Mary and I had a positively wonderful trip to Jamaica from July 20-24th. We had booked a Superclubs SuperSurprise plus excluding Breezes Montego Bay, as very few people want to go there. Actually, we fully expected to end up in Breezes Runaway Bay. Instead, we were fortunate enough to end up in Hedonism II. Many people have asked how it is that the ended up at Hedo on the SuperSuprise. I must admit that we did nothing special to encourage the resort but it did turn out that our trip happened to coincide with the Reggae SunSplash festival in Montego Bay which apparently booked anything in the vicinity of Montego bay completely up (with the exception of Breezes Montego Bay, which no one seems to want to go to by choice). Ill admit to being a bit apprehensive at first about Hedonism II. It does seem to have a bit of a reputation that we thought might be a bit too wild for us. But, I have to say we had a wonderful time and would be very likely to go back to Hedo II directly in the future. Our visit was all too short, but we had a really great time. Our kids were at camp that week and with the neighbors. We went to a resort where they don't allow kids, so it was a bit of an escape from some rather unpleasant memories for a few days and it really did help us.
I had planned on doing this trip with my frequent flyer miles, but that never seems to work well for me since they are always booked up when I need them. But, we got a really nice deal with Orbitz after about 4 days to trying on Delta (actually Air Jamaica for Atlanta to Montego Bay). The flights were mostly without a hitch other than that the sign in Atlanta announced our Montego bay flight had been cancelled. Fortunately the sign was wrong and the flight went great. They even had Champaign on the flight and a singing group that met the plane at arrival. We went to the resort desk and only had to dodge one person trying to sell us an inter-island flight.
It's a 1.5 hour ride to Negril from Montego Bay and we had heard the horror stories about the drive (left side of the road, of course) and that this trip would be rough. Instead we were in a nice air conditioned bus with a good driver and it was quite comfortable. You get to see quite a bit of the countryside this way as well. You do have to stop every now and then for the free-ranging cattle and goats who just wander through the road. We had been told the drivers would stop twice at bars to get us to spend money that they get a percentage of, but we never saw that.
We got to the resort and were checked in pretty quickly. To our surprise we were put into room 2159 woman on the nude side of the resort near the basketball court. Ive seen some discussion about whether it makes sense to stay on the nude side but Ill tell you I really enjoyed this room location for many reasons. It was easy to walk to the beach nude at any time that you wanted to without having to worry about wearing a towel, although that was nowhere near as common as I expected to be. It was actually quite rare that we saw nude people walking around beyond the beach and nude pool area. Many of the nude bathers would arrive at the beach dressed and then dress again before they left. And we were very centrally located to all of the food and the central area, the beach, disco, and water slide. And, the room looked out over the beautiful part of the garden which we were very happy to see every day. The resort was positively beautiful, with five pools, two beaches, and lots of places to eat and relax. The rooms were a bit older, but were quite clean other than the occasional lizard visitor. They all opened to the outside, no hallways or anything. They were air conditioned, though the air was a bit noisy. We got settled into the room about 5pm, then went to walk around. An orientation tour was scheduled for 7pm, so we wandered around until then, then took the tour.
We are really sold on the all-inclusive resort idea. When we got to the room there was a safe. We put our tickets, money, and passports in the safe and locked them up. From there on you had little reason to get them out at all. All food, drinks, sports, everything is free. The only thing we paid for was an off-resort cruise, a photograph, and some things in the gift shop. It really was a blast not thinking ever about what anything cost or what the trip is adding up to. We routinely ate five times a day. Breakfast, lunch, afternoon, dinner, and late evening. The food was massive and fabulous. Yes, Ive read reports of so-so food, but we really loved it, particularly the deserts.
After the tour the first day we went to the Buffet for dinner. The buffer is the main eating establishment in the center of the resort. There are also grills on the beaches and three restaurants you have to get reservations for (Jamaican, Japanese, and Italian). The buffet tended to have a wide variety of local dishes and a huge number of deserts, so we were always happy with it. After we went swimming and wandered around till the disco opened at 11pm. We stayed there a little while. I went down the waterslide next to the disco a couple of times as well. But, not being disco people we ended up moving to the Piano bar where Dave does singalongs which were great fun.
We found the piano bar to be very handy on the trip. It was not often very busy and was air conditioned and you could wander in there to cool off. There had a huge aquarium with a fish I named Pinky who would always come over to see me if I sat next to him. It was fun.
The next morning we got up fairly early. I took a dip in the ocean on the nude side, something I generally did every day. One thing about Hedo, if you get up at 7am and walk to the beach you can pretty much have it to yourself. Not a lot of early risers around. We checked out the sailing and snorkeling. We also made a reservation for the Scotch Bonnett restaurant that night. We did a checkout on the Hobie cat and went out sailing for about 45 minutes before coming in to meet the snorkeling trip. This trip took us out to a large reef where we snorkeled for quite a while. Mary and I both got some sunburn from that and have yet to figure out how to avoid it in spite of the slathering of SPF 50 sun screen we both put on our backs. But, we saw lots of fabulous fish. There was a stingray swimming under the boat at the dock that you could clearly see. The afternoon we mostly rested on rafts or on the beach and then went to the Jamaican restaurant for dinner. Mary had shrimp and I had the goat. It was okay, but they warned us that it would be very spicy. I don't think they know what spicy is, I found it more like beef stew. But, it was filling. Later that night we hung around the piano bar for a while and just wandered around the pools swimming and such.
On Tuesday we booked Pastafaries for dinner and the off-resort clothing optional cruise on a catamaran. They left in the morning and took us to a similar reef for more snorkeling, something Mary and I really enjoy on these trips. Then they took us down the coast to caves and cliffs. We swam off the boat into a cave. There was a ladder up a blow hole which we climbed and then were on a 30 ft. cliff. Note that they made us sign a release before letting us go on this trip. After seeing a few others, I just thought "what the heck" and stepped off. It's a long way down, but it was really fun. I swam back to the boat and didn't really expect Mary to try it, but she walked out there and thought about it a while before backing out. But, after several more people did it, she went back again and this time she did it and everyone commented about her's being the best of the jumps. She was shaking when she got to the boat and got a bit of water in her ear, but after a rum punch and a few minutes she was fine and I know she's proud she did it. I have pictures of her coming down as well.
On the cruise maybe 1/3 of the participants were nude and it was very mixed. Everybody felt very comfortable, I really enjoyed snorkeling nude and Mary wore her suit. She did spend time on the nude beach and we both enjoyed swimming in the nude pool. All in all, she was much more adventurous than I expected her to be about the whole nude thing. We are by no means nudists and have never been to any nude place before. I have a pool and like to swim nude on occasion because I find it more comfortable. At Hedo, with most everyone doing it, nude did feel very comfortable and I rarely got into the water with a suit on. For Mary it was more an adventure, but she was a great sport.
There were only two times I felt uncomfortable being nude at Hedo. One night after midnight we went to the nude pool to swim. When I was ordering a drink, there was a fully clothed couple drinking at the bar. I really didnt care about clothed people around me unless I become part of the show and it was clear that for them we were the entertainment. I really dont think they should be serving people at the nude bar who are fully clothed except maybe one drink. The other occasion was the last morning dip in the ocean when three college-age kids were sitting on the steps on the nude beach and I was their morning fun entertainment. Security did run them off after a while, but should have done it right away. As for women in bottoms and the people occasionally walking through, I just didnt see a problem.
The afternoon we mostly relaxed on the beach and by the pool before dinner. The Italian restaurant was fabulous. They had a huge antipasto bar with lots of shellfish, then Mary had shrimp and I had a steak. The steak was a bit more gamey than you're used to, but was pretty good. I figure they must have hit it with the bus or something.
Tuesday night was the pajama party in the disco. We did the classic Doris Day thing with Mary wearing the top and me wearing the bottom of a set of men's PJ's. We ended up winning third place as best couple in the party and had a really nice time. Many of the pajamas were not really much more than minor ornamentation and I must question whether some of those at the PJ party would actually sleep in what they wore.
Wednesday was our last full day, so we had planned on spending lots of time on the water sports. It was really surprising to us how little the boats were used at the resort. Many people seemed content to spend the entire day lying on the beach. I guess we really wanted more activity, so it worked out well for us. We took out in a sea kayak and paddled around for a while. We saw some perfect starfish on the bottom. We did have a guy on a jet ski drive up to us and try to sell us a jet ski ride. We told him we were happy going as fast as we were. Then he offered us "Jamaican smoke". We declined. Later we got out a Hobie cat. The wind was dead, so we though we would not be able to sail, but it came up nicely and we had a really great time, though it was very shifty. We then went shopping in the gift shop, a major undertaking, though everything was fairly reasonably priced for a resort. The rest of the day we mostly relaxed and sat around the beach. We went back to the Piano bar that night, but it was a bit redundant from the first night, so we left. We spent about an hour or so in the hammocks that evening feeling the cool sea breeze. It was really nice. There was also a small hot tub on top of the disco. It had a glass bottom so people in the disco could see up into it, but that was only a gimmick, since you can't really see anything in the water, though the disco lights come up through the water pretty well. It was fun because it was on a roof top and you had all of the stars and a great view. We only ever saw one other couple in it while we were there, most people didn't find it, I guess.
The last morning we picked up our pictures and spent time packing up, not an easy task, before the bus ride back to the airport. Again, the ride was quite comfortable and we had no problem getting home other than that Delta's computer failed and we had to wait in line a long time, but the flight still left on time. We were constantly warned to expect a departure tax of $27, but nobody ever collected it, so I assume it was in the airline ticket price.
It was a wonderful trip and we're really glad we went. I loved Jamaica and would be very likely to return someday. Hedo II is a wonderful resort and just about perfect for our needs. You can pretty much be as comfortable as you like and theres always plenty to do. We really liked that you didn't have to carry around any money and could just about spend the entire time in shorts, swim wear, or less if you like. We're already thinking about a trip with the kids to one of the family resorts sometime in the future, though they tend to be a bit more pricey.
My only real objection to Hedo II would be the entertainment coordinators. I was actually looking forward to participating in some of the games. But, all of the games seemed to degrade into sophomoric humor and orgasm simulations. The battle of the sexes had a few fun activities, but then became orgasm simulations and sex simulations over and over. My wife found this trend to be particularly objectionable when people were nude. I really dont want some other person fondling me or my wife which was something that was clearly encouraged nor do I want people bumping and grinding us nude. I really think they could have a variety of games that could be fun without all of them degrading into sex acts. Another minor nit is the blatant PDAs and PDPs. We didnt see them much, only late at night at the nude hot tub, but they were really pretty gross in my opinion. I guess were closer to traditional nudists who dont see nudity as a sex thing than those who came for the exhibitionism.