Marriott's Aruba Surf Club

My party of 10 (consisting mostly of family including young children and teenagers) spent a week in Aruba and while we were unsure of he vibe when we arrived, we ended up loving every part of it. Chi-chi checked us in and anticipated our needs. She was very thorough in explaining the resort rules and processes as it was our first time staying at the Surf Club. All the staff we encountered were friendly and was proactive about being helpful. This resort is great for families especially children. There is always something to do at the resort including the lazy river, hot tubs, pools (one has a slide), beach or even fishing! The kids were never bored. There is a process for reserving palapas and getting your pool towels, but once you adjust to the routine everything was smooth for us. I read the complaints about waking up at 7am to reserve a palapa, but I am surprised that no one mentions you can also reserve them at 5:30 pm the day before. Granted most of them were gone within minutes, but I did not have any issues reserving 2 palapas each day at 5:30pm. This allowed me to sleep in each morning. We stayed in two 2 bedroom villas for the week. They are very similar to other Marriott vacation club villas. We loved the kitchen and washer/dryers. While the furnishings were not brand new, it was not as tired as others made it out to be. It was honestly fine and functional. The villas were ready and clean when we arrived. We could have used a few extra USB ports throughout the villa. They could only be found at the alarm clock next to the bed. We made use of 2 different delivery apps. Aruba to You works very similar to Uber Eats. Food arrives in about an hour. Customer service will call you or WhatsApp you if an item is not available and you can substitute or ask for a partial refund. Food-Aw only worked in the evening and had more selections. The only option for payment is upon delivery and can be cash, debit or credit card. I opted for credit card and the delivery person arrived with a credit card machine. I was quite impressed. If anyone in your party likes fishing, please bring some fishing gear. You can fish right off the dock by the hotel. My nephew caught many snapper and grouper which we were able to cook and eat. The restaurant can also cook them (I heard others say for $20). If you don't bring any gear, you can go downtown to a bait and tackle shop to pick up a rod for about $45. You can also charter a boat. I heard a charter is about $450 for 3 hours. We also liked that the lazy river closes late (at 10pm)! Tubes are not required after 6pm. You can bring your own tubes or grab a free one from people who leave them behind in a bin near where the air hoses are for filling tubes. Tubes are also sold in the market place. The lazy river is an oval and not as impressive as the lazy river at Hyatt Vacation Club at Bonita Springs. It's definitely still nice to have when you want a change of pace from a regular pool. The resort is also very

Beautiful resort. The rooms were spacious and comfortable. No daily housekeeping which seems a bit ridiculous for how much this resort costs. Once every 4 days. With family that’s borderline insulting. Speaking of insulting, the front desk to their staff around the pool area were the rudest people you would ever want to see. I was here 20 years ago and our memory was that the whole island was filled with the nicest people. Not so anymore at all! The staff around the pool acted like mall tents cops. They basically harasses my young daughter on multiple days. Rude isn’t even close to the word to describe their attitude. The one in particular was named Mavis and she followed my daughter around harassing her till I showed up and told her I was going to report her. She said go ahead and try. The chair situation was so stressful and getting up to Reece a chair was annoying as hell since we thought we were on vacation. In general food was overpriced and limited options staff was beyond rude and I believe that the people working there just don’t care and completely hate the guests. Nice recipe for a 6k dollar week for the rooms. Never again will we come here. Period. My advise, try anywhere else just not the Marriott surf club.

Very nice hotel overall. It didn't really feel like I was on a tropical island though. Pools were large and very nice. Beach is clean. Rooms are spacious and nicely setup. There are several bars around where you can get drinks and some food. Main complaint is the Palapa rental and/or getting chairs by the pool. If you aren't down by the pool by before 6:30 am, good luck getting a chair with the tags they give you. Also, getting a palapa that is close to the water so that you actually have a view is almost impossible (also a fee for palapa rental). You also pretty much have to choose whether you want a pool chair or palapa for the day since you need to use the tags. Not a fan of that. Besides the pool/palapa thing, I have no complaints. One small thing to know, they will only clean your room once every 4 days unless you want to pay, so know that ahead of time. The high rise area is nice, but if you want a quiet stay without boats pulling up to the beach every 3 minutes, this isn't your place. If you don't mind that, this place is perfectly fine.

I was at the Marriott Surf Club July 3-10. I am currently a Points owner. The service has gone down tremendously. They put me in the Spyglass tower on the third floor. I have never stayed in the building before. It was old with no view, and all of the appliances were not in working order. Dishwasher poured out water while running, and when you poured the water into the coffee machine it poured out water as well. The biggest complaint is that my wallet was stolen out of the room on my second day there. Our cash and debit cards were taken out, which ruined our trip as far as being able to take out money or having cash. The hotel Manager never reached out to us during our stay to check on us and never showed us empathy. On the last day I asked for a report of the incident, and it was a fight to get a report. The Operations Mgr said he would take care of our incidentals and tax from our bill. They did not charge my credit card, but 4 days later when I got home the $393.32 was debited from my card after they said they would not charge me. They ruined my vacation.

Love to go every year and sometimes twice a year—amazing location and looking forward to seeing the Lighthouse building renovations this fall. We have told many friends and family members about the Surf Club, and they now look forward to coming. Many are now owners, too!

The way they tell you it’s ocean view is actually not ocean view. Only a very tiny portion of the view is ocean. Vast of it is the swimming pool. Very deceiving description. The room is clean but need some updating. This place is not what I am expecting coming from a 5 hours flight.