Lyle - December, 2014
Trip Report
Hedo 13 – 25 Dec 2014
I visited Hedo 13 – 25 Dec 2014 and a brief summary of the travel
details is provided herein.
The flight route from St. Louis to Montego Bay was on American / US Air
via Miami. When I booked
these flights via the American website, they indicated these were
operated by US Air (American and US Air are in the process of merging,
but everything isn’t integrated yet).
All communication from the airline indicated these were US Air
flights and I should check in with them.
After waiting in line to check in for the flights with US Air,
they indicated they didn’t have a reservation for me and I should check
with American. American had
the reservation and checked me in without further delay.
(The point here is that if you’re flying American / US Air, check
all this stuff out very carefully and allow plenty of time at the
airport to get things sorted out if there’s any sort of problem.)
Miami was a good outbound connection choice and the connection
arrangements were very good.
Arrival at Montego Bay went as planned and there was very little delay
or congestion in Immigration and Customs.
I used Rocky’s Tour & Taxi service out of Negril for my ground
transportation. I made all
reservations online using their website at
http://rockystaxiandtourservice.com/
and received a written confirmation from them of my reservations well in
advance of my trip. As
expected, they were ready and waiting for me upon arrival and delivered
their usual excellent standard of service.
Check-in at Hedo was smooth and without complication.
Due to the renovation project for the bathrooms near the nude hot
tub, none of the ground floor rooms in the end building near Delroy’s
were available, since they’re being used as interim bathrooms.
From my perspective, it looks to me like the management team has settled
into a very good rhythm where everyone has a defined role and they are
concentrating their efforts accordingly.
For whatever it’s worth, it looks smoother and more effective &
efficient than I’ve seen it in quite some time.
Donna and Lorna are visible and accessible to the guests while I
suspect Kevin is off doing the things the GM should be doing.
Well done.
Harry was there part of the time I was and we enjoyed chatting with him,
but he also made it clear that he isn’t ‘running the place’ and any
specific requests or complaints should be addressed with the on-site
management team. Again, I
thought that was good.
The ECs seemed better to me than they have been in a long time.
That may be due to the influence of Winston (I suspect it is).
Whatever the reason, I think they’re much improved and they were
fun to have around and play with.
I talked with Winston several times and it’s apparent to me he’s
taking his job very seriously and wants to do whatever it takes to do
his very best in this position.
I think he’ll do great.
The staff in general (bar, dining room, housekeeping, watersports, etc.)
seem to be happier and upbeat, and seemed fully engaged in their jobs.
They all appear to be trying to do things right and in a timely
manner. That’s a good thing
and it reflects well on how things are going, from a guest’s
perspective.
Housekeeping looked really good to me and I thought they were doing a
great job. Bar, kitchen, and
dining room all look like they are all working very well.
Service was excellent, food quality was good, and I was happy
with all of it.
I think the chef and kitchen staff are all doing a good job with the
food and I was happy with the quantity, quality, and selection provided
every day I was there and it seemed even better than my previous visit
in July 2014. The dining
room staff seemed very engaged and provided excellent service and were
very attentive.
I visited Martino’s (Pastafari) a couple of times and they provided
their usual standard of excellent service and food.
I did not visit the prude grill during this visit, so I can’t comment on
that. The nude grill was
doing a great job and providing very good food and service during this
visit.
All of the bartenders were doing a great job during this visit and all
of them were right on top of things.
Departure from Hedo on the 25th went exactly as planned and
Rocky’s arrived exactly as promised for transportation to the airport.
I specifically selected the 25th as a travel day,
partly because it’s typically a low-traffic day and that certainly
proved to be the case.
Check-in and processing at the airport was smooth and without problems.
The air route for the return was again on American / US Air via
Charlotte and there were no problems with the reservations or check-in.
The flight from Montego Bay to Charlotte had very low occupancy.
Arrival Immigration and Customs in Charlotte had very low traffic
levels when I was there and was basically a walk-trough for both of
them. (I chose Charlotte for
the return connection specifically because they typically have very
good, smooth, and speedy processing in both Immigration and Customs, and
it’s easy to get to the connecting flights.)
The connecting flight to St. Louis was also very light occupancy
and operated as planned.
The renovations and improvements in the physical attributes of the
resort seem to be going fairly well and the guests generally seem happy
with them. Based upon my
perception of the ownership and management, I’m reasonably confident
they’ll keep working on things until they have things the way they (and
their clients) want them to be.
Despite the physical improvements, I’m even more pleased and happy with
the changes I observed in the owners, management team, and staff.
People really seem to have found a very good operational tempo
and all seemed to be very focused and intent on doing their best
possible to make things work right.
From a management perspective, that’s an excellent place to be
and I’m glad they appear to have found ‘the groove’.
If that’s truly the case, and they’re able to maintain that, then
that’s a great thing for all of us.