A Vacation Fantasy tempered by Travel Nightmare – 6/28/11 to 7/3/11

[STL-MO-CPL]

If the airlines operated a cruise ship, I'd call it the S.S. FAILBOAT. The obnoxious delays, missed flights and lost luggage would be hard to believe if we didn't experience it ourselves. I'll split my trip report into the Bad and the Good.

We'll start with the Bad Stuff and get that out of the way first. At 3:00am on Tuesday, we woke up and left for the airport for our 6:00am flight on US Airways from St. Louis to Charlotte. After boarding the plane and waiting for nearly an hour, they discovered a maintenance discrepancy and let us all off the plane. We were lucky enough to get boarded on the next flight to Charlotte, coincidentally at the very next gate. Finally, we were on our way to Charlotte, but missed our connection in Charlotte to Montego Bay due to the delay. US Airways auto-booked us on the next Montego Bay flight mid-air, so we had to rush to the next gate when we got to Charlotte and ended up missing lunch. This flight was delayed on the tarmac by about half an hour, but then we finally made our way to Jamaica. Once there, we discovered that our luggage didn't make the trip. Both checked bags somehow ended up in Miami. How did that happen? We didn't even come through Miami! US Airways said they'd deliver it to the resort tomorrow after it came in on an early American Airlines flight. Every single thing we packed for our trip was missing. All we had was the clothes on our back and her purse. Tuesday was PJ night too, and we were really looking forward to participating with the items we bought specifically for this theme. We finally made it to dinner around 7:00pm. We were starving since we hadn't eaten since way before dawn. Lacking the Pjs we bought for the trip, we couldn't attend the PJ party and ended up just retiring early at 10:30pm after picking up our beach towels. On Wednesday we called US Airways and they said the luggage had been loaded on a truck and would be delivered to the hotel that night. Wednesday came and went with no sign of our luggage. Thursday we went to call again after breakfast and our luggage was sitting right there in the lobby. Finally!

Fast forward past the Good Stuff to Sunday, our last day at Hedo. The ride to the airport was fine and our American Airlines return flight was uneventful until we got to Miami. This was our first trip through Customs and Immigration there, so we were not too sure about leaving our bags with an American Airlines lady outside Customs. We handed both of our matching identical bags to the lady who put them side-by-side along with all the other bags with a leap of faith. Our flight boarded on time, but we sat there for about 30 minutes waiting for the flight crew. Once they arrived, we then sat for another 30 minutes when they failed to start the engines. Finally, we were on our way home to St. Louis. We landed around midnight only to find American lost one of our bags! What are the chances that they would have only picked up one of our two identical matching bags that were sitting side-by-side that were both marked for St. Louis delivery? Twice in the same trip, our luggage was lost by two separate airlines. On Monday, it was forecast to storm, so I left a note on the door asking the delivery guy to stuff our bag into a large trash bag that I draped over our doorhandle. I had no idea when he would arrive, so the note was my best solution to protect our bag from the weather. It showed up sometime after 6:00pm and the jerkwad added his note “Not my job” underneath my request. That was like rubbing salt in the wound. My next update to this thread will include all the Good Stuff that happened on our trip.

[spankme422]

omg that sucks ! mt luggage was lost for a bit when I returned to st louis after our trip too. I figured they were just unroagnized bc we flew into lambert 2 days after the good friday tornadoes. guess i weas wrong...... cant wait to hear the good !

[CandG]

That really is a travel nightmare! We've been very fortunate with luggage on our trips and I can't imagine what it would be like to be at Hedo the first couple of days without luggage knowing how carefully people plan their clothes for each theme night. I guess on the positive side, of you're going to arrive at a resort with nothing but the clothes on your back, it's better to be at a resort where you don't even need the clothes on your back! Looking forward to the fun stuff on either side of the two nightmares of your trip.

[Jointlock]

Sorry for all the problems. This was the first time we ever had problems too; but it was all due to weather. The most important part: you home safe and sound !

[Red Stripe]

what a NIGHTMARE!!! hope to hear all the good stuff soon!!

[lauraff7]

One of our first trips to Hedo, our bags were lost and delivered late on Day 2. Ever since then, we have learned to bring our costumes for Day 1 and 2 in our carry on bag, along with whatever else we consider bare necessities for a day or two.

We were also at Hedo from June 29 to July 5, so looking forward to hearing your report!

Laura

[STL-MO-CPL]

Now on to the Good Stuff that happened on our trip. Bear in mind, this was our third trip to Jamaica, but our first ever to Hedonism II. We had previously booked a trip to Hedonism III several years ago, but had to cancel at the last minute due to circumstances. We stayed in a Prude Side Ocean View room in the second to last building from the edge of the resort. We soon learned it was quite a hike to just about anywhere on property, much less the Nude Side. We would probably not stay over there again if given the choice, but we didn't know any better and saved some bucks by staying Prude Side. We also had practically zero experience with Clothing Optional anything, so this was a relatively painless way to dip our toe in the water so-to-speak. Believe me, we had some extensive discussions about what would or would not happen on this trip. I'm very grateful the wife agreed to go. It was a very positive trip overall for both of us in this 13th year of our marriage.

Tuesday – Met up with “That Guy” (spare change) first thing right after checking in. He was quite the character! Not exactly the best resort ambassador to welcome Hedo Virgins such as ourselves. Since we had no luggage to slow us down (thanks US Airways!!!), we took a tour of the property with Sticky Nikki. We only told her our names that one time and she ended up remembering us the entire trip. Her ability to memorize names/faces is quite impressive. We ate dinner, watched the EC fashion show and decided to skip the PJ party in the disco due to the lack of our specially chosen outfits being in Miami with the rest of our luggage. We headed back to the room and noticed a random hot tub stuck in the middle of the lawn near our Prude Side Ocean View room and decided to take a skinny dip. We had no choice due to the lack of luggage mentioned earlier. The lack of luggage actually liberated us a bit. Involuntarily, it helped eliminate some roadblocks in our heads since we were kind of “forced” to go nude so early. We hit the sack at 10:30 since it was a VERY long day with way more drama than we wanted.

Wednesday – We were up early at 8am and had no choice but to hit the nude side after breakfast. Afterall, we didn't even have our swimsuits. This was the very first time we had ever both whipped it out in public, true Hedo Virgins through and through. We met L. & D. (who hung out with magjoy and STARR's crew quite a bit) while floating on the rafts in the ocean. They were so warm and friendly, we really appreciated the conversation. We're naturally shy people, so the overwhelming openness of the people we met helped draw us out of our shell. We then met J. & B. from Maine in the nude pool. They too were very friendly and we spent time with them on and off throughout the rest of the week. We had lunch at the prude side beach grill and got roped into a Lunchtime Spin contest where we met NJdove (J. & C. from NJ) for the first time on stage in a sexual position contest. Talk about an ice breaker! We took a nap and headed to the nude pool where we met travel agent couple T. & C.A. All day long we met wonderful people everywhere we turned. Our dinner reservations at Munasan introduced us to the two guys from Boston. Such nice guys, you could count on them at the prude beach bar all week long. The fetish night EC fashion show was quite interesting. Enjoyed the latex decorations on display by C. (NJdove)! We swung by the Piano Bar until we saw J. (of J. & B. from Maine) trying to rope us into a sing-a-long, so we quickly bailed before being initiated as Hedo Virgins in front of everyone at the bar. Thanks to this site, I knew when to stick around and when to run the other way. After enjoying the nude pool and hot tub around midnight, we hit the sack at 2am for our latest night of the trip. Wow, that is one HUGE hot tub. I drank a lot this day and paid the price on Thursday.

Thursday – Waking up sucked big time, so I skipped alcohol this whole day so I could bounce back. I had to go easy on breakfast due to the after effects from last night, but we finally got our luggage! It was waiting at the front. We were soooo happy to have all our stuff back. We took a kayak for a spin and then hit the nude pool again. At Lunchtime Spin, we won our first bottle of rum by dominating the trivia contest. We then fulfilled the wife's longtime desire to go parasailing. It was a blast, but the sneaky way we had to go about it left us scratching our heads. Must be something about who gets kickbacks and who doesn't. After nap, we suited up in our togas. The wife is really creative and did a great job creating our outfits. We both competed. J. (NJdove) and I were disappointed in the number of participants who violated the no panty rule. The couple fun4play2 always came ready to stun, so I was happy to see her win the female contest. She had the most amazing outfits all week. Every night was better than the previous. Wife and I went commando just as intended and enjoyed collecting our Hedo Bucks for participation. Brief piano bar visit, then back to the nude hot tub for shenanigans. Bedtime around 1am.

Friday – Woke up late, played some ping pong after breakfast and booked our couple's massage at the spa. We were sad to see J. & B. from Maine leave. They were our expert resources on who's who and what's what on our first Hedo trip. We chatted with A. & S. from Australia at the prude pool before J. & C. (NJdove) took us sailing on a catamaran. What a trip! We got some great pictures and really enjoyed the sailing. Late lunch at the Nude grill followed by a very long nap. We were kind of nervous about how “all out” to go in the rock star contest. The wife ended up skipping her costume, but I jumped in full bore. I really didn't want to have to dance on stage, but just swallowed my pride and acted a fool. Glad I did, because I won! That scored our second bottle of rum. This was a very early night for us and we were in bed before 11pm.

Saturday – Cleaned up the room a bit after breakfast and then headed over to our couple's massage. Didn't remember the names of our ladies, but it was very nice. We were very sad to see J. & C. (NJdove) leave. I thought it was very interesting to see the population really pick up drastically this day. The resort's character shifts as people come and go. Met a nice couple from Kalamazoo on their virgin trip. It didn't take long to see them take “full advantage” of the facilities. Too bad our paths only crossed so briefly. After lunch, we felt mischievous and pulled off some shenanigans in the plunge pool right in front of the gym in broad daylight. That was easily the most “edgy” thing we've ever done in our lives. Wooohooo for us! Had to sample the water slide at least once. It was faster than I expected and I feel this feature of the resort is underutilized. We saw maybe one person per day use it. We hit the nude beach for one last time and soaked in the wonderful scenery and weather. After nap, our reservations at Martino's awaited. We were NOT ready for all those legs in the spaghetti. The squid was quite unexpected, no thank you. We hung out at the piano bar for quite a while tonight and saw an interesting MMF situation unfold. We hit the nude hot tub for shenanigans one last time. This visit, we saw the most couple's action of our trip and it was very eye opening. Hot stuff! In bed at midnight.

Sunday – Woke up late on our final day. Ran into the Kalamazoo couple at breakfast and wished them well on the rest of their trip. Packed up at 10am and left for the airport at noon. The travel drama continued back home in St. Louis, but I beat that topic to death in my previous post. Enough of that.

Summary – Without getting too philosophical, this trip really did change our lives. We started going to the gym almost 2 years ago. After noticing some fairly significant improvements, I had built up enough self confidence to actually consider a trip like this. Knowing I had always wanted to go here to see what all the fuss was about, the wife kindly agreed to indulge my fantasy of actually going to Hedonism. We're not in the Lifestyle, so it still took a leap of faith to book the trip. Thank goodness we did. The Lifestyle guys we met are fantastic people. Really opened our eyes to how normal they are. We live a pretty sheltered life here in STL. You literally see all walks of life at Hedo (retirees, engineers, military, travel agents, admin/clerical, teachers, doctors, prosecutors, etc.). Very reassuring to see that. Their friendly, outgoing attitudes helped welcome us into their social circle and we made good friends that we looked forward to seeing each day at meals or in the pool. Losing our luggage was a blessing in disguise. If we had any hesitation about going naked, that forced the issue for us. It was awesome. The pleasure of feeling the warm tropical breeze on you while soaking in the sun is quite indescribable. Swimming “free” in the pool is also quite nice. We've read the old criticisms about the food, the condition of the facilities, the décor, etc. It really does all boil down to the people though. The resort has a personality of its own and it changes as quickly as the population comes and goes. I'm so excited to finally be able to post this report, I've been waiting a long time for the privilege. I love my wife so much for agreeing to go.

[magjoy]

Glad you had a great time! There was a bunch of cool people there when I left!

yeah, Early July is when a bunch of lifestylers come in.

Did NJdove tell you about their first night (or rather, morning) there? HAHA...too fuckin funny!

[earthangel496]

great trip report, glad you two had enlightening trip, when is your next trip scheduled

Boy you two really need to step your hedo party up, you slept way too much

party like rockstars, f_ _ k like pornstars, and dance like nobody's watching

[magjoy]

great trip report, glad you two had enlightening trip, when is your next trip scheduled

Boy you two really need to step your hedo party up, you slept way too much

party like rockstars, f_ _ k like pornstars, and dance like nobody's watching

Eh, I think to each their own. Some want to get a decent amount of sleep on vacation, the whole hedo creed "it's your vacation" I think for some people, partying til midnight is plenty.
Others can, for the most part, get away with the "I'll sleep when I get home" moto.

says the person who passed out at 5 pm on travel day after 3 or 4 bubba kegs full of woo, 3 rounds of shots (purple motherfuckers) a creamsicle drink and probably a few other things thrown in.

I think, after 7 trips. we have finally found a groove that works for me. I wake up at the butt crack of dawn, beg for breakfast, finally eat, go back to the room and pass out. he's either with me or just waking up. Wake up again around 10, and be at the pool around 11. I'll usually take a nap twice a trip for him. Sadly, our bodies were out of sync this year, poor husband!
He had problems sleeping and missed a few dinners. Sometimes, I'll be able to actually nap before dinner. previous trips if I go down, I stay down.

[CandG]

Great trip report STL-MO-CPL. It's nice to see that you were able to experience the "magic" of Hedo despite your terrible travel problems. It sounds like you made the most of sa relatively short trip. I bet your next one is longer!

[earthangel496]

Eh, I think to each their own. Some want to get a decent amount of sleep on vacation, the whole hedo creed "it's your vacation" I think for some people, partying til midnight is plenty.
Others can, for the most part, get away with the "I'll sleep when I get home" moto.

says the person who passed out at 5 pm on travel day after 3 or 4 bubba kegs full of woo, 3 rounds of shots (purple motherfuckers) a creamsicle drink and probably a few other things thrown in.

I think, after 7 trips. we have finally found a groove that works for me. I wake up at the butt crack of dawn, beg for breakfast, finally eat, go back to the room and pass out. he's either with me or just waking up. Wake up again around 10, and be at the pool around 11. I'll usually take a nap twice a trip for him. Sadly, our bodies were out of sync this year, poor husband!
He had problems sleeping and missed a few dinners. Sometimes, I'll be able to actually nap before dinner. previous trips if I go down, I stay down.

you two sound like us, totally unsderstand the pass out on travel day, I went down at 5 pm for about 4 hours and then started over , but our first visit to Hedo was also a little overwhelming, hence the question "when is your next trip scheduled?" we know how bad DIF is after returning, we weren't home for 24 hours before we were booking our second adventure:-)

[magjoy]

you two sound like us, totally unsderstand the pass out on travel day, I went down at 5 pm for about 4 hours and then started over , but our first visit to Hedo was also a little overwhelming, hence the question "when is your next trip scheduled?" we know how bad DIF is after returning, we weren't home for 24 hours before we were booking our second adventure:-)

Would love to go twice a year...perhaps when we have an "empty nest", However, when we do go, it's not a short trip, usually 10 days.

[STL-MO-CPL]

I thought the 5 nights was a good length of time for us. If only I could have picked which theme nights fell during that time. Would have really enjoyed schoolgirl night. It was an amazing trip, really did wonders for us. We'd be open to considering Desire or Sea Mountain Inn just to compare.

[CandG]

I thought the 5 nights was a good length of time for us. If only I could have picked which theme nights fell during that time. Would have really enjoyed schoolgirl night. It was an amazing trip, really did wonders for us. We'd be open to considering Desire or Sea Mountain Inn just to compare.

Comparing Sea Mountain Inn to Hedo wouldn't be a fair comparison. They're both fun in their own ways, but SMI is no Hedo. It's MUCH smaller and has a different, although fun, vibe. It would truly be an apples to oranges comparison. That doesn't mean you shouldn't go to try it out though.