Marriott's Aruba Surf Club

We love the Marriott resorts. Aruba surf club did not disappoint. The only suggestion I have concerns tagging the pool chairs. Maybe ‘owners’ should be given priority to reserve their chairs. Maybe with a different color chair tag. Owners should also be able to reserve chairs for a time slot before the non owners. Just a thought. All employees were so helpful and friendly. Kudos to all.

The resort grounds and Pool area , Lazy River are spectacular. We enjoyed that part immensely. Problems.. Started at Check-in , we did not get wrist bands required to be in the pool. We were politely approached by Hotel security as we were floating in the lazy river, who went and got us wrist bands!! Room service is once every 4 days. or pay 20$ for more towels. Had to request coffee packs. Biggest problem was the A/C. it appears to be set at a permanent temperature (72?). The room NEVER got cold. We reported this issue and maintenance said the A/C was working fine.. I call BS.. The A/C blower did not shut off for the 5 days we were there.

My family and I have traveled extensively throughout the Caribbean, staying mostly at Marriott-affiliated resorts due to my husband’s status. Unfortunately, the Marriott Surf Club Aruba is the WORST place we’ve ever stayed—a complete disappointment for the $5,500 price tag on a one-bedroom suite. Beach & Pool Chaos • Beach Access: If you want a palapa, you must log in at 5:30 PM the day before to reserve one (either free or for a fee). They sell out within minutes, and even if you get one, you’ll be packed in with no real ocean view. The beach itself is a letdown—murky water, hard sand, and overcrowded. My husband described it as a “beach jail.” In contrast, the nearby Ritz-Carlton and even the Marriott Ocean Club and Stellaris have a much nicer, less crowded beach. • Pool Chair Madness: To get a chair, you must be at the pool by 6 AM, stay with it until 7 AM, then return by 9 AM or risk losing it. After 9 AM, people just leave their stuff there all day, even if they’re not using the chairs. Workers patrol to enforce this ridiculous system. To top it off, some guests were just plain rude. One afternoon, after returning from another beach, my daughter and I found two empty, untagged chairs. Minutes later, an aggressive woman confronted me, falsely claiming they were hers. She even went to complain to staff—only to later find out from a friend that her group had already vacated the chairs! This entire ordeal upset my 8-year-old, making her uncomfortable enough to want to leave. Rooms & Service—Or Lack Thereof • The rooms, while spacious, are incredibly outdated. • Housekeeping is virtually nonexistent—they cleaned our room ONCE during our 7-night stay. When I called to request cleaning (because I was tired of washing the same four towels), the immediate response was: “Let me check if it’s been four days yet”—instead of simply saying, “Yes, we’ll send someone.” • Customer service was terrible—most staff members were unfriendly and unhelpful. Final Straw: The Bar Incident During happy hour, I ordered two drinks at the bar. The bartender took my order and relayed it to another bartender. I then waited 10 minutes as they made multiple drinks for table service—completely ignoring me. I finally walked away, only to have the bartender yell that I was “next.” Too late—I was done. Final Verdict: DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY Worst rooms, beach, pool situation, and customer service we’ve ever experienced. If you’re considering Aruba, stay at the Ritz or Stellaris instead.

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.

Beach chair booking like trying to buy concert tickets. Sold out in 4 minutes. Web booking page and app unresponsive. Chair competition silly. Rooms tired but they’re going to do a major renovation. Common areas not really clean. Kids will love it, adults not so much

If you want ocean chairs not the hotel for you unless you’re young and a computer whiz. If you want hotel employees that are hospitable this is not the hotel for you.It is impossible to reserve beach palapas even those with a glimmer of the ocean. The techies know how to get on early and get the close palapas while you are watching the spinning icon because there are too many guests trying to log on. Then you go to the hut for a cancellation waiting 40 minutes when a person shows up late and gets a 100 row palapa that you thought you would be getting because you were first in line. When you point out the unfairness you get rude passive aggressive responses equivalent to the middle finger. Poor training by marriott and judgement allowing this employee to interact with its guest. I suspect something else happened for this guest to get this preferential treatment but I have no proof. Last time i will come to this hotel don t need hostility,aggravation and rudeness on vacation. Atleast at work i get paid for dealing with rude people not paying $1000.00 for the mistreatment. I was invited to a sale s pitch with all kinds of bennies—not in a million years If you want a stress free hotel stay avoid this place As a long time marriott owner I have other options which will not involve the Surf club

Owners for 20 years. Fun place

Pro: great pools, pool areas are clean, plenty of chairs when we were there, plenty of chairs on the beach too. Great for families. Cons: the entertainment by the pools was very loud and not very "relaxing," the bar area was very smells (imagine like a college bar). The prices in the gift shop were insane ($33 for a small thing of sunscreen.) The rooms were "clean" but just dingy for needing to be remodeled. We were given a pack and play for our baby (because they told us they had cribs) and it was ancient and literally hard as a ROCK! We told them our baby couldn't sleep on that and they offered no solution. I asked if they knew any stores on the island that sold pack and plays and they said they were "unable to recommend stores." Like what? Just help me out? Seems silly but your baby not sleeping will really ruin a vacation in an instant. There were alot of rules -- wrist bands, chair tags, towel rules, etc. My family called the employees the "fun police" because they were constantly asking people to follow the rules. The lazy river is awesome but you have to buy your own float? So strange to me.

I wanted to love this place. There were 4 of us. My kids are 20 & 18. We got there on Jan 2nd. When we arrived we all thought: oh no, what did we get ourselves into? It was PACKED! So many little kids everywhere. Thankfully, by, the 4th most of the people checked out. The crowd was definitely more manageable after that. The good: The property is beautiful. The room we had was a 1 bedroom in the Lighthouse tower. Having a kitchen was great and the whole place was really nice. The view off the balcony was beautiful (the ocean and pool area). The other Marriott properties were nice as well and we walked to all of them. The food at the pool was good. If you have an umbrella/palapa, you scan QR code and can order food to be deliver to you. Marketplace was great for coffee, sandwiches and snacks. We got text messages about our stay and they were quick to respond to any request. The bad (our personal preference): the beach/water is way overcrowded. The boats come right up onto shore for water activities and it doesn’t look like there is a lot of safety involved (Heard a boy had a leg amputated around Christmastime after getting off tube ride). We were able to get a palapa the night before we needed it but was Very stressful process, felt like I was buying concert tickets. They are also so close together. The pool area is very loud with all the activities(great for kids not for someone who wants quiet). In order to get a pool chair, you need to be down there before 7 to put your chair tags on. From 7-9, you can leave them empty but then someone needs to be there. We got down at 6:50 and we got the last 4. We probably should have stayed at the Ocean Club but I didn’t know that at time of booking. Surf Club would have been great for us 10 yrs ago.

Very safe clean & enjoyable property