests, the vibe was definitely high energy and youthful.
The only problem was that the nude bar was packed! It was definitely a
good time to have your Big Bubba or larger water bottles, because it was
quite a wait to get a drink. Somehow, we ended up being given a
great bottle of Polish vodka, one of our friends brought down a huge
bottle of Pinnacle Whipped Cream vodka, and between that and the Crown
Royal, we were pretty set- all we needed to do was get sodas or juice
for mixers a lot of the time.
The
food... I'm not a picky eater by ANY
stretch of the imagination, and I certainly didn't go hungry, but I was
pretty underwhelmed by the offerings this trip, especially at dinner.
Aside from the "gala" on Friday, most of the main dining room items on
the buffet were pretty poor. Salad fixings were skimpy, meats were
tough. The pasta station was overwhelmed (I only got pasta one
night, and it was pretty good). I really enjoyed Musan- we FINALLY
made it to a specialty restaurant this trip. Besides that, I'm not
sure if they've downsized, but service was not so great. We often
had to try to round up a server for a place setting, water, and they
seemed very put out if you requested a drink from the bar, which I'd
never seen before. At breakfast, you now had to get your own
juice, and often your own coffee. This was surprising, as usually
the servers would be a bit upset if you went and prepared your own
drinks. On Wednesday night, I started feeling queasy after dinner
(I think it was the Seafood Creole), so I went to bed early. A few
pepto tablets, and an uncomfortable night, but I was ok by the next
afternoon. The new dining room fans were great, though! A few evenings,
it was actually a little chilly underneath the fans.
Weather was overall pretty
good for the beginning of the week, with just a rainshower on Sunday
evening. After Wednesday, the weather took a turn for the worse. Our
friend D arrived on Wed., so we joked that she brought in the bad
weather. ;) It rained pretty
much off and on all day on Thursday, with just a few breaks, when it was
overcast and humid. I actually started getting mosquito bites that
evening. Friday was better, but still pretty overcast and not
sunny. It rained once in the afternoon, but cleared up around 5 or
6.
Of course, it wouldn't be a trip unless Moe lost something! He lost a
pair of pretty nice flip flops this time. I think he left them on the
beach and someone must have picked them up by mistake, thinking they
were theirs. He was really upset about it, but hey, it happens.
We also went to the Prude Beach
one day so Moe could take some pictures of me. I don't know the
last time he'd been on the prude side, lol. He looked around with
wonder, saying, "This is really nice! I should spend more time over here
(yeah, right)." The water actually had quite a few waves, and actually
the Tuesday catamaran ride was rescheduled to Wednesday because of the
choppy water. The pics turned out great, though! Of course,
the prude side was pretty empty, with just a few couples over there
relaxing quietly.
Dinner was the usual revelry with laughs and conversation, and of course
Showtime. I love
Winston as much as the next guest, and I'm a fan of drag, but it did
seem as though every night was a little dance & drag show heavy. I
don't know what the answer is, but I'd like to see a bit more variety in
the shows. There are a ton of new EC's there, so we spent some
time getting to know them a bit. As always, Friday night's "Rock Star"
night is a great show (although Nick didn't sing "Purple Rain"), and I
really enjoyed the different acts for Fetish Night. Thursday is no
longer Toga Night (It is Black & White night), but they still have the
Talent Show. Some of the guests were very talented singers!
Hedo Events had different nightly themes from some of the resort themes,
so evening attire was a cornucopia of outfits ranging from the resort
themes, Hedo Event themes, other group themes (Biff's Bunch, Tom's
Tours, and Mary Ellyn's Spring Break were also there), and no theme at
all. It was kind of cool, though, seeing the variety and
creativity of others, no matter the theme.
Speaking of themes, I LOVE naughty schoolgirl/schoolboy night, and think
that it has been one of the better changes in themes. My
particular outfit must have been on sale somewhere, because I saw no
less than 3 other women wearing it, although we each had our own spin on
it. V&T entered the costume contest and both of them came away with the
win! The funniest thing was that as it got to the final 2 ladies,
Winston made a point to say, "make sure you vote for the BEST costume,
not just the person you like the most" because it was clear that it had
come to a popularity contest- since the other lady didn't really have
much of a costume, and V clearly put some effort into hers. Of
course, it was pretty tight, with the other woman getting more cheers.
Winston very cattily said, "well...if this were based in REALITY, you
(V) would win...so I'm just going to declare this a tie and you'll both
get the prize (a Swingers Break towel). Yikes, Winston! V was kind
of embarrassed!
For us, one of the absolute BEST parts of the trip were the
nighttime parties and disco.
I hadn't seen the disco that full of energy in YEARS! Besides that, Hedo
Events brought in their own DJ and "hype man," and had laser lights,
fog, and made it feel like a true nightclub experience. Heck, I
kind of felt like I was back in Vegas! The rest of the nights were
no different. Although it rained a bit on Sunday evening, luckily
it cleared up in time for the Retro Pool Deck Party. And the PARTY.....
First of all, they had the pool deck all draped in beautiful blue
lights, the cabanas and poles draped in white linens. As soon as
Showtime was over, we heard a deep bass come from the pool deck...It
continued.... It sounded vaguely familiar- then the lyrics came in. NO,
it couldn't be! He was playing Young Jeezy, "Put On (for my City)"?!?!?!
Now, we knew that many of the guests wouldn't be familiar with this
tune, but we saw the younger ones get hyped about it (including us), and
hit the dance floor, while the older ones came over just out of
curiosity. WOW. I'd never seen or heard ANYTHING like this
at Hedo! The DJ didn't continue down the hip hop path, but rather
took a segway to Michael Jackson and old-school R&B. I loved it!
There were videos playing on flat screen tvs built into the dj booth,
the vibe was awesome, people were dancing. This was a real party!!
One of our older Southern friends came up to me and said, "I asked the
girl (one of the ECs) what kind of music this was, and she said
"old-school"...but I ain't ever heard any of this before!" I just
had to smile. The parties were fantastic ALL WEEK- between the
beach/lower pool deck party with the fire dancers, the club party on
Friday with all of the white drapery, it was truly something to see. The
music did start to get repetitive- there's only so much LMFAO I can
take, but overall, I was really impressed. V also won 3 free
nights on Fetish Night (the night I went to bed early). It was
supposed to be a costume contest, but not enough people entered, so they
made it into a booty shakin contest. I guess V was shakin her
moneymaker, cause she came away with the win! I hate that I missed it.
Moe went to the Piano Bar one or two of the nights, but I never did,
and didn't really miss it. I'm more of a dancing type girl than a
sing-along girl, anyway. Wait, I did go into the Piano Bar for the
Hedo's Events Meet & Greet, which was really nice, with good appetizers
that went fast!
As far as
PDA's go, we saw a few, but I don't think it was excessive.
Occasionally we'd see a threesome or a couple playing on the side of
the hot tub, or on the beach, but never at the bar area or anything like
that. I saw a few couples playing in the hot tub, but never to
completion. There were definitely times when the vibe was more sexual or
flirty, with lots of kissing, sucking, petting, but I wasn't offended.
The one thing I didn't like was the few creepy guys who would try to get
really close if there were girls kissing or any action happening, and
try to sneak a touch. They would usually back off if you told them to go
away or just said a loud, "NO.", but really- have enough common sense
not to try to weasel your way into that type of activity unless you're
invited. I am neither a proponent nor a detractor of "open
sex,"- it doesn't bother me or necessarily titillate me- I just consider
it part of Hedo. We didn't get into the hot tub at night, although we
walked down there a few nights. It was REALLY crowded in there, and I
just didn't feel like it once I saw so many people. Hedo Events (and
Biff's Bunch, I think), set up a "playroom" in the spa 3 or 4 nights
during the week. Basically, they set up several mattresses around the
side of the main area/pool in the spa, with candles, mood music, and
drapery. We didn't use it, but we stopped in there one night, and it
looked really nice. From what we understand, it was very well used on
Friday night, with a wait for beds.
We did have one disturbing
incident, which occurred on our last night. Moe was taking
pictures of our friends in the disco. With permission, of course- these
were all pictures that they posed for. Now, it is my understanding that
the only time you can't take pictures in the disco was on PJ night, and
every other night is okay. We saw people taking pics all the other
nights. Anyway, a woman approached him and tried to explain
something to him about the pictures. It was loud, Moe was tipsy,
he couldn't understand what she was saying, so he just walked off after
awhile. I was more sober, so I approached her to ask what was wrong.
She was upset about the pictures. I told her that he was only
taking pictures of our friends and people we knew, but she insisted that
he had taken a picture of her, and finally explained that she was in the
background of them. I kind of
wanted to say, "gimmie a break," but I said okay, and went to Moe to
check the photos. She was in one of them, so we deleted it. In the
meantime, her husband came over, and she explained the situation, and he
rushed over to Moe as if to fight. Moe again didn't want any trouble, so
he walked off, while T came over to make sure the situation didn't
escalate. I went back over to the couple and explained that we
deleted the ONE picture she was in, and if they wanted to check the
camera, they could. I could tell that the guy wasn't even listening- he
was watching Moe and spoiling for a fight. We just left the disco,
and I saw the woman pulling her husband away, trying to calm him down..
Sigh....
All in all, I thought that it was a
great trip. I was really
impressed with Hedo Events, but I can see how their vibe might not be
for everyone. I really felt like they were concerned about our little
group and making sure that we were having a good time, and all of the
little extras they did went a long way with me. Of course, some events
didn't happen as planned, and there was a little confusion with the
theme nights, but those things are to be expected.
I thought that it was also really nice that all of their
organizers were on site and able to help out if you had any questions or
concerns, and partied along with everyone else. I'd say that if
you are looking for a younger party crowd, this is your group.
Thank you to EVERYONE who traveled with us! You guys were all awesome and so much fun! I hope you all had a fantastic time!