Secrets St. James Montego Bay

I am here until Tuesday and already I wish I could leave. I’ve been to most of the big names resorts on the island but this one is the worst. It is a beautiful property and the front desk staff were lovely but this is NOT 5 star. They did upgrade our room to an ocean view for my birthday which I greatly appreciated but thereafter I have not been impressed. #1 The food: The buffet is pathetic. They don’t put out big enough troughs for the gluttons that come to this resort and are slow to replenish, very slow. I found hair in my bacon the first morning. There is NO buffet option at night so you have to go to the restaurants where except for one you can’t make reservations so you wait 30-40 minutes for a table and for each course you are probably waiting 20 minutes. The portions are tiny at the restaurants other than the Mexican restaurant which is the least popular and you get a table right away. I complained to the concierge about the wait times as well as the fact that the scheduled programming wasn’t happening eg water aerobics or yoga. All other resorts I’ve been have their staff announce it or go around to remind guests. This staff does not. I was supposed to have a manager call me about my concerns but no one has contacted me so far. The line ups for the cafe are huge same for the beachside grill where you can get delicious jerk chicken, patties or pizza. The staff are on island time and go on their own pace regardless of the lines. I am an avid google reviewer and I rarely ever give a bad review but I can’t in good conscience do so for a resort that claims to be 5 star. Still waiting for my mini bar to be restocked. They forgot yesterday and housekeeping already came and went today. Room was spacious and beautiful. Nice view of the pool and ocean. The beach while nice is very small with lots of seaweed so you don’t have much depth to swim in. Pool chairs or beach chairs need to be claimed by 6am if you want anything that provides shade. Not very impressed for a 5 star Read less

Just got home today and couldn't wait to write a review. I would give it 6 stars if I could. Just 1 moan to start though. Please please the owners the manager, how much would it cost to order 20 more parasols!!! Every hotel should have a least 1 for every to beds, such an easy fix? Everybody was talking about it which is a shame. Now my stay, just perfect in every way. The bars the food the entertainment my room were wonderful. The amazing people from around the world we met were amazing. The staff, WOW, I can't remember all your names, sorry. Kerry Ann, Duwaine from the Marlin bar, thank you for making our days perfect. Can't wait to come back. Read less

Overall, we had an excellent vacation and just loved the resort, staff, food and experience for a resonable cost: 1) Loved the location for these reasons: o We never had a full view of sunset at any of the other Jamaican resorts, just loved that each night we could see that sun go down, so beautiful o Looking down into the water, the views at the tip of the peninsula were very cool, as we could see tropical fish (saw a lion fish on Monday morning) and moon jelly fish and star fish all the time too o Three pool areas: loved the variety of two party pools and one quieter pool; two pool restaurants with salad buffets and menu items were great o Foam pool parties were always fun o Dinner restaurants: Only required booking for Japanese performance tables. It was really nice to not have to stress getting and making reservation timings. Italian restaurant was the best, but no complaints about any of them o Resort was very walkable, no need for shuttles as everything was very close and convienent. Loved the Coco Cafe open 24/7 with awesome coffees and teas (snacks too if you needed) 2) Room: clean, functional, with soft comfy bed and pillows. View of sunsets each night from our top floor ocean view, room 3508, were amazing. 3) Staff were typical of Jamaica: friendly, helpful, fun, engaging 4) Beaches were beautiful and there were many beach areas with break wall and natural reefs offering protection. We had some very windy days, but it was no issue to be in the ocean, with no real undertow or crashing waves. 5) Entertainment was good, mostly the same band singing, but a very talented gifted band and singer. 6) Check in and check out were smooth. Getting shade and chairs by the pool/beach were not a problem, but we had a few early risers that could reserve before 7am (as after then all shade seats could be taken) 7) Highlights of the trip: o Rick’s Café Catamaran excursion was spectacular. A proper sail from Montego Bay to Negril, with plenty of food and snorkelling and then a few hours at Rick’s Café until a beautiful sunset, then a 90min shuttle back in time for a later dinner. Highly recommend that excursion for people who love being on the ocean kicking it over the waves, and then being at Rick’s looking out over the cliffs for their 50th year was special too. o Snorkeling at the west most Secrets resort beach (near the preferred club hotel) on the edge of the peninsula was very good. Nice amount of small fish, and key highlight, life guard showed up to take a couple on a snorkel to the reef which we were able to join. This more private snorkel tour was a bit of swim, but well worth it for the views around 8am with full sun and before the wind comes, just loved it (better than the excursion snorkel which was on a windy cloudy day) o Beach Party – had a DJ and staff dancing amazingly and fire lady show. We just stayed an hour, but it was fun and engaging to be on the beach having dancing and having fun at night There were no major negatives at all, just a few extremely minor things… • The resort doesn’t offer a dinner buffet option. Not a big deal as we always got a table right away at any restaurant, but I do like the variety of good buffet. • The breakfast/lunch buffet was decent, but just not as much choice (smaller overall buffet to some of the larger resorts, but all the key foods were there) • The lobby was very small compared to other resorts, where we could enjoy nightly pre-dinner cocktails in a more large opulent space with piano or violin music. Secrets SJ had piano bars near each lobby, but they we smaller rooms and then all entertainment was on an outdoor stage by a larger piano bar with mostly outdoor seating (this was fine, but I missed the big marble opulent lobby bars that the other resorts had) • In the afternoons, the pool bars were busy and had to typically wait 4-5 mins to order and then another 4-5 mins to get your drinks with just a single bartendar at swimup and outside bars, but again not a big deal at all as we always made friends and had fun chats while we waited Read less

We just got home from Secrets St. James on Sunday. I had read almost every review on here over the last three months and was not sure what to expect, it looked like the reviews were almost 50/50 on good and not so good experiences. I can tell you that our was truly amazing. Everything from when we first arrived until we had to leave to come home was beyond my expectation. Room, Food, Service, amenities, the pools, beach, and the nightly entertainment were top notch. Our favorite bar was the Marlin Bar. Dowayne was there most of the days and he is great and friendly and keeps everyone entertained and having fun. We chose the preferred club option, and it too was well worth it, had a nice set up with food options at breakfast if you did not want to go to a restaurant and a variety of light bites throughout the rest of the day. There is also an attendant that is available for bar drinks there until 11PM every evening which was nice. My wife and I went to another all inclusive resort about a year ago and it was not good. I told her before we went to St James, that if I had the same experience as the last place, that I would not go to any more of them. Secrets St. James was 180 degrees better and worth every penny we paid for the trip. Cant wait to visit again. Truly Wonderful. Read less