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[quote=Anonymous]We were in Aruba with a 10 and 7 year old and stayed at the Marriott Stellaris. It was....ok. Smallish pool, beachfront and a buffet, but not much else on property. Pretty crazy to reserve chairs on the beach area if I remember - an extra charge.

There is a walking path with the Ritz on one end, then the Stellaris and you end up at a Marriott Time Share (Ocean Club?) where you and your kids will stare longingly at the lazy river and wished you were staying there. We were there 7 days (really 5 with travel) and it felt long. If your kids are interested in the lazy river all day, maybe try a place there. That beach area was crowded as well.

We were lucky enough to have passes to the Ocean Club (they change the wristbands weekly and if you're not wearing the right one, you're out!) to use the Ocean Club so that saved us.

We were there in late July/August and it was crowded. Really crowded. People putting a newspaper and a flip flop on a chair at 6am to save lounge chairs crowded, which is kind of a bummer when you're on vacation and you're stressed about getting a place to even sit.

And, not that this is/was a problem for us overall, but a ton of big groups, families that go annually to the same place and stories of kids brought when they were 12 days old and are still coming. I only say that because if you are trying to eat or get food and get stuck behind big groups, it gets frustrating as a smaller family/group. Every restaurant, either on hotel property or not, was extremely crowded. There is a Dutch grocery store that a lot of people grab food/snacks from - I did go there and stock our minifridge and that was helpful.

There is an area near all the Marriotts that is walkable - about a 10 minute walk to restaurants, ice cream, etc etc. We did an excursion (Pink Jeep?) that was great. A little rough riding in some of the spots, but saw some beautiful parts of the island and had a great guide.

One of the most refreshing things is YOU CAN DRINK THE WATER. Right out of the faucet. Yes, really. Aruba has a huge desalination plant and after a lot of Caribbean/Mexico vacations where you can't even brush your teeth without using bottled water, this was awesome. [/quote]

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