Sandals Montego Bay

Getting There

We planned this vacation earlier this year when we realized that we were just shy of 70 nights at Sandals, the milestone for getting a free week at a Sandals resort of our choice. Then in June, Judi had her stroke, and we didn’t know if we’d be able to make the trip. We hired a home aid company who could help out while we were away and crossed our fingers. Everything looked like a go, but then along came Tropical Storm Nicole and our Friday morning flight was cancelled. Jet Blue rescheduled the flight for Saturday afternoon, which meant we’d miss a day in Jamaica, but as long as we could get to the resort sometime on Saturday, we’d still earn our free week. We spent Friday night in Orlando and woke up to the news that now the airport was fogged in. Seriously??? Our flight was delayed another two hours, and by the time we finally made it to Sandals, it was 7 o’clock, dark and raining, and we were tired, hungry, and grumpy. We had dinner at Cricketer’s Pub since it was the most casual restaurant, and we were still in our grubby travel clothes. Once we’d gotten some fish and chips and steak pie in our bellies, we were feeling much better. We’d made it! The rain had stopped, so we walked over to Latitudes, the over-the-water bar, enjoying the night breeze and the lights of the resort. I couldn’t wait to see everything in daylight.

Sunday

The next morning, I woke up at 6 and sat out on our balcony, watching the clouds turn orange and pink in the sunrise. What a view! The walkway in front of our building wound along the seawall. The Island Routes catamaran was anchored just offshore in the turquoise water. I noticed some motion on the path below and thought it was one of the resort cats but then I realized it was a mongoose. How cool!

view from our balcony

Mongoose!

After Ron got up, we went to the breakfast buffet at Bayside, then walked around to get our bearings. We’d spent three days at Sandals Mobay in 2010, but a lot had changed since then. Latitudes had been added, as well as a couple of new restaurants, Butch’s Steakhouse and Soy Sushi Bar, and the coffee shop, Café de Paris. The lobby and rooms were completely updated. I loved our room in the Almonds Building. It was in the perfect location, right on the water and convenient to everything but private at the same time. The room was smallish, just large enough to fit a king-sized bed, but the bathroom had a huge shower and trough sink. There was even a soaking tub on the balcony. I didn't think we'd use the tub except for hanging our wet bathing suits, but it turned out to be great for soaking off the salt after a day on the beach.

the lobby

main pool

memorial to Butch Stewart, founder of Sandals

One of my goals for the trip was to take advantage of all the included watersports. As much as I’d loved Sandals Barbados for its pools and restaurants, it didn’t have much in the way of watersports and I’d missed that. Sandals MoBay had a long stretch of beach, and the water was calm enough for sailing, paddleboarding, kayaking and skiing. We had to wait out a passing rain shower, but it was over quickly, leaving a beautiful rainbow, and it stayed sunny and hot the rest of the trip. We found some shaded lounge chairs under an almond tree near the aqua center. I wasn’t quite ready for wakeboarding, so we took one of the Hobie Cat sailboats out for a ride, then spent the rest of the day floating around in the water. The pools at the Sandals Mobay were small, so the beach was definitely the place to be.

That night we watched a gorgeous sunset from Latitudes and ate dinner at Soy, sharing a bunch of different sushi rolls – the champagne roll, crispy Philly, snow crab and spicy tuna. Yum! We went to Cricketer’s Pub for the Sunday night football game, but I couldn’t stay awake, so we were back in the room by 9 o’clock. Vacationing is hard work! :-)

Monday

breakfast at Cucina Romana

Monday was the day for our Martha Brae Bamboo River Rafting tour. Martha Brae is a river that winds through Trelawny Parish on the island’s north coast. During colonial times, rafts made of bamboo were used to transport sugar from Trelawny’s sugarcane plantations to the port in Falmouth, where it could be shipped to Europe. Now the 35-foot-long rafts are used for tours. It sounded like a fun and different way to get away from the beach and see a little more of Jamaica.

Our driver met us in the lobby at 10 o’clock. We were the first ones on the bus, but after four more hotel stops, the bus filled up. Then it was about a half hour drive to Martha Brae Village where the tour began. It took a while for our driver to sort out our tickets with the ticket office. While we waited, Ron ordered a rum and Ting (a Caribbean grapefruit soda) from the bar. Rum and Ting is our favorite drink when we’re in Jamaica, but weirdly Sandals doesn’t have Ting at their bars, so we were very happy that the bartender let us take the rest of the bottle with us to drink later.

When our driver finally had all our tickets, he led our group down to the dock where we boarded the rafts. Our raft captain, Danny, was an older gentleman who had been guiding rafts for 30 years. The ride down the river was absolutely beautiful. The water was emerald-green, and the banks were lined with red ginger and birds of paradise. Sometimes we would pass through tunnels of towering bamboo plants. As Danny steered the raft with a long pole, he pointed out purple bananas and a giant termite nest in a tree. There were a few vendors on the banks along the way, selling conch shells and Red Stripe, and some of the rafters in our group pulled over to pick up souvenirs. We opted not to stop but ended up buying a calabash bowl that Danny carved with our names.

It was 1:30 when we got back to the resort. We ate a quick lunch at Bayside and then headed down to the beach. I was ready to do some wakeboarding, but the winds had picked up and the watersports guys warned me that it might be a little rough. I decided to go for it anyway. I got up on the board, but the guys were right, it was really choppy. I made it almost all the way back to the beach when I fell. So close! Oh well, we still had one more day left. I could try again in the morning when it was calmer. On our way back to our room, we stopped at the lobby bar and picked up a couple of glasses of rum to mix with the rest of the Ting. We drank it out on our balcony while we took silly selfies in the soaking tub (which I will not be posting). :-)

Before dinner, we went down to the pier where the Sandals paparazzi were taking sunset shots. We watched another spectacular sunset, then headed to dinner at Cucina Romana, the Italian restaurant upstairs from Bayside. I had the Caprese salad, spaghetti with clams and tiramisu for dessert. We’d gotten an email that afternoon saying that we’d earned our free Sandals week, and while we ate our dinner we discussed where we wanted to go next year. So many great options! It was going to be hard to decide.

photo by Sandals photographer

That night was the beach party and fire show. We got there early so we could find good seats near the front, but unfortunately, the emcee started by picking “volunteers” from the audience for a Magic Mike dance off. Despite our attempts to avoid eye contact, we got picked, along with 12 other couples. The emcee set up a chair on one end of the stage. Then, one at a time, the women sat in the chair while their husbands/boyfriends tried to woo them with their best Magic Mike impressions. One of the first guys picked up his wife and started swinging her around his waist. Oh no! Ron’s Axl Rose dance moves couldn’t compete with that. :-)  Suddenly, one of the women made a mad dash from the stage and the emcee yelled “Runaway bride!”. While he went to retrieve her, Ron and I used the distraction to sneak quietly away to the safety of the lobby bar. Darn it, I’d really wanted to see the fire show! Later we heard that the couple who won the contest had been married for 50 years and the husband simply walked over and kissed his wife on the cheek. Ron said, “If I’d known that was all I had to do!” :-)

Tuesday

We had breakfast at Bayside, eating outside on the terrace, then went back to the room to change into our swimsuits. I was determined to do some more wakeboarding that morning before it got too windy. It was already getting rough out on the water, but this time I made it all the way back to the beach. Yay!

photo by Sandals photographer

After I was done wakeboarding, we caught the shuttle over to Sandals Royal Caribbean. The two resorts are only five-minutes apart and if you are staying at one resort, you can visit the other to use the pools or eat at the restaurants. Sandals Royal Caribbean was our very first Sandals. We stayed there in 2000 and again last year, so it holds a special place in our memories. We spent the day on the resort’s private island, eating lunch at the Jerk Shack and alternating between the swim-up pool and one of the shaded wicker beds. Before we caught the shuttle back to Sandals Mobay, we walked by our old room in the Kensington Building and looked for the hummingbird that hung out in the orchid tree.

Sandals Royal Caribbean

That night we had dinner reservations at Oleander, which turned out to be my favorite restaurant. It had a Caribbean-inspired menu and everything we ordered was full of flavor with just the right amount of heat. I had the crispy pork belly with coconut shrimp, grilled lamb chops and the chocolate marquise, which was kind of like a dense chocolate mousse with a rum cream center. While we were eating, a bride and groom were seated at the table next to us, still in their gown and suit. I whispered to Ron (who was in a chatty mood) that he needed to behave himself because this was supposed to be their romantic wedding dinner. But then the lady sitting on the other side of us leaned over and said, “I feel like we need to order them shots. Would that be inappropriate?” :-)

As we were leaving Oleander, we stopped to listen to the singer who was performing for the repeat guest dinner on the Bayside terrace. He reminded me of Shyam Moses. We heard Shyam sing when we were at Couples Swept Away twelve years ago, on the night of the beach bonfire. That is still one of my all-time favorite vacation memories – sitting on the beach by the fire wrapped in blankets, with the stars bright above us, listening to that clear voice. We waited until the singer finished his set, then went up to talk to him. It was Shyam! What a neat surprise to hear him again.

heading to dinner

Wednesday

In the morning we packed and took one last walk around the resort, wandering down to the swim-up bar and the new over-the-water wedding chapel. We’d barely spent any time at this end of the resort. I wished we had one more day to float in the lazy river pool around the swim-up bar or try out the paddleboards. The trip was over way too soon! All the Hobie cats were out on the water and as we walked out to the wedding chapel, we saw some of the friends we’d met that week sailing by on one of the sailboats. I was glad we got the chance to wave goodbye to them.

swim-up pool

Then it was time to catch the shuttle to the airport. We filled Ron’s backpack with Blue Mountain coffee and spices from the airport shops and waited for our flight at the Club Mobay departure lounge. The time flew by as we sat at the bar, snacking on Jamaican patties, drinking rum and Ting, and joking with the bartender. The bartender even gave us a couple of bottles of Ting to take home.

One advantage of staying at Sandals Mobay is that it is so close to the airport. By close, I mean the resort is right on the end of the runway. :-)  Ron and I had spent some time over the past few days trying to get pictures of the planes as they lifted off over the Sandals entrance. I guess the noise from the planes bothered some people, but I thought it was kind of neat. The only bad part about the planes was when it was our turn to be the ones on the plane, leaving Jamaica. As we took off, I could see the Almonds building, the Hobie cats out on the water, the pools and Latitudes, getting smaller and smaller below. See you next year, Sandals! Now we just need to figure out where we’re going to go.