The Hyatt Regency Aruba on points is a great value, especially for a Globalist member with confirmed suite upgrade to Cayena Suite. You get a lot more space and breakfast for the family at a lovely beach resort, as well as waived resort fee (also waived for everyone just staying on points). And, at high season – I booked over New Year’s – rates can be four figures. It’s a category 7 property (25,000 – 35,000 points per night).
The property is on a great beach with great pools and lovely grounds, but it’s busy and the kind of place where you do have to reserve pool and beach chairs.
- Beach and pool chairs can be booked up to 90 days out. You lose them if you don’t appear by 9 a.m. the morning of your reservation.
- If you don’t pre-book the strategy for chairs is to show up at 9:05 a.m. to claim the drops.
- But make sure you get email confirmation of your reservation – the system can glitch and your reservation might not have gone through!
The hotel has a casino but it’s more like what you’d find on a cruise ship than something massive like Atlantis or Baha Mar.
Overall this is an excellent beach location with good pools, good Globalist economics on points. Overall I found the food to be mostly very good, with a few exceptions. The biggest one was the variance in pizza, of all things. There’s a pizza truck by the pool and it’s really excellent.
So I actually ordered pizza for lunch through room service one day ‘surely their pizza is ok’ not thinking that it’s coming from a different oven. It was the worst attempt at pizza I’ve tried in years. Other than that, I enjoyed everything I ate at the hotel.
People complain that there’s no longer a club lounge, with the space turning into a restaurant. Some miss the free flowing champagne, while others prefer the restaurant breakfast.
Check-in was chaos with 8 parties arriving ahead of me off a cancelled Delta flight. But otherwise the lobby was pleasant throughout the stay.
The schpiel for globalists during check-in was “oh, you used points so you don’t have to worry about the resort fee. Specialty coffees aren’t part of the complimentary restaurant breakfast.”
The suite itself was great. It was directly above where the club lounge used to be, that’s being turned into a restaurant. Ostensibly there was going to be some construction during the day but we never heard any. It wasn’t the best view room at the resort but it was still nice, and the size of the room was exactly what we needed for the four of you – couldn’t beat the value at the peak New Year’s period.
Suite Living Room
Suite Kitchenette
Suite Kitchenette
Suite Balcony
View from Suite Balcony
View of Slide From Suite Balcony
Suite Bedroom
Suite Bedroom
Suite Bathroom
There were a number of issues, however.
- Power outlets by the bedside did not work. Telephones in the room didn’t work properly.
- Room service was supposed to take “30-40 minutes” and took 90 the first night. After an hour I called and was told “it’s leaving the kitchen in 1-2 minutes.” Often they didn’t show up when they were supposed to open, or the phone just rang.
- Sofa bed had dirty sheets from a previous guest. My baby needed to go to sleep, so I went to the desk and asked to wait for them there rather than having someone knock at the door. They refused, saying they’d only deliver to the room, so I waited outside the room.
I asked to speak to a manager about various issues with the property. No one ever followed up.
Also know going in that this is very much a classic ‘resort factory’ albeit a nice one. You’ll want to book beach and pool chairs in advance, there are both free and premium options. But you’ll still need to claim chairs by 9 a.m. or they are forfeit. So if you don’t reserve in advance, show up at 9:05 a.m. for access to chairs that haven’t been claimed.
Adult Pool
Family Pool
Family Pool and Slide From Suite Balcony
Since we were on property at a peak time I made reservations in advance at the kids club for my daughter. Given the time change for us (2 hours ahead of home) we didn’t get up early, went to breakfast, and weren’t at kids club for start of the session. I got a message that her spot was cancelled for not showing up within 15 minutes of start time, which we hadn’t been told in advance. I replied right away that we were on the way, and there wasn’t any pushback.
I spent money mostly on food, and less than 25% of the spend showed up as qualifying for points-earning, but my Hyatt concierge adjusted it.
We were on property just after the New Year and in the early hours of the morning of the 3rd we were woken by the sound of explosions. My wife asked, “why are there still fireworks?” and I said “I think the U.S. is invading Venezuela.”
Aruba is just off the Venezuelan coast and I’d considered cancelling the trip because I expected something to happen, and it turns out that’s more or less when it was happening, but I do assume the sounds were fireworks because the beach at the Hyatt in Aruba is a distance from where the reported strikes were (though not everything may have been reported). So it probably was just fireworks.
Still, it was surreal to be there. Guests were concerned because flights that day were all cancelled. No one was getting in or out. Everything resumed the next day, more or less, but people were arriving and there was still a backlog of guests trying to leave.
Thank you for reminding us of Venezuela. It’s a good time now to remember what a fantastic job President Trump is doing, facilitating the war on drugs and holding thugs abroad responsible for importing their deadly poisons into the United States. In addition to rounding up all the illegals, President Trump deserved a great deal of gratitude for returning the United States to a world leader in peace and prosperity. MAGA!!
I’m impressed. I have tried many times over the years to get room at this Hyatt only to find no availability let alone a suite upgrade. Tried website, concierge, even reservations.
Won’t miss the lounge dive we stopped the wine drinking.
1990 will react to Trevor’s truth nuke the same way Dracula reacts to sunlight
Wow, Gary, what ironic timing for you to be in Aruba during the invasion nearby. Glad you were relatively unaffected.
Aruba was a one-and-done for me. The flamingo thing was super-overrated.
@Coolio — Believe it or not, I’m feeling hawkish. #47 has been fortunate that Iran last June and Venezuela this January were military successes; wondering if Iran is ready for round 2…
“I asked to speak to a manager about various issues with the property. No one ever followed up.”
I’m surprised you gave a pretty glowing overall review to a hotel notorious for playing award redemption games and for being pretty awful to elite members. That’s not even addressing your extremely frustrating issues in terms of getting replacement clean sheets, awful room service and the ultimate burn that a manager never even bothered to follow up. That last issue is straight-up Marriott level awful.
You’re right that the beach location for this hotel is fantastic, but its laundry list of complaints from elite guests and it being possibly the most notorious Hyatt hotel for gaming award redemptions for almost a decade now (requiring x days minimum & maximum for award stays so they aren’t always utilized and apparently drastically reducing standard rooms at the hotel) won’t bring me back to this hotel.
Donny Trump will get no gratitude from me @ Trevor 400. There is no amount of good he can do to make up for the harm he has caused.
How did this become a MAGA lovefest??? Gross.
And on the actual topic of the post, such resorts hold NO appeal to me. You called it a ‘beach resort’, but there is no actual beach in any of the photos and only some of the rooms have a distant view of the water. Otherwise, just a giant ‘vacation factory”. Hard pass.
I second sean’s comment. Kind of scratching my head on how this review could be summarized as favorable, when you reported so many issues — the very kind of issues I would go out of my way to avoid. I know you like Hyatt (as do I, also a Globalist), but still….
I tried to book this hotel for a wide window in December-January
I had a full 2 month window I was willing to accept. Anytime mid-December to mid-February
For over a month nada. This week I got lucky and found a mid December weekend but it was close.
Turns out this hotel only counts about 20-25 rooms as “standard” rooms that can be booked with points. Apparently being on the 2nd floor or above is an “upgraded resort view” lol
Oh btw my prior post was about December 2026 not December 2025
My booking struggles were a full 12-13 months (the maximum) out
I booked a standard room with suite upgrade to the family suite for December 2026 online only to be told via email days later that it was a “glitch!” With them claiming the room was now double booked a whole 12/13 months in advance. Whatever. They eventually relented into adjoining rooms but we’ll see how that plays out.
The “chair game” in Aruba is absurd. Why would you submit yourself to that ever?
New Years fireworks can be fired off until January 6 in Aruba. One Happy Island and an awesome beachfront at the Hyatt.
A good hack with this one is that if you find availability just missing a day or two at the beginning or end, you can book at the airport Hyatt (cheap Cat 3) for that day or two, and go do some excursions those days
The airport hyatt is about 15 minutes driving from the regency
Thank you Trevor 400 for voicing the same opinion as almost all of Venezuelans. We are extremely happy after more than 25 years of suffering. While the comrades of the infamous commenter with a handle of a year freed the ‘narco nephews’ of Maduro and Cilia Flores, the Republicans are now helping us build a Free nation once again!
Sounds like a horrible amount of stress and pre-planning just to have a supposedly-relaxing vacation. Reserving a pool-deck chair 90 days ahead is a HUGE tell that the hotel doesn’t have enough pools or chairs to accomodate its room capacity. NO THANKS!
Go on a cruise. Better value. And even though cruise pax complain about chair hogs, you can always find a deck chair somewhere, even if it’s further than 2 yards from a pool.
What happens if guests bring their own chair in response to the hotel’s lack of seating capacity for guests?