globalsaloon
08-08-2007, 03:58 PM
This was our first vacation to Aruba and our first visit to a Riu Palace. We enjoyed Aruba immensely and would probably return to Aruba in the future. We have previously booked two other vacations to Riu’s in the Caribbean both of which were during the high season and over Christmas. We chose the Riu Palace Aruba (RPA) as we were always happy with other Riu vacations and we expected to receive comparable or superior services than what we had received previously. The cost of this vacation was comparable to our previous two trips however this vacation was booked during the low season and was somewhat discounted for a new hotel.
I was very pleased that the hotel had opened on time and in general the hotel was beautiful. This will be a very beautiful addition to the resorts in Aruba one day and with all of the services that are normally available to Riu Palace guests but in my estimation this resort should not have been offered to guests for at least another month. There are still areas of ongoing construction and repairs to existing construction. There are also ongoing safety issues with the beach and elevators. The staff still requires additional training in order for this to be the 5 + resort that they are offering.
For the remainder of my review keep in mind that we visited the RPA in the first week it opened and within the next few months the bugs will be ironed out. I have no doubt that this will be an excellent resort in the future but patience will be required if visiting in the next month or so.
Arrival
Our takeoff and landing in Aruba were on time. Getting through customs in Aruba was a breeze. We were the only plane that landed and our luggage didn’t take any time to unload and off through customs and out into the wonderful warm sun of Aruba. Our bus was waiting for us and off we went! There were about 50 guests on our bus and we were the first stop. There was one couple on our bus going to the Occidental and they had to wait for all of us to unload! We got into the lobby and it was truly breathtaking! We lined up and waited for our room keys. We were served a welcoming drink while in the line and the Director came around and put our wristbands on. When it was our turn everything went relatively smoothly. They had pre-prepared our room packages so we just needed to fill out our paperwork. We had room 530 in Building B. This room is situated dead centre of the hotel. We had great views of the pool area and the ocean. We had a French balcony and although these balconies do not have chairs on them, we were able to use the chairs in our room if we wanted to sit down on the balcony. Building B only has balconies available on Floors 1, 2, 9, and 10. Building A will have balconies available for all guest rooms.
Room
The mattresses on the beds are very hard. The bathrooms are beautiful and I have no complaints with this regard. We had a Junior Suite and this room has a Jacuzzi tub and double sinks. There was plenty of hot water to fill this tub each day. The water pressure in the shower was excellent and the shower head had two settings. I did find it difficult sometimes to flush the toilet and sometimes it took a second try to flush everything. I read somewhere that the water in the bathrooms was not drinkable but they do give you two large bottles of water in your bar fridge. The room has a mini bar with four large bottles of alcohol. The fridge also contains cans of pop and beer.
Due to the very hot weather in Aruba, the air conditioning in our room had to stay on all the time and it had to be set to less than 20 C for the fan unit to operate. If the air conditioning unit was set higher than 20 C then condensation would form in our room. We cannot sleep with the air conditioning set this high so there was constantly humidity in our room. When the balcony door was opened the air conditioning automatically turned off and the room would instantly have condensation on everything. One night we thought we would try leaving the door open and have the fan on in an attempt to dry things out. We woke up in the morning with water on the floor!!
Bars
There are five bars available to the AI guests at the RPA. The easy drinks like Pina Colodas, Strawberry Daiquiris and Beer were served efficiently and without much effort however drinks that were available on the menu and were not easy to prepare stumped the bartenders. There seemed to be a lack of training for the new bartenders. Thankfully this was not a problem at all of the bars and this did improve during our stay.
Buffets
We had lunch one afternoon around 2:00 p.m. and we found that the food was either cold or there were items that were not being refreshed. There was very little variety available at this time. This remained the same for the next 2-3 days and improved slightly towards the end of the week. To ensure that we got hot fresh food we made sure we were at each of the restaurants soon after opening each day. The main buffet had very little variety from day to day and there were no theme nights which we had previously enjoyed at other Riu resorts. We did not go off of the resort for food as we feel we paid for All Inclusive and we shouldn’t have to spend additional money for food, however several guests we spoke with during our stay did go off the resort for various reasons which included the quality of food and variety of the food available.
The evening buffet requires that men where long pants and shirts with sleeves, however we did see men in the buffet with shorts on. They were not turned away from the restaurant. My husband and son both wore long pants to the evening meals.
Specialty Restaurants
There are four specialty restaurants available to guests but only three of these restaurants were available during our stay and only on a rotational basis. The three that did open included the Japanese, Italian and Gourmet. When we tried to book a meal at the specialty restaurant we found that they were fully booked for the next couple of days and it was only when we complained to the maitre d’ that he booked us in for two days later. The restaurant we tried was the Milano Italian restaurant. We were not happy with the food – the buffet was actually better. The staff did not really know what they were doing and when we made special requests they got confused. They did not want to take our entrée order until we had gone to the buffet. We ended up with 4 spaghettis and there was one dish that didn’t arrive until after everyone else had started eating! We found the waitress that was serving us to be very rude, she made comments about dieting, and finishing meals before other guests. This is unacceptable in a 5 star resort and should not be tolerated!
Entertainment
The daily and nightly entertainment was not what we expected when compared to other Riu Resorts. The animacion team seemed somewhat confused on how to entertain the guest. They tried to get the kids involved in certain games, but were unsuccessful. We made suggestions for games for the kids but they pretty much ignored our suggestions. Some of the advertising for this hotel shows a Mini-club and there is a children’s pool available on site but this hotel is really not set up for children. This is a major disappointment for us as we have a 12 year old that requires entertainment and we look forward to a bit of a break from entertaining him while on vacation. The entertainment for adults during the day did improve towards the end of our stay with dancing and drinking games by the pool!!!
The evening entertainment was the same singer every night during our stay and she sang the same songs over and over. The lounge area where the stage was located was empty most evenings. Most guests hovered around the outside bar probably to avoid the entertainment. The stage area at the RPA is very small and will not be able to provide the same level of shows that are available at other Riu’s
The Pool
The pool is very large and the area surrounding the pool is quite substantial. I do not see any problems with there being seating for everyone when this hotel is at capacity. The pool area is very open and the only shade provided is with umbrellas. Each evening the umbrellas were taken out of the stands provided and laid on the chairs and each morning we had to set up our own umbrellas at the pool. This is a Riu Palace and I would have expected that they would have someone available to do this for us but there never seemed to be staff around when we needed them. The pool was quite nice however the umbrellas at the pool are not very well thought out as we were unable to use them the last four days of our visit because of the high winds. One of the umbrellas was blown over and fell on one of the guests. We had one up but we had to keep a hand on the umbrella for fear of it being pulled over. As a result of this there was very little shade to protect us from the Sun. While at the pool we expected to have bar service as this is common at other Riu Palace Resorts. Some days this was available other days it was not and this seemed to relate to how many people were at the bar – if it was empty you got service if not you didn’t. There definitely was a shortage of staff with this regard.
I was very pleased that the hotel had opened on time and in general the hotel was beautiful. This will be a very beautiful addition to the resorts in Aruba one day and with all of the services that are normally available to Riu Palace guests but in my estimation this resort should not have been offered to guests for at least another month. There are still areas of ongoing construction and repairs to existing construction. There are also ongoing safety issues with the beach and elevators. The staff still requires additional training in order for this to be the 5 + resort that they are offering.
For the remainder of my review keep in mind that we visited the RPA in the first week it opened and within the next few months the bugs will be ironed out. I have no doubt that this will be an excellent resort in the future but patience will be required if visiting in the next month or so.
Arrival
Our takeoff and landing in Aruba were on time. Getting through customs in Aruba was a breeze. We were the only plane that landed and our luggage didn’t take any time to unload and off through customs and out into the wonderful warm sun of Aruba. Our bus was waiting for us and off we went! There were about 50 guests on our bus and we were the first stop. There was one couple on our bus going to the Occidental and they had to wait for all of us to unload! We got into the lobby and it was truly breathtaking! We lined up and waited for our room keys. We were served a welcoming drink while in the line and the Director came around and put our wristbands on. When it was our turn everything went relatively smoothly. They had pre-prepared our room packages so we just needed to fill out our paperwork. We had room 530 in Building B. This room is situated dead centre of the hotel. We had great views of the pool area and the ocean. We had a French balcony and although these balconies do not have chairs on them, we were able to use the chairs in our room if we wanted to sit down on the balcony. Building B only has balconies available on Floors 1, 2, 9, and 10. Building A will have balconies available for all guest rooms.
Room
The mattresses on the beds are very hard. The bathrooms are beautiful and I have no complaints with this regard. We had a Junior Suite and this room has a Jacuzzi tub and double sinks. There was plenty of hot water to fill this tub each day. The water pressure in the shower was excellent and the shower head had two settings. I did find it difficult sometimes to flush the toilet and sometimes it took a second try to flush everything. I read somewhere that the water in the bathrooms was not drinkable but they do give you two large bottles of water in your bar fridge. The room has a mini bar with four large bottles of alcohol. The fridge also contains cans of pop and beer.
Due to the very hot weather in Aruba, the air conditioning in our room had to stay on all the time and it had to be set to less than 20 C for the fan unit to operate. If the air conditioning unit was set higher than 20 C then condensation would form in our room. We cannot sleep with the air conditioning set this high so there was constantly humidity in our room. When the balcony door was opened the air conditioning automatically turned off and the room would instantly have condensation on everything. One night we thought we would try leaving the door open and have the fan on in an attempt to dry things out. We woke up in the morning with water on the floor!!
Bars
There are five bars available to the AI guests at the RPA. The easy drinks like Pina Colodas, Strawberry Daiquiris and Beer were served efficiently and without much effort however drinks that were available on the menu and were not easy to prepare stumped the bartenders. There seemed to be a lack of training for the new bartenders. Thankfully this was not a problem at all of the bars and this did improve during our stay.
Buffets
We had lunch one afternoon around 2:00 p.m. and we found that the food was either cold or there were items that were not being refreshed. There was very little variety available at this time. This remained the same for the next 2-3 days and improved slightly towards the end of the week. To ensure that we got hot fresh food we made sure we were at each of the restaurants soon after opening each day. The main buffet had very little variety from day to day and there were no theme nights which we had previously enjoyed at other Riu resorts. We did not go off of the resort for food as we feel we paid for All Inclusive and we shouldn’t have to spend additional money for food, however several guests we spoke with during our stay did go off the resort for various reasons which included the quality of food and variety of the food available.
The evening buffet requires that men where long pants and shirts with sleeves, however we did see men in the buffet with shorts on. They were not turned away from the restaurant. My husband and son both wore long pants to the evening meals.
Specialty Restaurants
There are four specialty restaurants available to guests but only three of these restaurants were available during our stay and only on a rotational basis. The three that did open included the Japanese, Italian and Gourmet. When we tried to book a meal at the specialty restaurant we found that they were fully booked for the next couple of days and it was only when we complained to the maitre d’ that he booked us in for two days later. The restaurant we tried was the Milano Italian restaurant. We were not happy with the food – the buffet was actually better. The staff did not really know what they were doing and when we made special requests they got confused. They did not want to take our entrée order until we had gone to the buffet. We ended up with 4 spaghettis and there was one dish that didn’t arrive until after everyone else had started eating! We found the waitress that was serving us to be very rude, she made comments about dieting, and finishing meals before other guests. This is unacceptable in a 5 star resort and should not be tolerated!
Entertainment
The daily and nightly entertainment was not what we expected when compared to other Riu Resorts. The animacion team seemed somewhat confused on how to entertain the guest. They tried to get the kids involved in certain games, but were unsuccessful. We made suggestions for games for the kids but they pretty much ignored our suggestions. Some of the advertising for this hotel shows a Mini-club and there is a children’s pool available on site but this hotel is really not set up for children. This is a major disappointment for us as we have a 12 year old that requires entertainment and we look forward to a bit of a break from entertaining him while on vacation. The entertainment for adults during the day did improve towards the end of our stay with dancing and drinking games by the pool!!!
The evening entertainment was the same singer every night during our stay and she sang the same songs over and over. The lounge area where the stage was located was empty most evenings. Most guests hovered around the outside bar probably to avoid the entertainment. The stage area at the RPA is very small and will not be able to provide the same level of shows that are available at other Riu’s
The Pool
The pool is very large and the area surrounding the pool is quite substantial. I do not see any problems with there being seating for everyone when this hotel is at capacity. The pool area is very open and the only shade provided is with umbrellas. Each evening the umbrellas were taken out of the stands provided and laid on the chairs and each morning we had to set up our own umbrellas at the pool. This is a Riu Palace and I would have expected that they would have someone available to do this for us but there never seemed to be staff around when we needed them. The pool was quite nice however the umbrellas at the pool are not very well thought out as we were unable to use them the last four days of our visit because of the high winds. One of the umbrellas was blown over and fell on one of the guests. We had one up but we had to keep a hand on the umbrella for fear of it being pulled over. As a result of this there was very little shade to protect us from the Sun. While at the pool we expected to have bar service as this is common at other Riu Palace Resorts. Some days this was available other days it was not and this seemed to relate to how many people were at the bar – if it was empty you got service if not you didn’t. There definitely was a shortage of staff with this regard.