The Ritz-Carlton, Aruba

Older and expensive but solid . It will deliver every time . And the BLT restaurant is one of the best i have seen ( even in US) , it’s that good . It has an understated elegance . They could use updating their exterior paint ( to a less yellow shade ) but it was great every time . Crowds are more considerate than the typical sales trip award crowds which i detest .

Our family spent a week on this property and had a fantastic stay. The property was excellent and service five star. We will definitely come here again.

Only after staying here I can see why this is not the preferred hotel at the palm beach. The check-in service and the staff at check-in (especially Timothy who was wonderful) is where the hotel peaked. After that it’s been one big disappointment! Perhaps because I paid that much more and it has the Ritz branding I expected it to be better in some ways but it’s disappointing in every way. 1) the reviews that said there is no lounge wars are way off. Yes if you want to sit at the back where you just see umbrellas sure, but it is 7:10am and I cannot get anything in the front row (all have covers I.e. taken) and the first day the supervisor who can help me book for the next day did not even show up till 7:30am and by the time he did the first two rows were gone- he didn’t apologize and nonchalantly said I should get the app and book there and that he had an interview - then staff tried to upsell me the cabanas…so tacky! Umm so yes if you’re a morning person who can get up to book through the app or run down before 7am then great but if not then this is not for you..the cortisol elevation alone is not worth this! The umbrellas are tiny and nothing can be moved so at some point you will leave because there is no respite from the sun. They were out of kids toys at 7 and told us the shop opens at 8 and we can buy it there…2) The food is of course over priced but sadly isn’t great- I only tried casa nonna but I’d much rather go to Gianni’s in town at least your 150$ meal is memorable…the breakfast is okay though. 3) nice clean rooms and bathrooms (a bit dated) with decent basic products but literally no toiletries in the bathroom beyond the basic- not even face wash or cotton balls…The chocolates are the only nice touch but the fancy chocolates you see in the reviews are only for guests in the suites - in the 800$ rooms you only get the basic chocolates 4) live music and the general vibes in the evening have been so underwhelming - I have never been more disappointed. 5) kids don’t eat free - if you get the buffet then yes under 4 eat free otherwise you even pay for a small bowl of fruit- they hand out a slice of fruit at the beach and pool in the afternoons - a nice touch but even there if they run out they will just give you the two pieces left and say sorry it’s finished - it doesn’t matter if there are 3 kids and one is having a breakdown that he didn’t get any…so if you have money to burn sure go ahead it’s certainly got an overall luxury exterior and clean large rooms- it’s a solid hotel but I’d categorize it as “no frills”.

We had an exceptional stay at the Ritz Carlton Aruba. Every person we encountered was friendly and helpful. They made us feel welcomed. The hotel and grounds are beautiful. Our room was spacious with great views. The food was great. The service is above and beyond our expectations. Rulger stopped by each day on the beach to make sure our stay was going well. He is very friendly and personable. Ellie was our server on the beach each day. She went above and beyond taking care of us! She made our stay fantastic. We will definitely return the next time we visit Aruba.

This was our 2nd visit to the Ritz Carlton Aruba. From the moment you arrive you feel so welcomed. We honestly did not think our second visit could come close to how wonderful our trip in November was, but it exceeded our expectations. We did have a small disappointment in our room location as we had booked through Delta Dream Vacations, so the view was not as great as we expected, however, the front desk staff did their best to offer a replacement. In the end it really didn't matter. The stay was perfect. We ate lunch every day from the beach and no request was denied; it was truly unbelievable. No checking with anyone to see if it could happen, they just say yes and it appears. If you have a chance eat at the sushi restaurant in the bar area, it is fantastic! Since this was our second visit, we were so happy to see some familiar faces and again this is a testament to the service you receive at this hotel. Even though there are places very close that you could have a less expensive meal, you really cannot beat the truly exceptional service you get from the staff at the Ritz. There are so many people we interacted with that were wonderful. Eric & Rutger made several stops by us over the week to just check in and see how our stay was. A Special thanks to Dilwyn (our 2nd experience with him and just WOW!) and Eduardo for exceptional food service at the beach, Hazler who helped us with beach chairs, Melissa for always making sure we had our frozen cappuccino! She is amazing. Lastly a special thanks to Zevon. We had met him setting up our beach chairs and then a storm came out of nowhere and just soaked everything. While the storm passed my husband talked to him about how much we loved the Papaya hot sauce and were going to walk in to town to find it. He offered to go on his break and buy it for us if we did not get any when in town! When we returned (with our hot sauce) he followed us over replaced all the wet towels and from that moment on he stopped by our chairs daily to check on us to see if there was anything we needed. I know this is long, but I hope these messages get to this amazing staff and they know that in such little ways they truly made our visit the wonderful and will not be our last. Until next year! Michael & Missy