Aruba Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino

This was our 3rd year visiting this lovely resort. Everything and everyone is always perfect. From the pool attendants, the bartenders, the concierge, restaurants, to the bellhops, we couldn't ask for a better experience. If you need help with reservations, recommendations, or excursions be sure to see Ludwig. He is the best. Always happy, helpful, and a pleasure to work with. We'll be back next December, for sure!!!!

Very clean, newly renovated propety! Every staff member was kind and attentive. Walkable location to the palm beach "strip". Rooms were clean and big, bathrooms very nice. The beach chairs are fantastic and can easily deliver food/drink to your chair. Would definitely stay here again!

The Aruba Marriot Resort and Casino was in the final stages of renewing the property. The impact on our stay was the closure of the Tradewinds Lounge for most of our stay, it was open the first and last day of our visit. The Tradewinds room upgrade provides a separate check in (in the lounge) and access to the Adults Only pool area which is accessed tapping in and out with your room key. The Tradewinds lounge has food in the morning, at lunch and in the evening. While the morning and noon offerings are pleasant and good quality the evening offerings are best considered to be appetizers. The main courses that are offered in the evening (for the two nights we could access it) were overcooked pasta and mushy stew-like offerings. While the rooms have recently been upgraded the Tradewinds Lounge is dated and the evening meal offerings are things you would see in a retirement home, one or two choices, overcooked, and removed promptly at 7:00 pm. This meant that we ate dinner each day at the lovely restaurants at the hotel where both service and food were excellent. In lieu of the Tradewinds Lounge breakfast we ate a complimentary breakfast at Atardi, the large buffet restaurant that included custom omelettes. We were at the property for US Thanksgiving and Atardi had a very impressive spectrum of foods and desserts on offer, huge amounts of turkey, beef, fish, shrimp and other seafood and "made to order" creme brulée for dessert. The main pool was exceptionally loud until 5:00 pm. There were lots of loungers, certainly enough so that "reserving" loungers didn't prevent you from getting a lounger by the pool or on the beach. We only used the Adult Pool. The hotel has its own app - Bon Bini to book meals, loungers and Cabanas. Because of the noise and disruption of the renovations the Cabanas at the Adult Pool were free while we were there. They are certainly NOT worth $250 a day - the usual cost which includes water, a fruit platter, two very small (split) bottles of Prosecco but all other food and drink is added to your room cost. The bar and towel staff at the pool were courteous and attentive. There are several iguana's (big and small) that drop by the pool area but if you leave them alone they leave you alone. There is a good selection of free liquor in the Tradewinds Lounge but you are not permitted to leave the lounge with glasses of wine or liquor. It is mid priced brands, not "bar rail" or top shelf - something in between. All rooms are on an angle so you can see the ocean from all. The balcony doors are reasonably soundproof but the blaring music at the main pool ends at 5:00 each day.. Taxi's in Aruba are "fixed price" (e.g., $31 from the airport to the Marriott, $8 from the Marriott to "downtown")

Rooms are great. Spacious and new. Facilities are nice in general. However it’s just a bit too crowded. The cabana / beach chair situation is a confusing mess. Service is slow at best. The WiFi barely works and it’s made worse by bad cell coverage in general on the island. Seems within their control to address so Hopefully they do.

Wow, what a train wreck this place turned into. First, if you have any status with Marriott ( I am lifetime titanium and Ambassador) it means absolutely nothing here. This property is classified as a “resort” which basically means they don’t have to honor any Marriott members perks. Welcome to Gen Pop! We’ve stayed here many times and have really seen a degradation of what made this place so special to stay at….SERVICE! Seems like a private equity firm bought this place recently and is running it bare bones to prop up bottom line to sell quickly. There no “ servers” on the beach anymore, just runners delivering food they force you to order thru their app which is constantly failing and resetting. Plan to wait 45 minutes for chicken tenders at any time of day). Speaking of the app the towel police will now issue only two thin beach towels per card they give you at check in (which was a mess as well). One towel card per person! Gimme a break! The thinness of the towels in the rooms rival those at the beach! Oh, I was told that since I had one of the more expensive rooms in the hotel (actually three rooms total) I had a guaranteed Palapa on the beach all week. What they didn’t tell me was that since it was free it was a last row unit but if I paid $35 for one I could get closer to the beach. Just go to the failing app and reserve one! Guess what, it wasn’t working! Renovated rooms are nice but somehow they allowed for floating hard wood floors to be installed which transfer sound so thoroughly good luck getting any sleep if there is someone walking in room above you! I believe there may be a clog party in room above me every night and early morning! Hot tub on site is tiny with floating straws and other treats from the million or so kids that use it daily. Not going near that! Dinner at Ruth Chris in hotel was disappointing as well. Horrible service, servers just standing around bs’ing while managers just sits there and says nothing. Now to top it off we finally made it to the first row palapa. When we got here there was a local with her new born in our palapa and she proceeds to tell us that the entire beach is public and she can sit anywhere she likes (which happened to be our palapa). The person from Marriott came over and agreed with this squatter so they had us move palapas to pacify this crazy person….just how we wanted to start the morning! Overall a disappointing trip and it’s only half over. Still a great place to vacation as the weather is perfect as always. If your looking for upscale this isn't the place anymore, its more akin to gen pop in the prison system, think Howard Johnson’s or Holiday Inn… We will be moving to the Ritz or St Regis next year rather than deal with the Marriott that has changed for the worse.