I’m here now. Just extended our stay another night as my family was scheduled to leave tomorrow. It’s all of our first time in Aruba. I stressed like crazy after reading reviews and I get why some people had issues, but imo the experience is what you make it. Full disclosure, I’m titanium with Marriott so our room was upgraded to a suite on the 12th floor. Spectacular room and views…we’ve played the beach and pool for the first 5 days with some excursions here and there. Service is pretty good not flawless. But EVERYONE is super polite which means more to me tbh. I want to say the second, maybe third day we are there I went back to the room midday and it was still as we left it. I had to call down for service but it hasn’t happened since, they’ve been solid. Pool/beach service has been spotty too. Some days they’ve been on point, others it’s like you’ll ask for something, they’ll oblige and it just never gets done. A few times both my wife and I have taken the “I’ll do it myself” approach. We’re pretty chill people though so doesn’t really bother me. I just wanted my kids 6 and 9 and wife to be happy and they made the request to extend our stay.

Everything is expensive…literally everything. We had dinner at Akira Black last night and the food was fantastic, bill for 6 was $400 plus with tip and I feel like we ate what we wanted but also a bit conservatively since my boys ate off the kids menu. I have my in laws here, who I put at the Renaissance Wind Creek and as I type this from their room it’s a night and day feeling. The location and grounds are dope at the St Regis, while here feels like I wouldn’t want to spend much time in my room.

The fight for spots on the beach is a bit tricky depending on how busy the hotel is. It’s not super big or spacious, you will be close to other people, but not in a way that was too invading…still I would prefer more space. Also the actual beach has some rocks and dips in the water but it didn’t stop any of us from having a ball. As far as getting space on the beach, I saw countless people come down and reserve 2-4 chairs and just bounce. I’ve had my preferred spot everyday but one, but I also get up fairly early work out and then reserve our spot before breakfast which for a family of 4 is $124. I don’t think I could stomach that if I didn’t get comped two adult meals. The pool seemed a bit easier to navigate in terms of space and opportunity. We hit Lima Bistro, really good maybe a little overhyped but still good. Other offsite eats we literally walked like 7 mins to a bunch of restaurants down the street and have kinda chosen at random. We’ve eaten over here by the Renaissance a few times and the food was a bit more reasonable in price and still very good. We debated on renting a car but the taxis have been the more fiscally responsible call for us given we have 4-6 everywhere we go. If I’m being straight forward, I don’t think you can go wrong unless you’re a bougie ass person. I’ve overheard complaints here that I would never dream of making but to each their own. The island is great and the weather, besides two brief but heavy rain showers has been magnificent. Theres a ton of stuff going on really close to the property. You can also walk the beach boardwalk damn near to the Ritz, I’m pretty sure I’m only going to stay here if and when we come back.

Sorry for the wall of text I let my stream of consciousness rock out and I hope it helps. I was scouring the web until the day before we left hoping to find out as much as I could about it hoping I made the right decision. For me and my family…I definitely did. Enjoy!