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Renaissance Marina Towers 19 - 26 May 07
While I’m late in posting, here is our trip report for our 19 – 26 May vacation at the Renaissance Marina Towers. We booked our flight on Delta out of Atlanta last fall and used our frequent flyer miles and were able to get seats in business class for the same number of miles as some coach seats were going for. We are so spoiled now. Flight was fine, left on time, got in early and had to wait for the Delta Song plane to pull out of our gate. After our first piece of luggage came out, Keith took it and went to get our cell phone from Aruba Fastphones while I waited for the other pieces of luggage. I grabbed the last of the luggage and it was zoom out of there, we grabbed a cab and were off to the hotel. Our room was ready when we got there at about 2:30 and we were able to check in. Since our airfare was free, we decided to purchase the all inclusive to the tune of $140 a day per person. We only did it for 5 of the 7 days as we knew we wanted to eat outside of their plan a few times.
After a quick change we headed to the bar for some rum drinks and to the pool for a few hours. After happy hour was over, we showered and walked to Que Pasa for our traditional first night in Aruba dinner. We were not disappointed. We each ordered a seafood dish off their daily special menu and as usual, dinner was outstanding. The white asparagus was in season and we ordered it as a side dish – yum.
The other great dining experience was at the LG Smith Steak House. The food was wonderful, their crab cakes appetizer is to die for, the service was great, and the special attention we got from our favorite bartender Lillian made the evening perfect. We met Lillian during our first trip in 2001 when the restaurant bar overlooked the casino floor. We make sure we spend time with her every trip.
The absolutely worst meal we ever had in Aruba had was at La Estancia which was part of our AI plan. It’s in the Seaport Mall area. We both started with tasteless soup, Beef soup and French Onion. We ordered a sirloin steak and the Tenderloin Special that was served with mushroom gravy, corn on the cob and mashed potato. The meat was tasteless, the corn on the cob was waterlogged and the potato was not edible. How can you wreck a steak? We are both so sorry we did not go off the AI that night and go to El Gaucho as we originally planned.
One morning we went on the Heli tour full island ride. It was absolutely a wonderful experience. We also did the Red Sail Sunset Cruse – rum punch and appetizers. Met two wonderful couples from England and we went to the Occidental for drinks after the cruse – oh yah, like we needed more rum. And no we do not rent a car in Aruba; we either walk or take taxis as we tend to drink a lot on vacation.
Most days were filled with either breakfast at the Aquarius restaurant or a big lunch at the Renaissance Island, buckets of Coronas on the island and plenty of fruity rum drinks and appetizers from the Blue Bar to be enjoyed at the pool – what a life. Remember, we have to rack up an average of $280 a day to make the AI worth our money. I kept receipts and tallied them every night; well sometimes I had to do it in the morning when I decided the night before that we needed another rum drink or two or three to make quota for that day.
We ate, played, drank and spent lots of time in the Crystal Casino playing slots and Caribbean Stud Poker. I guess we came out about even gambling wise – but we always say that unless we’ve won big.
We finished our last night in Aruba eating at Que Pasa again and as usual it was a wonderful experience. On our last morning we always go out to the private island on the first launch and are usually the only guests there at that time. We go for a swim on “our private island” and watch the pink flamingos wake up. After about an hour we head back and go to the Paddock for breakfast for a great ham and Gouda cheese omelet. We left for the airport about noon on Sat for a 3:00 flight. Since we had business class seats we were able to check in with Delta in a “short” line. The other lines seemed to go on for ever to include those with the other airlines. Even with the quick check in, it took over an hour to get through everything to the gate area.
We had a wonderful 5th vacation in Aruba and look forward to next year. By the way, we did get our money’s worth for the AI but we really had to work at it. We definitely ate more than we normally would and we drank massively. Don’t think we will do the AI it again.
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