Hotel day pass??

[sixeggs]

Hi there. DH and I are cursing Jan 2020. Aruba will be our last stop before having two sea days on the ship back home. We were thinking we'd like to find a beach that has chairs, shade, food, drink and a restroom. From what I read, Eagle Beach sounds good. But, I'm not sure,  a lot of the topics are from a few years back so I don't know if Eagle Beach is the best option. We are only in Aruba from 8 am to 4 so staying close to the port may be a good idea unless you recommend something else. We have done many cruise excursions and those don't really appeal to us.

Thank you so much!

[dctravel]

We did a resort pass from resort for a day .com at the RIU Palace. It was not cheap ($130 per adult) but we had a great time. Drinks were good and plentiful, food was tasty, and the pool and beach were great. We were treated like the hotel guests who were staying there. 

[cb at sea]

No need to pay $260 for a beach day!  Take the bus to Eagle Beach, and enjoy.  There will be lounger/umbrella  rentals, and there is food/drink within easy walking distance.  Ask the bus driver what the return times are.... You are unlikely to want to stay at the beach from 8am to 3pm (give yourself time to get back!)....as the sun is fierce, even with shade.

[cruiseapril]

Eagle Beach is good and yes the sun is hot- we only stay for 3 or 4 hours.

[dctravel]

On 1/12/2020 at 11:15 AM, cb at sea said:

No need to pay $260 for a beach day!  Take the bus to Eagle Beach, and enjoy.  There will be lounger/umbrella  rentals, and there is food/drink within easy walking distance.  Ask the bus driver what the return times are.... You are unlikely to want to stay at the beach from 8am to 3pm (give yourself time to get back!)....as the sun is fierce, even with shade.

I don't disagree with you on principle, but the group I was traveling with, a pool was more important than the beach. Hence our choice :).

[Okcmama]

We recently returned from a 9-day Southern Caribbean cruise on RCCL's Explorer of the Seas.  We visited Labadee and the ABC Islands.  Aruba was our first stop after Labadee and we arrived on NYE and were in port from 8 AM to 8 PM.  There were 3 other ships along with ours in the morning and I believe a 5th arrived in the afternoon.  I think that had SOME impact on what I have to say as well as it being 12/31.  Based on how busy a port it was, we decided to make reservations at a hotel resort for the day to ensure we had chairs, umbrellas, food, drinks etc., to ensure a relaxing and enjoyable day at the beach.  Based on other threads on this topic, we chose Barcelo.  Made our reservations online at caribbeandaypass.com for $77/ person for our party of 6.  Got off the ship and easily made it to the resort before 9:30 AM.  There was hardly anyone on the beach, HOWEVER, every flipping hotel chair had a hotel towel on it as if to signal it was being used.  Apparently, hotel guests come down at 6 AM and put towels on all the chairs until they are ready to come to the beach.  We finally found some chairs that we are able to pull together and settled in.  Right around 11 AM, the beach was busy and hotel guests started filtering in.  We were situated right next to the beach attendant station and it was a revolving door where hotel guests came over, livid that the chairs they reserved at 6:30 this morning were no longer there.  There was yelling, tantrum throwing, belittlement of the young men.  One couple insisted the manager bring in security.  Security came on the beach and tried throwing an elderly Asian couple (who didn't speak any of the languages) out of their chairs.  Then, moved on to another unsuspecting couple trying to tell security that it was their towels and chairs (no way of being able to tell since all the hotel-issued towels and chairs are the same).   This went on the entire time we were there.  It was not a relaxing day on the beach.  It ruined our day to be honest.  For $462, I thought the price of a reserved chair - and all inclusive food/drink was what we would get.  The beach was nice.  The pool was nice.  But I would never go there again.  The hotel does a poor job by both their hotel guests as well as their resort-for-a-day guests.  They oversell and don't have enough chairs to come close to adequate.  Either put aside the amount of chairs equal to the amount of day passes or don't sell day passes.  We overpaid for our day by, easily, $400.  The food was so-so.  There was no service on the beach at all.  Not a huge issue, but not what I expected based on past experiences.  I would not call this a resort experience.  Not like any of the others I have had on different islands and different resorts.  Maybe all the resort day passes on Aruba are like this.  I do not know.  If so, you are better off taking your chances for cheap bus fare.  Which, is really easy to use and very inexpensive.  Pass on the day pass to Barcelo.  It was, by far, the biggest waste of an island visit we have ever had.  Unfortunate, indeed.  We were looking forward to Aruba and really didn't enjoy it in the least.

[MrSchwump]

We took a cab to the Divi resort on Eagle Beach. There’s no pay one price deal.  Instead you buy coupons that are redeemable at the bars and restaurants. We’re not big drinkers so this was fine for us. Nice place and close to town. 

[dlphn501]

On 1/12/2020 at 11:15 AM, cb at sea said:

No need to pay $260 for a beach day!  Take the bus to Eagle Beach, and enjoy.  There will be lounger/umbrella  rentals, and there is food/drink within easy walking distance.  Ask the bus driver what the return times are.... You are unlikely to want to stay at the beach from 8am to 3pm (give yourself time to get back!)....as the sun is fierce, even with shade.

What time do the loungers/umbrellas start becoming scarce?

[joteacher]

Has anyone done the Occidental Resort for the day? I was looking at that one. and it looked pretty good for $84/person for the day.

Edited January 25, 2020 by joteacher
spelling

[Hatteras51]

18 hours ago, joteacher said:

Has anyone done the Occidental Resort for the day? I was looking at that one. and it looked pretty good for $84/person for the day.

Occidental was sold to Barcelo a few years. That is the same hotel that the op was referring to in this post.