Arubamark's post trip report!!!!

[arubamark]

I planned on doing this a lot nicer but do not want to make anyone wait any longer. Sorry for the delay but tons of parties for the kids, friends up from Florida and work has been busy. I will supply a link to my pics. I hope this fits.

Arrived in Aruba to the quickest in/out to date. I guess since we left to the airport a bit later then we usually do helped
us out. In other words, since we were one of the last few people to get to our airport in Newark our luggage was checked on
last therefore being the first to come off when we arrived in Aruba. When we got the baggage claim in Aruba The first 7
pieces were mine! Right off we went to meet Bully in front, my wife Doreen spotted the sign "ARUBAMARK" and that's when our vacation began. We got to meet Bully in person finally after several e-mails, stowed the luggage in the back, closed
the doors and right before we took off our new friend pulled out a cooler with iced down Balashi's! I slammed 3 in the 5-10
minute ride to Renaissance while the rest of my fam nursed a couple. Big line when we were trying to check in but Doreen and
Mom toughed it out while me and my Dad walked around with the kids sipping some rum punches. We got the very first room
right behind Linda Garcia's desk 2119. We did not get our normal 2141 room since we went early this year due to my work
schedule. The only problem I had with this room is the puddle of water walking to it from the back. I almost broke my a$$ a
few times while others laughed at my expense. It was funny though. We had rain a few times at night (luckily) so when the
water runs down that little ramp with the hand rail in the middle the water collects by that first room. I called about it a
few times and they said when they come to clean the room they will sweep the water away. Only problem is that they weren't
getting to our room until 4-4:30 which caused a couple of problems. The first was the water no being swept away, no
biggie. The second was this year we decided to get an earlier start on our dinners before the kids had their meltdowns so
when we got to the room there were no towels for showers. By the end of the week and after a few bribes I got them to take
care of it a bit earlier. Ok, so what did we do.....We only went to dinner 3 nights this year thanks to my son Chase who is
in his terrible and I mean terrible 2's right now. Taking him to dinner is just a disaster waiting to happen. He doesn't
want to go to some restaurant and just sit there and behave. He wants to throw crayons or his plastic toys at us and people
around us then maybe let everyone know that he is there by letting out a few top notch screams followed by the infamous chase we all take turns going around the restaurant as he looks at us and laughs and is probably saying to himself, "look at these
jerks chasing me around here". So the 3 restaurants we did Tony Romas, The Bucaneer, and Gianni’s. Let's talk about our
dinners a bit, First dinner was at Tony Romas. After trying 3 different tables the 3rd one is where we decided on dining.
First one had a big fan over it so the complaining started, the second one had a high chair, that wasn't going to work with
Chase. We felt the 3rd table was just right since it was a booth and we could corner him in and take a little control. Yeah
right.....He still gave us a run for our money. At any rate, it turned out to be good, I did notice a price difference as
mentioned in one of our other threads. The bill seemed to be a little steep considering what we got but oh well. Next stop
was the Bucaneer for us. As some of you know we have made the Bucaneer a tradition with our family going here every year for
the past 11 years. Angela, the wife of the owners son Josef reached out to us and said that Josef Sr. would like to meat us
and see us when we came back to the restaurant this year. I had Linda Garcia call to make the reservation and Josef asked to
speak to me, he warmly greeted me and asked when we would be coming. I asked what would be best for his father to make it
their and he said that he would be there tonight which was a Monday so we made our reservation for 6:00. We got there and
Met Angela and her husband Vasty. After being seated and ordering Josef SR came out and we were able to spend some
cherish able time together, we talked and took some pictures. It was a really special moment for all of us, it was a perfect
night. Even Chase behaved as he was amused by the turtles and freshly caught Pompano in the tank. It was sad leaving there
not knowing when we would be seeing our friends again but the night was special. Our 3rd dinner was at Gianni's. This
dinner was just for me and the misses. Gianni's has great food and we had a really good dinner it's just that we don't have
any luck at this place. Last year was the first time we dined here and the family got in to a huge fight over something
stupid I'm sure but after some talking and calming down we all managed to have a nice dinner and meet some people that we
entertained once again. This year the first table we sat at was so wobbly we had to get a new table. My poor wife almost
wore her glass of wine 3 times. So we get to the new table and had a laugh. Doreen then goes to take a sip of her water and
notices a dead fly floating in her cup, we give each other that look like "It's always something!" but it's all good we had
another laugh. I really feel like we are being followed and filmed at times for that hidden camera tv show. Seriously, if
you ever want a good laugh just come when we will be there, I'm sure there will be something entertaining for everyone. We did
try Madame Jeanette’s for our last family dinner on Thursday night that didn't work out well for us. Bully brought us there
and we got seated out in the back in the rocks somewhere and I knew once we stepped on to them rocks it would not be a good
idea for us to be there (with Chase) Well, I was right, 5 minutes there Chase wants to go for a run and falls on the rocks
scraping his knees and smashing his face into a chair and getting pretty badly bruised up. My son, a hockey player in the
making like his father. So needless to say I called Bully up he was like "what's going on?" I explained so he came and
picked us up and brought us back to the hotel where we just had something there. When we return in April maybe we will make
it back there. Our daily routine was pretty much the same as always, wake up and have breakfast at the Waterfront Crab house see Kelly our favorite waitress come back to the room and grab our beach bag and head to the private island. They weren't
really checking cards this year I think the storm might have damaged that little card reader at the dock. Got the private
island for the first time and the boat had to drop us off behind the restaurant by the tennis courts. That's the dock Omar
uses for his working barge now, he is doing that full time and not running the boats back and forth any longer. The adult beach was closed for the first day we were there making the family beach a lot more crowded. By the second day they had the dock repaired and the adult beach opened. They had a bulldozer working non stop to rebuild the fingers going out so people can lay out on them again, they were damaged pretty badly. The dock where they gave the massages were also banged up pretty badly, it will take a little time to get that operational again. Besides that the only other damage I noticed was to the tops above where you eat, nothing to bad. I have to say it was a disappointment not seeing the parrots there this year. The cages were all cleaned out like they were getting ready to put something else in there. Even the turtles were missing, where did they go, they certainly weren’t making any noise. Being over on the island we were able to see all of our old friends, Jorge, Vivian, Maruska and the others. I do miss Iwan the bartender, he is no longer with Renaissance. It was good to see my ol friend Omar, his wife just who also used to drive the boats is still home and doing well with their child. I only
recognized 2 faces on the boat drivers, Rigo and I forget the other guys name but a couple of new faces. My friend in the
gift shop on the island was on vacation so I missed her this year. So after spending most of the day over there we would
come back and end up in the pool for a few hours, it's always good to hit the fresh water after a full day of being in the
salt. Like I stated in another post I felt a difference with the bartenders this year at the pool bar. I started noticing a
little problem last year with some of them. They don't like when you open a bar tab for the day because if you forget to
close it they have to send their paperwork in to accounting by the time they leave. I really don't understand what the big
deal is but for some reason it upsets some of them. They even admitted they were afraid to open my tab up for the day
because in the past I would just forget or they would be gone by the time I got back from dinner. Not my fault! Julio,
Nelson, Elizabeth and there's one other lady I forget her name who got me some Balashi products this year from the factory.
When I go back in April she is going to get me a Balashi tap for my kegerator. Looking forward to that. The pool was cloudy
the first few days but it cleared right up. Nobody was working on the pool but we did notice a lot of Styrofoam floating
around in the pool, it took a couple of days to clean things up but I am thinking that was mainly due to the storm that hit
before we arrived. The main thing that bothered us was the noise at the resort this year, there was a few things going on at
the same time this year at the resort. First they are in the midst of replacing all the doors on the rooms, no more sliders.
So the drilling and hammering went on all day sometimes up till 6:00 which was getting annoying. Then there was the noise
of the bulldozer adding sand and fixing the beaches and last but not least they were re-doing that little place you have
breakfast at outside where they used to have bingo. So they were cutting pavers the first 2 days then the third
power washing. So we got hit with all 3 things at once there is good and bad with this. The bad is obvious, we had to listen
to this while we finally get away and try to relax or fall asleep in our chairs, that didn't happen this year. The good part
is it happened to us so hopefully the rest of you Renaissance time share people will not have to go through it. :-) You
couldn't even escape the noise on the island since they were rebuilding the island in spots and if you went across the street
to the marina towers they were under construction there as well - The renaissance was noisy all over!! What can I do? I
feel I vented enough on here already or do I take it a step further???hmmmm Not sure yet. My parents took the kids up to the Alto Vista Chapel which they go to every year. Every year I saw I want to go but when the time comes I rather just lay out and drink some Balashi's. Well the one great thing that happened this year was my parent's went to the casino every night and
won every night! It stunk for us because they said they would have the kids over for a sleepover one night but once they
kept winning we figured we would let them roll with their luck, plus every morning at breakfast they would give us a few
hundred to buy something with which we never did except for some cigars and little souvenirs but we actually came home with a lot more money then we came with. I think we are going to use that money towards x-mas shopping. Thanks Mom & Dad! Oh I
know I am going back and forth here but I have started and stopped this report about 10 times already and refuse to keep
reading it, bare with me here... We made our usual phone calls from the hotel which we always forget about. $4 per minute
to call home OMG!! We ended up going to the internet cafe by Maracas and Rage and made our calls for .50 per minute. Also
jumped online for 15 minutes to check emails and to post quickly to all my Aruba Forum friends! I hope we remember to go to
the internet cafe in April when we get there. We'll see! We had a few things planned during the week like going to the
De-Palm water park and also going out fishing or doing some diving. Nothing took place. Didn't have any good reports about
fishing, water was a little turned up from the storm they had and Depalm island seemed a little pricey for just wanting to
let the kids go down the slide for a while. I know after an hour or two they would be bored. I was just going to take my
daughter Rayna so I asked her and she said she would rather go to the island and feed the flamingos and find hermit crabs.
That was fine by me. I am sure I am missing a few things but oh well, there is enough to go by here, we plan on going back
in April for our 11th anniversary. It looks like we might do the Divi Phoenix or Westin as of right now. We have been in
touch with a few people. Well the day came for us to go, Bully picked us up at 12:00 and dropped us off at the airport. I
gave him a hug good-bye and we were off to the security checks. That is brutal going through all of that with kids also.
Loading bags, strollers, taking off shoes, belts, oh what a pain but yet another small price we have to pay to travel and
travel safely. The first 1/2 of the flight was good, Chase slept but once he woke up we just kept passing him back and forth
to keep him somewhat calm. It wasn't that bad. Had our car service pick us up at Newark and off to our house. Although you
always hate leaving Aruba it is nice to get back in to your own bed and shower again. I hope you enjoyed there will be
another report in April. Hopefully a little different and more exciting since it will just be my wife and myself.


arubamark

[fattypatty]

nice report....sounds like you had both a relaxing and stressfull vacation. quick question - does bully drive an suv? i'm thinking of using him if possible.

[arubamark]

Originally Posted by fattypatty

nice report....sounds like you had both a relaxing and stressfull vacation. quick question - does bully drive an suv? i'm thinking of using him if possible.

It's more like an extended van, plenty of room for everyone and their luggage. Send him an email, he's great.

[arubamark]

btw- looks like the context or the alignment is off. I did the report in notepad. Anyway it's a bit awkward to read but at least it's something to read.

[Andrea J.]

thanks for the trip report mark
andrea

[cindyo]

Wooow Marc, I can't believe you took the time to write all that for us. Thanks for the updates on Rennaissance. You know we were all waiting, so thanks. My niece owns 2 weeks in that room you stayed in, weeks 15 and 16, so I can picture it clearly. Cool your parents won $$ every nite. Glad you had a good time. Your son will soon will be easier, laugh about his antics now. thanks again, cindyo

[arubamark]

Originally Posted by cindyo

Wooow Marc, I can't believe you took the time to write all that for us. Thanks for the updates on Rennaissance. You know we were all waiting, so thanks. My niece owns 2 weeks in that room you stayed in, weeks 15 and 16, so I can picture it clearly. Cool your parents won $$ every nite. Glad you had a good time. Your son will soon will be easier, laugh about his antics now. thanks again, cindyo

Every year they seem to make a donation so I was glad to see them win finally. I know it will get easier with Chase, he's only 2 and out of control but we love it. We enjoy every moment because time just goes way to fast! One day we will be thinking back on these exciting trips. Wow, we are looking to return around that time, week 14-16 this year for our anniversary. Do they always use the 2 weeks?

[rob o]

Originally Posted by arubamark

Wow, we are looking to return around that time, week 14-16 this year for our anniversary. Do they always use the 2 weeks?

Answering for CindyO....there are a bunch of us who travel (and own) weeks 15 & 16...we're all using them this year.

Don't forget, Week 15 is Easter in 2009...it's also Rhode Island school vacation. Week 16 is Massachusetts school vacation.

[danadog56]

Arubamark,
First...great report, that you took the time to sit and go over your vacation for us is awesome...
Second....does "flight of ideas" mean anything to you???? Just kidding it's the nurse in me...(the one that spent 3 years working in a psych unit)...LOL !!! No offense meant though, just pulling your chain...
I am going in a few days and will try to give as good a report as you...but if you've paid any attention to my posts you will see I have a tendancy to ramble...sort of like now....!!!

[rob o]

Originally Posted by danadog56

I am going in a few days and will try to give as good a report as you...but if you've paid any attention to my posts you will see I have a tendancy to ramble...sort of like now....!!!

Michelle....we'll be looking forward to your report too....have a great time!