Well it has been eight months since my last trip. This trip is my first during Covid adventure through airports and resorts. I have to say I was impressed at all the measures being taken, at airports and at Moon Palace Jamaica. I flew Delta, which has now announced they will not assign people to middle seats through March... Kudos to them.
A trip to Jamaica does have additional requirements for entry. You not only need a passport valid for six months beyond return date, you will be required to show proof of a negative PCR COVID-19 test less than 10 days before travel. After you receive the test and five days or less before travel you need to fill a request for Travel Authorization. The questions are fairly simple and you get the authorization back almost instantly. You should print both out and take them with you. Shortly, additional insurance will also be required, (I have been told it will be part of the Travel Authorization form and is roughly $40USD)
Upon arrival to Jamaica, we disembarked and those of us that purchased Club MoBay were met and expedited through customs, immigrations, and a health screening. That entire process took me about 40 minutes. I cannot imagine how long it took for someone without it. Everyone at the airport were wearing masks, but no such thing as social distancing as the lines were pretty long. Again, it was really nice to jump to the front of the lines with your personal guide from the Club MoBay service.
My stay for three nights was at Moon Palace Jamaica, an all-inclusive resort located in Ocho Rios, about an hour and 45 minutes from the airport. We had a nonstop shuttle, and there were about eight people on the shuttle. Getting off the shuttle, one “room” at a time. Our luggage was gently sprayed, we were given hand sanitizer and walked through a sanitizer. Check-in was quick, with reminders of social distancing.
I really enjoyed that we were given a wristband that was also our room key. No need to make sure you had a key when you left, or try to find it in the room. It was just always on your wrist.
My room for this stay is a deluxe honeymoon with a balcony. This room has a walkout balcony, some of the lower category rooms are French balcony. The resort has roughly 700 rooms in 9 different room categories. Rooms either have king beds or 2 double beds. The video is a quick look at the deluxe honeymoon category and a view from the 15th floor.
There are 2 beach areas, one with water activities.
There are four pools, two of which have swim up bars. There is a splash pad, a waterslide, even a Flow-rider which people seemed to really enjoy.
You cannot mention an all-inclusive resort without mentioning the restaurants. All the restaurants had QR codes so you didn't even need to touch a menu. They worked pretty slick. The only issues I had with the Gourmet Corner. My phone would only read the Spanish version. Luckily I have been learning Spanish with Babbel during Covid so I could muddle through. Upon entry to any of the restaurants you were required to use the hand sanitizer. Food at the Moon Palace Jamaica was wonderful. I was only there 3 nights and did my best to partake in all of them. The Sun Deck Restaurant was not open when I was there, but I did get to try 3 restaurants, plus the buffet, room service and the coffee shop. My favorite restaurant was probably the teppanyaki table at Momo.
and there is La Gondola, the Italian restaurant. I realized after I posted the pictures of the food, they are on the brown shades. Well, they may be brown toned but it was all were VERY good, as was the "side car" that I drank before I got took a picture.
Pier 8. Don't you hate when you are "getting things together" and realize you should have taken more pictures? I apologize, not sure why I didn't get more snaps of this restaurant. We ate here the first night, after a long day of travel. I LOVED the fondue, the soup and main had a bit of "heat". My Wisconsin taste buds had a bit of a shock.
Here are some pics of the other food, beverage venues. The coffee shop was one of my favorites. The made to order crepes were wonderful with a fresh latte. There were other bars that I did not get decent images of, Loud Bar, Noir Night Club. There was evening entertainment of which I did not partake, because I am not a night person. You would think the hour time difference from Central to Eastern would have helped, it did not. I did hear a band one night when I was on my balcony before bed. It sounded good from where I sat.
We took an excursion to Dunn's River Falls. It was about a 10 minute ride in an open air bus. One person in our group lost his hat. :( The park was practically empty. You had to sanitize your hands a number of times before entering. The numbers climbing the falls was limited to groups of 10. I did not actually climb the falls but took the steps next to them. You take steps down to the ocean, then a different set of stairs to the top that run alongside the river (for those of us that prefer to stay dry)
Here is a video I took. It is a bit hard to hear me over the water (I didn't realize that at the time, obviously)
After a quick 3nights it was time to head home. The almost two hour ride from Ocho Rios to Montespan Bay went pretty quickly. Getting the last views of the Jamaican countryside. Upon arrival to the airport I grabbed my one carry on and off I went to check in with Delta. From there, check in with Club MoBay. This time the benefit is a nice lounge with food and drink and WiFi. It did seem like a lot of the airport was closed, even at 11AM so it was nice to grab a bite at Club MoBay
This trip I went through customs in Atlanta. No forms to fill. We must have been the only internatIonal flight because after the long stroll there was no line. We went right to an officer, did not use the kiosk machine, they were all blocked off. Just guessing because of having to sanitize them between people would take a lot of time and energy. The officer asked basically the same questions that are normally on the form. Then I was off to my connection and back home .