Like many others, we were worried about planning a wedding from far away. We live in Maryland, and invited 55 guests to our wedding at Half Moon on April 20th, 2008. It was fabulous!! Our guests arrived Friday, we all went to the beach bbq and had a private area there with open bar, then on saturday, everyone played in/around their villas (we had 3 villas- 1 on the ocean), then Saturday night we had the rehearsal dinner at the Sugar Mills Lawn. This was absolutely magical! we had never seen it, and again, were a little leary about planning such a huge event with so many unknowns..but we highly recommend everything we did during our wedding weekend. the uplighting at the sugar mills lawn was gorgeous! pictures couldn't capture how beautiful everything was. we had the steel drums playing for 3 hours, and loved the dinner- food was fantastic too! hard to believe, but the next day was the wedding, and the perfection just continued.. thanks to our incredibly detail oriented, competent wedding planner Diandra!! she was everywhere taking care of everything the whole time! if you're thinking about having a destination wedding, call this girl right away! it's the only way to go! just let her do her thing, and you will not need to stress (like i did majorly 30 days before the wedding- for no reason!). Back to the wedding.. on Sunday the boys played some golf, and the girls went to the spa. we had lunch and our hair & makeup done in the VIP area where there's a small pool, rain showers and a couple places to get ready. then we went across the street around 3 to get pictures taken out on the dock where the beach massage cabanas are. the pictures turned out to be awesome! we used ventura photography. we ordered the high resolution cd and came home with over 800 pictures. a lot of great ones! after the pictures, we all got in an air conditioned mini bus and went to the royal pavilion. the wedding was supposed to start around 4. we didn't start until about 4:30-4:45, which was smarter since it was sunny and therefore, pretty hot. the guests were under the shade of the shadow of the lily pond gazebo, so that was good. it was only the groom and groomsmen that were HOT! the ceremony was stress free- 'solemn' but relaxed. reverend lawrence was laid back and casual with us- made us laugh. everyone loved him. we went to the beach for pictures afterward. great pics there too! its nice to have all the colors in your backdrop- the ocean, sand, palm trees, white boat, white bridge (over the lily pond), etc. the scenery was unbeatable. we danced all night to the reggae band, who played just enough islandy music and just enough music that my parent's friends like (the older, more traditional wedding songs). we didn't have to tell them a thing in terms of song lists- they were great on their own! i highly recommend this resort and ***our wedding planner Diandra! we also loved the girls & guys at the villas- derek and the crew. they were so great and happy the whole time. we loved loved loved it there! everyone that came said it was the most beautiful wedding they had been to and they can't wait to come back. rest assured- this will be a great choice! please contact me any time if you have any questions or want pictures!! i would love to help another bride have reduced stress before her big day! :)

Was at the Half Moon in Rose Hall from 4/17/08 - 4/21/08. Expensive - but loved it and wouldn't stay anywhere else if back in Jamaica. Very relaxing.

Location: 10 minutes from Montego Bay airport. Used hotel trans. Wouldn't venture from hotel without organized hotel group. Jamaica fairly rough outside of resorts...

Atmosphere: Resort casual - stayed in swimsuit and cover up most of the time. Sandals, sun dresses, big fun jewelery all appropriate.

Food: Settings are great. All restaurants / bars are right on the beach - shaded and breezy.

Did Half Moon all inclusive which included all food, drink and non motorized water sports. Very handy to have a fixed cost and eat whatever, whenever. Normally ate buffet which had fabulous salads and fresh fruit and juice (as well as a zillion other things). Ate lots of fresh local papaya, mango, jake fruit, star apple, etc.. Tried things like boiled bananas, ackee and saltfish, and fried plantain.

Beach: Fabulous. Crystal clear, calm, beautiful sand. Two main beaches and lots of little private connecting beaches. You can walk in the sand along the water's edge for about 2 miles. Lots of water sports - kayak, windsurf, snorkel, etc..

Rooms: Wow - we were in 23 and it was 20 feet from the beach. I literally threw a grape into the ocean from the balcony. GREAT rooms and used the balcony a lot.

Convenience: Great privacy and convenience. You can walk right out of your room onto the beach. With 52 (yes - 52) pools, there is also a pool around every cornr. You can rent bikes or golf carts if you don't want to walk.

Kids: Absolutely. The close proximity of the beaches and pools to the rooms would make it great.

Shopping: Not much. MUCH better shopping at the airport where you can get Red Stripe, Margaritaville, and Cool Runnings logo wear, Havaianas, liquor, etc..

Spa: Got a massage. $120 / hour. Expensive - but fairly normal for upscale resort. Very nice facilities and staff.

Golf: Husband played White Witch course and like it. Said it was beautiful and he liked having a caddie.

Excursions:

Island Dreamer snorkeling / Margaritaville excursion - a blast. Where else can you down a margarita, hop in a 3 story water slide and bounce on a trampoline in the ocean???

RoseHall Great House- OK. Interesting from a history perspective, but seemed like a waste of valuable beach / resor time.

River Rafting - very interesting. Completely different look at interior Jamaica (rain forest, giant bamboo stands). Treacherous bus ride up narrow, winding mountain road. Most fearful part of entire trip....

Hope this was helpful.

My family and I went to stay at Half Moon Bay because my father had some business in Jamaica and we thought we would make a little holiday out of it. We chose Half Moon Bay over a few choices mainly the Ritz because they had the villas with private cook, and butler. I have a 2 year old son and thought this would be great as we wouldn't have to get a nanny every night to go to dinner. Our cook and butler were great and very helpful though the standard of cooking was average to poor and you have to go to the grocery store on the hotel property to pick out your meals. The grpcery store chices are pretty dire and tring to get an array of vegetables and fresh fish seemed near impossible. So one night we decided to go to the Italian restaurant at the main hotel, well what a diaster. On all the leaflets and when we booked dinner reservations with the conceierge she said dinner attire was 'casual elegant'. That's it no further explanation on what they think is casual elegant. We had a wonderful little golf cart that we traveled arroun the resort on and it took us approx 10 to 12 mins to drive from our villa to the hotel and we were told he had to retrun and change into long pants even though he had a dress shirt, dress shorts and dress shoes on AND our cook told us that he was absolutely fine to dine in the restaurant in this attire. Meanwhile all the other diners in the restaurant were dressed in JEANS which I guess is okay considering they are long and children in pretty sloppy attire. When I complained to the general manager on duty that night he told me they have a strict long pant policy for the restaurants even though he ould prduce no written evidence of this anywhere and two members of his staff didn't feel it necessary to tell us this. I mean I know this may seem a little thing to most people but it really irked us as nothing seemed to live up to the expectation of the website. The beach was okay, we specifically booked a beach side villa as we wanted to be able to walk to the beach everyday and the beach in from of the villas was best described as non-existent. If you got in your golf cart and drove to the next closest beach they were okay but no facilities, ie drink, bathrooms etc Overall would I go back no, but the staff were extremely friendly on the whole.

I like to report on my trip to this amazing place; we got in a level4 Tornado last year but eveerything worekd extremely well, including the clean-up and the stay in the conference center for one night. Kids thought this good fun.

This ressort has clearly the following advantages

a) LOCATION
a site selected from a former plantation, which is so spacy, that it could not be bought today ant any price anywhere in the Carribean. With it come very nice beaches (around 3 or 4) distributed over 3km of shoreline.
b) SECURITY
the Hotel has a very strong focus on security which is important when you read on Jamaica in the foreign press. as such we never felt at risk.
c) STAFF
very friendly and warm. we exchanged a Golf coupon for a watersports one, and also traded other coupons for horse-backriding; was done very easy, no hussle; i think the eye of one of the owners present in the ressort helps to keep everyone up to service.
d) EXCURISONS
we booked not the official, but our own trip via the concierge folks at the hotel. worked very well - Dunn's Falls, Ricks Cafe, Margaritaville, etc Had good fun.
e) FOOD
Breakfast is splendid, the rest is good, but not gourmet like in other places like Barbados Sandy Lane - i think this has to do with the price - its much less pricy to go there, and with the clientele - US folks do not necessarily always expect the top-nob kitchen but prefer goodsized portions- this is more an Euro- type thing... (write me a mail if you disagree!)
f) ROOMS
we spent most of the day outside, so the room was not so main focus; but i like to say the two superior rooms we booked for kids and us in the same house worked very well. AirCon was good and service was well taken care of.
g) SPORTS
we liked the watersports and horsebacks - you can swim with them in the sea - was good fun and they did not push it too much on us. The Dolphin Swimming is a bit off, we avoided it.

i give it high marks, its one of the most beautiful locations in the world with a good history.