Secrets Wild Orchid Montego Bay

Wild Orchid has a very relaxed, laid back vibe and a beautiful setting. The man made beach areas are well maintained and the pool areas are nice and clean with plenty of shade. WiFi can be spotty. The food was great and we looked forward to the nightly entertainment. The piano bar is a great, fun spot at night. The Jamaican Jerk food cart serves up late night snacks on the way back from the club and bar. The cart roams the property each day too! Delicious! The resort grounds are immaculate and very well manicured. I can’t give the stellar "Excellent" review I hoped for. Based on our overall experience, and what we expect from the Secrets brand, the resort did not earn it. From unresolved maintenance issues resulting in lack of comfort, to not being given the perks and amenities we expect as UVC members and have paid for, our expectations were not met. I also didn’t appreciate being lied to repeatedly. When I called them out on the lies, they tried to turn it around and say I was to blame. Simply unbelievable. I’d consider visiting again to give them another chance. I know they can do better. The atmosphere, the weather, most of the staff, food, drinks, and nightly entertainment made for an enjoyable stay. Thanks to UVC rep Nadia who was instrumental in smoothing a lot of issues out for us, Andre and Jerome our butlers, Rodrigo the Hotel Rooms Manager, Nicola at Bordeaux, Dwayne, Calvin, Kedeshia and the Sugar reef bar staff, and e-team member J-Star for the fun Casino Night! Read less

Executive Summary - This over priced resort may have been worthy of the word "upscale" at some point in their history but I can only judge on the now. We (two couples) found the resort terribly managed with below average food quality and entertainment. The activities lacked, for the most part, variety between days and were often times not run well. We made the mistake of thinking that "Secrets" had a consistent quality between sister properties but we were wrong. I would not recommend and will not go back. Here is my full review... The GOOD: The grounds are beautiful. The rooms are clean and roomy. Most of the staff seem genuinely nice and helpful. We had fun at one of the Trivia games and my wife enjoyed yoga. The best meal was the breakfast buffet with plenty of choices. A tablet in the room gave you wireless access to activities, menus and other information! Nice. The BAD: As others have stated, the check-in process was atrocious. Very long, tedious and a bit of manipulation so they can try to sell you on a vacation package. But worse was the fact that we booked two rooms several months in advance and they were not available! They put us up in the lower-end next door resort, Saint James, and tried to convince us that VIP status made up for it. If we wanted VIP we would have booked VIP (we later learned that there was little benefit to VIP since we were never carded before going into the VIP lounge which was just a few tables with snacks and drinks). Thus, we wanted the room we originally booked in the resort we originally wanted. We couldn't unpack and feel like our vacation had started because we were moving back to Wild Orchid the following day. So, after 1.5 hrs to check in, we get settled into a freezing room at Saint James. We raised the temperature setting and left; but when we returned, the room was still at the same freezing temperature. Maintenance recommended that we manually shut off the A/C and then turn it back on for comfort. Are you kidding me? The next morning I was awaken from a sound sleep at 5 am from a mistaken wake up call from the front desk. And the 8 am breakfast in our room order was not delivered until 8:30 am. We found the food mostly lacking flavor and way below expectations. The one restaurant that served steaks including filet mignon was closed. Choices at each restaurant were very limited and we were dismayed to learn that too often "inside" didn't mean air conditioned inside, it meant a roof and walls open to the outside heat. We found it simply uncomfortable to eat dinner when we were sweating. The fans were broken in the Japanese restaurant making that particular meal doubly miserable. We called to arrange a meal (wife is vegetarian) and the event person on phone said they will take care of it but when we arrived at the restaurant, they had no idea what we were talking about. We spoke to the chef who said no one called. The same white wine was warm one night and cold another. Basaltic vinegar/ ketchup seemed watered down to us. Desserts lacked variety and after a couple of nights it became boring. They even had, are you ready, two different chocolate chip cookies, one tasted great and the other awful (and I assume cheaper). We realized the better cookies were at check-in and not the cafe so we had to go there to see if we could nab some of those. My wife wondered how much of the food was frozen, canned, etc., rather than freshly cooked, baked, etc. We were so upset at the amount of time spent trying to sort out issues that we asked to speak to the resort manager. Unbeknownst to us, they presented the reception manager. And worse, they left us in the lobby waiting for a long time before the manager came out to greet us. The amount of time we spent in that lobby during the first 24 hours was ridiculous. We missed activities. And the CREDITS they advertise are actually coupon books with $ off a purchase of something already overpriced. This is our second secrets visit and we have never used one coupon. Other: Turn down service was not done twice. Mini bar was not refreshed daily. My friend ordered a drink and I asked for water from pool wait staff but they didn’t bring either. I called the concierge line but not only did no one pick up but the voice mailbox was full. Couples massage - they put us in different rooms and opened the sliding panel between rooms. That is not a couples massage. When I mention that the headrest was loose and lopsided, I was told that "that is the way it is." I said it was unacceptable and only then did they find a replacement headrest deducting the time off my 50 min massage! Be aware, the Privacy On button will have them deliver food in the pass through without ringing the doorbell but then they will call you and wake you up to tell you that your food is in the pass through. Arts craft? Only once and it was Tie dying a T-shirt only if you knew to bring one otherwise you could "buy one!" THE ABSURD: When moving back to the Wild Orchid, we were told that our bags would be taken from our room; then we were told they weren't taken because we had to be present when the bags were taken. So we walked back to our first room only to find no bags as they were already taken down to the lobby. When we located our bags and wanted to get the bags to our room, two bellmen of the two different resorts argued over whose bags they were (I guess for the tip) in front of us. Blue mountain restaurant had plenty of empty tables but we saw people getting devices and being sent off to wait. I asked why people weren't being seated and was told because there is a wait. I said I realized that but I saw so many empty tables. "Are you short handed?" I asked. The person repeated that there was a wait totally ignoring me and suggested I speak to the manager. The Manager told us that they had plenty of staff but they couldn’t assign tables because then they would have too many tables for a waiter and they want to provide a certain level of service. I then asked him why there are so many empty tables if they had sufficient staff and he repeated his answer. So they had plenty of staff but they will not fill the empty tables because then there would be too many tables for each waiter?!?!? And the manager kept repeating this and never stating the truth which was that the number of wait staff was insufficient to handle the entire restaurant. And get this, it was only 6:30 pm they opened at 6 pm! I think this gives you, the reader, enough reasons for our rating. Read less

Overall, a good experience, but will not return. The facilities are nice, but there was construction occurring on the first and second floors of our building which we were NOT notified about. It was so loud we could not use the pool or lay out at the beach in front of our building. Staff not very accommodating for food allergies--made me feel like a nuisance and I got sick 2 nights. One waiter straight up asked for a tip at the end of the meal. Restaurant service was fair at best. They need more beach servers as we sometimes had to wait over an hour for someone to come and take a drink order. Read less