Pros
- Staff is very attentive and friendly
- Rooms are clean and on the larger side
- Jane & staff at the front desk were very considerate and went above and beyond from the time we checked in till when we checked out.
- There are plenty of pool chairs but plan to get down there no later than 730 am to snag the ones you want. We went down between 715/720 and were able to snag 4. They weren’t on the first row at the pool but plenty close.
- The Palopas are a cool addition to the resort and provide a ton of shade on the beach. Make sure to login 530pm the night before you want them to get a decent one.
- Easy beach access
- [ ] Pool and lazy river is open until 10 pm.

Cons

- While we visited it was the “off” season and the pool/swim up bar was being worked on. Slightly disappointing because that’s always a highlight on vacation. I think this increased how packed the pool area was by 8am to claim chairs.
- The Palopas do cost extra ($10-$15 per day). I think this encourages people to use and not save but it was only slightly annoying.
Tips
- Make sure to bring your own floats (and an extra or 3 extra in our case). We had one pop and two tear so having backups felt silly but we ended up using them all. There are air stations there to fill them up.
- Also, I have no idea where you get them but a lot of people had float anchors for the ocean and it was genius. Wish we would have done that because the current / wind can be strong.
- Bring extra laundry detergent - we brought tide pods and were able to do a quick load each night.
- Superfoods delivers for free ! We stopped on the way in, but they do deliver to the Surf Club for free (and you can arrange a time).
- Bring a small cooler, you can BYOB beer but with the heat it gets warm fast.
- You really can drink the sink water there and it’s better than what we have in the US. I would bring a water bottle and a separate “beverage” cup as well. Our two bedroom has a dishwasher which was nice.
- [We did not rent a car, most taxi rides are $10-15 each way and it was more cost efficient for us to do this. Its easy to catch a cab in front of the resort (there is a line and the bellmen grab for you) and then when you’re in town, easiest spot is going to be in front of another hotel.

The resort is nice, updated and clean. The location is in a good spot. The lazy river is great once it clears out late in the day, but my review is about Giordano in security. My husband sat his iPad down on an unmanned counter in the lobby of our building and left it when we loaded up for the airport. We did not realize it until after going through security and the first part of customs, so they would not let him leave the airport to get it. He contacted the resort and Giordano went out of his way to go find it immediately and made sure it got back to us before we left Aruba. All of the staff was friendly, but Giordano is a standout employee for the Marriott company. I wish I had colleagues that cared as much as he does.

We've stayed in many different Marriott Time shares over the years and sadly this one did not rank high in comparison. The good news is that we were not harassed by time share sales people which was nice. Our 3 bedroom unit was clean and the beds were very comfortable however the furniture and decor were a bit dated and the kitchen was not stocked well with just the basic dishes and 1 small frying pan. Not a huge thing, but a slight inconvenience. Now for the bad, upon check in, we discovered to our surprise that the pool and swim up bar were closed for construction. It was extremely hot and humid so we looked forward to getting in the lazy river as an alternative but unfortunately the Marriott has a rule that prohibits anyone in the lazy river without a flotation device. The problem is that the Marriott does NOT provide floatation devices, so unless you brought your own, you were forced to buy one from the overpriced gift shop or take a $30 cab ride to a grocery store to purchase one, Unbelievable!