Divi Village Golf & Beach Resort — Hotel in Oranjestad (city)

What is going on with The Divi Village? The Divi Complex is not the same Divi we have come to know and love for over 30 years. The washing machines and Dryers are broken an no one bothers to put a sign on them so you go to use them and lose money. Nobody is fixing them and the DIVI has not replaced them with new machines. Same broken machines for years. The staff is not the staff that we have come to know and love over the years. I don't know what happened to the employees. It seems ike they replaced everyone with new people that are inexperienced and barely speak english, and they do not know what they are doing. They use to have a great breakfast at the Seabreeze and now it is overpriced and sub par. Especially the breakfast was the biggest disappointment. The omelets are tiny and when you tell them you want your items in the omelet, they take a half of Teaspoon full of whatever you ask for to be in the omelet. There are no more scrambled eggs in the trays. They said the tray heating system isn't working. Who ever went to a breakfast buffet where there is no scrambed eggs? You have to special order them. The pancakes were led sinkers. Upon arrival we wanted to get reservations for Mulligans as they advertise all kinds of specials and upon arrival we were told that they were all sold out, 10 days in advance. The beach papalapas Huts was a huge disaster. You will have to get up at 5:00 AM to secure a hut. At 10:15 AM when I arrived, I was able to secure the last papalapa hut and was strictly told that if I leave the hut for more then 30 minutes, they would take the hut away from me. I wanted to go get a disabled family member from the room and transport them to the hut but I would not be able to confirm that I could complete the transport in time. I took pictures of all the empty huts for 30 minutes where no one was there. I asked the beach chair attendant if he threatened the rest of the beach goers to take away their huts and chairs after they left them for 30 minutes. I captured pictures of all the empty chairs where people left towels and bags and left their chairs. Nobody was policing them but I was warned. I have been paying maintenance fees for this facility since 1994, 30 years and this is what I get. I don't know what is going on here. All the professional resort employees from the kitchen staff to the front desk to the transport drivers are mostly gone. Nobody is here, the place is mostly vacant, but the prices to stay here are sky high. Something doesn't add up right. In addition, I use to love to sit out on the patio and go to dinner at the Seabreeze. I have been getting eaten up alive with bites all over my feet, ankles, legs and arms. I never had that issue here before. There was no cranberries for the turkey tonight on Thanksgiving. No Sweet Potatoes. No Turnips. Noting that made the Thanksgiving Dinner special here years ago. It use to the be best Thanksgiving dinner I ever had. Not the case today. The pools are not being cleaned periorically through out the day and they are full of leaves and dirt and they are not heated. The kiddie pool is a filthy with leaves, dirt floating around and Iguana feces everywhere. Then we were we sitting at sunset with the kids, the pool attendant forced us out of our chairs around the infinity pool because it was cleanup time, yet he left trash on the ground. I don't know what happened to this facility and Chapel Hill seems to care more about Money then the professionalism of the resort. We had a family member that had a medical emergency and has been in the clinics and hospital everyday. I went to tell the conciege and all she can tell me is to go take a tour and sign up with the sales people for an mandatory update. When I reported to the front desk that the machines weren't working, instead of calling Maintenance they called the Operator. The Operator said she knew about it already. Nothing was done. I use to love to come here but the staff and facilities are not up to par and it is time to...

Mixed experience, some staff were amazing while others were not. The bellman was amazing, he was very friendly and helpful. The lady who checked us in was unpleasant and didn’t explain how most things worked with the all inclusive and seemed very annoyed that she had to check us in. Depending on which staff member you ask you’ll get different information about where you can eat. Dining at any of the restaurants you are expected to tip for overpriced food. One evening we went to the paparazzi restaurant and had a horrible experience. The hostess harassed my son and I and said we were not all inclusive despite our wrist bands. He thought my son was an adult (because he looks older but all my children had to give their passports at check in to prove age). The hostess came back to our table after we ordered and said that in fact we did not have the right wrists bands and needed to leave and walk up front with him. Our server tried to stop him and told him that we did have the correct wrist bands and he insisted we did not. After being embarrassed and removed from the restaurant and taken upfront, the front desk staff informed the hostess that we did have the correct wristbands, and that he was wrong. He continued to smirk and be rude. We decided to leave and go back to our room. I called the manager at the Divi Golf where we stayed. She was very understanding and listened, but said she couldn’t do much since we were at the resort across the street. I spoke to the manager the following morning at the resort. He was very nice and listened but nothing was ever done or offered. He said he would be in contact after investigating & they would make up for the inconvenience and embarrassment. I wish they would’ve handled the situation better and been more empathetic. Overall, we enjoyed Aruba, but would not stay at that same resort again. Make sure you make dinner reservations as soon as you arrive otherwise you’ll only be able to eat at the buffets. They book up quickly. Also Don’t depend on the golf cart to pick you up for transportation. They do get very busy & understandably so you will get your steps in walking around the resort and across the street to the other resorts. One Bellman at the all inclusive across the street, would not let us use the kayaks or amenities or eat at the restaurants despite divvi Golf saying we were allowed to use the amenities and it was included in the all inclusive so again, lots of mixed information on what we were allowed to do and not allowed to do. Fortunately, we left the resort and went on different excursions and just paid extra since we couldn’t depend on what Divi was providing. The golf course was fun, it’s not free because you do have to rent clubs and shoes plus purchase balls and tees. All the all inclusive that I have been before everything is included whereas with divvi, there were some things included and some things not so not a true all inclusive. If you go there, you will have to spend extra money. Also, they advertise Non-motorized water sports are included & That is no longer true. The lady at the desk was able to provide snorkel goggles and that’s it. There are no fish right off the beach so it was pointless. The lady at the desk said they used to offer more water sports activities, but no longer do; she was very nice. Obviously I thought it was included since it’s advertised on the website so that was a little disappointing and again cost more money because we had to go elsewhere for activities. Lastly we got a later check out so we swam before having to leave for the airport and when we got back to the room. Our keys had already been shut off so I had to jog back to the lobby to get a new key while my kids stood dripping wet at the front door of our condo. Better Communication between staff would have...

There aren't any activities on this resort other than golf. And being that the clientele is of a certain age and demographic, it's very quiet. Almost like a retirement home. So if the goal is to have peace, quiet and apartments (bedroom, living area, dining area, full kitchen), this is the place for you.

It pays to get the all inclusive package. It allows access to the other Divi resorts, which have better dining options, entertainment, and in general is a little more lively. However, this is the first all inclusive resort that I've been to didn't have any bottled water or drinks in the room. Upon arrival when asking about it they said we could either go to the shop and purchase it or purchase a plan to have the fridge stocked. The other huge disappointment was that they say you cannot order takeout. It's bad enough that they do not offer any kind of room service. If you order food at any of the eateries, especially the grill by the pool they act crazy if you ask for a to-go box. And I'm not a fan of being harassed by birds and bugs while trying to eat, so the only option is to take the food to your room if you want to eat in peace. The restaurants close at 10, so you have to travel to the other resorts for late night dining.

My other main issue was with the concierge service. When we first arrived (Wed) we were encouraged to make reservations for dinner all the nights we were there in advance. We wanted to rent a car too, but the lady was pushing going to a timeshare meeting for a free car rental. Those meetings eat up half your day and I wasn't really interested. We were tired and hungry, so we opted to make reservations later and went to freshen up and eat. Thursday I see the restaurant and "made" reservations directly with them for Saturday. I later learned that it's not possible to do it that way and that all he did was write my name on a piece of paper. Friday when I called concierge (different lady than Wed.) to make a change she said my reservation didn't exist and that you would get an email confirmation if it went through. She makes the reservation with me over the phone at a different restaurant and I get the email. I call Saturday morning to make reservations for Sunday, same lady as Wed answers. She tells me I'm not supposed to make reservations over the phone, even though I did it the day before, but she will do me this favor. I don't get an email confirmation. So I head to the concierge desk to confirm because I didn't want any issues. This lady catches an attitude with me and said it was my fault that I didn't come back on Wednesday to complete the reservations. EXCUSE ME?! I really had to hold my composure because 1 it was my birthday and I wanted to have a great day. 2, I wasn't talking about her, but the guy in the restaurant; she ASSumed it was about her. And 3 she never sent me an email confirmation, which I was told I needed!! They need to have a team meeting and get on the same page about the rules and refrain from catching attitudes with the guest because people like me will reciprocate negative energy.

The nicest people on the resort were the maintenance staff. Even with the language barrier, they were helpful.

Ramon was our fav shuttle driver. The front desk didn't always call for one when asked. Some of the shuttle drivers were very rude, the ones that take you from Divi Divi to Tamarjin. One of the drivers from Divi Golf whistled as us as he drove by on our first day there, which to me is the equivalent of a catcall and is very rude. We later realized he did that to a lot of the women on the property as well as made other bird noises.

I wouldn't...