cashpayme

Hi Everyone,

I'm looking to visit the Marriott Aruba Resort & Stellaris Casino in December.

The reviews looks good, has anyone been there? Any tips on getting a deal on the rooms?

Thanks

jh6000

I am going there over Labor Day, so can report back after that. In terms of getting a good buy: we used United Vacations. Got what we thought was a good deal on the airfare and hotel combined (and we also got a $75 additional promotional discount that United Vacations was running that may still be available. Also, look into flying First Class -- with United Vacations, I only paid $200 more roundtrip from California than if we were flying economy!

bmrisko

Looks like the current nightly rate for Tradewinds is $150/night additional (down from $175). Has anyone had any success getting a room on the Tradewinds floor for less than the additional $150/night? I've heard of people asking at check-in if they wanted to upgrade for less than $100/night, but wasn't sure if there was any validity to that.

kbh1234

If you are thinking about upgrading to Tradewinds, go ahead and do it beforehand. We asked about it and check-in and the FD agent quoted $175 - we agreed and she had us sign some forms and gave us a run-around about how they had to ask the manager, then another manager that wasn't in yet, then they were sold out, maybe we can give you access starting tomorrow, blah blah blah. I got tired of dealing with her and looked online myself, saw there were tradewinds rooms available for sale for our entire stay, emailed the manager and never received a response. The rest of the stay was fine, but the hotel lost out on several hundred dollars that we spent elsewhere.

bmrisko

Thanks, guess it is YMMV...I am still not sure Tradewinds is worth it, even at $150/night. We typically like to try out local eating establishments and this is our first time going to Aruba, so I am sure we will have lots of restaurants to check out. The one major advantage to me would be the guaranteed nice room on the Tradewinds floor, since we are currently booked into a base room on points.

bon95

For a nice meal I recommend Barefoot. Reservations recommended.

http://barefootaruba.com/

SkiAdcock

If you can do a trip report after your stay it would be much appreciated.

And wow - only $200 more for F from CA to Aruba is a pretty good deal!

Cheers.

cashpayme

Thanks for the replies, I actually booked my flight with southwest by using some points I had from the rapid rewards card.

I ended up booking through marriott.com, using the AAA discount...best rate I could find anywhere. The rates are as low as $179.99 for a standard room, not too bad for Aruba.

GeorgeBurdell

We just returned from 11 days at the Aruba Marriott.

I used the welcoming email from the property prior to arrival to start a dialog about updates, etc. The first pass was an offer to upgrade to the Tradewinds for $130/night. I passed on that but continued trying to see what I could get.

At check-in, we were upgraded to an ocean-view room on the Tradewinds floor for free but without access to the lounge. The room was nice and located on the north-east side facing the Ritz and the beach. We tailgated into the lounge the first night to check it out. It's nothing more than a normal concierge lounge with free booze. Definitely not worth $130 much less $175 a night. The free booze isn't that enticing. I saw some people taking handfuls of beer out of the lounge to the pools. That doesn't seem like fun to keep beers cold all afternoon.

The food at the pools was good. A little pricey like all resorts. They have two happy hours a day. The first is 12pm-1pm with 2 for 1. The second is 3-5 (3-4:30 at the adult pool) when drinks are 2 for $15. The catch is both drinks have to be the same. But if you're nice and a good tipper, the bar staff will make them as you're ready for them.

We liked the adults only pool. The cabanas there are a good deal. They charge you $75/day but if you purchase at least $50 of food/drinks they'll only charge you $25 for the cabana. You have to go to the health club to reserve but they start really early in the morning so it's not hard to get one. The palapas seem to be a waste of time. They starting booking at 4pm for the next day. We never seemed to be around to get one. The bar at the family pool was fun as always. Our only complaint was that some of the staff tended to mess around with the music and play what they wanted to hear. This resulted in some heavy hip hop and world music that just wasn't all that interesting in a resort pool setting.

Dinner at Simply Fish watching the sunset was great. It's expensive but worth the experience. Make sure you ask which fish are locally caught. I noticed that they have swai (Vietnamese cheap catfish) on the menu. Snapper, mahi and grouper are usually local.

The lobby bar has some really good bartenders. The drinks are expensive but the quality is excellent. The rum runner is the best I've had anywhere. I Also recommend the Ron Zacapa XO 25 year old Guatemalan rum. Avoid the Old Parr scotch. It's some export only stuff they don't bother selling in the UK.

We did eat breakfast at the buffet which was okay. We avoided the seafood buffet which was ridiculously priced, even with the discounts they print on receipts. Ruth Chris was decent. They had a good 3 course special for $110/couple that included salad or soup, a selection of entrees, two sides and dessert. We were also told to ask for a 10% discount on food at any of the hotel's food service locations. It came in handy for Simply Fish.

There are a lot of good places to eat on the Aruba. The best is Papiamiento. For what you get and the quality, it's a good deal and great atmosphere. There's a new place called the West Deck. It's an open air restaurant just past the bridge towards the airport. Menu has a nice combination of small plates and entrees. One of their specialties is a whole fried 1.5 lb. red snapper for $25. It's shareable.

Other places we liked were Taste of Belgium for breakfast, De Suikerthun for lunch (or breakfast), Rembrandt Café and even Hooters. We ate at Gianni's. It's not bad but paying $22 for a plate of pasta isn't that appealing but the New Yorkers seemed to like it.

There were two nightspots we liked. One was Gusto with an all-Dutch bartending staff and early evening happy hour. Another was Sand at the Brickell Bay.

SkiAdcock

Thanks for detailed trip report! Much appreciated.

Cheers.

cashpayme

Thanks for the detailed review GeorgeBurdell , sounds like a great time.

One question, what welcome email are you referring to?

SkiAdcock

Guess the property is promoting its Tradwinds Club. Press release on it a couple of days ago.

http://www.travelpulse.com/news/hote...or-adults.html

"The Aruba Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino has developed the Tradewinds Club, which is a hotel-within-a-hotel, to give the adults some space of their own.

The island is truly a family getaway, although it’s popular as a romantic honeymoon destination, too.

However, to accommodate the older crowd, the Tradewinds Club at the Aruba Marriot includes 49 rooms and 8 suites for adults only, with such amenities as an H20asis adult pool and private lounge with complimentary snacks and refreshments. And because adults like being taken care of too, there are elite concierge privileges for the 18 years and older crowd.

Some more info re: it was provided in a comparison of properties post from last year, including costs:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/24679518-post5.html

And what's annoying is that when I searched on Aruba in this forum nothing came up (although I knew we had threads), but when I did a regular google search multiple threads came up. FT search sucks.

Milhous Gloriosus

Does this mean that kids are not allowed in club lounge? Thinking of taking our little girl.

Also, any recent reviews?

Long Distance

Tradewinds is 18 and over (the floor and the lounge)

Just returned, the hotel is still wonderful. However, on the beach, due to the changes imposed by the government, they have had to push the front two rows of Palaypas back. They have not reduced the number of palaypas, as such you are much closer to your neighbors than you were previously.





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acysb87

Will be here for 4 nights starting March 22nd.
Like the concept of Trade Winds,will try to negotiate a rate that works for us.
Any typical costs? 100-150 per night extra?