JoeWoodstock

Please let us know what your upgrade experience is like at that property.

I am quite curious, since I have an anniversary trip booked for the first week of January with points, myself.

And, most importantly, enjoy yourselves to the max on your honeymoon!

Justin7894

Thanks!! I'll certainly update this thread with my upgrade info.

sophiegirl

I was offered an upgrade at check-in for a greatly reduced rate. ( and took it)

Enjoy your honeymoon!

jstilley

I can't wait to hear about your trip! We are thinking about going for our honeymoon in December. Keep us all posted!!!

JoeWoodstock

Hope the honeymoon in Aruba was great. I'd love to hear about your experiences at the property, since we've got a reservation for a week in early January there, for our anniversary.

--woodstock

jstilley

ok- I'm eager to hear about your trip. I'm waiting to book my honeymoon until I hear about it. :-)

d-ride

I currently have a reservation using points at this hotel from 11/17-11/21 in an ocean view tradewinds room. I just found out some friends will be joining us but do not wish to upgrade to the tradewinds level. I'm ok with giving up the tradewinds level, but I still want an ocean front room (or better).

Here is my question - as a platinum member, should I book a partial ocean view room and risk that I will get the upgrade or should I just book what I want?

Does anyone have any experience with this hotel? Any help is appreciated.

Thank you.

hhoope01

I've not stayed there myself, but you might find some good info in the http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...e-upgrade.html thread.

d-ride

I currently have a reservation using points at this hotel from 11/17-11/21 in an ocean view tradewinds room. I just found out some friends will be joining us but do not wish to upgrade to the tradewinds level. I'm ok with giving up the tradewinds level, but I still want an ocean front room (or better).

Here is my question - as a platinum member, should I book a partial ocean view room and risk that I will get the upgrade or should I just book what I want?

Justin7894

I don't have time for an extensive update at this time, but to answer some questions for those who are awaiting a stay at this property or are waiting to book...

The property was very nice! Everything was very clean, from the room and bathroom to the lobby, pool area, and beach. Everyone from the maid staff to the check-in receptionists, and those working at the various restaurants were helpful, polite, and really seemed to enjoy their jobs.


Now for the details:

*In late February booked a rewards stay for 7 nights (booked 5, got 6th free, and booked an additional night for a total of 7) in an upgraded ocean/garden room to hopefully avoid the northern construction side facing the Ritz.

*On August 19th, I received an email from Ester Maduro, Aruba Marriott Reservations Manager, offering an upgrade to Tradewinds level for 10,000 points per night or $50 per night plus taxes instead of an additional 20,000 points per night or $125 per night plus taxes upgrade fee bases on two guests per room. I declined and was offered a complimentary upgrade to and Ocean/Pool view room. I admit, I was kind of expecting this upgrade and obviously willing to use points for it had I not received it free of charge.

*In an email exchange with Ester, I inquired about the Executive King Suites and Governors Suites as my wife (then fiancee) was extremely interested in a room with the wrap around balcony. I was told that only cash upgrades can be used for these rooms. Elite members do not receive complimentary upgrades and cannot upgrade using points.

*Before our stay I purchased $1000 in Marriott Cheques for 135,000 points to use for food, drinks, excursions, or room upgrades.

*In September I was credited all of the points used to upgrade just before they were re-deducted from my account. I called the MR line to get an explanation and ended up getting another credit for the points after I was told that the resort was giving complimentary upgrades for stays during the month of October.

*We arrived in Aruba, got a $28USD taxi to the hotel, as the hotel doesn't provide shuttle service and walked to the front desk to check in. Immediately, bellmen politely welcomed us and offered to take our bags. We declined. We noticed other's checking in had received a complimentary drink from the bar. After a 10 minute wait or so, we were also offered a drink, which turned out to be a virgin Aruba Ariba.

*Lisette assisted with our check at which time I began negotiating an upgrade to an Executive King Suite. Unfortunately, they didn't have any available for our entire stay (monday-monday), but we were offered one for 4 nights. Lisette was kind enough to walk us to our original room and then to the Executive King Suite to view and compare the two rooms before making a decision. While extremely beautiful, the Executive King Suite was on the construction side, so we kindly declined. When we returned to the check-in counter, she left to speak with her manager and came back with another Executive King Suite. This one was on the third floor, Ocean/Pool side for 6 nights. She offered the room to us for an additional $120/night - which was a discounted rate and offered again to walk us up to the room. I told her a viewing of the room was not necessary, but I asked her if there was any way she could do better. She left once again to speak with her reservations manager and came back with a better offer. We accepted her final offer for 5 of the 6 nights available, given that we could secure a non-suite room on a very high floor for the final 2 nights of our stay. She agreed and we signed a contract for the paid upgrade.

*While I was negotiating the upgrade, my wife made reservations at Simply Fish for Tuesday night at 6:30 and received a book containing info, pictures, and menus of most of the restaurants on the island.

*We finally made it to our lovely ocean/pool view Executive King Suite on the 3rd floor, which was quite lovely. The view was not quite over the palm trees, but you could still see the lovely pool, beautiful ocean, and breathtaking sunsets. With the curtains fully opened, the two sided view was pretty amazing. The wrap around balcony sported a table with two nice chairs, and two lounge chairs.

*Our other room (final 2 nights) was also very clean. It was on the 6th floor and had a wonderful view. The transition between rooms was extremely easy. We packed up our stuff, brought our bags to the bellmen, and embarked on our half-day ABC Jeep Tour. When we came back, our bags were in our new room waiting for us.


Monday and Sunday we ordered room service for breakfast and ate on our balcony. It was very nice and the food was great! They charge an automatic 18% gratuity for room service. Every other day we ate at the Lobby Cafe. They have wonderful pastries, donuts, a great egg sandwich, juice, coffee, etc. Very reasonably priced.

We had lunch at Waves beach/pool bar every day. Items range from $9-$16 dollars and are very good. Our favorite was the grouper tacos! Ask for the local Papaya hot sauce!

*We ate dinner at the following restaurants on/off the resort:
Monday: LaVista - Good buffet. Italian Themed. Good service. Quite expensive.
Tuesday: Simply Fish - This turned out to be our favorite restaurant on the resort. Beautiful view. Excellent Service. Great food! Comp'd our desert as a honeymoon gift.
Wednesday: Ruth's Chris - Best service I have ever received at a restaurant. Comp'd our desert as a honeymoon gift.
Thursday: Red Sail Sports Sunset Dinner Cruise - Beautiful sunset views aboard a catamaran. Cheap liquor (I drank champagne all night to avoid the liquor, wife had wine). Food was catered by the Hyatt and was just okay.
Friday: Ketsu - Excellent Sushi and Martinis in the Lobby
Saturday: Papiamento - A wonderful local spot. The atmosphere was quite incredible (outside around a pool at a 150 year old Aruban manor). My only complaint was too much service. We were asked to order drinks and food by 5 different waitstaff. Very annoying.
Sunday: Simply Fish again - I told you it was our fav.

We also drank A LOT! Drinks were pretty expensive. They have one "rocks" and one "frozen" drink special per day. On special, drinks are $8.50. Then, from 3pm - 5pm every day, they have happy hour. This consists of any 2 drinks of the same kind for $14.50. Normally, drinks are from $9 - $14 each. Beer is $8 each (or, if you got it from the store in the lobby, only $3.75 each).


Complaints:

*I made the mistake of reading every review on TripAdvisor.com for this resort. I really had my hopes up that they would deliver champagne and chocolate covered strawberrys to the room as a honeymoon gift as they do for so many people (honeymoons, anniversaries, etc). However, they did not. I also thought they would make those cute little towel creatures every day, but we only received one when we switched to our normal pool/ocean view room. Do I really care about these things? Not really, but I had really hoped we would receive them to "wow" my wife.

*There were a lot of honeymooners there. Though not a bad thing, I had just hoped to be one of the few honeymooners. I suppose it makes your experience a little less special. Not really a big deal though.

*When we returned from our trip, 70,000 points were removed from my MR account. I paid to upgrade to the Executive King Suite for 5 nights and I thought other upgrade was complimentary? I haven't sorted this out with MR or the resort yet, so I'll provide an update once I do.


That's all the time I have for an update for now. Feel free to PM me with any questions you may have about the resort. I'll be happy to help.

I may also make this post a separate thread with a link from this thread, since some of the things I just mentioned don't fall under this threads title.

Cheers!

JoeWoodstock

Justin,

I greatly appreciate your posting such an extensive review, including a night-by-night restaurant run-down. We'll certainly be eating at least one night at Simply Fish in January during our anniversary getaway.

One thing I am curious about -- did you take a trip up to the Tradewinds floor or get a chance to tour through a Tradewinds room/suite?

Did you end up at the pool a lot during the day, or were you down on the beach? How crowded did pool/beach look/feel? Did you notice a separate area of the beach for folks staying on the Tradewinds floor?

Thanks,
--woodstock

Justin7894

Woodstock,

We didn't tour the Tradewinds floor, but when we came across people staying in Tradewinds, we certainly asked them their opinion. We got mixed reviews. For the most part, we heard the rooms are the same, the breakfast is an excellent way to save money, the clothes pressing service is nice, the rooms have a great view (unless you're on the construction side), and the open bar is not very practical since you can't take drinks out. I can honestly say that the Tradewinds beach is probably not the best beach area. It's farther from the bar (Waves) and pool, right in front of the Ritz construction, and right behind the Mi Dushi/parasail/watersports hut. That said, no one forces Tradewinds guests to use the Tradewinds beach. The nicest thing I noticed about Tradewinds is the bottled water and the free use of floats (regular guests get infused tap water and have to rent floats for $5/day). I believe Tradewinds guests also get any palapa for free.

We are definitely sun people, so we would start off on the beach, as close to the water as possible. We didn't bother with a palapa since again, we like the sun. We would normally migrate towards the pool after lunch, close to 3:00pm when happy hour starts. The pool is extremely relaxing and the pool chairs are extremely comfy!

The beach (sand) seemed more crowded than the pool, but that's because it's a relatively small area and there are a ton of palapas which take up a considerable amount of space. The ocean was not very crowded. The pool is a much more spread out area, but chairs are harder to come by mid-afternoon. The pool was never very crowded. I suspect many guests throw their .... on pool chairs and don't really use them. The sun feels way less intense by the pool and they play music, which can be relaxing.

Justin

ginette207

We have 3 nights for rent MArch 12-13-14 2012 the guest room have a small frigidaire coffe maker toaster microwave ,dish own private balcon Ocean View
for any more question message me. Ginette

darthbimmer

I'm planning a trip to Aruba around Thanksgiving and am trying to choose between the two MR hotels there, the Renaissance and the Marriott Stellaris. I've read so many good things in this forum about the Stellaris, but it is a lot more expensive than the Renaissance. A few questions about the Ren.... If I book there will I feel I "cheaped out" versus the nicer rooms and beach at the Stellaris? Is the Renaissance's location really walkable to restaurants and shopping in Oranjestad? And does using the beaches on the Renaissance's private island require a spa fee, or is basic beach access included?

I appreciate your help making my wife's and my first visit to Aruba a success!

Mr. Vker

I have stayed both places several times. I can't say what your room will be like at the Stellaris, but I can say I prefer the Renaissance over the Stellaris. I LOVE the private Island. Its exclusive and beautiful. Great snorkeling on the other side of the rocks. Its totally included in your rate. No additional charge--unless you get food or rent equip. And the hotel location is in the center of everything. You are within 2 minute walk of probably 50 bars and restaurants. (Maybe a slight exaggeration)

The Stellaris is wonderful inside, but I do not like the beach as much as the private island. Stellaris beach is over crowded.