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Divi Aruba Beach Resort

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Aruba Trip Report - Divi Resort
July 28 - August 4 , 2001
Sent in by: Stan
 

My wife and my two kids spent a week at the Divi July-28th, August 4th 2001. Here is my take on the resort and Aruba

Flights:
Both ways smooth sailing. Landed at 2:10 Saturday and arrived at the Divi 2:40 via the DePalm Tour Bus

Check in. I had requested the Casita room that was right off the beach via my travel agent and by calling the Divi two weeks prior to departure. When I checked in we were informed our room was the farthest from the beach. I could not understand this and told the clerk who informed me that the rooms right off the beach do not sleep four. When I called the Divi two weeks prior to arrival I was told that the room did in fact sleep four. After some fuss we allocated the second room from the beach (27 steps from our patio to the sand).

Rooms:
Our room was neat and clean. TV, AC and a small patio.
The Casita room we had #344 was only 27 steps to the beach and just a little more to the small pool. The main pool area was a short walk away. The sister resort the Tamarjin was a 5 minute walk or a one minute cart ride. The Divi provides a shuttle between the Tam and the Divi

The Beach:
Awesome. The water was warm and the water was a little rough just how I like it, with the current. You could float on a sea float from the Tam to the end of the Divi. We loved the beach. The only problem we experienced was that most guests saved the grass beach huts overnight. So getting a shaded beach hut was difficult. The huts have signs stating that they cannot be saved but this rule was not enforced.

WaterSports:
This was a joke. Our first three days we could not get snorkel equipment. After our first day we returned our sea floats by 5PM as we were instructed. Guests horde not only sea floats but snorkel equipment! We could not get sea floats or snorkel equipment until Tuesday! We also could not exchange our beach towels until Tuesday as well. All inclusive water sports I think not!
We had to resort to keeping our sea floats and snorkel equipment the duration of our stay to insure we would have them. This is what all guests seem to do, as the resort does not have enough to go around.

Food:
The breakfast and lunch buffet at the Divi was adequate. The same spread every day. The pizza at the CoCo Bar was excellent!  The Red Parrot restaurant at the Divi and the Palm Court at the Tam had excellent food. Paparazzi at the Tam was terrible.

We had the breakfast buffet at the Tam one morning ant it was the same fare as the Divi’

We had the dinner buffet at the Divi one on Mexican night and the food was good.

Service:
The service at the buffets I would rate a 7 on a 1-10 scale. The service ate the restaurants I would rate a 5. It seemed to me that the staff at the restaurants did not want to work! At the Red Parrot except for the headwaiter the staff was slow and seemed not to care to please you. The service at the Bars was TERRIBLE. 95% of the bartenders do not look up and only serve those who are standing near them. I was tipping and soon only tipped the 5% of the bartenders who were great.  We had one experience at the Tam on night when my family and I sat at the corner end of the bar and did not get served for over 10 minutes. Of the two bartenders one served everyone who walked up to the bar but myself and my family and one was two seats away and never looked up. This lack of service is deplorable!

Dining out:
We had dinner at the restaurant next to the California Lighthouse and it was excellent. Reserve a table and watch the incredible sunset!

Aruba:
Awesome. We would go back and stay at the Divi. Even thought the service was not up to the par. The price was right and the beach and barefoot comfort of the resort won us over. In Aruba BabyBeach is great for snorkeling . We rented a Jeep and drove the rough roads on the North side of the Island and had a blast. Be prepared to get lost but we did find the Natural Bridge, Rock Formations, and in general had a blast on the rugged back roads. The wind everyone speaks of is great. The few times it did stop you wished it was back right away.

We did encounter flies at the buffet and they were annoying.

Overall my trip to Aruba was the most relaxing vacation my family has ever taken. As I stated above we will go back and stay at the Divi. The Island is safe and except for the bartenders at the Divi the people are friendly!

You will never reach second with your foot on first !

 

Stan

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The trip reports depict individual experiences and opinions
which are not necessarily consonant with views of the operators of Visit Aruba.

[ This page was last updated on Friday, January 04, 2008 ]

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7 August 2001