Just got back from 8 days at the Stellaris. Employees (as usual with Marriott) were top notch. Notably Ludwig Croes at the service desk. His personality, knowledge and efforts were greatly appreciated. We received a nice room upgrade, on the ocean corner with wrap around balcony. Beach has great sand and water is the Caribbean blue you come for. However, I suggest you walk the few extra yards to the beach in front of the Ritz. Carleton. The sand inside the water was much cleaner and the water clearer. Plus, fewer people. We spent part of every day in the ocean and then headed to the adult only pool at the end of each day. If you don't have kids, it's definitely the better of the two pools. We enjoyed 3 of the restaurants. Pricey, as expected, but the best meal was Atardi. You eat barefoot in the sand, right at the waters edge. You have 2 wait people that do a great job. We had and recommend the Sea Bass and Mahi Mahi. Cooked to perfection with great sauces. Of note was the octopus appetizer. Perfectly cooked at each visit. Mercat restaurant is a very expensive breakfast, try a local place instead. But the lunch was more worthy of the meal. We did one visit to the casino. Not our thing but if you're into gambling it was a nice setting. The only poor performance was the bar just outside the casino. Two nights we stopped in for pre-meal drinks. The first time, just my wife and I, waited for over 20 minutes after putting in our order and no one showed up at our table. I looked around for waiter, couldn't find him, so we left. The next night we showed up with another couple, ordered drinks. 40 minutes later (we timed it)the waiter showed up and got the drink order wrong. After he correctly repeated the original order back to us. Without so much as an apology. We left again.

My son and his future bride selected the Marriott Stellaris for their wedding host hotel after I visited and did a walk through. The young couple were required to put down a large deposit to guarantee the # of rooms. FYI, they had several rooms over the agreed #. The property is gorgeous, away from the busier areas. The day to day staff is kind courteous. Restaurant on site is good. Nice swim up bar. Reserving chairs by pool is first come first served. Palapas can be rented for $30 a day and its a process. Most of the wedding guests paid for the rooms with their own credit cards...but when it got time to settle the new couples balance there were problems...not going to give the deposit back. After several international phone calls, credit card company protests and contacting Marriott corporate, the newlyweds only got part of their deposit back. I would be cautious before putting any $$$ deposit into Marriott Stellaris international bank account.

Returned to the Aruba Marriott Stellaris hotel for the fifth consecutive year and had another great stay. The room was spacious and clean and housekeeping did a great job. Javier (who remembered us from past stays) and others from the beach staff were great in setting us up at the palapas and it was terrific to see Sylvia from the Tradewinds Towel Hut (even though we didn't weren't in Tradewinds this stay.) The staff at Starbucks (went everyday) was great and Nora and Lynn were as friendly as always at the Gelato store. Also had a few good meals at the Lobby restaurant.

While I've lost count, I think this was at least our 4th stay at this hotel, so obviously I would recommend it as a place to stay in Aruba. The layout of the hotel, together with an excellent location in the "high rise" hotel district, in close proximity to nearby shops and restaurants, makes it worth consideration especially for someone who has not been to Aruba before. For whatever it's worth, none of the hotels in Aruba are really "high rise" as one might define a high rise building, for example, in New York City. The pool is large, lively, and great for people-watching. At least on the week we stayed there at the end of April 2024, it was busy enough that finding a lounge was a little bit of a challenge, and there were far more children at the main pool than we remembered from 10 years ago (this seems to be true overall of Aruba, as it seems to be a more popular family destination than it once was). It's really not conducive to rest and relaxation: the beach or the "adult pool" provide those opportunities for a more peaceful environment. While my overall rating of the Marriott is "very good" and I have recommended this hotel to many friends, there are several areas of disappointment that I list below that are meant to increase awareness rather than dissuade others from staying here. 1. The Tradewinds "Club". We paid extra for this amenity, but it wasn't until we returned to the United States after our trip to Aruba that I fully understood what it was that Tradewinds included. The paperwork that we found in the Lounge says that the "Tradewinds Club team is available to assist you with all requests including dinner reservations, island activities, and transportation." We were not aware of that until the last day of our stay. I think much of what Tradewinds offers is FOOD. There's breakfast, lunch and dinner available, but a significant part of what I personally like in Aruba is the ever-improving and expanding restaurant scene. Consequently, other than two light breakfasts, the food offerings were wasted on us. There's a "premium open bar" from 6 pm - 9 pm, but since we generally had dinner reservations elsewhere at 6:30 pm or so each day, the bar was basically open when we were off having dinner. The bar was open neither before we left or after we returned. And, while some descriptions of the decor of the lounge online and otherwise are good (see also my attached photo), there's neither a view of the ocean or pool nor is the space set up to encourage interaction with other guests, despite the paperwork saying "The club lounge is a place to relax, unwind, enjoy and mingle ..." Rather than the lounge being on an upper floor near the Tradewinds rooms, it's on the ground floor, which in itself isn't really a problem, but it's not convenient and as previously stated, really has no "view". Guests are given and are supposed to wear a Tradewinds Club wristband (although they completely forgot to give us a wristband when we checked in or review any of the Tradewinds amenities), making it feel like we were at some bar, nightclub, or sporting event rather than at an upscale hotel. The amenity that was most valued by us was that, as part of Tradewinds, we had access to a palapa in a somewhat less busy area of their beach. That's where I spent most of my days, reading, relaxing, walking the beach and taking an occasional swim. But, there are not enough palapas for the Tradewinds guests it seems, as there was a daily lottery to secure one. Within minutes of the designated time, they had all been taken. So, the focus was on getting a palapa rather than on relaxing. The bottom line is that I think that Marriott should do a much better job at informing guests exactly what the Tradewinds entails, and any prospective guest considering this should be aware of what I've described above and search online for other guests' impressions about Tradewinds. 2. The room. We had a nice room that was "ocean front" - parallel to the shoreline so that we had a great view of the hotel grounds and the water. But, despite apparent renovations to many rooms about 5 years ago, we thought that the room was "tired". It's becoming more apparent that this hotel was built almost 30 years ago. Unfortunately, as the property continues to age, it may be more and more worth considering alternatives that are more modern. The ocean front rooms are accessed from a hallway that opens into a large atrium from ground to the top floor. What's not immediately apparent is that noise carries upward from the ground floor, in particular when there's live music. Especially on our first night when we were tired from our travels and tried to go to bed early, it was extremely loud and we had to turn on some white noise to mask the music. (I think that live music is over at 10 pm.). Furthermore, the rooms' soundproofing was poor, so even in our room with the door closed, the music from below was loud. Indeed, soundproofing overall is probably reflective of the hotel's age, as we could hear conversations from the adjacent room throughout our stay. Most of our previous stays were in an "ocean view" room: honestly, I'm not sure that the extra price that we paid for the "ocean front" room with the Tradewinds Club amenities was worth the difference. 3. The lobby bar. This had always been a place for us to relax after an enjoyable dinner, often with family or friends that came to Aruba with us, or with new acquaintances, but it has become so popular that finding a seat was difficult. And, none of the bartenders who we interacted with were "excellent". I'd give the best of them an "average" and the worst "poor" (I thought that we were invisible). Summary: I'd still recommend this hotel highly, but consider the Ocean View as opposed to the Ocean Front rooms. Carefully research Tradewinds, if you're considering upgrading, and make sure you utilize the amenities to the fullest. The Tradewinds option is clearly less attractive to those who don't want to sit in the Tradewinds lounge for your meals. While I did not seriously consider other hotels for this stay, I will likely explore other options for our next trip to Aruba.

Just got home from a long weekend at the Stellaris. Everything was nearly perfect! 2 cons: 2 days in a row we had to move our lounge chair area on the beach because of wedding set ups. It was pretty crowded, and I personally like a little more space near our beach/pool chairs and in the water. Everything else was great! Super friendly, helpful staff, clean, big rooms, gorgeous clean beach and water. The food was great too at all of the restaurants, in fact our best meal of the vacation was dinner at MerCat. Everyone’s meal was superb!