We made our first trip to Hedo II this past week. Let's just say the DIF set in when we landed in Pittsburgh yesterday evening. "Welcome to Pittsburgh. It's 18 degrees and snowing." BLAH.
I won't go into great detail about the flight down, mostly because that's not very exciting or new. Trip was relatively smooth. We did stand in line at incoming customs for quite a while but found Cowgirl's red hat in about 5 minutes. They were a few rows behind us. Apparently, that long line turned into a nightmare after we left. Short price to pay for a week in paradise.
The bus trip was fine. We did stop at a bar about half an hour from Hedo for Red Stripes and bathroom breaks. Photog grabbed some jerk chicken. I tried the sauce and wept a little. WAY too hot for me. We dropped off the non-Hedonists at Breezes then passed by that awesome sign that says HEDONISM II. WOOT! Arrival and check-in was as smooth as can be, despite the fact that we arrived during a torrential downpour. A quick Mimosa, a hug from Cowgirl&Cowboy, then off to the room. We got absolutely soaked trying to find our room. We had no idea where we were going but we found a few naked people who showed us the way. Our bags arrived about 20 minutes after we did. We were GVN with a room literally 20 feet from the nude pool, which was relatively empty due to the rain. I said "F*CK it...let's go." My thought was that it would be easier to BE naked in public than to GET naked in public. So I stripped and walked out of the room. I had about a 5-second burst of "WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING??" then a naked dude walked by, waved, and said "What's up?" No big deal. We hit the nude pool for our first naked Red Stripe. After that...no problem, mon.
The room was everything I expected. Functional, small, clean, a bit out-dated. We didn't spend a WHOLE lot of time there. It was perfectly fine for what we needed it to be...a place to sleep, change, escape the heat a bit. Yes, the bathroom was small. Yes, we didn't have hot water a day or two. But it was clean and functional.
The RedHatDinner (ATF folks) was great! We all met in the dining room, had dinner and drinks, and partied like teenagers. That was just a great idea to break the "ice" and meet up with new friends.
Piano bar was interesting. We missed the YMCA, though. We didn't really spend too much time in there. The piano bar highlight for me was Bob of Bob&Laura. I will never hear "Ice Ice Baby" the same way again. Truly some of the funniest shit I've ever seen in my life! We are still laughing about that. Oh and randy's Bohemian Rhapsody was nothing short of EPIC.
The food in general was decent. We weren't expecting a five-star Michelin experience. Dinners were good. We ate at the nude grill most lunches. Breakfast was always fine. Love the croissants, bacon, poached eggs. Oh and a mimosas every morning is wonderful. Something for everyone, unless you're impossible to please. The Italian dinner was great. I had the pesto salmon which was fantastic. Munasan was average. A good meal, but not off the chart. We certainly didn't go hungry. Dressing up for dinner was fun...I rarely get to be girly so I made the most of it. Only participated in a few theme nights but it was still a great time. The entertainment in the dining room was good on most nights, fantastic on others.
The service was fantastic for us but that's probably because we're nice people who treat others with respect. We said "please" and "thank you". We made eye contact. We didn't throw shit on the floor. If you had a bad service experience, it's because you're an asshole. I actually saw one woman shake an empty champagne glass at a server without saying a word, let alone "please". The staff in general were just wonderful. The dining room folks, the ECs (Fifty, Deon, Bree, etc), the bar staff (Diego in the disco, both Delroys). We made an effort to talk to people, shake hands, hug, say thank you...and in return they bent over backwards for us. Absolutely no concern there. I had a massage at the spa from Jennifer that was really great. I left there so relaxed i thought I'd need to be resuscitated.
The disco was hit-or-miss. A few nights you could have heard crickets if the music weren't thumping. The music was fantastic, but it was never packed in there. There were a few nights that we brought the party with us. The DJ was awesome, I thought, but he was rockin' our kind of music and always took requests.
A group of us walked down the beach to Cosmo's with denmother Cowgirl and scoutmaster Cowboy in the lead. They tried to keep us rounded up, but it was like herding kittens. The lunch at Cosmo's was FANTASTIC. Probably the best meal we had. So worth the about-2-mile walk. My only complaint about that was I got tan lines from that little adventure. HA.
The nude hot tub was a good bit of fun. Yes, you will see people doing dirty things to each other. The good ones are sexy and exciting. The not-so-good ones are like bad porn. So we just ignored it. There were a few incidents throughout the week of people trying to inject themselves into our fun but we just ignored them and they went away. Some nights we participated. Some nights we just enjoyed the company and the hot water. It's what you make of it. If you're not comfortable with people having sex in public, you might be better off at Breezes/Sandals.
The nude pool is amazing. So much fun. Once I figured out that there were actually 2 Delroys, that is. Only saw Scumba once. Serena was awesome, too. That was where we spent probably most of our sunlight time. Never actually made it to the main pool. Imagine that. Loved the Dirty Bananas and Purple Rains. That pool is where we met some of the funniest, quirkiest, most amazing people.
And now about that...the people truly are what makes Hedo shine. The facilities are OK. The food is OK. Negril is of course beautiful. But the PEOPLE...just spectacular. Our trip was kicked off with Cowgirl&Cowboy, Bob&Laura, 1961, T&A, CdnCpl, and a few others at the RedHatDinner. I met a few of the Bubbly Bares who were fun people and included us in their great champagne beach party. Later on in the week we met TENNHEDOLOVERS, DANMAR, Jesski, S&T from Seattle, P&S from Texas, R&J from Florida, SunsetBill from JSWT, and many more. I wish I had a photographic memory so I could list all the fantastic friends we met. If we hadn't found those people, it'd have been just another vacation at just another resort. We didn't have a huge problem with Vinnies/Wallies. Just once in the nude hot tub, really. Any other time I just swam away or shot a nasty look. No worry.
The information I got from here was a HUGE factor in how prepared we were. I overpacked like a boss, though. Next time I will literally take half of what I did. Probably just a small check-through bag and a regular carry-on would suffice.
We're contemplating Halloween, mostly because one couple that we adore are planning to be there and said it's amazing at Hedoween.
We'll see. There are other places that we want to go, but I truly think we will be back at Hedo.
Sorry for the lengthy ramblings, but there's just so much to say!! Thanks for a great vacation, Hedo!! We got wicked for a week
Bookmarks