Juan S truly made our stay amazing! We never had to look for a server once while on the beach. He was right there with cold drinks or food every day, all day. He is friendly, attentive and hard working. Thank you Juan for making our vacation fantastic!
Your hotel in my opinion is the best on the island. I love that it is right on the beach & that when I come down from my room, everything is right there. What makes your hotel over the top? The staff & how they take the time to be personable to everyone but yet still do their jobs, true professionals! Let’s start with one of your best employees, Eduardo (Ed) the bartender at Oceanside. Do not ever lose him, he’s the backbone of your bar staff. The guy is exactly what you want in an employee representing your company everyday he works! He always engages everyone in conversation, he makes great drinks, he’s always happy & personable. If you have questions about the island Ed will give you his best answers or suggestions. He is a draw to your bar when he’s working, especially for happy hour because everyone wants to go see & hangout with Ed. The only bad thing about Ed is that you give him days off! Now this isn’t to say there aren’t other great bartenders. Continuing with Oceanside, Lucas & Brian do a great job. Both are very personable and make the bar fun. They too provide great conversation & make the bar a nice place to go to. Moving on to Sea Breeze Andres & Pedro are awesome! They are also great bartenders, professional, make great drinks, provide great conversation & make you feel like you’re at your local bar. They work very hard getting drinks out to the bar patrons & to the diners. All these guys are invaluable & losing any of these Bartenders I have named would leave a huge void in the service, professionalism & entertainment that your hotel provides. Sometimes it’s hard to evaluate the intangibles that people bring to a business, these guys go over and above in every way! Moving on I will go to my arrival at the hotel. John is always a great sight to see greeting you upon arrival! Right away when he sees you, you feel like you are home. He helps you with your bags & directs the new arrivals to help them get situated with checking in. Management, I can not say enough about Cecile & Eddie. Cecile might be one of the hardest workers I’ve ever seen! The woman does everything!! Then when she’s in the middle of doing 100 things, she will see you & greet you like a friend. She will hit the pause button on what she’s doing, and make you feel like you are someone important! After she makes you feel great & makes sure you are good she goes back to work w/o missing a beat. Truly amazing. Eddie is another one of your great managers. The guy is such a hard worker. No task is below him. He worked Corals this time & then a bit of lunch in the Sea Breeze. The guy is on top of everything. I’d say the only bad thing was not seeing Eddie at dinner like we used to. My family always loved seeing him at Sea Breeze at night. The guy is so personable & professional. I guess because you eat dinner longer then breakfast we definitely missed Eddie’s presence at dinner. The guy would always take the time to make conversation & just provide a great experience at dinner for everyone. Although he does a great job in Corals & the Sea Breeze for lunch his presence is missed at night in the Sea Breeze. Oceanside lunch would not be great if it wasn’t for Rosa Angelica, Louise & Hugo. Three of the best!! Rosa never seems to have a bad day & is always happy. She makes lunch great with her conversation. She’s a very hard worker & a day into your trip she knows your drink before you have to ask! Louise is the same way along w Hugo. Do not lose these workers because lunch & the lunch experience would not be the same. They brighten the experience of lunch and make you want to go to the Oceanside bc you want to see your friends. They are irreplaceable!! Puro, Brigette is awesome! It’s a pleasure to deal with her as you get coffee or a snack. She’s very helpful, quick to get you your order & such a hard worker! She is also very personable & talks with you while you wait! She is great!! The Palapas station has 2 guys to me that standout, Leabitt & Smitty! Leabitt manages the place incredibly & has everything in order. He makes sure things run fast & smooth everyday! Smitty couldn’t be more helpful. The guy will do anything for you & works so hard. Both men make sure the beach experience for every guest is great!! It was great to see the lobby bar open again!!! I’d say my only critique would be to open it up a little earlier like 4pm. This way people leaving for any early dinner can catch a drink while waiting for a cab to go out. However, great move reopening the lobby bar, it’s greatly appreciated!! Oceanside bar I’d say the only negative is that it’s not open longer!! I walk the boardwalk all the time. You guys have the greatest bar of any hotel at Oceansides. It’s right on your gorgeous beach. You definitely underutilize this establishment & don’t realize the value of it! This bar should be open until midnight/1am. People on a tropical vacation want good drinks, outside! Please consider this because you already have the good drinks, you just need to man the bar later! In closing I’d like to point out one more thing. While I was there on my trip a young child walked away from his parents and was for a very short time, missing. The parents notified your security staff & they did not miss a beat! A female security person got on her radio and started giving commands to the other security staff. She initiated a plan which from the looks of it is something that you guys have gone over & practiced. She had everyone moving with a purpose & assigned to a task. I would say in less then 2 minutes one of her security guards located the couples child and returned him to their parents. Although 2 minutes was probably an eternity for the parents your staff responded professionally, quickly & without hesitation! They should all be commended. They did a great job & the woman coordinating the search was phenomenal. For people bringing kids to your hotel they should know that in the event something like this happens you guys are prepared to act! Great job!!!! In closing your hotel is special because you have hired some phenomenal staff to work for you! I’m sure I’ve forgotten someone but I tried not to. Keep your hotel the same way. People like myself come back because of the people I have mentioned above who go above & beyond to provide a great experience. I’ll say it one more time that the intangibles your staff brings to work through their caring for your guests is hard to put a rating on by management. I hope that a guest putting it on paper in a review helps you see that although the people mentioned above work hard to give guests the best experience they can, they bring a whole lot more with their caring & personalities & that keep us coming back!…
All inclusive NOT. Only local, I mean local produced beverages, anything else extra charges. They really ruined the meaning of all inclusive. It's cheaper to pay as you go. My ecclesiastical with other All inclusive has been much much better. Please stop advertising false All inclusive
Resort was clean and comfortable. Staff friendly and helpful. Beautiful beach. We took the Breakfast package. Lots of choices and tasty. This kept us full most of the day so we just snacked a bit if needed, no need for lunch only dinner. Had dinner at DaVinci restaurant twice. The food was excellent. Good value! Our waitress Steffany was so friendly and helpful with choices. Definitely worth a visit. We will certainly return to Aruba and stay at the Holiday Inn again.
Very disappointing trip so far… We were hoping for a nice seamless start to my wife’s retirement trip. Yet, it has not started off on a good foot. Be aware that rooms are not as advertised online. “Ocean view” paradise views are actually of a parking lot. We booked the most premium level room on the website with pictures showing full ocean views. In reality, our view is mostly of a parking lot and if you strain your neck very hard to the left you can see some water. Even though the category room level says “ocean” and the pictures show full ocean you very well may be getting a parking lot view. Despite being an IHG loyalty member this is very disappointing. The other disappointing thing is that no solutions or resolutions were offered. We are seasoned beach travelers and reasonable people. We would have been happy with “sorry for the misunderstanding, but here’s a free dinner or lunch”. No solutions, just ‘I’m sorry you feel that way.’ On the above we are some what hopeful that after spending an hour disputing the room with Caesar the GM he says he might be able to get us the right category of room today or tomorrow. This did however cost us an hour plus of sun time. We were able to make sunset though which was gorgeous. A few more negatives, before getting into a few positives. The Marriott resort immediately next door blares dance music until 2am and there are many kids at the Holiday Inn that get up at 7:00 and are making plenty of noise. I’m not sure if this isolated to the “Sea Tower” where we are staying, but please be aware of the high noise factor. Also, there were ants in our bathroom sink which we didn’t expect and our toilet seat doesn’t stay up (not convenient at all for males!). They did send up maintenance to try and take care of this. Maintenance quickly came up to spray our bathroom with chemicals, but they were unable to fix the toilet seat so now they are supposed to come back today. Also, upon our check in there were three other families complaining to the front desk about their accommodations so apparently we aren’t the only ones. On the positive side, Don at the front desk was incredibly responsive, nice, and positive when we were dealing with the ant and toilet seat issues. Very nice guy. Also, we had dinner at the Sea Breeze restaurant last night to catch the last of the sunset and Franky our waiter was very good. The food was good despite being pricey. The hotel also forgot to apply our IHG rewards 15% discount on food. They say they are going to fix this too. The island and beach really are beautiful too. We are hopeful that the Holiday Inn will do the right thing and give us the room that we paid for on-line. This really is a false advertising / bait and switch situation where I am sure many lawyers in the USA would be interested in taking a closer look at. You can’t advertise certain views with your room packages on-line, pay for those views/category of room and then give you something else entirely. Stay tuned, despite these challenges, we are still hopeful for a positive resolution… …
Excellent friendly service , spotlessly clean , beautiful beach with water every shade of imaginable blue with silky white sand . Hotel is in convenient location. Tour operators pick you up right at the front door. And the food is very good .
Even number rooms in the seabreeze tower faces a club that has loud pounding music till one in the morning. The hotels position is that they can’t do anything about it. When I asked for a different room they told me it was my standard room category
Victor and Josuel are awesome at the Lobby Bar! Outstanding mixology!! Lemon drop, apple and espresso martinis - perfect! Great customer service and very professional! Very welcoming and friendly! highly recommend the Holiday Inn Lobby Bar Thank you Victor and Josuel!
Excellent location rooms are nothing special but quite adequate. If you want to get a tiki hut on the beach you must be at the main towel hut at noon, for the next day. Beautiful place but chairs at the pool are limited so get there early! No problem getting beach umbrella so no worries!
We were here for five days and did not do all-inclusive. Unless you really want to drink a lot, I am not sure that all-inclusive is worth it since there are a lot of restaurants within walking distance and the bar/club area is about a 10 minute walk down the road. I'm from Boston so the prices in the restaurants are all Boston prices (appetizers $9-$12, sandwiches $14-$16, dinner entrees $20-$40, cocktails $10-$15) and the resort restaurants were on the higher side. If you go to the liquor store, a bottle will set you back to the equivalent of four cocktails. A bottle of Absolut vodka ranged from $36-$45 (same bottle in Boston is $13-$18). Calculate out your needs to see if all-inclusive works. The resort is nice and large with discrete areas. There is an outdoor lounge area (gazebos, hammocks, swing chairs, etc.), the main pool area, and the small pool and hot tub area. The hot tub is large and a good heat. The pools are well designed. We were in the Sea Tower which is a walk from the lobby. The room was a Holiday Inn room and look like any Holiday Inn room decorated in the last five years with some beach touches and colors - except for going outside, you could be in Aruba or Milwaukee (but no carpeting). The walls are pretty thin so expect some noise, particularly if your room has a suite door, but it wasn't too bad. Our room had a coffee maker and a large fridge with a freezer. The bed was very comfortable with lots of pillows. The beach and water are nice, although the water is not as clear as I expected and I didn't see many fish off the beach (we went snorkeling for that). For us it was shallow with tiny waves so good for children. Limited seaweed in the water but the sand got very mushy/slimy if you went out a bit. We always found lounge chairs but only went to the beach in the afternoon. We got take-away lunch from the Sea Breeze restaurant and that was quite good as well as some cocktails. I am an IHG member so we were on the IHG WiFi and got a 15% discount at the restaurants and bars - this basically covered the 15% service charge. The IHG WiFI worked well and was strong on the beach except the beach in front of the lounge/hammock area. We did lose power for an hour or so at one point. Generally, its a decent hotel. Nothing super special but a solid choice right on the beach. If I go back to Aruba, I would stay here again. As of now, the taxi to the airport is $31 one-way. The public bus, which takes 20-30 mins, is about $11 round trip for 2 people to go to Oranjestad. There is an airport bus too that you have to buy tickets in advance for. We went to the town to site-see and eat since it was cheaper in the town than at the beach (cocktails were $7.50-$9, entrees $18-$25). There is a mid-sized market by the KFC/McDonalds that is within walking distance of the resort if you want to get snacks and such. Plan in advance if you want to rent a car. The only cars that were available when we arrived were 10 person passenger vans. Leaving Aruba is a pain. You will absolutely need at least 3 hours at the airport because USA customs are done in Aruba and the airport is small leading to long lines from bottlenecks. Maybe it was just me, but for an island that's slogan is One Happy Island, no one who lived there seemed genuinely happy except the bar tender at the Sea Breeze and at the Saloon and a woman I talked to at the bus stop. Most everyone was nice though. I guess it is tiring to work for tourists all the time. …
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