Montego Bay, Jamaica: Leaving Montego Bay

10FEB08 Leaving Montego Bay, Jamaica (MBJ)

Our ride to the airport promptly arrived at noon and we got to the airport at 12:16p.

We checked in and paid our departure taxes of 41 USD then decided if they had moved the car as yet. We went over to the lot and indeed it was moved. I guess it is not too good to see a banged up car in the car rental parking lot.

We then entered security, well we did immigration first. As it turns out, the same Officer saw us again. I did not even recognize him until he called it to our attention.

This area is new; about a year old the lady said once I cleared security. They have a mega duty free area so we walked around and found something to eat.

As we did so, w saw the Continental Boeing 737-800 with winglets land. It was good to confirm that it was a larger plane so we should have no issues getting a seat today. Looks like they will close gates 1-7 as they are done with the airport development. The new part of the airport is really nice though.

I checked the cost of Internet and it is outrageous, more than the hotel which was 11.95 USD per day. The cost at the airport is:
$15.95 for 1 hour
$22.95 for 1 day
$49.95 for 1 month
Good grief, no, I thought.

We walked around for a bit and then made our way to the gate after leaving the duty free liquor store. While there I heard the cashier tell a customer they can take as much Bailey's as possible to the U.S. which I know is incorrect. Check this page at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/vacation/kbyg/paying_duty.xml to know what are your limits.

We went to the gate and got our tickets and we were fortunate enough to make it to First Class. We went walking again and looked at the FIDs. Most flight were going to the U.S., but there were a few to Canada as well and about three later at night to Italy.

You can see the FIDs at http://www.mbjairport.com/ArrivalDeparture.aspx. Note how they have Los Angeles, CA and Toronto, CA as opposed to Toronto, ON CA...

We decide to board in a few minutes after boarding commenced.