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Well last year we went right after a hurricane. The weather was perfect, sunny, great! The beach is man made at our resort so it was not in good shape. Other then the beach being flooded it was OK.

marylynn1966 - where was your vacation ? was it in montego bay? I checked the extended weather forecast for montego bay and it doesn't look that great ( rainning all week) :(

Gustav will be long gone by Monday (unless it decides to do some bizarre loop-d-loop, to give a repeat performance, which isn't absoutely impossible, it is highly unlikely)...

there are two things you will need to be aware of...

1) if the storm does any damage and depending on where you are staying you may be coming into the equivilent of a disaster zone... flooding, landslides, destroyed houses, power outages, water outages ect... assuming you are staying in a mobay resort (since you put this in the mobay forum) you will likely not expeirence/see most of that... but there may be some vegitation damage (trees will be torn apart or knocked down completely)... the clean up will likely be completed by the time you arrive, but the place might not look as fresh and green as you expected... outside the resort, well anything goes and time will tell... it might not be a pretty picture, but lets hope it spares the island the worst and just dumps a bit of rain...

If Ocho Rios area gets hit hard, heading to Fern Gully, (maybe) Dunns River or other places in the area may difficult if not impossible, as the area is prone to flooding/landslides and Fern gully especially has already experienced this earlier this year... I wouldn't personally swim in the sea (or climb the falls) for at least a few days either... lots of crap gets stirred up and the water might be mirky... plus heavy rains just make it all a bit toxic... that's just my personal opinion tho....

2) there are two, possibly 3 systems that are threatening to form any day now... these systems may very well be the follow ups to Gustav and at least one is not looking too friendly according to those who know a thing or two about this kinda stuff (not me lol)... but do be aware it's hurricane season and if any one of those systems decide to follow Gustav's path, well the end of next week could get a little dicey.... crossing my fingers that these leave land alone... you can follow them here www.stormcarib.com

Chelle

Beachy-Beachy My vacation was in Montego bay last year the last week of Aug and first week of Sept. The weather was Great!! I am going again in about 6 weeks. I would pay NO attention to the weather forcast. It always calls for rain!! It may rain a bit in the afternoon for an hour or so but then the sun will usually come back out and it will be fine. I have been to jamaica several times in the rainy season and rarely does it rain all day. Even if it does rain a bit you will have a good time. Heck some of the best times we have had has been when it started raining and everyone huddeled under the swim up bar and we all had a blast!! You will be fine!!

This is will be my first time to Jamaica, i hope it goes well. I was about to cancel my trip maybe I might just go with the trip, if the hurricane leaves by this week. I'll post pictures and keep you guys updated if I end up going! Thank you so much for your replies. :D

there's no reason to cancel at this point in time... weather wise, unless those storms kick up, you're likely to see decent to good weather (actually esp if they kick up and stay away, these systems tend to "suck" weather to them leaving surrounding areas very clear (and HOT, case in point the past few days have been hot and sunny in Jamaica as Gustav was developing)...

just be prepared that things might not be status quo if there is a storm disruption from Gustav.... this isn't a major hurricane at this time (it has weakened and stalled), so significant damage to infrastructure (airports, main power/water lines to resort areas, ect) is not likely/expected... anything can happen, and the flooding/landslides are the biggest concern, but I don't think mobay is prone to that (could be wrong)...

Just a thought, if you have spare luggage space, you could bring down some storm supplies (flash lights, tarps, wind-up powered radios, duct tape, ect ) as "gifts" for the hotel staff... all of these items can/will be well used in the after math of a storm or in preparation for another one... hopefully they aren't needed, but they are always good to haves and many who work in the hotel are too focused on the "must haves" to have an abundance of cash to spare on these "good to haves".... and during/after a storm, the good to haves become the must haves and can be hard to come by/pricey for them...

Chelle

This is our first trip to Jamaica too. We are planning on staying in Montego Bay and arriving Sunday morning. We are concerned too, but it appears, hopefully, that the hurricane will have passed by then. The question is then whether there is any collateral damage. That said, I think if we do go, and those who are there, will be even in better moods (assuming the weather is nice) because none of us thought we'd be there! Hope everyone makes their trips and is safe!

This was posted on a different message board this morning from a Couple Resort VP.

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Posted on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 - 07:09 am:

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It would appear that the threat has passed. During the night, Gustav was downgraded to a tropical storm and is continuing on a path well north of Jamaica.

Reports from the resorts are lots of laughter and love - food and drink being consumed per normal. :-)

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at2+shtml/083515.shtml?3day#contents

Randy Russell

CRO and SVP

Couples Resorts

as for that note above... yes Gustav has weakened and stalled over haiti (which is horrible... and i do mean horrible for them), however once it gets going again it could easily pick up momentum and regain it's hurricane status rather quickly...

Jamaica is currently on Tropical Storm warning and and Hurricane watch as of 8:30 (9:30 am EST) this morning...

Chelle