Couldn't agree more :D. But seriously thanks for this and the other comments as we were just looking at it this past week as a possibility.

Does anyone know how the resort fee is handled on a point stay? We're Gold's FWIW.

(Never mind, I found it. Resort fees are an added charge).

I will be at the Ritz Aruba at the end of July, so I will update this thread.

Odd.

I have a points reservation booked at the Aruba RC for next year and under "Summary of Charges" on the reservation listing it shows:

The only dollar cost listed is a $3.50 per night for "Estimated government taxes and fees"

Often times, resort fees are included on an award stay.

(OT: We are staying at Grand Cayman RC in October for 4 nights. (Work trip) adding three nights at the Marriott. I looked at adding the nights at the RC. Their resort fee is $25/day PLUS 10% of your daily rate. Unbelievable.)

Review
 

I can't answer the question about reward stays but I thought I would post a little review since there seems to be limited information about this property on this site.

We visited as a group of 5 couples at the end of April. I found a great deal on Costco Travel so that's how everyone booked. Despite the 3rd party booking and no status for anyone, 2 of the 5 got upgraded to suites. Unfortunately we were not but our standard partial ocean view room was more than adequate.

Overall we loved the place. A few highlights:
-Beach was far less crowded than any of the neighboring hotels.
-No problems getting chairs at the pool or beach at any time of the day, even for our large group.
-Had breakfast at the hotel once and lunch four times. The food was excellent. I wish we had tried dinner as well. I was a little underwhelmed with the other places we ate on the island.
-Service was excellent. We're not all that demanding but found the staff to be very attentive when needed.
-Room was large with huge bathroom and good sized lanai. Fridges are not provided standard in the rooms (or suites) but they brought one for no charge when requested.
-Loved the location at the end of the hotel strip. No pass through traffic yet we were still able to walk everywhere in Palm beach.
-Casino was best of those we saw.

Our booking through Costco indicated we would have to pay the service charge (resort fee) directly to the hotel however we were not charged. Not sure if this was intentional or an oversight by the hotel. YMMV.

vtgambler -- did any of you snorkel right off the beach? how was it? Thanks.

I didn't personally but a friend who can't sit still on the beach spent a fair amount of time doing so. The water in front of the hotel was clear but it's a flat sandy bottom. He said it was better the further north he went but I gathered it wasn't spectacular. Sorry I can't be more specific.

If you drive about 3/4 mile up the road from the Ritz, there are some great reefs with beach access.

Just finished my stay here in Aruba, so I can answer any questions.

This is an excellent property - the staff from top to bottom is top notch and the best customer service I've ever experienced. I thought the food in the club lounge was exceptional.

My wife and I stayed at the Ritz in January on a points stay for 5 nights, I am platinum premier.

The positives:

the rooms are spacious, the views are very nice.
The location is good at the end of the beach so not a lot of traffic and the beach is much less crowded than the other areas from the Marriott going towards the Holiday Inn
The food at the restaurants was solid, not cheap, but good

The negatives:

Service, 2 emails before my arrival never received a response. This was an anniversary trip so I wanted to set a couple of things up, again absolutely no response.
Waiting more than 20 minutes to get a drink on an almost empty beach, 15 minutes at the pool which was also now crowded
Being overcharged for stuff, not a lot but had to bring it to their attention.
The pool/beach staff would constantly stand around and just gossip with each other. The Dutch woman who ran that area would walk around while her staff did nothing.

And my email to the Ritz afterwards to outline these issues, no response from the hotel. Ritz corporate was horrified and said they couldn't understand it.

So all and all a rather up and down stay. Not what you would expect from the Ritz. But it was much quieter than the Marriott next door. So I would probably stay there again as the most important aspects (cleanliness, room comfort, nice bed, decent enough internet) for a hotel were good. And there were some very professional people, like the bell staff, who were all very nice.

As to the question of a resort fee, I was not charged anything on my points stay. Just a small Aruba tax (maybe $3.50 a night)

I'm returning to the Ritz Aruba in a few months. Did you ask for/receive any sort of room upgrade on your reward stay? We are traveling with a toddler who naps, so an Executive Suite is a must for us. I'd love to book on points, but the 'best' room available using points is "Guest Room, Ocean View". I'm not willing to roll the dice that they'll accommodate us at check-in (I'm Platinum Elite), even though we are traveling at a slow time. I'm also a little short of the the 1.07M points it would take to get 2 of those "Guest Room, Ocean View" rooms. And with Executive Suites available in the $625/nt range, it would be a horrible use of points.

Our last experience here sounded a lot like yours. All in all, the many highs more than offset the few lows, so there really was no decision to make about returning. But the fact there were lows at the premiere property on the island is a head scratcher. Nothing a few Balashi's won't cure :).

You might check with the the hotel management to see if they might work with you on a "paid" upgrade.

While I haven't stayed at the Aruba RC, I have stayed at the Cayman RC on an award stay. They were willing to pre-upgrade me to a club room and/or a better view room for a set per night charge. I didn't ask for a suite upgrade as I didn't need one. But you might be able to work a deal with them on using points for the base room and cash for an upgrade.

Any recent reviews?

Just got back from a week stay. We (2 adults, teen boy) booked a junior suite. Room was decent. The sitting room area was very large, balcony spanned the entire length of both the sitting room and the bedroom. Teen didn't complain about the sleeper sofa, so I guess it was tolerable for sleeping. The sleeper bed wasn't made up when we arrived and had to call down for that. Next time, they confiscated it all away and I had to call down again. Made it clear that time, that we'd need the bed EVERY NIGHT and we didn't have a problem after that. Never heard any noise from the adjoining room or hallway. The view was "partial ocean" and the ocean/beach part of the view was beautiful (we could watch the sunset from the balcony), but it overlooked a sort of local parking area for beach access. Not exactly view-worthy and a little noisy at times (but wasn't heard from inside). Service was decent, but not excellent. Room was well-cleaned and not worn, but some things were a bit dated (eg iHome with 30 pin connector). Grout in shower needed deep cleaning. They left a fresh fruit bowl and personal welcome note on the desk for us (not sure if this was because suite or because gold or because twitter or just standard).

We reserved a pool cabana for 4 days (not arrival or departure day or day we left property for a full day tour). Opted for that since I'd read about people having to get out there early to secure beach chairs, etc., and didn't want to fight that fight. Opted for pool over beach cabana because I'd read the blowing sand on the beach was an annoyance in the beach cabanas. The pool cabana was nice ($200/day plus $37 included gratuity). It included a small fridge with bottles of water, a fruit place, granola bars, bags of chips. Service was sub-par though. We've reserved cabanas at many locations and you usually have a pretty dedicated server who takes care of your requests and food orders, etc. I never saw the guy again who set up the cabana in the morning and we practically had to hunt down food waiters to take our lunch and drink orders. And beach chair availability wasn't as tough as I'd expected. We'd probably been fine without the cabana. The family pool was quite small and very warm. We didn't use it at all, as the beach was perfect and amazing. There's a little hut with a activity shop in it between the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton where you just fill out a one-time waiver and RC guests can just check out equipment at no fee. We never had any problems getting what we wanted - there were always plenty of paddle boards, etc. There's also some other things there where you can pay to do other activities. They are a little bit tight with the towels (you just have to ask for them), but that's better than most of the hotels on Aruba that give you tags for your towels and only allot a certain amount. Complimentary sunscreen everywhere (15, 30, and 50) and water coolers. The shallow water goes on forever. At the end of the roped swimming area, it will still barely past my waist most of the time. Minimal waves. Just calm and lovely. In the morning, the pelicans zip down and feed around you. :) They didn't seem to have the sand flea problems that were attacking us further down the beach around other properties (specifically Moomba).

On property, we ate at BLT (dinner), Solanio (breakfast and dinner), Madero (pool side lunch), and the Divi bar (dinner/sushi).

Divi - Sushi was okay, but not wonderful. Edamame was grilled or something? I didn't love it like I usually do. All the drinks were good. Eat on the balcony outside during sunset - it's delightful.

BLT - Everything we had was excellent, bugs were kind of bitey on the patio though. Service was top notch. I'm still dreaming about the popovers with salted butter.

Solanio - Dinner was good, we ate on the patio no problem. Breakfast on the patio, however, was spent fighting off birds. Lots and lots of birds. Buffet probably wasn't worth the price, but they charged my teen as a kid, so I'm counting it as a win.

Poolside - Teen reports the fish tacos were not only the best fish tacos he's ever had, but the best MEAL he's ever had, period.

Um... anything else?

Edited to add: Ceviche in Aruba is unlike ceviche I've had before... Divi did it very well. Try that. :)