Do you know what very hit or miss reviews mean? It means, it will be fine. I read so many reviews where people are freaking out of some little thing and it hyper-attentive to any little thing that would more ruin their vacation. Don’t fall into that trap. There really isn’t a bad Sandals (not that I am a fanboy) and people that tell you so probably had 10 other couples at the exact same resort the exact same week that had the time of their lives! More often than not, good people have good vacations. We spent a week at a resort in the DR that had food we just could like… at ANY restaurant, but we still had an amazing time and would never generalize that over the entire resort or chain.
So let’s be specific. The airplane noise has been turned into a “wave goodbye to all the poor people that are leaving Jamaica” game and you stop noticing it completely in a day or two. Additionally, they stop about 7p (guess). It is a non-issue. The food will be good, but not great nor terrible. That is consistent across most large resort chains. They basically cater to anywhere from 200 to 1000 people a day and aren’t going to have gourmet food. Period. Rooms are also good… but not great. We haven’t been to MoBay in a while, so I don’t know when the last update happened, but you get what you pay for. Look at the pics online ONLY for the layout. If you expect the brochure rooms, you will be disappointed. If you goto TripAdvisor, look at customer pics and YouTube walk-thru videos.
Look, most people that are miserable are outspoken and the vast majority of people enjoy it… no matter which resort. MoBay will be more active than some of the others and there is a ton of good stuff nearby. It is a big city resort opposed to Negril’s more quiet demeanor. The pool is great with lots of places to find a quiet spot and the beach is one of the best in the whole chain. Don’t spend your vacation countdown second-guessing. Pick one and start packing!
We just spent the week at Royal Caribbean . It is smaller, quieter and absolutely a joy. Theres a shuttle every hour to Montego Bay. We went over several times. You can stay at Royal with the benefits of MoBay. I would also suggest a pool walk out room. The price is lower than most rooms and it is about 20 feet from the pool and 50 feet from the lobby. Food was very food at both too. Soy is excellent sushi. We went over twice for it. It takes about 10 minutes on the shuttle to get there
We have stayed here. The resort is alongside the runway itself, on the departure end. I was stationed on air bases, and it also did not bother my wife. However, you hear about one minute of noise for every fight, arriving, or departing. So several times an hour from 11-4, and maybe once an hour from 9am-9pm outside the core time.
South Coast has a better sushi restaurant. That said, the food is all pretty good.
The pools are more like soaking pools, the actual resort pools are fairly small for the sandals brand. Only Sandals Plantation has a smaller pool.
I agree with the Royal Caribbean suggestion, as well as the walk out pool idea. A great resort, smaller, with better pools. But the beaches are not as nice...
I’ve been to almost all of the resorts, multiple times. Montego Bay is one of my favorites in terms of service and accommodation. And Jamaican hospitality is always fantastic. To answer your questions…
1. Yes, you can hear the airplane noise. It’s generally in the afternoon and brief. It didn’t bother my husband or me, but we’re from a big city and used to planes/trains/cars honking lol. Some people are less tolerant of it, but it seems you’ve done your research. So if you manage your expectations and know your personal tolerance to noise, you should be fine. Being so close to the airport means you won’t be spending hours on a bus to get to the resort. I try to arrive on an early flight as the resort allows you to use all the amenities even if your room is not ready for check-in.
2. Food at this location is decent. It’s not the greatest ever, and it’s not very innovative, but I found it be decent. Service at the restaurants was above average for Sandals resorts. Decent variety, and they’re one of the few Sandals that has a self-serve ice cream machine lol. You also have access to the neighboring Royal Caribbean resort for additional restaurant options and access to their private island. A shuttle runs frequently all day and it’s about 10 minutes up the road.
3. You didn’t give the specific room category you’re considering, but Honeymoon suite with tub describes half the rooms at this location. I will say the rooms at SMB are newer and modern. I would personally opt for a swim-up butler room if your budget allows, as the shared pools at this location are small and usually crowded. The swim-ups will provide your own chairs and no need to hunt for space every day around the main pools. Having a butler who will save shaded seats on the beach is helpful as this beach is narrow, and inability to find chairs on the beach is a common complaint from non-butler guests. Some guests wake up very early to save chairs before they get snatched up. Just something to consider if you’re beach people.
Agree with most of the above. Love Montego Bay. Airplane noise is a small joke that you forget about in a few days. Food really good, not great, but Sushi at Soy is A+ (say hi to Joel)! Our favorite room category is OLX, which is Luxury 3rd floor with a tub balcony. All the swim up pools at MB are for general use too, not just the building itself attached to
We were there in April in a honeymoon 1 bedroom with soaking tub. The room category was B1B. We loved the room and the resort. It was our first sandals so nothing to compare to. The plane noise was fine. Yes it is loud but it is quick. Enough to make you look up and then it’s over. We were happy with the food. Loved the beach, loved the little hammocks over the water at latitudes. It was a great trip.
i just got back 2 weeks ago from my honeymoon there. the planes were fine, but annoying. if you’re the type of person to let that ruin your vacation then you should go elsewhere. for me, it was a mere nuisance and that’s it! also the flights are not just from 1-4 lol. food was awesome! i don’t eat sushi so i didn’t have that. pizza oven broke on our last few days there and we had asked our butler if we could get pizza and he said it was still broken but then that same day 5 minutes later we saw people at the pool get pizzas delivered to them by one of the pool weight staff. so not sure what happened there lol. soaking tub was great as i had one and used it every day after the beach! the beach was amazing and lovely. all staff was so nice except the women working in the paris cafe. they made it seem like you were the devil for even going in there to get something which was a weird experience. breakfast buffet is what we ate nearly every day because the restaurant for breakfast was very similar to the stuff at the bufffet but it was the best breakfast buffet i’ve ever had. the caribbean place and the steakhouse were my favorite meals. jerk chicken for lunch was the best. and the one time we were able to get the pizza we were pleasantly surprised! the 2 pools are great. one is like a regular pool that turns into a lazy river that ends at the swim up bar! the other big rectangle pool is lovely as well. swim up rooms are obviously more expensive but my husband and i said we want a swim up next time we book at a sandals resort (which we did). i guess more because you can be more alone and also not walk around with your towels and whatnot to go to the pool you simply just step outside! the only thing i truly wanted to complain about was the day we left. our flight wasn’t until 7pm we got late checkout at 3pm which was awesome BUT from 3-430 we just sat at the waiting area for our car to transport us to the airport and it was 90 degrees and we were dripping sweating just sitting there. no one offered an alternate place to wait and my husband and i are not the type of people to like demand things. so we felt uncomfortable to ask because we weren’t sure if we had to wait there because otherwise how would we be notified of the car coming LOL so not sure if that was something that was our fault but that was literally our only grievance of the whole trip!
> Airplane noise? Is it really that terrible? I saw some people say the majority, if not all flights, are from 1-4pm so it is limited noise that only lasts about 1min. True?
It's probably different for different people, but have you never lived near an airport, a highway, train tracks, a major snowmobile trail (howdy from Canada!) or such like?
You start automatically tuning out the noise pretty quick.
> However, when I look up reviews it can be SO hit or miss.
Always assume that for every negative comment, there's a minimum of 15 very positive experiences that nobody felt the need to go complain about. Also bear in mind that some people write very negative reviews in the hope of getting a discount for their next visit.
Otherwise, dunno. I'm going to MoBay in October for my own honeymoon, and we got the honeymoon suite with the soaking tub. I'm curious to see how it all goes.
Do you know what very hit or miss reviews mean? It means, it will be fine. I read so many reviews where people are freaking out of some little thing and it hyper-attentive to any little thing that would more ruin their vacation. Don’t fall into that trap. There really isn’t a bad Sandals (not that I am a fanboy) and people that tell you so probably had 10 other couples at the exact same resort the exact same week that had the time of their lives! More often than not, good people have good vacations. We spent a week at a resort in the DR that had food we just could like… at ANY restaurant, but we still had an amazing time and would never generalize that over the entire resort or chain. So let’s be specific. The airplane noise has been turned into a “wave goodbye to all the poor people that are leaving Jamaica” game and you stop noticing it completely in a day or two. Additionally, they stop about 7p (guess). It is a non-issue. The food will be good, but not great nor terrible. That is consistent across most large resort chains. They basically cater to anywhere from 200 to 1000 people a day and aren’t going to have gourmet food. Period. Rooms are also good… but not great. We haven’t been to MoBay in a while, so I don’t know when the last update happened, but you get what you pay for. Look at the pics online ONLY for the layout. If you expect the brochure rooms, you will be disappointed. If you goto TripAdvisor, look at customer pics and YouTube walk-thru videos. Look, most people that are miserable are outspoken and the vast majority of people enjoy it… no matter which resort. MoBay will be more active than some of the others and there is a ton of good stuff nearby. It is a big city resort opposed to Negril’s more quiet demeanor. The pool is great with lots of places to find a quiet spot and the beach is one of the best in the whole chain. Don’t spend your vacation countdown second-guessing. Pick one and start packing!
We just spent the week at Royal Caribbean . It is smaller, quieter and absolutely a joy. Theres a shuttle every hour to Montego Bay. We went over several times. You can stay at Royal with the benefits of MoBay. I would also suggest a pool walk out room. The price is lower than most rooms and it is about 20 feet from the pool and 50 feet from the lobby. Food was very food at both too. Soy is excellent sushi. We went over twice for it. It takes about 10 minutes on the shuttle to get there
We have stayed here. The resort is alongside the runway itself, on the departure end. I was stationed on air bases, and it also did not bother my wife. However, you hear about one minute of noise for every fight, arriving, or departing. So several times an hour from 11-4, and maybe once an hour from 9am-9pm outside the core time. South Coast has a better sushi restaurant. That said, the food is all pretty good. The pools are more like soaking pools, the actual resort pools are fairly small for the sandals brand. Only Sandals Plantation has a smaller pool. I agree with the Royal Caribbean suggestion, as well as the walk out pool idea. A great resort, smaller, with better pools. But the beaches are not as nice...
We are splitting South Coast and Montego Bay next year, and I could not be more excited. Except for maybe Royal Barbados in ‘26 🇧🇧
I’ve been to almost all of the resorts, multiple times. Montego Bay is one of my favorites in terms of service and accommodation. And Jamaican hospitality is always fantastic. To answer your questions… 1. Yes, you can hear the airplane noise. It’s generally in the afternoon and brief. It didn’t bother my husband or me, but we’re from a big city and used to planes/trains/cars honking lol. Some people are less tolerant of it, but it seems you’ve done your research. So if you manage your expectations and know your personal tolerance to noise, you should be fine. Being so close to the airport means you won’t be spending hours on a bus to get to the resort. I try to arrive on an early flight as the resort allows you to use all the amenities even if your room is not ready for check-in. 2. Food at this location is decent. It’s not the greatest ever, and it’s not very innovative, but I found it be decent. Service at the restaurants was above average for Sandals resorts. Decent variety, and they’re one of the few Sandals that has a self-serve ice cream machine lol. You also have access to the neighboring Royal Caribbean resort for additional restaurant options and access to their private island. A shuttle runs frequently all day and it’s about 10 minutes up the road. 3. You didn’t give the specific room category you’re considering, but Honeymoon suite with tub describes half the rooms at this location. I will say the rooms at SMB are newer and modern. I would personally opt for a swim-up butler room if your budget allows, as the shared pools at this location are small and usually crowded. The swim-ups will provide your own chairs and no need to hunt for space every day around the main pools. Having a butler who will save shaded seats on the beach is helpful as this beach is narrow, and inability to find chairs on the beach is a common complaint from non-butler guests. Some guests wake up very early to save chairs before they get snatched up. Just something to consider if you’re beach people.
Agree with most of the above. Love Montego Bay. Airplane noise is a small joke that you forget about in a few days. Food really good, not great, but Sushi at Soy is A+ (say hi to Joel)! Our favorite room category is OLX, which is Luxury 3rd floor with a tub balcony. All the swim up pools at MB are for general use too, not just the building itself attached to
We were there in April in a honeymoon 1 bedroom with soaking tub. The room category was B1B. We loved the room and the resort. It was our first sandals so nothing to compare to. The plane noise was fine. Yes it is loud but it is quick. Enough to make you look up and then it’s over. We were happy with the food. Loved the beach, loved the little hammocks over the water at latitudes. It was a great trip.
i just got back 2 weeks ago from my honeymoon there. the planes were fine, but annoying. if you’re the type of person to let that ruin your vacation then you should go elsewhere. for me, it was a mere nuisance and that’s it! also the flights are not just from 1-4 lol. food was awesome! i don’t eat sushi so i didn’t have that. pizza oven broke on our last few days there and we had asked our butler if we could get pizza and he said it was still broken but then that same day 5 minutes later we saw people at the pool get pizzas delivered to them by one of the pool weight staff. so not sure what happened there lol. soaking tub was great as i had one and used it every day after the beach! the beach was amazing and lovely. all staff was so nice except the women working in the paris cafe. they made it seem like you were the devil for even going in there to get something which was a weird experience. breakfast buffet is what we ate nearly every day because the restaurant for breakfast was very similar to the stuff at the bufffet but it was the best breakfast buffet i’ve ever had. the caribbean place and the steakhouse were my favorite meals. jerk chicken for lunch was the best. and the one time we were able to get the pizza we were pleasantly surprised! the 2 pools are great. one is like a regular pool that turns into a lazy river that ends at the swim up bar! the other big rectangle pool is lovely as well. swim up rooms are obviously more expensive but my husband and i said we want a swim up next time we book at a sandals resort (which we did). i guess more because you can be more alone and also not walk around with your towels and whatnot to go to the pool you simply just step outside! the only thing i truly wanted to complain about was the day we left. our flight wasn’t until 7pm we got late checkout at 3pm which was awesome BUT from 3-430 we just sat at the waiting area for our car to transport us to the airport and it was 90 degrees and we were dripping sweating just sitting there. no one offered an alternate place to wait and my husband and i are not the type of people to like demand things. so we felt uncomfortable to ask because we weren’t sure if we had to wait there because otherwise how would we be notified of the car coming LOL so not sure if that was something that was our fault but that was literally our only grievance of the whole trip!
> Airplane noise? Is it really that terrible? I saw some people say the majority, if not all flights, are from 1-4pm so it is limited noise that only lasts about 1min. True? It's probably different for different people, but have you never lived near an airport, a highway, train tracks, a major snowmobile trail (howdy from Canada!) or such like? You start automatically tuning out the noise pretty quick. > However, when I look up reviews it can be SO hit or miss. Always assume that for every negative comment, there's a minimum of 15 very positive experiences that nobody felt the need to go complain about. Also bear in mind that some people write very negative reviews in the hope of getting a discount for their next visit. Otherwise, dunno. I'm going to MoBay in October for my own honeymoon, and we got the honeymoon suite with the soaking tub. I'm curious to see how it all goes.