John & Carol - July, 2007

This was our 7th trip, July 13-21 2007, going this time with a takeover group,
the Fluffernutters. This won’t be day-by-day, but more a report of comments on
changes since the last trip in July 2006.

Sangster Airport, MoBay:
Not only are there more shops in the “new” concourse for gates 8-19, but much
of the arrival area has changed since we were there last July. Immigration is
the same, but our bags were listed as on belt 6… and there are only 4 belts in
the old area, and the customs desks there are gone. You go through a long
winding plywood-lined tunnel (obviously still under construction) beyond belt
4, on your right at the foot of the immigrations stairs, and find yourself at
the far end of the terminal, in a very large, high-ceilinged new hall, with
belts 5 and 6 there, and all the customs booths around the wall. Outside that
is the totally new arrival lobby. We barely saw the new Superclubs area,
because “the bus is ready, mon.” Not only was the bus ready but 3 sets of old
Hedo friends were already on the bus (“You’re either on the bus, or off the
bus…”) and the party started right there.

Main Dining Room:
The layout is the same, but yellow and green are the theme: poles, table tops,
chairs, chair pads, etc. The dinner music from 7:30-8:30 PM was quite pleasant
and easy to talk over. Sometime between 8:30 and 9:00 each night, they cranked
it up.

Rooms:
We were in 1138, GVP closest to Pastafari. A/C was cold, hot water was hot,
it’s all good. The new room safes (2 in our room, though I heard that there
were some rooms on the nude side with the old keyed safes) were great: 6” x
12” front door opening, 16+” deep, easy to use. They are from Elsafe:
http://www.elsafe.com/page?id=115&key=36128 and
http://www.elsafe.com/page?id=1756
Our keycards for the room worked fine, with no data loss all week. We did,
however, mostly keep them out of the water.

Food:
We’re adventurous eaters, and omnivorous, so we enjoyed almost all of it, as
always. IMO, it was better than last summer, though not quite up to the level
of Thompson two years ago. Pastafari was excellent as always… and Denver got
me the recipe for blue crab marinara. I’m working on it! Reggae Café was good,
if poorly attended.
Munasan however, was a disappointment. Service was Not Good: both shrimp and
beef were overcooked, portions were erratic in size, wine that was ordered
didn’t show up until dessert time, saki was never offered, and it was So Damn
Hot than no one was comfortable. Yes, this week was the hottest weather that
we’ve encountered in 7 trips, but something has to be done about this at
Munasan. A friend who was legendary for *never* leaving food behind didn’t eat
half his meal, due to the heat. The calamari salad was excellent but other
than that, people just had no appetite due to the heat.
Friday Gala was great with lots of lobster.
Unfortunately for me, calaloo never appeared at any meal.

Resort:
The grounds were impeccable. The trapeze is gone, and there are two remaining
sets of bleachers sitting on the concrete pad in that area. The nude hot tub
was too hot only one day (but *all* day and night then).

Downsides:
Yes, it was 90+% occupancy with the 425 Fluffernutters there, on a near-
takeover that got the prude side declared clothing-optional. Still, there were
shortages that really should have been planned for, knowing that this group
was coming in. They ran out of ice at the nude pool bar – not momentarily, but
for ½ a day – twice. Cranberry juice was unavailable several days, even from
the boxes. Beer was out once!
We repeatedly found what looked like dirt in the bottom of our mugs, which we
figured out must be coming from dirty ice.
Towels were available, if not plentiful.
More than half the days, there was no Hedobucks redemption at the announced
hour at breakfast, because they said that they were out of rum until a 10 AM
shipment. We eventually cashed in our Hedobucks down at the beach, during a
late morning game.
There was no TV remote in the room, and requests never resulted in one showing
up.
There was only one bedside lamp; I saw two in numerous other rooms.

Changes coming:
It was announced at the Repeaters Party (very low turnout because very few
notices were sent out, and the presentation was already started when we
arrived at the announced 6:30 time) that this coming year’s goal is to convert
more OV rooms to Jacuzzi rooms, and to install seaward doors and a patio on
all of the first floor OV rooms, as has been done for the Jacuzzi ones. A
report from the previous week’s party indicated that there would also be two
“penthouse suites” built, location possibly in the block behind the water
sports area. It’s unclear whether these are to be third-storey additions, or
combining several second-storey rooms into a suite.

Interestingly: no offers of ganja, other than from the boat when we were on
the pier.
Ray-Ray showed up for a friends’ vow renewal, and later on in the week as
well. He had a fashion show scheduled in town for late Friday night, which we
didn’t make due to leaving early Saturday AM.
Winston was in great form, and finishes school this December, with plans to
move to New York City after that.
Foxy was her usual sexy, smart-ass self – with attitude. I had a spanking
handprint on my butt for several days as proof (but then she knows she can do
that to me for fun).

Pirate Cruise:
I fulfilled the fantasy of all troo red-blooded males: I sailed the Caribbean
under the Jolly Roger, drinking rum, and boarding other boats for loot and
booty. The two cats full of nekkid pirates flashed Rick’s and two other
resorts (including a wedding party). It was obvious that the cats’ captains
were going for this flashing; we sailed way closer to shore at those sites
than ever before on a cat cruise. The Black Boat rules! We ended up with both
of the Green Boat’s flags, plus a double dildo. Arrrgh!