Planning a trip for later this year and had the exact same question.

RC costs more vs. Stellaris and for just a little more (plus a co-pay) I could snag a Tradewinds room or the Junior Suite at Stellaris

I didn’t reply sooner since I haven’t been to Aruba since 2018, but I’ll offer my two cents since no one else has replied.

I’ve stayed at both of these properties, as well as the Hyatt. IMO the Ritz is head and shoulders above the other two. The rooms are nicer and the service was much better. The best part for us, however, was that it a bit less crowded and you don’t have to deal with the palapa nonsense. They simply set up chairs and umbrellas as needed. Of course if it’s extremely windy, they put down the umbrellas and there really aren’t any other shade options on the beach IIRC.

It also has, by far, the nicest casino on the island.

Happy to answer any specific questions if I can.

Stayed at both on the same trip. Ritz is a nicer hotel and nicer rooms. Beach and water is not as nice as it is located near a point. More stuff floating in the shallow water there. No problem with chairs at pool or beach. Restaurants are good and not super crowded. It is a farther walk to everything in Eagle beach. We upgraded to the Tradewinds room at the Stellaris and glad we did for the food. Took total advantage of that big time to keep down food and drink costs. Getting beach chairs is a pain. The stay at the Ritz was more relaxed as we could easily get chairs at the beach and pool. Hint, we have walked down to the Ritz before and sat at the pool and ordered drinks and food at the pool and paid cash. No questions asked. You can stay next door and just walk over and go to the restaurants and casino for the experience of both. I would have no qualms about staying at either hotel. Less kids at the Ritz.

Thanks for feedback! A couple of follow-up questions. Looks like at the Ritz, we could do either a Coastal Room or Ocean View room or we could pay $750 for an ocean front room. We could also pay quite a bit more (~$1500 and up) to add Club access.

Is the Ocean Front room or the Club room worth the extra co-pay money? If not, any preference between Coastal and Ocean View.

For Stellaris, it looks like we could also do a Tradewinds Ocean View Top Floor for the same point total ~60k more points than the Ritz base rooms

Trying to figure out best value but more importantly this is a trip where we'll be leaving our toddler at home with his grandparents so looking to maximize our relaxation time more than anything (and if it costs a little bit more to do that at one place vs. the other it's totally worth it)

I did my stay pre-covid. I booked the Stellaris and received an upgrade offer by email for a Tradewinds room which I did. We then ate and drank at the hotel all our meals in the lounge. Note, we had been to Aruba a number of times before and to various restaurants. So we choose to stay on property, may have gone off to walk around and get a drink. When went to the Ritz we were offered to upgrade to lounge access for a fee. We passed as we wanted to go to various restaurants. I would check reviews of the lounges currently to see if it is worthwhile doing. If your plan is to eat off property, I would pass on lounge access. I would pass on ocean view extra cost for both. We never sat outside once at the Stellaris balcony as to warm and wanted to be on the beach. The Ritz the same thing. Wanted to get outside. If you pick the Ritz, I would just wait for check in and see what upgrade costs are. The money you save can be spent on food and drinks. At the Stellaris you may want to contact them and see about the cost of upgrading. I booked both stays on points and was offered the upgrades at both. Hope this gives you some more info, but check the current reviews on tripadvisor.

Any recent stay at this property? Curious about the pricing to update to club room (per room to get access for our family if 3?), and if the food spread is worth the costs. We booked two nights with points.