Note: As I write this, Hurricane Melissa is about to make landfall on the southern coast of Jamaica. It will be devastating. This blog is entirely non-monetized, so I earn nothing from it that I could donate to Jamaica recovery. I encourage you to donate to the Red Cross, or The Sandals Foundation, or another organization of your choice. While they can't handle tourists, they'll need support more than other.
We went back and forth with whether or not to get a "limo" or park at the airport. Last year, because we were going for 2.5 weeks, the "limo" was cheaper than parking. And it was nice! This year, we were having to leave home at 4:30am, and getting back at dinner time on a Sunday, so the drives wouldn't be too bad. However, my truck (2001 4Runner) broke down just before the trip and Rob didn't want to park his truck (2010 FJ Cruiser) at the airport. So we opted for Mr. Limo again. They are a local company that his family has used for years. This year, we even got the owner, Lori, as our driver. It was a quick and easy ride to the airport, and it's so nice to just get dropped off at departures and not have to find a parking space, then walk to the train, take the train, walk some more....
We didn't have to go to the ticket counter (uh, actually we did, but I sort of forgot, more later), and had no checked luggage, so off to security we went. We got through really quickly this time, neither of us got pulled for a luggage search, we didn't have to take off shoes either. We didn't really like the set up though. Each person gets a narrow area that's divided by panels. You get a bin, fill it, then put it on the conveyor in spots that fit the bin. This meant that those people closer to the x-ray machine had to wait for spots because they'd get filled by those near the entrance. As well, there wasn't room for a second bin on the counter, so you had to wait for the first one to go. This means your bins could be separated by quite a few other bins. As well, the man directing people to the different stations did not seem too awake LOL.
Our gate was basically right there, so to say we were early was an understatement. We even moved down a gate since there was a flight at our gate before ours. We debated about getting food. Rob voted for Subway. I didn't think I could handle a sub or salad at 6am. We ended up at the little "pub", you know the type....Fox and Fiddle, Tiger & Giraffe, Fern and Lily. It's a chain but I can't remember the name. We had a pub breakfast. Not terribly expensive (except the coffee seemed pricey) and the beans with Rob's meal were cold so they brought him some new, steaming hot, ones. Not busy at all.
We got back to the gate and after sitting a bit, I noticed a faint smell of something burning--something chemically. I'm pretty sensitive to smells, and no one else seemed to notice. I decided to go for a walk down by the duty free shops. As I was heading back I felt my watch vibrate and saw it said Gate Change. I was headed back anyway. Then I heard an announcement. When I got into the gate section, I could see our area had emptied and Rob was standing up, looking my way, on his phone. My watch wasn't vibrating, but I took my phone out and it was ringing. I didn't answer LOL. He was annoyed I hadn't answered his texts. It seemed my phone was still on Sleep mode. We started walking, I just followed a bunch of people but after a couple minutes Rob asked if I knew where I was going. No, but he hadn't said which way to go, nor stopped me, so....
We turned around, walked through the Duty Free shops to our new gate, which was in the same area as when we flew to Spain last year. It was actually quite a walk. I heard someone else mention fire, but I don't know if the smell and the gate change were connected.
Finally we could board. There were at least 15 people who needed wheelchairs, even though they hadn't had wheelchairs already. One older lady I noticed at the old gate, she was wearing two straw sunhats! It was obvious, a large black one with a smaller natural one on top. Funny! We were in zone 3 and when we scanned our boarding passes, Rob got "rejected". They had to validate his passport. Oh yeah! I thought cause the app still made him the boarding pass that it had accepted his passport, but apparently not.
I got a middle, and Rob got the aisle. It was mostly a smooth trip, some turbulence requiring seatbelts, but not bad. We got to Montego Bay though, and it was a HARD touchdown. Like, we jolted forward in our seats. We could see Lucy and Liam's Air Canada plane at the gate next to us. As we got off and headed through the corridor, we tried to see if we could see them at the gate, through the big windows, but no. They were already on the plane and sent us a picture of our plane LOL.
We rolled down the long ramp and the Club Mobay representatives were at the bottom with their signs. We had been undecided on this but I had secretly bought the package! Our sign said "Happy Anniversary, Big R and Little T". I didn't even notice it at first cause I was looking for our last name LOL. I had forgotten what I requested! Our guide zig zagged us through lines and customs, super fast as we had no checked bags, and brought us out to the Sandals Lounge. She passed us off to a man who tagged our bags and said we had about 20 minutes for our ride.
Here's where we experienced our first bit of Jamaican-isms. Every time we had to stop for something/someone, the guide would start talking to them and not tell us what was happening. Were we supposed to be part of that conversation? Who knew. We couldn't always tell who she was talking to; we felt like cargo. We just thought it was cause she knew everyone since she worked there, but it came up quite a few times in the week.
We didn't even get to go to the Club Mobay lounge, which apparently had actual food. I found out after doing the surveys that Club Mobay brings you directly to the Sandals lounge if you're going to a Sandals. Yes, we could have walked over to Club Mobay, but we thought we'd get food at the Sandals lounge. At the Sandals Lounge, no one offered us anything. We used the bathroom and before Rob got out, our ride was ready. We were told we could grab some snacks for the ride--there were bags of peanuts and plantain chips, and cold water. We followed the man that had our bags, to a taxi-van. Again, he'd talk to people and kind of dismiss us. I was told to get in, but I was also trying to get my wallet out for a tip, and everything spilled, and the driver is saying "That's how they get paid" and I'm like yeah, I know, but my bank cards and ID are all over the floor and the door is open and....
We headed out of the airport, towards Negril. It wasn't too busy, but it's still a lot of traffic. She said on Friday nights it could take 4 hours to go across the city. She tried to teach us some Patois but we sucked. She was on her phone a lot--answering and making calls, texting, even Googling car models that Rob asked if they had there. We asked about the cell phone laws and she said there's heavy fines. There's also heavy fines for speeding, and not wearing a motobike helmet--as we saw a guy doing a wheelie, with no helmet, right in front of a police car!
We pulled up to the resort, and it's literally, right on the main road. Slide through the gate and there's the lobby. There were so many people/staff, it's a little overwhelming. Someone's handing you a cold towel, someone wants it back 30 seconds later, someone is taking your luggage somewhere, everyone is saying "Welcome Home", someone is guiding you, people are leaving...you interact with at least 5 people before being taken upstairs, by someone else, to the Club Sandals rooms (if you're concierge level).
There's two Club Sandals rooms, one on either side of the staircase in the lobby. Not sure if there's a difference--they look the same. We were offered a glass of their signature cocktail--a turquoise colour sweet drink. There were pieces of fruit and some sweets or cookies, most times, when we went in.
Here again, we experienced the "am I supposed to be included in this conversation they're having with a co-worker?" They would often switch from that conversation to talking to you but you're kind of zoned out by that point...
We were given a quick rundown on the features of concierge service. They made some dinner reservations for us, but we noticed later that some details were missing on the cards, like date or time. Our rooms were ready so they took us down to the buffet.
