We were at Hedo between 8 - 23 March; this was our 4th trip and the first since the new owners have taken over. Here goes .....
The Pros:
We had one of the renovated Nude Beach Jacuzzi Suites. Since we spent quite a lot of time on loungers near our room, we had lots of people asking for tours and the consensus was that they are really nice! The bedding is all new - crisp and fresh, with nice new pillow shams and decorative throws. The bath linens appeared to be new and of much better quality as well. The new glass enclosed bathrooms are lovely and the supposed lack of privacy wasn't an issue for either of us. The shower is lovely - spacious and light; the new vanities with double above-the-counter sinks and larger mirror were terrific. I was tickled by how many people stopped to try the drawers on the new bureaus as we all know how badly the old ones stuck due to the countless layers of paint on them! The new hot tubs are larger which makes the deck more crowded but they are proper tubs with much better filters and therefore easier to keep clean.
We've felt that the food was just OK to begin with, and better the last time we were there than on previous trips, but I thought it was better still this time. Seemed to be a slightly better variety, too, and much better presentation. Really enjoyed the suckling pig, the grilled lobster tail and the crepe station. Austin is still the Omelet King and the little girl working the pancake griddle and slicing ham each morning was adorable! I was less impressed with Martino's this time but Harry Sans' was great, and always fun.
Overall you could tell the place was really being spruced up - just tidier and fresher everywhere. Dining room looked a bit sharper, but already the new cushions are beginning to show wear. But the main difference we both detected was the improvement in staff attitude and morale. Everyone seemed to be happier and more enthusiastic about doing their jobs. That's huge because the last time we were there, all the staff seemed to be phoning it in and far too many of them acted like it was a real imposition to deal with the guests. I chatted with a few different staff members and while they weren't effusive about their treatment by the new owners, they did all seem to agree that things were better from their point of view as well.
Check-in was a breeze, but then we'd never had any real problems with that before. And the one time we didn't have any hot water - the first day! - I reported it and an hour later it was resolved and stayed that way for the duration, so kudos there. We all also remember the days when you were lucky if you got even a false assurance that it would be 'taken care of"! And no more Lysol needed for the AC units, lol!
Really good to see top shelf liquor on offer now - another big improvement! I'm not a big drinker really, so when I do decide to imbibe it was nice to have a really good drink. Good to see the usual suspects working the bars still!
What I call the Repeat Offenders parties were both quite nice with lovely buffets and a bar set up by the main pool. Makes perfect sense to have them outside in the gorgeous weather, which is one reason we're all there, after all, instead of indoors at the disco which is dark.
The floor shows were a real step up from past efforts as well. Great to see Winston still there and promoted - he hasn't lost his touch, or his charm and quick wit, at all! Sadly, we didn't get to see Winston do his show - the one I call the Great Reveal ... we just caught the last minutes of it the night we arrived and he didn't do it again over the next 2 weeks which was a shame because our friends didn't get to see it. Oh well, any excuse to come home again, right?!
The Cons:
Some of these may sound nit-picky, but I'm looking at it from the angle of big price increases and what seemed to me the attempt - fairly - to bring Hedo up to at least 4-star standards. So with that in mind .....
While we felt that the food was better and better presented this trip, and accepting the limitations imposed by hot buffet lines for large crowds, I still felt that at the end of each week there were far too many re-incarnations of left-over meat and veg showing up in the form of casseroles and curries. And it seems strange to me that they don't feature more local style foods. I'm a callaloo whore, I'll admit it out loud, and in 2 weeks it was on the menu only 3 times ... actually it was on the menu several times but as the original batch got eaten up, the leftovers were stretched out with cabbage to the point that, on 2 occasions, there was literally no callaloo there at all. The pastry selection in the morning was the same ... as supplies got eaten up, the leftovers would have some livid pink icing slashed over them and be put out again and again. Not appetizing to look at and stale to boot.
In the same vein, at this price point, it comes across as chiseling to serve off-brand liquor and mixers and make people ask for top shelf. And I'm of the opinion that cheap, off-brand and bad-tasting tonic water will ruin even the best gin or vodka. The only time I could get good tonic was at the Welcome Back parties where they were using bottles of Schweppes or Canada Dry. The tap was local stuff that was horrible. So if you're aiming to improve standards and compete with other 4- and 5-star resorts, then do it properly. FYI, Ting turns out to be damned good with Tanqueray! The wines were better this trip but still need improvement ... this from my husband, an expert, and our friends, wine-growers from France!
The EC gang are the hardest working members of staff there, but this new crowd didn't mix and mingle with guests like the former group and that changed the dynamic at the nude pool, especially. Also, there are way more men than women in the group which was off-balance, and there is a huge disparity between the genders in terms of skill, talent, choreography and attitude, with much more effort put into the guys' routines and costumes and the girls left to rely on twerking and body rolls while wearing slapdash costumes and in many cases, dancer's tights full of runs and holes. Again, my feeling is either do it right, and do it well, or don't do it at all. Every night the sound system was turned up WAY too loud which only meant that guests were shouting at each other which just ramped up the noise level even further. Lastly, out of the entire 2 weeks of after-dinner shows, only 2 of them were really good - and those were REALLY good, which just makes the point - they're capable of doing it, but are terribly inconsistent.
My final point in this section would be about the likewise inconsistent nature of patrolling the nude end of the resort. It appears that they're aiming to turn the whole thing into a naturist resort and that's great, but for the time being it's still Nude and Prude, and that means that if you're at the Nude end, then you have to be naked. The security guards were really good about running off the obvious Looky-Lous, but in our opinion there were far too many people semi-clothed at the nude end. I just don't buy the notion that all those women were on their periods ... for one thing, the last thing you're going to wear during that week is a white bikini bottom, and for another, there are simply too many ways to handle that eventuality without wearing a swimsuit. I hate to sound like a schoolmarm, but rules are rules, and those of us who go there precisely because we can get naked and pretty much stay that way while we're there resent prudes changing the dynamic.
On the flip side of that is my complaint about way too many people turning up in the dining room at dinner time virtually naked. Clearly, I'm at Hedo, and gladly so, so I'm not a prig, but I really don't want to look at droopy man-boobs or have a woman's bare ass in my face as she bends over to put her plate down. If the rule is to be clothed in the dining room, then damn it, put on a short sexy dress, and it's not going to kill those guys to put on a polo shirt for a couple of hours. They can be like me - stripping off on their way back to their room immediately after dinner or the show!
Oh, I forgot one thing my husband just reminded me about ... way too many single guys there this time. I don't have a problem with single guys there per se, but I have a big problem with single guys who are clearly there to perv on the guests. Our friends were practically stalked by a couple of different guys, and there was one who pestered us. We're not averse to people scoring there, or going there to play, and we indulged in our fair share of PDA, so again, not prigs, but we go there to chill, relax and have some fun, not to have to engage in stealth manoeuvers to avoid these guys. Not sure how management could police this, but it was a problem.
Further Thoughts:
I'll be interested to hear from y'all about the following:
Groups: Although we travel on our own, we love the groups because they usually make the Hedo experience a lot of fun. Not so much this time. The first week was the Miss No Swimsuit competition ... fine except literally only one of the girls in the contest bothered to speak to anyone not part of their group, and she won Ms Congeniality! All the rest of them were busy playing to their group, in an effort to get the votes, so real EXclusive. They also co-opted the stage every night so all those who weren't part of the group were either forced to sit through their shtick till the floor show, or leave and hope to get a seat again later. After they left, 2 more groups checked in and there were simply too many people. The nude pool was heaving - I mean absolutely heaving - it was simply not possible for one more person to get in there. Nor was there any of the come-join-us attitude I would have expected based on past experience. As we were leaving, one of those groups was too, and 2 more were checking in - I can only imagine how crowded it must have been the week after we left. Hedo booking needs to manage this issue better, and it goes to my next point ...
Based on all the cross-over that was happening in terms of people wearing something while on the Nude end and being topless (or nude) on the Prude end, it seems like it just makes sense for the whole resort to be naturist, or at least clothing optional. Then the groups could use the whole resort - both pools, both beach grills and bars, etc. and not have to be concentrated at just the one pool. I do have to give credit where credit is due ... the bar staff at the nude pool bar were stellar - despite being absolutely overrun with the groups, they kept up and kept, for the most part, a smile on their face!
The Resort Itself: It occurred to us that they are seriously under-utilizing the deep and broad expanse of beach by the disco, at the Prude end. We'd like to see them terrace down from the main pool deck to the beach thereby creating room for outdoor dining, not necessarily as a separate restaurant, but as optional seating for breakfast, lunch or just drinks in the shade.
On all our trips we've lamented the lack of outdoor dining seating so we could have breakfast outdoors, or a shady place to have lunch while staying naked. There could also be space for dancing when they have the BBQs and steel drum bands, or for groups who currently have to use the deck around the main pool, making it unusable for people who want to listen to the music from the stage but sit outside, have drinks and visit with their friends, or who just aren't part of that group. To that end, they need to add a LOT more tables and chairs on that pool deck as well. Likewise, in the sort of open terrace area amidst the casino, piano bar and shops next to the dining room. Because the sound system was ear-bleedingly loud, we would have been tickled to be able to grab a table out there during the show to have drinks, hear the music, and still be able to hear ourselves.
Technically, the nude pool bar and grill don't reopen until midnight, and that's too late in our opinion. It was our experience that loads of people didn't really want to go to the piano bar or the disco, but there's no where to go between 10 or 10.30 and midnight. Simple fix - open that bar and the grill at 10.30 or 11 pm - that gives people time to get back to their rooms, get their kit off and by the time they've wandered down there, it's all open and the party's started. Otherwise - and this is what happened many nights we were there - you've got a bunch of people just milling about, waiting and complaining!
I guess those are all the main points I wanted to make. As with any trip there were good points and not-so-good points, but all in all, we had a great time, relaxed and put down a really shit previous year for a couple weeks and that's what we went there for. Our Newbie friends found their Hedo legs faster than just about anyone I've ever seen there and that was great to see! The only downside is that the flights from the UK have gotten so damned expensive that we just can't afford to go every year like we did for a while, and with that in mind we had truly bad cases of DIF about 24 hours after we got back! Just have to plan better, so we can home come soon!
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