What is it?
Club Mobay is a service that expedites you through customs on arrival and departure to Jamaica and gives you access to an airport lounge with restrooms, food, comfy chairs, and drinks all included in the price. It’s $50 per person on arrival and $31 per person for the departure service. It sounds great in theory, but how do you know whether Club Mobay is really worth it?
Before I’d been to Jamaica, I don’t think I was truly a believer in Club Mobay. I rarely mentioned it to my clients because I had the idea that it was just another way to try to upsell people something they didn’t need and I didn’t feel right about it.
There’s really no way to adequately describe the exhaustion you feel after being crammed on flights and stuck in airports for hours on end–how badly you want a shower, personal space, a good meal, and a drink, unless you’re there experiencing it. Even now, as I sit at my desk, it’s easy for me to think, “Come on, it can’t be THAT bad!”
But the truth is, waiting to de-plane in Jamaica, it was that bad. I was so ready to get to my resort and plop down by the pool, drink in hand, and all I could think about was the two hour drive standing between me and that drink. After all the time I’d spent traveling, I needed comfort and I was sick of the waiting game.
Is it really worth it?
I’m fairly certain that’s how we all feel after a long day of traveling. I love to travel, and in my industry I’m constantly meeting fellow travel lovers. I can honestly say I’ve yet to come across that person who’s like, “I love feeling grimy and tired, jetlagged and hungry, and would love nothing more than to stand in line for another couple hours before I get to relax! It’s all part of the experience…”
When my friend and I got off the plane in Jamaica after having woken up at 4am to get to the airport that morning, taken two flights, and suffered a very rushed and stressful change of planes in Atlanta, we were READY for vacation. I thought we’d still have some sort of line to wait in, even with the VIP arrival service we had arranged—It’s rare that there isn’t some sort of waiting involved when arriving into a new country. My point is–my expectations were low.
We found the woman holding a board with our names on it and she welcomed us to her country with a warm smile. Man, was she a fast walker! We struggled to keep up but we were grateful because we were not interested in lingering. A line snaking around the entire building came into view and our faces dropped, but she waved us around and we kept up our brisk pace past all of the others we’d just gotten off the plane with.
It was at that moment I started to re-consider my outfit choice. I didn’t much look like someone who deserved special treatment in my yoga pants and sweatshirt. But I kept my head down and tried to imagine everyone around us thinking we were government officials or something.
What Club Mobay did for me.
Needless to say, we probably skipped about 3-4 hours in total of waiting in lines during our trip to Jamaica. Is 3-4 hours of your time worth $80 per person? That’s for you to decide, but I can honestly say that your time becomes exponentially more valuable once you’ve been traveling already for more than 5 hours!
From now on, I’ll definitely be strongly recommending Club Mobay for any of my clients headed to Jamaica. It drastically improved our vacation experience. The food in the lounge was good and even if a lot of people have Club Mobay and the lounge is a little crowded, it’s much better than the general airport space there. It’s a small airport and it’s a lot more crowded than the airports we’re used to in the States.
Start your vacation off right and arrive to and depart from Jamaica in comfort. It will alleviate a lot of stress and get you off on the right foot for an unforgettable time away!
Travel Like a VIP,
CAITLYN WITH A COMPASS
To learn all about how to stay comfortable while traveling, check out Aum Journeys’ other tips in How to Stay Comfortable on a Long Flight.
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