First of all, don't be fooled by the "guaranteed weather: in Aruba. We were there in January for 5 days and it rained every day plus was mostly cloudy 80% of the time.
The Marriott offers the convenience of kitchens and separate bedrooms as we stayed in the timeshare property. The rooms were Ok sized but dated. I was shocked they have not upgraded to LCD TV's yet. The wireless access is useless. If you bring an iPad you're in for a frustrating experience.
The pool is nice however, always crowded and the chair policy is ridiculous. Who wants to get up before 7AM to go run and tag a chair? Apparently hundreds of people...not me.
We instead opted for the beach but had to pay $35 for chairs and umbrella everyday to sit close to the water. It certainly gave us more incentive to stay throughout the downpours!
I feel the Marriott tries to be "hotel like" by offering hotel amenities (ie. towels, shampoo, maid service etc.) but they miss in many ways. For example, if you are providing shampoo provide conditioner well. And stop with the bars of soap. Who wants to share a small bar of soap? Use bodywash bottles instead.
If you are traveling 2 adults and 2 kids - they do not provide a cot. Really stupid policy. Our 17 & 15 year old had to share a small pullout couch. We were told there were no extra blankets either. After some persistence they found one.
Most of the rooms do not offer an ocean view. I would suggest if you are paying that much to stay there, get a room with a view. The lower floors are noisy next to the pool area.
The beach is too crowded by the hotel and looks more like a Marina.
If you don't need a kitchen, choose the Hyatt instead - much nicer.

Friendliness of staff and other guests hard to beat. As a timeshare owner place feels like home , seeing same faces year in and year out. Seating at pool area and lazy river does not seem as crowded or busy as other years.

We have been going to Aruba for 10 years but this is the first time at the Surf Club. It is a lovely resort on beautiful property. There are several pools that are all nice. The best is the lazy river, where you float along on your raft. We are usually at Eagle Beach. Although the Marriott property is great the beach is not as nice as Eagle Beach. You have to arrive at 7am to reserve a tiki hut to keep out of the sun OR you can pay $15-$10 to pre-reserve. You must arrive early to get a good spot by the pool. We resolved the situation by just sitting in the sand near our building. We found a nice spot in the shade. We had no other problems. The staff was very receptive to any questions we had. They were very helpful in making restaurant reservations. Some people complain about the one time clean-up but that is the Marriott policy. All and all a lovely vacation.

Let me start out by saying I am a loyal Marriott customer and stay in their hotels whenever possible. This is my second experience with the vacation club and probably the last.

The resort is crowded during high season (picture wall to wall people) making it difficult to get a chair with shade by the pool or ocean. We like to sleep late on vacation so resorted to the pool smoking area to get chairs (which is weird due to the Marriott chain wide ban on smoking in rooms which is the prime reason I stay there). The Surf Club nickles and dimes you to death, they have a great lazy river pool but require you to buy an inner tube to float down it. I wouldn't mind renting a tube for a day or week but resent being forced to buy an inner tube to be thrown away or stuffed into luggage with the current baggage limits on most airlines. One poor man wanted an empty cup and had to pay for a coffee in order to get an empty cup!

The lock-off room was small, air conditioning noisy and turned on and off all night making sleep impossible, we had a wonderful view of the parking lot between the Surf and Ocean Club.

Other than a snack bar there is no restaurant on the premises but you are in easy walking distance of many places.