First off, let me say to anyone reading this (especially if youve never written a trip report or if youre reading this contemplating your first trip to Jamaica) that there is no possible way to re-capture the experience of Hedo II in words. Also, it is frankly a bit depressing to sit and write this knowing full well that RIGHT NOW, our Hedo friends are likely waist deep in the pool with a drink in their hands, sucking on a freshly grilled lobster!!! Dammit!!!
Also, this is my first trip report as Gretchen wrote our first one two years ago and I know Im going to leave someone out if I try to list everyone we met and got to visit with, even if it was way too brief in many instances. So many people, so little time. But I will do my best to give shout outs before I get down to the report. (Heck, I could spend an entire day on just the Texans and Floridians we met): Denny P the Great (a pleasure to finally meet in person), Harold and Darlene (you guys flat out ROCK, you sneaks!), Kent and Brenda, Phil and Vicki (who celebrated their 9th anniversary while therecheers again!), Anthony and Julia, Doug and Annette, Bill and Glenda, Boomer and Stephanie, and Kenny and Toni, Visor Jay and Audrey, and so many others. Soit goes without saying that we miss all you guys very much already and look forward to our paths crossing again in the not-so-distant future at home.
Our trip started off smoothly as we flew out of DFW International on Allegro Airlines (chartered by Funjet/Adventure Tours). Though we werent part of their tour package, apparently they had a couple of empty seats on the charter that we were lucky enough to get them at a pretty good discount. It was our first time on Allegro and I have no complaints. All male crew on the flight down, and they were a bit slow with their service. Gretchen said it was because they were guys and couldnt multi-task.. There may be some truth to that because on the return flight the crew was 2 males and 2 females, and they were much quickerbut more on the return flight later. We landed in Montego Bay around 5:30ish. Quickly moved through customs and found our way to the shuttle with no problems. Having been once before made a big difference, as we knew to move quickly. Plus, we were ready for a cold Red Stripe.
When we arrived at the resort, the first thing I noticed was the sounds of the tree frogs. For me, thats when you really know youre there. It sort of brings home the fact that youve stepped into a different world. Gretchen dashed off to grab a couple of drinks while I checked in. Smooth as could be, no problems. Then we began to look around and I have to say I was very impressed. On our first trip back in 2001, the entire place it seems was under construction. Lots of mud, lots of banging and general chaos. Well, I now see the vision they had. I knew from the outset this would be a much more enjoyable trip. We donned our patriotic garb, had some drinks, had some dinner and if I recall correctly (which could be the preface for this entire trip report as my brain cells are still trying to recover) promptly excused ourselves to the nude side to disrobe. We put in a pretty late night of drinking with some newly made friends, which in retrospect may not have been the best idea since we had the WWW cruise the next morning.
Tuesday dawned bright and warm. Gretchen and I both were feeling a bit out of sorts from the night before, but we managed to eat a little breakfast and headed to the dock for the cruise. We waited for quite a while in the sun along with many other WWWers. I noticed, and heard many others mention it, that it was much hotter and muggier than I remember from our trip back in 2001. But hell, were in Jamaica monno worries.
Gretchen was sinking a little and we both wound up having a little bit of a rough time on the boat. As long as we were in the water, it was cool. But next time weve learned to take it easy the night before the cruise. The snorkeling was awesome! It was the first time for either of us and we both really enjoyed it. Certainly an experience you cant have and things you just dont get to see back in the real world. After the snorkeling, we cruised over to Pirates Cove where the water was absolutely beautiful. Crystal clear waters down to about 18-20 feet. I had decided that if I got the opportunity, I was going to do a little cliff jumping on the cruise. I even told Gretchen the night before to help me remember to take my wedding ring off before I did it because I new when I hit the water it might come off. Well, needless to say after the previous nights partying (and several Red Stripes on the cruise), neither of us remembered. SoI take a jump, come up and.no ring. Shit!!! I swim back over to the boat and Im trying to tell Gretchen to get me a snorkel so I can dive down and find it. For some reason, we couldnt get our communication together and she didnt understand what I was asking for. So, I turned to swim back over to just dive down open-eyed and find it. As I got back over to the landing area there were two guys already circling with snorkels. Within seconds, Nissan (sp???), the first mate from the boat, appeared with my ring and big smile. I gave him a big high five and hand shake. I told him, hey dudeIm naked out here with no cashbut when we get back to the dockIll hook you up. He smiled and pointed to the other guy in a snorkel who it turns out was just some local kid. Nissan says, ya monif that guy finds your ringyou never see it again! Needless to say, I was a happy camper and I hooked him up when we got back to the dock. We then retired and took a nice long nap so that wed be ready for another night of partying at the pajama party.
When we got up from our nap we decided to go to the pool for a wake up drink and some sun. As we sat at the bar we got a very nice surprise. One of the first couples we met on our first trip back in 2001, Harold and Darlene, came strolling up the beach. They are our Hedo-mentors and I wish I could have seen the looks on our faces as they came walking up. It was like seeing two ghosts. They had known the whole time that we would be there, but we had no idea they were going to be there. They got usand got us good! Needless to say, we spent the next few hours laughing and drinking and generally enjoying seeing them again and introducing them to our new friends wed made.
Later that night we donned our pajamas for the pajama party (though its really become more of a costume party). Gretchen had on her very sexy dark angel outfit and I had on my very strange sinister minister outfit. We had a good time dancing and partying with everyone. Lots of cool costumes and pajamas. Gretchen won a bottle rum for first place in the most revealing category, and I may have won second for most funky but they said Joseph from the USA (instead of Joseph from Dallas), so I wasnt sure and didnt go claim my prize. But hey, regardlesswe were definitely revealing and funky and we had a blast for the rest of the night.
Wednesday we decided to go snorkeling again, so we set out with new friends Doug and Annette. It was a nice leisurely 4-person trip and we went to a different place than the day before so there was lots of cool new stuff to see, including hundreds of starfish, large starfish, and one particular fish that featured every scale of a different color, or so it seemed. Very very cool.
The funniest part is that on the bus trip to the resort, wed met several other couples from the Dallas area. Two couples were actually staying at Hedo as part of a super surprise package (boy, were they in for a surprise!!!), and the other couple was staying somewhere else. On the snorkeling trip we ran into them in the middle of the ocean! We were quite a ways from Hedoseveral miles Id guess, and after a few minutes of snorkeling here comes a couple on a kayak and I notice Gretchen talking to them. Sure enough, it was the couple from the busliterally in the middle of the ocean!! Unbelievable!!! After about an hour of snorkeling we came across several sea-snakes of some sort, and that was the end of the snorkeling for me. In my book, the only good snake is a dead snake. I dont care if hes in Jamaica or not.
Wednesday afternoon was filled with multiple trips to bar and the water slideso much so that my arms were bruised (still are a week later) from flinging myself down the water slide. For those of you who havent tried ityou should. I was impressed. It is short, but very very fast. A good rush. Definitely better than I expected. That evening we made our way to the repeaters party. Or rather we tried, but it was raining quite heavily. Luckily, one of the groundskeeping vans happened to come by and a young man named Donald was kind enough to stop and load about 10 of us into his van and drove us up to the steps of the disco. Now that is service!! We promptly gave kudos to some of the administrative staff at the party so they would know that hed gone out of his way for us. Later that night we made reservations at Munahana. We ate with Harold and Darlene and another younger couple named Dan and Larissa that were looking to squeeze into table. The food was incredible. Again, I was very pleasantly surprised. We were all having a hard time deciding what to order so Harold told the chef to bring us the little bit of everything specialwhich he promptly did. WhewI was stuffed.
After dinner we rejoined some of our other friends Kent and Brenda and headed to the disco for few more drinks and a little dancing. Our new friend Larissa took to the idea of the nude side quickly and was ready to get naked right in the disco I think. Her companion Dan, however, was a little shell shocked by the whole idea. However, after a few more drinks we wound up in the nude pool and needless to say, Larissa let it all hang out while Dan stared on in stunned silence mostly. He never really warmed up to the whole concept. So, after being entertained by Larissas antics for a while (including her sitting spread-eagled on the sidewalk showing her groceries to passersby and proclaiming 40 dollar American, no change) we moved to the hot tub on top of the disco. By this time, we were all pretty well trashed and winding down. I really enjoyed the hot tub and the view. It offers a very nice view out over the bay and much of the resort. We also ran into another non-WWW couple wed met earlier in the week who were pretty cool: Mitch and Devrie (sp?). He was a wild man, she was very mellow. So we hung out with them for a few minutes then everyone decided to crash. Im not quite sure how Larissa made it back to her room as she was toast by this time, but she was quite good for an evenings worth of entertainment!
Black Thursdayyes, the day we knew we were going to get our eviction notice. We got up still ready to hit it, and hit it we did. We spent the day in the pool, on the beach, etcbasically just doing the Hedo shuffle from place to place. We did a little bit of exploring as well. At some point we wound up in the new cooling pools (which I give a big thumbs up and they are always cleanand you can get naked) and snoozed for a while in one of the little cabanas during an afternoon rainstorm. Thursday night was toga night so we put on our togas (what there was of them) and had dinner with friends, then decided to crash for a while. You have to have those daily naps, and we missed ours on Thursday. We woke up around 10:30 and decided to go hit the bar and the disco. We danced and observed togas for a whilegeneral merriment and frivolitythen hit the nude pool and hot tub for a little late night relaxation. The night ended uneventfully as we knew tomorrows dawn would bring our final sunrise at home.
Friday morning consisted of the requisite packing, souvenir buying for friends, etcbefore finally hitting the pool for a final few hours of sun and fun. I must say, even though they were tired, our friends represented well and partied with us in the pool up until minutes before we had to catch our shuttle. We feasted on lobster, dirty bananas, and cold Red Stripe up until the last minute! But all good things must end, and we had to say adios to the pool and our friends, and (gulp!!!) put clothes on and board the shuttle back to the airport. Gretchen shed many tears and we were both generally depressed. We are already counting down the days until next years trip!
The flight home was exciting as about 30 minutes into, a guy about three rows back started having some sort of convulsions. At first, I thought he was choking on something. It created general chaos for a few minutes and they were worried that his scuba diving the day before was somehow causing problems. Much screaming and running around on the plane. However, after a cold pack and some juicehe was ok. We arrived back at DFW around 10:30, collected our bags and headed home in generally somber silence. As fun as Hedo is, the coming down is a bitch. We had all day Saturday and Sunday to recover before heading back to workand you would not have wanted to be in our house those two days. It was as if thered been a death. I believe its called DIF!!! Luckily some neighbors were having a party and we were able to share stories, and even made some jerk chicken for everyone including some of that great red dipping sauce that I managed to smuggle out in a bottle thanks to one of the chefs named Andrew. Good stuff and another example of the fine service we received this time. Andrew walked all the way from the cooling pool back down to Robert's Grill and brought us the sauce AND and a heaping plate of chicken, all in a pouring rain!!!!
Oh yeah, one last thought: puking in the pool is not cool. Whoever did that (and we think were pretty damn sure we know who it wasnon WWWers, so no worries, mon), you suck..