OK, after due harassment, I will attempt a one-sided trip report.
The reason for this trip was to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. We both wanted to do something memorable. On our 15th we went skydiving. Once was enough thank you. Both of us have always wanted to do the Caribbean somewhere but were not sure what was available. We learned about Jamaica through some friends and headed to a local travel agent to see what they had to offer. After looking at all of the brochures we both seemed to hear Hedo calling to us. Since this would be our first time to Hedo and Jamaica, both of us were really looking forward to the vacation. We were booked though MLT and were to fly from DFW straight into MoBay. And that is what we did, eventually. The instructions on the packet said to be at the ticket counter 2 hours early. Two hours!? So, on Monday morning, the day of departure, we got out of bed at 4:00 AM to make our 7:10 AM flight. No problem, we were both so keyed up that neither of us slept well that night. We got checked in and headed to the gate. Flight delayed 30 minutes. No problem. An hour later they tell us that the flight won't be leaving until around 10 AM. I am really glad we got up at 4 AM.
Eventually we got on the plane and were on our way by about 10:30 - 11:00. By the time we got to the SuperClubs desk at MoBay neither of us was looking forward to the "BUS RIDE". Air Negril had a plane leaving shortly ($55/person) so we jumped on it. That 15 minute ride was nice!
It was about 4:30 PM when we finally got to Hedo. Check in was a snap and the long delay that morning seemed like a long time ago. We headed to our room and as soon as we were unpacked we decided to take a walk around the place. We started on the Prude side of the beach behind our room and worked our way to the pier. Since neither of us had eaten we were both starved and from the pier area I could see the grill at the nude pool and pointed it out to Joyce. Now Joyce had been quite concerned about going on the nude side, was not sure she would be able to handle it, but she was so hungry by then that she didn't care. We headed down the beach towards the nude side. We were still clothed when we got to the grill. I placed our order and we sat down at the table. We had no more than set down when one of the Hedo employees came over to inform us that we were on the 'nude' side. No kidding! I explained that we had not had anything to eat all day and that as soon as we ate we would take care of the problem (clothes). He laughed and said that would be fine. I really expected that Joyce would be ready to head back to the prude side when we finished eating, but, bless her, she surprised me and said "well I really feel awkward sitting here with my clothes on while everyone else is naked". So, off came the clothes, less than 30 minutes after we arrived. That was the last time it was an issue. We never went back to the prude beach and never, not once, did we even get in the prude pool or hot tub. The nude pool/hot tub was also as far as we made it on our walking tour that day. That evening was rather sedate for us. We ended up going back to the room for a nap, having a late dinner and hitting the hot tub about midnight for an hour or so.
For the rest of the week our daytime hours consisted of breakfast between 8:30 and 10:30, head to the beach for some sun & fun till around 12:00 or 1:00, hit the pool for lunch and the first drink of the day (to be followed by more, sometimes many more), a late afternoon nap and then the night life. The two exceptions to this were the island picnic one morning and parasailing another. Both of these activities we shared with Ken & Pam and had a great time on each of them. I think Pam kept her giant grin from parasailing the rest of the week.
We did attempt to do some sailing. Since neither Joyce nor I had ever sailed it was quite the comedy when we attempted to sail one of the Sunfish sailboats. Before we even got away from shore the wind blew us broadside into the pretty Hedo speed boat and into the anchor rope off of its bow. We eventually made it out into a bit more open water and I succeeded in scaring the hell out of Joyce. The next day I broke down & asked for instructions from Devon. He took us out on the small Hobie Cat & had us sailing around in no time. Hey we got this down pat now, Pam want to go with us? Sure! The next day we try it again and Pam was brave enough to go with us. That day there was NO wind. We sat on that damn Hobie for 30 minutes without hardly moving. Finally got enough of a breeze to get moving and we had about 5 minutes of fun when we noticed the clouds building so we spent another 30 minutes getting back in before the afternoon rainstorm hit. We all had fun though!
After reading some of the other trip reports and talking with some of you that were there, Joyce & I missed a lot of the daytime entertainment! Where was I when some of these things were going on? No wonder we thought the place was a bit sedate, we missed all of the 'fun' activities! No afternoon naps next time!
The night life was great. Actually, it is what you make of it and we tried to make the most of it. Thoroughly enjoyed the PJ party. We must have been right under a vent because we were nice & cool in the disco. The Toga party was hilarious and the "Togas" were every bit as erotic as the "PJs". At least the ladies were, you'll have to ask Joyce for an opinion about the men. The piano bar I think, was our favorite late night spot. Bryson & Rick surprised us with how well they could sing. Neither of us even attempted. We were afraid they would throw us out of the resort. Pastafari's is excellent! We had two great meals there. The first when we celebrated our anniversary on Thursday night, and then again the following night.
Leaving Hedo was sad because we knew we would not get to see most of our new friends for a long time, but we were both ready to get back to the kids. Our oldest daughter will make us grandparents the end of August and Joyce was absolutely paranoid that she would have the baby early while we were at Hedo. We flew Jamaica Air Express back to MoBay ($41/person) and the flight back to DFW on SunCountry was uneventful.
All in all we had a great time the entire week. The only real bummers were Kathy getting sick, poor Larry having to deal with being in a cast, and Pam breaking her ankle the last night. Those three things aside, we enjoyed every minute. Joyce got to fulfill a long-time fantasy (you will have to get the details from her). We met & made friends with some wonderful people. Denny is right, its not the location, the resort, or even the activities that make Hedo special, it is the people. Thank you all for helping to make our 25th wedding anniversary celebration very special.