Trip Report - 2 Weeks at Divi Village

[arubanewbie]

Trip Report Divi Village 6/2/12 – 6/16/12

6/2 Arrived to Paradise with Husband, Kids (ages 9 & 7) and my mom (only stayed the first week). We own a timeshare at the links, and loved our stay there…no major complaints except that they charge WAY too much for wi-fi and there is a charge per device used (they should be ashamed of themselves for that). We stayed in Birdie 9 near the infinity pool. Had dinner at Pizza Bobs (loved it) after the long flight from Indianapolis (layover in Atlanta). The wind was stronger than usual we noticed, but certainly didn’t complain about that!

6/3 Breakfast Buffett at Sea Breeze at the resort. Good breakfast, nice selection, omelets made to order. Reasonably priced. Enjoyed the Pool, Beach, & Flea Market. Grocery shopped at Super Foods, which I love (walked to/from…no problems….good exercise). Capped off the night at Matthews for happy hour 2 for 1 ☺

6/4 Beach and Pool day. Kids saw a topless sunbather on the beach…they were very disturbed by it. Took a cab downtown and did some shopping with my mom, then took her to dinner at Madam Janettes (IMO best food on island) for her 60th birthday! Weather was great and winds calmer.

6/5 ABC Jeep Tour – All Day. Great Tour, I highly recommend it. Kids loved it but were EXHAUSTED when we got home! Got some pizza to go from Little Ceasers and called it a great day!

6/6 For my 37th Birthday we went on the Jolly Pirates morning snorkel tour and had a blast! Water was very rough at the shipwreck site and kids could not snorkel but the other 2 sites were much calmer. The rope swing was thoroughly enjoyed by all, even my 60yo mother! I happily stayed on deck to take pictures of all the madness☺ For dinner we went to the Buccaneer. We got there at 5, and realized they did not open until 5:30, but they happily let the kids walk around the restaurant to look at the fish while we were waiting for them to open. One of the chefs came out and told the boys to follow him to the kitchen where he then sliced some raw fish for the boys to feed the sea turtle they have. How awesome was that?? A+ in my book! After dinner we walked around the high rise then headed home.

6/7 Climbed the 30ft rock wall on the beach, way harder than I thought. Enjoyed the pool, hit the shops near the Alahambra, went to the beach for a PM swim, then had dinner and drinks at Mulligans. In the evening you can see HUGE bull frogs on the golf course while seated in Mulligans.

6/8 10th Wedding Anniversary. Had a replica wedding cake delivered to our room to surprise the husband. The cake looked gorgeous! I wasn’t over the moon about the taste of it, it was kinda dry, but I was thrilled that it looked so pretty! Hit the grocery store for more food, got a free Euro soccer shirt for spending more than 50AWG, hung out at the pool most of the day. Went to dinner at Aqua Grill. Nice atmosphere, but the food was average at best. We were pretty bummed to spend so much for average food, but we had a nice night.

6/9 Mom left, took bus downtown, took the kids to the free museum, it was really nice, but kids were bored, but gotta love it being free. Had gelato at Lecca Lecca, it was awesome. Hit the Beach & Pool and watched the soccer game vs Denmark.

6/10 Took cab to Hooiberg and climbed all 561 steps in 7 min 26 seconds. Calves were sore for about 2 days after that (and we are pretty fit people). Kids climbed it with ease, I was so proud of them! Had lunch at taco bell, kids were mad they didn’t have the Dorito tacos, then we went to the Donkey Sanctuary. We just rented a cab for 2 hours to get us around. $45/hr. Plus we bought him a taco! ☺

6/11 Went to the shops near super foods where the kids and husband discovered Mings Video Game store. A lot of money was spent there. It’s a gamers haven. Hung at the beach hoping the turtles would hatch.

6/12 Super overcast and cloudy all day. Husband did the putting tournament at the links and got 2nd and won a nice goodie bag with a polo. Went to the beach to watch the sunset, which was always beautiful. Still waiting for the turtles, Had subway and little ceasers for dinner.

6/13 Cruddy weather again. BOO! Husband did golf scramble and got 2nd again. No prize this time…lame. Another soccer game, and spent time by the pool despite the clouds.

6/14 Pool, Lunch at Mulligans Euro2012 deal make your own pizza for $9.75, great deal and their pizza is delicious! Turtle watch was at the beach around 6pm and said the eggs had hatched the night before at 8:50pm….darn we missed it. They were going to dig up to see exactly how many eggs hatched so we stayed to watch, how cool! Then suddenly they pulled a little turtle out of the sand! He hadn’t made it out on his own. So we were able to watch him get sent off to the sea. It was so awesome, of course my fancy nice camera was in my room, so I was stuck taking pictures on my crappy camera! The weather was great and it was an awesome day!

6/15 Lots of pool time, hubby did another golf scramble and this time he won! Prize was $25 coupon to pro shop, so we bought my son a polo. We had the build your own pizza special again for lunch at mulligans, and went for a night stroll on the beach.

6/16 The dreaded travel day! Left resort at 9am, airport was smooth sailing and FAST! Last year it was so crowded, but this year piece of cake. Flight didn’t leave Aruba until 1:15 then we arrived in Orlando. From Orlando to Atlanta then from Atlanta to Indy. Got home at 1am. What a long day!! I will never again book more than 1 layover!

Can’t wait until next year!

[Andrea J.]

thanks for posting your adventures!!
good idea of hiring the cab for a couple of hrs!!!

my son when he was young.....age 11 ish, was not disturbed by the site of topless. and back then in the late 90s there were numerous topless on the beaches. now, not so much!

he spent much time gawking and i was horrified by his lecherous behavior at such a young age.

topless in aruba is against the law on public beaches.

it IS obscene that the prices are so high for wifi access.

thanks for your great blog.

[Arubalisa]

Thanks for taking the time to write the review.

Internet is $50 per week correct? We will be needing it in a few weeks, but for dh work is work

[hatteras]

Sounds like you had a great trip. We have stayed at Divi Village several times and always enjoy it. We've never seen any topless women at Druif, but always see them at the beach at Manchebo when we stay there.

[hatteras]

Thanks for taking the time to write the review.

Internet is $50 per week correct? We will be needing it in a few weeks, but for dh work is work

I have used wifi aruba on the last several trips. It costs $35.00 for one week or $70.00 for a month.

[Andrea J.]

I think divi charges higher and they do not use setar

[hatteras]

I think divi charges higher and they do not use setar

Does that mean wifi aruba doesn't work there? Maybe that's why I couldn't connect to it when we spent the weekend at Divi last Feb. It worked fine at Paradise Beach Villas and Costa Linda, during the same trip.

[Andrea J.]

i do not think setar wifi works there.
divi village/golf, tamarijn and dutch and divi all inclusive (i do not know about the phoenix) has some internet service other than setar.
when we were in aruba in may, i was buying minutes for my aruba cell phone. another customer at the kiosk was in the process of buying $70 setar wifi card and happened to mention to the sales person that she was staying at the tamarijn and would be using the wifi there. the sales person told her that the tamarijn and the other nearby divi properties were not on setar wifi and............. did not sell her the internet card.

divi have their own internet provider?

Does that mean wifi aruba doesn't work there? Maybe that's why I couldn't connect to it when we spent the weekend at Divi last Feb. It worked fine at Paradise Beach Villas and Costa Linda, during the same trip.

[arubanewbie]

We saw 2 women topless every day we were at the beach. They were in front of the Tam.

It is $50 per week and I bought it the first week so we could watch Netflix. Then I realized when I was logged on my ipad no one else in my family could login on their devices. We called the front desk to trouble shoot and were told that only one device could be used at a time! It was the most ridiculous thing we ever heard. So we went off the grid for week 2 just on the principle that we weren't going to let them rip us off!

[Arubalisa]

Dh does not recall who the provider is, but it is not Setar

http://www.arubabound.com/photos/htl...s_wireless.jpg