This review is based on our April 2003 stay at the Marriott Ocean Club during Spring Break with two adults, seven children in a two bedroom villa at $450 per night booked last minute on Expedia.com. The property was at 100% occupancy.

Marriott's Aruba Ocean Club is part of the Marriott Vacation Club collection. Accordingly, it is a combination of timeshare property and hotel. The Ocean Club is directly adjacent to the the Marriott Resort and Stellaris Casino with outdoor covered access between. Construction of the Surf Club, another Marriott timeshare property on the other side of the Ocean Club, is on-going through 2004. The combination of the three properties will bring the total number of rooms that Marriott offers on Palm Beach to 1154. That is a lot of rooms and a lot of resort.

The Marriott Resort and Stellaris Casino are the parts of property which AAA has awarded 4-stars. That is not to say that the Ocean Club is not very well done, but it is worth noting that it is a small step below in the luxury department and a notch up in functionality. The Marriott Resort has the grand lobby, restaurants, lush gardens, and thickly-padded pool chairs that you would expect from a 4-star resort. Marriott's Ocean Club is brighter, more neutral in color scheme, and more functionally appointed.

Having been to Aruba before and having scoped out all of the properties along Palm Beach, we selected Ocean Club specifically for the "villa" aspect of it. Villa means suite with full kitchen that sleeps two on the king size bed in the master bedroom, two on the pullout couch in the living room, with optional connecting room that sleeps two on the queen and two on another pullout couch. The living room of each villa has a 35" TV with VCR and each of the bedrooms has 21" television with satellite, including ABC, NBC, Fox, ESPN and Disney. The kitchen is equipped with service for eight, full refrigerator, dishwasher, stove, oven and microwave. The kitchen and dining area has seating for three at the counter and for six at the round table. The master bedroom has a jacuzzi bath in the bedroom proper and shower in the bathroom. The other bedroom has shower only. Overall the furnishings of the room are very functional and neutral, if not luxurious. The entry, kitchen, living room and bathroom floors are white tile, and the bedrooms are tight weave green carpet. Sensible for a resort environment with lots of sand and water.

The property is a U-shape, with views of the garden and pool area from all rooms on the inside of the U and views of the outside gardens and adjacent properties on the outside of the U. Due to the on-going construction of the Surf Club property next door, one-fourth of the rooms face a large-scale construction project with attendant noise. We booked through Expedia.com and were on the inside of the U with beautiful view of the gardens. My wife talked to another, less satisfied family that were actually Vacation Club members and had a room facing the construction with a promise to get a room inside the U in the next few days.

In the same way that the rooms are a combination of functionality and near-luxury, the rest of the property carries that theme. The lobby is done in neutral colors with a couple of couches, two Surf.net Internet terminals and concierge. The major part of the lobby is dedicated to Vacation Club marketing. You get a free gift for stopping by the marketing desk: two bottles of Aruba-made lotion with aloe if you just stop by and two Ocean Club white towels if you attend the presentation. We opted for the lotion.

The garden and pool area include a meandering swimming pool with waterfalls that come from a rock wall, atop which is perched a hot tub area. The pool is somewhat cooler than other pools on Palm Beach, almost too cool for long periods of just soaking. When it rained (it rains periodically in Aruba in April) our kids made a beeline for the hot tub.

The beach area is another strong aspect of the Ocean Club. It has one of the widest ocean-to-garden beaches on Palm Beach. Palapas (round thatch umbrellas) are essential to protect kids from the strong Aruba sun. Ocean Club's palapas are far enough apart to allow plenty of room for beach chairs. They are available on a first come first serve basis and cannot be reserved (although a prime beachfront palapa was standing empty and, when my wife asked if it were available, she was told by the towel hut attendant that someone had put down $100 for it and they could not give it away even though the people didn't show up -- go figure) and are secured by lining up at the towel hut. The line forms well before the towel hut opens at 7:00am. The attendant said that during Christmas the line starts forming at 4:00am. By 8:30am the huts are pretty much gone, towels are spread out on beach and chairs, and everyone has gone back upstairs to catch more sleep or eat breakfast.

The sand on the beach is fine white coral sand. The water is beautiful, warm turquoise blue, and perfect for swimming and soaking. Palm Beach has no waves to speak of. The only downside of the water is that the swimming area is relatively limited due to watercraft on all sides. The area is secured by a rope with floats. The new property next door, Marriott's Surf Club, has a small dock area in front of it that the local fisherman use. The queen of the Netherlands has made the marina area public, and Marriott is apparently having a hard time getting it moved. When the Surf Club opens, it is anyone's guess where they will put the palapas to accommodate 430 additional rooms.

The restaurant selection is good, but quite expensive, which is why the villa kitchens are such an asset. The supermarkets are expensive as well, but for a large family the savings are significant. We supplemented cooking in the villa with breakfast at La Vista Restaurant at the Marriott Resort which serves American buffet breakfast until noon ($15 adults and $7.50 children) and lunch at the Pavilion Restaurant on the beach which has great wraps, club sandwiches and fries. A pizzeria is located between the Marriott Resort and Ocean Club.

Checkout is 10am on day of departure, with no exceptions during busy periods. If you have a later flight, Ocean Club stores your luggage and lets you shower and change at the Fitness Center. The Fitness Center, by the way, is good, offering a combination of Star Trac, Hoist and Life Fitness equipment. As with the rest of the resort (and Aruba in general), the staff is very friendly.

Marriott's Ocean Club is the best thing going for large families on Aruba. If we were going to build the perfect family resort using key elements of all that is available today on Palm Beach, it would include the following: villas from the Marriott Ocean Club, beach from the Marriott Ocean Club, pool chairs and La Vista Restaurant from Marriott resort, swimming pool from the Radisson (by far the best pool because of integration of sand and pool), water slide and palapas from the Hyatt, and ocean from the Wyndham (they have the largest ocean swimming area and a platform for the kids to swim to, climb on and dive from). Absent that perfect combination, Ocean Club is the place to stay.

Recommended: Yes