We traveled to Moon Palace Jamaica in January 2020. This was our first time to this resort and our first time to Jamaica. This was our longest vacation yet, 10 nights! We have been to Moon Palace Cancun and we loved it there so we were hoping to love the Jamaica resorts just as much.
We left Minnesota the morning after a forecasted large snow storm. Many schools canceled school on Thursday night in anticipation of this storm. On Thursday night we made some last minute changes to our plans for our arrival to the airport. We initially were going to use Lyft for transportation but not knowing how the weather would be at 5am Saturday morning we changed to driving ourselves and parking at the airport. The snow came but not to the extent of the forecasters which made our travels much smoother than what could have been. We were able to make it to the airport with plenty of time, had a nice breakfast at Stone Arch, very delicious if you are looking for a place at MSP, boarded our plane and moved back from the gate on time. We had to spend about 20 minutes de-icing which we were welcome to do given the delays we could have seen had the storm continued into Saturday morning.
The flight itself was uneventful. Myself, and the two boys sat on one side of the plane while my husband sat across the aisle. My younger son was super excited because he got to sit by the window and my older son was pumped to sit on the aisle, which left me in the middle seat, ugg the dreaded middle seat. While not ideal, I survived, given my kids are young and small. Usually when we travel we book two and two with an aisle and middle seat and we make the kids sit in the middle. So this was a treat for both of them.
Arrival into Montego Bay airport was fun. The airport is right on the coast which makes the descent fun as you get pretty close to the water when landing. After landing we had to wait about 10 minutes for a gate to free up before we could de-plane. We proceeded to customs and immigration where they had one section where they were allowing people without kids and then those with kids had to go through a different section. Not sure why they do this. The line was fairly long but moved relatively quickly. Once off the plane, it took about an hour to get through customs and immigrations and onto our shuttle. Montego Bay airport offers something called Club MoBay, this allows you to pay extra to bypass the lines through customs and immigration as well as gives you access to the club at the airport where you can get free food and drinks. We booked our trip on short notice which meant this was sold out for our travel dates. After going through the process I’m not sure I would pay for it. Definitely something to look at if you don’t like to wait!
We had a transfer included in our reservation with Moon Palace. The transfer was provided by JTL. We checked into their desk and were shown to the shuttle which then took us to Moon Palace. Moon Palace is in the town of Ocho Rios which is about an hour and forty-five minutes from the airport. The drive was fine, nothing bad nothing great, it did allow us to see some of the local Jamaicain culture and each of the boys took a little nap which was nice.
We arrived at the resort about 5:45pm with about 12 others. We dropped our luggage with the bell boys and were given a red carnation, wet towels, and a virgin pineapple ginger drink. Check in was very slow, we waited at least 30 minutes for someone to help us. After check-in, we were quickly approached by someone who wanted to sign us up for the palace elite meeting. We are already members so we knew the drill. We decided to meet with them as in exchange we got $150 dollars to use towards the costs of the 16% service fee for excursions. They wanted us to have our meeting right away Sunday morning and we declined, and said we would only do it if we could meet on Monday. He agreed to that.
Room: We were expecting to be in tower 2 and were pleasantly surprises to be upgraded to tower 1. This was a nice surprise, even though we are members. The room was beautiful, the view spectacular. A couple of downfalls, double beds (not queen) and not a solid door on the bathroom. Most of the time this was fine, except when one of the four of us had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. The light was bright and impacted sleep for some. Tower 1 was a good location for us. It was away from the hustle and bustle of all the restaurants, bars, and people which is what we like. We loved the fact we never had to wait for an elevator and practically always had it to ourselves. Cleaning was done daily, towels always plentiful, minibar restocked daily, and turndown service each night. We loved having a larger balcony and doors that opened wide. We spent our mornings enjoying watching the cruise ships port in and ended most nights finishing a glass of wine while our kids went to bed.
The Food: Where do I start? We had great food pretty much our entire time there. Our first night we ate at Pier 8, this was probably our worst meal of our 10 night stay, but was still decent. The biggest issue was the wait for food, it took a long while. I had a steak which was pretty fatty but the rest of the food was decent. We had one breakfast and one lunch at Pier 8 early during our stay and each time the service was slow. For breakfast most mornings we ate at the buffet, Buccaneers Reef. Our go to was the omelette station with some fresh fruit. For lunch we ate a few days at the buffet but most days we ate at the beach. We would get pizzas from the Sundeck or burgers and jerk chicken wraps from the snack bar. For our evening meal we only ate at the ala carts which means we ate at them all multiple times. Momo; we did hibachi tables twice and ordered off the menu once. You need reservations for the hibachi table but do not need them for a table where you order off the menu. Reservations were hard to get, I believe that is because they only have 4 hibachi tables. All the food was great. La Gondola; we ate here 4 times. We loved it. The service was always great and the atmosphere was nice. My boys had the Linguini del Pescatore each time we ate there. They love their seafood! Sundeck; this was a nice outdoor restaurant on the pier. We enjoyed this place because we like eating outside, something we don’t get to do at home like 6 months out of the year. . More Italian food but it was good! At the end of each night we hit up the Boulangerie for ice cream and other sweet treats. Everyone always enjoyed what they had here.
Beach/Pools: We spent most of our days at the beach in the VIP sections. We had great service each day from Rowan. Having a familiar face each day to bring us our drinks was great! We bounced a little bit to the pool but the water was a bit chilly and the ocean was nice. The beach itself left a little to be desired. There was a fair amount of rocks. Given it was on a bay it was calm which made it very swimmable. We were told the beach is normally great but there had been a storm not long before we arrived which brought in debri making the beach a bit more challenging during our stay.
Excursion: We did three excursions on this trip. The two that were included in our membership, Snorkeling and Konoko Falls, plus we Swam with the dolphins. All three were nice. One thing we really liked about the excursions in Jamaica is they are all close. There is no 90 minute but ride to and from them. We liked that we could spend three hours doing an excursion and still have plenty of time for swimming before or after. Watch for other posts with detail about the excursions.
Spa: My husband and I did the pedicure, manicure, and 20 minute massage. Prior to each of our appointments we enjoyed the Water Journey Ritual. Upon arrival at the spa you get assigned a spa velvet, who helps you through the hydrotherapy process. I had never done this before and was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed it. I started in a sauna for 10 minutes, then moved to an ice room where you take ice and rub it all over your body. After that I was moved to a steam room for another 10 minutes, then to a fun shower with many different jets. Finally, I was brought to the pools where I first took a quick dip in an ice cold pool and then moved to the bigger pool with different jets. It was truly amazing. I only did it once but I should have done it multiple times on my trip. Next time I will be! In addition, I also did my first seaweed wrap which was also good and very interesting.
Other: We loved hanging out in the lobby bar before our evening meal. We would bring cards and the four of us would enjoy a card game and a drink before heading to our evening meal. My boys loved this routine. We didn’t get into the entertainment. It didn’t start until later and my boys were ready just to head back to the room and relax for a bit before we did it all again the next day!
Tips: When trying to get reservation for Momo, be sure you call *10 from your room phone about 9:50 and wait on hold. Eventually they will answer and you can make a reservation.
Overall, we really enjoyed this resort and will plan to go back at some point. Our next trip is already scheduled for the Grand later this year!
–Bri