SANDALS OCHI JAMAICA

The Visuals

This was the first time I had visited Jamaica.  The island is beautiful.  It has tall mountains, covered with lush green trees and vegetation.  There were plenty of beautiful flowers, bushes, coconut trees, and new and interesting fruits.  There was unique birds and sounds (the frogs we heard at night time).  Also in the resort are mongooses, which were brought to the island to kill rats and mice.

If you haven't been to Jamaica before, you may be struck by the simplicity of the homes and businesses during the drive from the airport to the resort.  Many homes and businesses appear to be piecemealed together with whatever building materials could be afforded or found at the time.  You will also notice many homes that appear to be abandoned and unfinished.  We asked our bus driver about this and he said "in Jamaica we don't really buy houses, we build them and when the money stops, the house stops".  During the 90 minute drive from MBJ to Ochi, you will pass many resorts.  Tourism is one of the main sources of revenue for Jamaica and it becomes apparent how important it is during the drive.

MBJ Airport

I can't stress or say this enough.  If you are flying into Jamaica and have the opportunity to purchase the Club Mobay option that will provide you assistance and when you arrive and leave from the airport, you should 100% purchase this option.  At the time we went on our trip (late Feb 2024) the cost of this was $83 per person.  I tell you it is worth 5x times this price.  When you arrive at MBJ it is a foreign country and most likely the first time you have been to this airport. You have to deal with customs and the general line to get through all of that was loooonnnngggg.  It would have taken us hours and hours to get through it.  Since we had Club Mobay, we literally got our own line that had no one in front of us and got through all of the custom stuff in about 10 minutes.  They had a small waiting area for Club Mobay people that had drinks and sandwiches. 

On our way back home, if you were checking luggage, you did that like normal at whatever airline desk you were flying with, then you went to the Club Mobay desk and got a printed receipt entrance ticket to be able to get into the Club Moby lounge to wait for your flight.  This lounge was much bigger than the arrival lounge and offered a buffet with salads, pasta, fruit, sushi, wraps, plantain chips, drinks, etc..  it was pretty good and comfortable since you are going to arrive at the airport 2 or 3 hours before your flight departs.  I would not want to sell any trip to anyone going to MBJ that did not include Club Mobay.  As a travel agent I make essentially nothing on it, but I know it is going to make my clients so much happier having it.  Is there a chance you get to MBJ and there are very small lines, yes, but I would rather know I am going to save myself 3 or more hours of time in the resort rather than sitting in a line.    

The Resort

The resort is pretty and filled with trees, plants, and flowers.  It is separated into 3 sections and they have "The Hop' which is a bus that runs every day all day until 2am to take you between the different sections that have different activities, entertainment, restaurants at them.  My wife and stayed at one of the Romeo and Juliet suites that had its own pool in hot tub in a private courtyard in our room.  It was really nice and we used it every day we were there.  It also was a butler level room which meant we had a person butler that could pick us up and take us around the resort, pick up food, book reservations, etc..  It was quite a nice perk.  

The resort had a variety of restaurants with different cuisines.  From my awareness of the other Sandals resorts, it appears that these restaurants are very similar amongst the resorts.  Sometimes they are called the exact same and sometimes the name is different.  Some resorts have a unique place or two from the others.  Ochi had pizza, burgers, italian, sushi, hibachi, french, steak, and seafood.  I admit I am a food snob.  I love to cook and I love to eat.  The food at Sandals is advertised as 5 star.  I would not agree with that.  I will say that the food is good.  At some of the premium places that only serve dinner and require reservations, the food is really good, like at Valentino's for example.  At other places like Southern Table, it was not very good when we ate dinner there.  We did go there for breakfast since it is one of the places that have a breakfast buffet and it was much better.  I do not recommend going there for dinner, there are several other better places to go for dinner. 

For our dinners we went to Valentino's which was really good, Le Gourmand which was pretty good, and Kimonos which was also pretty good.  We got sushi at Soy which was pretty good.  We ate at the Jerk Shack which was quite good.  I had the chicken and sausage and really enjoyed it.  Others had the fish and said it was wonderful.  We ate pizza a couple of times and the pizza was good.  As Sandals advertises all of the food and drinks are included.  Not all alcoholic drinks are free, but you can certainly have plenty of drinks that are included and free and unlimited.  

The Negatives

You have to be prepared to be on Jamaica time.  To me that means you need to be patient with the service.  In the nicer dinner only locations the service and food times were much better.  In some of the lesser places it was very slow and the server was at times not the most friendly.  For example, it took us 45 minutes to get our 10 inch pizza's.  At times it took an hour for our food to come out.  At times we struggled getting refills on our drinks.  That was more a reflection on a few servers during our stay and not the whole of our experience.

The integration of their technology.  They have their online sandals site for customers, they have their app for customers, and they have their internal systems and their airline group.  I swear their applications don't interface at all.  It was very frustrating to ask the butler what is going on that night, then look at the app and not see what they were telling us on the app.  Also we would request and believe we booked a reservation for an excursion or dinner appointment only to find out it was not booked for the time the app showed or sandals was telling us.  You really don't know what to trust.  It is a problem.  My recommendation is when you arrive at the resort, confirm all of your appointments (excursions, spa treatments, dinner appointments to make sure they all line up with your expectation)  

Tips

When Sandals says tips are included they are 95% correct.  If you read their details, they will tell you that only the masseuses' and butlers can accept tips.  All other workers at the resort can be fired for accepting a tip.  Neither the masseuses' nor the butlers can solicit or ask for tips, but you should tip them.  Remember the no tipping rule applies AFTER you have arrived at the resort and tipped your bus driver from the airport.  If you do Club Mobay you should tip the person that helps you when you arrive, they will save you hours of time.  Everyone outside of the physical resort will expect a tip and may ask you about it.

Conclusion

We had the opportunity to go snuba'ing which was a first for me and it was a blast.  We got to go down about 20 feet and see the coral and fish.  My wife and I got to spend some time on the beach and in the water which was lovely.  The beaches are not as pristine as some places, but we still enjoyed it.  We also golfed 18 holes at the golf course which was pretty and enjoyable.  The green fees are included, but the clubs, required caddie, and cart are not, so it will be pricy, but it was fun.  All in all we really enjoyed our 4 night stay as Sandals Ochi and I am currently planning on taking my kids next time to visit one of the two Beaches resorts in Jamaica.