My mother and I recently (April 06) went to Aruba and stayed at the Marriott Aruba Resort and Casino for a mother daughter trip. I will start by saying that it was an excellent experience all the way around. My family has done a lot of traveling over the years, to a lot of different beach areas, and Aruba was right up there with one of my favorite pics! Here's why we loved Aruba and the Marriott:
1. Aruba had absolutely perfect weather!! Each day the sky was sunny and blue. Only a day or two even had scattered clouds. Not a drop of rain the whole time. The temperature was hot, which I love as it makes it even more fun to jump in the pool or ocean to cool off. Even better was the the wind (which I thought I might find annoying) did a great job of keeping you at just the right temp throughout the day. Just as a side note, I heard that the wind was less extreme by the Marriott then at other hotels, although I'm not sure of the reasoning or truth behind that.
2. The water was beautiful! If you are looking for that turquoise blue water, Aruba has it. My only complaint was that the water was very salty. The water outside of the Marriott was very clean. Be careful getting in and out of the ocean as the tide there created a large dip as you moved from the beach to the water.
3. The beach facilities at the Marriott were great! I loved loved loved the fact that you could rent the beach huts in advance instead of getting up at the crack of dawn to stand in line for one. It made life much more relaxing, which is what vacation should be all about! The beach itself was very nice, and not as crowded as other beaches more in the middle of the strip appeared to be. We didn't get a lot of people coming around to sell you stuff which was very nice. The beach was also much quieter than the pool area.
4. Pool was very nice and comfortable. The chairs at the pool were great! Think thick canvas pottery barn cushions on wrought iron chairs. Super comfy! Also plenty of umbrellas to get out of the sun when necessary. The pool was a little loud at times if there were a lot of kids around-big difference in noise volume between the beach and pool. The pool was on the small side however. We are used to hotels with big pool complexes, which the Marriott does not have. It was certainly adequate, and the water was very refreshing, always a great temp. If you are looking for a huge pool area, this wouldn't be it. Also, people were very annoying about coming down to place towels on chairs and then not showing up to their chairs until noon.
5. Food was great! The hotel food was good, although there are so many good places to eat outside of the hotel, I would definitely recommend going off site. I am a seafood lover and there was great seafood to be had! My #1 favorite restaurant was called Papiemento. It is a small place located on the grounds of a family's home. The backyard has been transformed into a great restaurant. Tables are available right next to the pool and in a garden atmosphere. Lots of pretty twinkle lights. We had seafood that was cooked on a hot stone-lobster, shrimp, and a local fish-soooo good!! We also loved the Buccaneer (in town)-again-great seafood! Another great restaurant was Que Pasa, (in town), and had a great variety of food, some Japanese, some Dutch, great seafood, and good meat. In the hotel, Tuscany was good, but overpriced for the quality. Outside of the hotel, all meals were reasonable priced and matched the quality of the food!! My mother and I often went to the buffet restaurant for breakfast in the morning and split and omelet. Buffet appeared overpriced and the omelets come with hash browns and fruit-so if you like a light breakfast, no need for buffet.
6. Rooms-the rooms at the hotel were great! The balconies were wonderful, by far the largest balconies that we saw around the island, and they were this way for all the rooms. The rooms themselves were big and the bathrooms were big and in good condition. My only complaint about the room was that you could definitely hear the people above you. We had children in the room above and they liked to have races across the floor each morning at 7am. At least it was a good wake up call!!
*Only other complaint was that the lobby smelled of beer and cigarettes from the casino, but really, how much time do you spend in the lobby-not a big deal!
* Other great things-the lobby cafe was great when you didn't want a full sit down breakfast-really yummy bagels and pastry. Great coffee! Cab drivers were nice and dependable with pricing, staff was good, although we didn't make a lot of requests from them, so not a lot to go on.
* I loved Aruba and the Marriott and would recommend both without hesitation.

We stayed here May 17 to 22nd. Check in was a real night mare- we got thwe wrong room- they said will give us a room with 2 double beds- we had king room reserved. They said they would put the 2 beds together and we wouldnt know (!!) So needless to say we opted for another room- another wait period. It did spoil our time we could have actually spent doing something else.
After check- in things went smoother.
We went out every day for the dinners. Though there are good restaurants in the hotel itself. There are 4 good eating areas located in the hotel- The all day snack bar is also a great breakfast /coffee/ice cream place.
Location: I found this hotel to be located in the ideal beach- perfect calm waters for swimming- at the far end of high rise- so little less crowded than other high rises - perfect sunset views. You can get a palapa if you are there by 8-30. I got one on 2nd row at 9 am even. My husband lost his tee shirt while we left our stuff on the lounge chairs at the pool- and they never found it.
Pool itself is nice with a great swim up bar- it does however start to get dirty by end of the day after 4 pmish.
Casino is always bustling- sp in the evenings.
I would go back to this hotel because of its beach location.
My other full Aruba review is in the Aruba Forum for complete Aruba details.

happy Travelling!
pc.

the best by far hotel on the island we looked around and nothing compaired the pool was great and the kids 8 and 7 loved it ,great for familys and adult time. The balconys were large and had great views from almost anywere. The people that work at the marriott stellaris are the most respectful people i have ever encountered they were very helpful and considerate. Check in and out was a breeze , we highly recomend this hotel.

My wife and I just returned from a week long trip (5/13-19) to Aruba staying at the Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino. To sum it up, it is an average hotel in a really great place. If you're looking for a JW, this isn't quite it... almost, but not quite. Overall, I would go back again. The hotel is a category 7 simply due to it's location. I've stayed in much nicer category 5/6 rooms before, but don't let that deter you.

The hotel staff was extremely helpful and pleasant. Check-in took a little longer that anticipated; I'm not sure why, but the staff was shuffling around quite a bit. They finally got everything situated after about 10 minutes. It seemed they had new staff members so we were patient and I think they were grateful for that. I'm sure some people would throw a hissy-fit if they couldn't check in within 30 seconds. We used points for part of the trip and paid for the remainder; this may of thrown them for a loop.

Depending on what you plan on doing while in Aruba this post may or may not be helpful. My wife and I literally planned on doing nothing while we were there besides sit around and relax. We didn't care if we left the property, and we really didn't need to even though we took a cab downtown for dinner one night (to Iguana Joe's... good food, quick, nothing special). We sat by the pool every day and just enjoyed the sun, the pool, and the Balashi (Aruba's beer!). We're not 3 meals per day people so we just ate what we wanted when we wanted it, either between room service, the lobby lounge for quick snacks, La Vista for your standard Marriott-type food, Tuscany one night for dinner (kind of pricey, but food was good; I've heard there are better Italian restaurants on the island, but this was a 5 minute walk from our room).

We were in the south tower, facing the other Marriott properties. I think our room was 3 from the end of the tower (closest to the water). The view was excellent, but couldn't see the sunsets from the balcony. I'm guessing if you have a room on the inside overlooking the pool, on a high floor, you could see the sunset. We didn't really care if we were overlooking the pool because we spent every day at the pool anyway. We had a king bed room. It was very clean, but had a hint of "Aruba" smell in it; probably due to the fact it's on the ocean... go figure. Many people have posted that their room was smokey; our was NOT at all. Never once did I smell smoke in our room, and rarely in the hotel anywhere. The room also had a refrigerator, double basin/sinks (very helpful), a large bathroom and walk-in closet with safe. The AC worked wonderfully!

So the pool... it was somewhat loud from either the waterfalls at one end, or the bar music at the other end. However, after trying out a few places and we noticed the sound doesn't travel too far. The bar and pool deck serving staff was friendly, and most often would circle around 1-2 hours or so asking for orders. I never found it annoying except once when we were hoping they'd come around but couldn't find anyone within earshot. The pool was fairly clean; not surprisingly it was somewhat cloudy from all the oil and lotion that everyone carries into it. The resident lizards would come by every now and then, which I found pretty cool, but also scared the heck out of some people. One thing I found a little strange is that the pool hours were 7am-7pm. I don't know if they enforce it or not as we had our fair share of pool-time by then. The seating was comfortable; mixed as far as cleanliness- although our second to last day there, the staff began pulling chairs out of the pool area to the back deck a few at a time to powerwash them. They came back glowing. The towel hut is useful; no need to bring your own towels, just stop by the hut and pick up a few. I'm not sure why they require you to check out towels if they don't do any check-in process; maybe just to keep beach stragglers from taking towels for fear they might not provide a proper room number.

We never once set foot into the casino so I can't really comment on that.

The cab ride from/to the airport to hotel is $20, and the cab rides to/from the hotel and the downtown area is $10 each way.