Aruba Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino — Hotel in Aruba

The room was fine and the beach was perfect, but the management is a disaster. I booked a room with the concierge Trade Winds level. I will not do it again because the extra $200 or so per day isn't worth it for me. I ate breakfast at the Trade Winds and it was comparable to the breakfast buffet at Mercat restaurant (but for the omelette station), however it didn't make sense to leave the beach for lunch or the top-shelf happy hour (which did work with dinner plans). The only other things you get are a room on the top floor where no children are permitted (which was nice as I was travelling without children) and a spot on the beach where the chairs have pads (unlike the other areas which is absurd). The beach spot is supposed to have no children but it's so close to the rest of the beach areas that it didn't really seem like it was adults only and it's right next to a place that rents chairs and umbrellas to the general public and has guys hanging out speaking loudly all day.

Here's the problem. I went away to get away and destress and I had nothing but stress. I arrived and went to the front desk where my bonvoy credit card was taken and a hold was placed for the room. No issue. I went to the Trade Winds and Jackie, who was running the show, asked for my card again. I told her it was already taken. She insisted. I told her the card was less than a year old and although it had no balance, if she took a second hold for over $5,000 it would create a problem because the limit on this particular card was only $10,000. I kept it clean for this trip to get the bonus bonvoy points. She assured me it wouldn't be a double hold so I acceded to her demand. Needless to say, Jackie has no clue and I immediately started getting emails from the credit card bank about my balance being exceeded and future charges being declined. My children in college use this card for daily essentials. I went to the desk on a Thursday and was told that I should pay my bill now instead of when I leave on Saturday and I asked for a manager and was told one would be in touch. That never happened. How hard is it to remove a hold you placed wrongfully? I spent half an hour online with my credit card company, to no avail. I checked out on Saturday, explained the problem and was told they were sorry and it would be taken care of. It wasn't. Simply put, they don't care or are totally inept. I was told I would get an email from management. I didn't. I've spent 3 hours dealing with this because these people are not competent. I called my credit card company this evening and switched my $20,000 limit from a different card with the same bank to my current account to make sure my family has no issues. This is what I had to go through. Kinda negates the entire vacation.

On top of all of that, there is a limited number of chairs and palapas on the beach. You can only get one by going on an app. On 3 specific days the app was down. People were gathering at the towel hut to complain. More stress. The app is also to order food. When it wasn't working, you couldn't get a cocktail or lunch. You had to ask the person at the towel hut to get a wait person. Not my idea of service. Especially considering that this was an off peak trip. Perhaps a first come first serve basis and the old fashioned flags on the chairs would be better? I asked Christina from the wait staff (who is an absolute gem) about this and she confirmed that the app was not new. So then why the problems? If you're going to make us use your app it should work. Even when working you can't order a rum and diet coke - no option for that - only their mixed drinks that they choose to list. Ridiculous.

Enrique at the beach towel hut is a great person and a great employee who should be promoted. He resolved our problems when he saw that we and other guests were rightfully upset and he did so with a smile.

I beg Marriott to take a look at how this hotel is run. Maybe when management sends me the email that they promised me I'll decide to take down...

This hotel is located in the "mid-rise" section of the beach, on Palm Beach between the Ritz-Carlton and the Marriott Ocean Club. It's a beautiful hotel - nice entrance to a spacious atrium-style lobby with some stores, the Lobby Bar (sushi), and Starbucks.

There are some negatives, to be sure, starting with what seems to be a common theme among hotels here: the thing you likely came for, the pool and beach, are oversubscribed. The hotel will tell you that your US$65/night resort fee includes a complimentary reservation of a beach chair and umbrella (Palapas), but you can't reserve until you're on-property, checked in, and on the hotel's WiFi. "Complimentary" Palapas are released at 4pm and 7am, but getting one is like getting Taylor Swift tickets. Refresh! Refresh! Refresh! Okay! There's one way in the back! Grab it! Too late! Unavailable! Try again tomorrow! Guess we're not going to the beach. The hotel uses a third-party system to manage those reservations, and it's mostly bait to get you to spring for a $30/day palapas reservation - which there are plenty of (and then you can reserve 3 days in a row if you wish.)

Pool chairs aren't "reserved" through that system at all. Here, it's first-come-first-served, starting at 7am. That means people line up starting before 6 - while it's still dark out! That's not much of a "vacation". A chair left unused for more than 2 hours is released for other guests. Both pools have a poolside bar (a swim-up bar in the main pool) and you can also order any drink or food via any waiter or Marriott's app.

There are two pools. The "main" pool is shallow (3 feet, except for a small section near the waterfall net/volleyball), with a DJ most afternoon (fun but loud) and the swim-up bar (usually crowded). It's not a pool you're going to really swim in. It was fun, sort of, once, and cools you off.

The H2Oasis ("adult") pool is amazing. Far larger than it looks in pictures. Serene, with towering palms over it; seating all around the edges, just wonderful and refreshing and perfect to float and look up at the sky.

You need your room key to get into, or out of, it. Which is a small gripe: you have to carry this card around all the time. Why is it not a wristband??

The same system that lets you reserve palapas lets you reserve any of 9 cabanas at H2Oasis, for $250. You get a small refrigerator and a small selection of water/juice/fresh fruit. It's definitely not worth it. Despite a "ceiling fan" you can't feel, the cabana blocks the breeze more than it does the sun. It's hot, and you get one small uncomfortable sofa and a chair, plus the lounge chairs you could have had anyway. Basically, you're paying that much to have poolside seats without having to get up at 5am to wait in line for them.

The beach is beautiful and the water temperatures there is perfect. The bottom feels like soft sand, and then - suddenly - clay, which is actually created via decomposing seaweed so it's more "mud"; not a factor really, but weird to step in. The water was blue but cloudy - can't see the bottom near the beach.

There are no locations (other than Starbucks) for a quick, lighter bite. Like a typical resort, everything's engineered to steer you towards rather expensive choices for every meal. In the morning, the Starbucks will have a 15-30 minute line, and it doesn't allow online ordering but does have room delivery (for a fee).

Speaking of expensive, the Stellaris Casino was a huge disappointment. Mostly run-of-the-mill slot machines (which in Aruba are notoriously very "tight"), and $25 minimum bets on everything else except roulette ($5). Banish any thoughts of a pleasant yet fairly inexpensive evening here. Fortunately, it the rest of the hotel is non-smoking.

Overall: It's an amazing experience - and the attention to detail is impressive for...

I think a few things really made this experience not great at the Marriot Resort & Stellaris Casino. The first was the lack of clear guidance and communication. It felt like everyone person was saying something different. I never felt like a clear cohesiveness at all. I booked the hotel through expedia and it was one price online when I got there the price they showed me was over a thousand dollars more. This is over and above the incidentals and it was US dollar to US dollar so no currency issue. Just a random jump in price for the same room which I could look past but just such a weak explanation from the front desk made it seem shady. The room was nothing to talk about but the balcony was flush with the next person so you were face to face with them if you stepped out. In the main areas garbage from other guests sat in the same place for the whole day. Later in the day I came back to my room at 4:30pm and it was still not cleaned from the morning. Had to call and ask them to come clean it. When I called the attendant blamed me said we had the "do not disturb" sign on when we never did.

All of this I could look past but really the system to rent the Palapas (shaded area's) was a disaster. They want you to go through an app you have to download but you can only sign up right at 8am. Imagine 400 guests all trying to go on this app at exactly 8am to get a shaded area. So much stress. The attendants all were counting down the minutes out loud and people were shaking with phones in their hands. Others were setting alarms on their phones to do this. I stood by the hut the first day and watched this debacle. One person around me scream in joy "I got one!" like they won a lottery. Everyone else looked dejected realizing the whole day is off now because you don't have spot for your family to sit and enjoy shade. People crashed the attendant asking for a spot and they gave away what limited spots they had. It just felt so stressful and to come all the way to Aruba to leave stress behind this really felt horrible. Everyone working there knew it. One guest next to me was walking away upset and said "I've been coming here for 5 years and each year this system gets worse." As a redemption round they allow you to go back on again exactly 5pm and fight for a spot in the morning but it all became so much of a hassle. I just couldn't get over how messed up this system was and how they put everyone against each other for these spots. Just have a line there and make it first come first serve like the rest of the world. The app needs to go. If you're going around spring break time just keep in mind there's lines for everything and the system there was just terrible. The service was so-so. Didn't feel like anyone actually cared at the hotel. It felt like they had a set script and were so over people complaining they just said the same thing to everyone. "Sorry sir/ mam you have to go through the app." I was looking forward to this trip for years. Aruba was beautiful but this hotel can't say I'd recommend this...