A group of 8 friends (all mid 20's) and I stayed at the Surf Club for the last week of May. We had a great time! We stayed in a timeshare (given to us for the week by a friend's mom) and got upgraded to a 2 bedroom suite. There was plenty of space for all 8 of us and the room was clean and well stocked. We never seemed to have enough shower towels, but we were too busy having fun to ask for more so that was probably our fault.

The pros- Gorgeous beach (very windy) and warm beach water. Awesome pool with a lazy river, which was my favorite. I spent many hours floating around the lazy river with a fruity drink from the swim up bar. The 8 of us never managed to get down to the beach/pool before 11am and we still managed to find a clump of chairs together if we looked for a bit. The hotel is very nice, we didn't see any construction. People are super friendly.

The cons- The island of Aruba is kind of ugly... its a desert. I wouldn't go for sight-seeing, but chilling at the resort was a blast. Food and alcohol are way overpriced, of course, but the swim-up bar has happy hour at 3pm daily with 2-for-1 specials (drinks were really good, too) that makes them more acceptable (still not cheap). Also, you can buy floats for the pools/beach, but we managed to grab some from guests who were leaving so we had 8 floats but didn't have to pay for them.

Real quick, some stuff we did- Tattoo party boat wasn't that great (food was okay and drinks were cheap, but extremely weak), Snorkeling "jolly pirate" boat was a blast, and the Stellaris Casino was good times.

Returned from a week's stay at the Surf Club on June 20. It was a terrific resort. We stayed on the 11th floor with an ocean view, it was beautiful. I would recommend any view, but a pool view. It is very noisy around the pool area. Personally, I didn't like the pool area, it was loud and people were nasty about the use of the chairs. I thought the lazy river could have been cleaner too. My family enjoyed going to the beach far more. We tried to get a palapas, but were not always successful. There are plenty of chairs available and we usually parked them up close to the water. The beach was wonderful until the wind kicked up at a higher rate and then we felt as though we were pelted by the sand. Generally, the wind keeps everything comfortable.

There are many activites right at the beach and my family took advantage of the snorkling and parasailing. My husband said that the Dolphin snorkling tour was terrific. Baby beach was a beautiful beach for snorkling, as well.

Enjoyed eating out. The places we enjoyed the most were Wacky Wahoo and ElTrattoria up by the lighthouse.

We rented a car from Royal. The car wasn't the greatest, but Royal was inexpensive and easy to deal with. We were glad we had the car and were glad we weren't getting in a cab to go places like others at the Surf Club.

Be prepared, groceries are expensive and you will never have a good hair day there.

I would definitely go back.

My husband and I along with our two teen-age sons ( 15 & 16 ) just returned from a Wonderful 8 day vacation at the BEAUTIFUL Surf Club. We went on the Timeshare preview package, but added additional nights. I would HIGHLY recommend this option to anyone considering it. We attended a very low pressure 90 minutes exactly presentation. This made our trip VERY affordable!! My husband and I cannot see how anyone can complain about such a GORGEOUS property!! It was extremely clean, and I consider myself to be VERY picky!! We constantly saw staff cleaning everyday throughout the resort. Our room was a 1 bedroom villa which I was concerned would not be big enough, but we had PLENTY of room for 4 adults. My one son slept on the pull-out sofa and the other brought a Queen-size air mattress from home and set it up next to the sofa bed. It was so nice for my husband and I to have our own room with a King size bed. When we checked in I requested a room on a higher floor-preferably in the Spyglass Tower and was told they weren't sure they could honor my request and our room was not ready yet anyway. So, we had lunch at Moomba's , came back an hour and a half later and our room was ready-we received exactly what I requested-LOVED the room (10'th floor-Oceanview), very well appointed, extremely clean!! Yes this is a big resort, but we never had any issues getting chairs around the pool or on the beach. I would venture to say that it looked as if the property may have been anywhere from half to 3/4 full and still no issues. We booked back in Jan, and I was constantly reading other reviews and chatting on the forum and I must say again that if anyone has complaints they are WAY too fussy!!! The only very minor complaint that I would say at all is that the new fitness area will will be a welcome addition, because that does need to be much bigger with more equipment. As far as the staff goes, we found everyone to be very friendly and accommodating. We really enjoyed spending our late afternoons floating around the lazy river. As far as the beach in front of the Surf Club, it is perfectly fine, no big deal to us that it felt a little mucky on the bottom. My husband and I would comment everyday about those who complain about this-Get over it!! We found no odor either!! Again, in our opinion, it's just being way too picky!! We would HIGHLY recommend this place and we hope to return here ourselves again someday!! Go and enjoy and RELAX!!!

Just got back from Aruba Surf Club. Some good things, some bad. We are not time share owners but were coming to see about purchasing time share but were amazed at the lines upon check in. Nothing like check in at a hotel and nothing like we had ever seen before anywhere and we travel all the time, everyone was complaining. Checking in Saturday at 4 pm was probably not a good time but having a lobby full of people and lines out the door was not a good way to start the vacation especially after the long flight from the U.S. Hotel staff was ok, not particularly friendly or unfriendly, just ok.

Once checked in we were off to the room. We were in a one bedroom suite, the accomodations were fine. Room was very large, clean, and air conditioning worked well which was obviously important. The room had a colonial decorating feel to it which was odd for a beach hotel (unlike Harborside in Bahamas which had very tropical decor) but it was fine. We were on the 10th floor, with ocean/pool view, view was nice but listening to kids yelling in the pool from morning until night was a bit tedious. The sound really carried and have no idea why rooms were not more soundproof. Heard no inside noise from neighbors though which was a good thing.

Beach/pool experience was not great. Lots of yelling kids and adults at pool and beach and just really busy since winding walk paths were right next to chairs. Suggest if you want quieter experience go to lay out at other Marriott properties which were right next door. Far less noise. Casino at Stelleris was fine if you are a gambler although very smoky, especially late at night.

Could not comment on food at hotel as we brought breakfast/lunch food from supermarket and dined around island for dinner every night. We did rent car and there was ample parking available at Surf Club at all times.

Overall it was ok experience although seemed better if you were there with kids, not really a good place for adults to vacation. We were there 4 days and that was more than enough since every day really was the same. Would suggest renting car as we did as enabled you to get off of property and experience island and more varied food choices. Aruba is really a pretty place and the weather was great just think would have had a more adult upscale vacation at another hotel. If you have small children though this might be the place for you. It sounded like the kids were having a very good time.