Occidental Grand Aruba |
Address:
Palm Beach, Aruba
Tel: ( 297 ) 864 500
Fax: ( 297 ) 863 191
Email: gmite@arcmiami.allegroresorts.com
URL: Occidental Grand Aruba
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Type of Property: All Inclusive
Beach Location: Beach Front (Directly on Beach/Water Front)
Island: Aruba
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 CheapCaribbean.com Reservations - Aruba Resort Deals
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Summary of All Property Reviews for: Occidental Grand Aruba
Ratings based on answers from a total of 1 reviews
10 is best 1 is worst |
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| Feature |
Ranking |
Feature |
Ranking |
| Cleanliness of Property |
3.00 |
Quality of Property |
7.00 |
| Privacy & Quietness |
0.00 |
Quality of Service |
2.00 |
| Courtesy & Hospitality of Staff |
2.00 |
Accuracy of Website (marketing hype) VS. Actual Experience |
2.00 |
| Food and Dining Experience |
5.00 |
Price/Value of Property |
2.00 |
| Safety Factor (Did you feel safe at property) |
9.00 |
Quality of Beach (ranked closest beach if property is located off the beach) |
6.00 |
| Total Property Score: 3.80 out of 10 | Average Star Rating: 2.00 out of 5 |
- 0% (0 visitors of 1) said they would go back to Occidental Grand Aruba again.
- 0% (0 visitors of 1) said they would recommend Occidental Grand Aruba to friends.
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LAST MINUTE OFFERS from CheapCaribbean.com: View All Island Deals
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$619.00
Book by: Jul 07, 2009
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$919.00
Book by: Jul 09, 2009
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$779.00
Book by: Jul 09, 2009
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$729.00
Book by: Jul 09, 2009
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$789.00
Book by: Jul 05, 2009
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$699.00
Book by: Jul 09, 2009
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Start of Individual Reviews: Receive Review Updates Via Email
Read before you book!
By: Anonymous from New Jersey
Date of Visit: June 2008
My family hosted a wedding at the occidental. I am a seasoned traveler and was GREATLY disappointed with this all-inclusive. The food was ok, the property lovely and nicely maintained. However, the attitude of the management was awful. We booked an ocean view room yet received only a partial ocean view (you actually had to go out on the balconey and turn to see the ocean). When we complained we were told the manager would call. We called everyday and never received a return phone call. Once, when I called at 9:00 am, I was told "the manager is sleeping".
This happened repeatedly to our family. An easily addressed issue (ex: a safe malfunctioning) would turn into a knock down drag out fight with no resolution.
One of our family memebers did not have their room cleaned for 5 days even though they repeatedly called both the front desk and housekeeping regarding the matter.
I would never recommend this hotel.
To read FULL REVIEW click here: Property and Destination Rankings
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Bad Bad Bad Beware
By: Brian Schlagel / bschlagel from Wisconsin
Date of Visit: August 2006
Date Of Stay- Aug. 26th through Sept.2 2006
History- Bought timeshare in 2001, Mandatory All Inclusive.
I would like to begin this review saying that we are Midwestern (Wisconsin) residents who frankly do not need or want to many frills. We just want what we pay for and do understand that any business can have a bad day or you can have a bad experience on any given day at any hotel or resort. My wife and I both travel for work and have eaten at many fine restaurants for business; from the Four Seasons in Paris France to some of the top exclusive restaurants in Greece. We know what a 5 star restaurant is and we know what good down home cooking is. We have been around as they say. With this in mind I will try to be fair in our review of our trip and the Occidental.
This was our 4th time to Aruba in 4 years. We had my mother in law with us and I wanted this trip to be very nice as she had never been there.
We flew United out of Chicago. It was a good flight and on time. I had e-mailed our taxi driver and he was waiting for us when we arrived. He is a nice man and provides very good service and is also very knowledgeable about the Island.
We arrived at the Allegro and I was really looking forward to the glass of champagne that we were supposed to receive. Not that I needed champagne just that I thought it would be a nice touch. It never happened and I was told later that the bellhop couldn’t serve everyone as he also is delivering luggage. Do you not think that they would maybe have things a little better organized than this? I though so but I let it go.
We waited in line to check-in, as there was no special area for vacation club members to go to as we have been told there would be. As we approached the counter we gave our name and he pulled our paper work. On top of the paper work highlighted in Yellow were the words mandatory all-inclusive. This was no surprise, as we knew it. The person checking us in then asked if we were going to buy all-inclusive?? I said do we have to? He said no and that we could do just the drink package for 45 and if we decided to eat at the resort pay for a meal ticket and go to a restaurant. I said sure- I would do the drink package for myself my wife and my mother in law who was staying in our banked unit from the previous year. He took our credit card and ran it through. We signed it and we were ready to get our wristband. The guy goes into the back office to find out what color wristband we get and comes out with Myrna. She is the rep from the vacation club. She is probably the hardest working, most concerned individual that works there. She should be running that place- it would defiantly be better. Anyway- she in forms us that we have to buy all-inclusive as per our contract and I said no problem. So they run our credit cards through for the balance and we receive our black wristband.
The bellman was standing near patiently with our luggage and now is gone and our luggage is sitting there on the cart. I ask another guy there if he will bring it up and he says Nick will when he returns so we head off to our unit. We go to the unit my mother in law is staying and I want to show her how every thing is all inclusive now and that her fridge will be full and there will be a liquor cabinet on the wall. We get inside and the liquor cabinet is empty and so is the fridge. I tell her I will call and we head for our room. We get inside and we have liquor and inside our fridge we have 2 cans of Pepsi, Balashi, Diet Pepsi and Seven-Up. Also 2 bottles of water. I thought I will have to call to have them fill it up later. I am paying all-inclusive and should have what I want where I want it I thought. (I did end up calling numerous times for this and they never got filled. I don’t know why but they only stock what we got. 2 cans and bottles of each. This is a rip-off- how can they charge you all inclusive and limit you?) Also, my mother-in-law never got water until the third day, when finally, after she had called down twice, I went to the front desk and demanded it. The ice machines weren’t working either – until Wednesday when they finally stocked the coolers with little bags of ice.
We were told upon check-in that we could make dinner reservations for 4 nights, but had to wait until 9:00 a.m. the next day. When I went down to make reservations, I found out that certain restaurants are closed on certain nights, and tried to make a reservation at each of the 4 specialty restaurants: Mexican, asian (Zen), Italian (L’Olio) and Desire (steak and seafood). The first night we ate at the buffet and the buffet is a buffet. It is the same thing just about every day and night the food was the same. They do use the food over and over and over. Mexican scrambled eggs are the previous days scrambled eggs bacon sausage and peppers mushrooms etc from the omlet station. Not 5 star or even close in my books but we ate it. It was good the first couple of days but to be truthful it got old after 2 days.
Sunday night we ate at the Zen which was the Japanese specialty. They seat you around a hibachi table (7 people) and the chef does his thing. We had the three of us and another couple married for 50 years. They were very nice. The show the chef puts on is very nice but I wish the food was just as good. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t spectacular. They charge 70.00 for this per person if you didn’t have all inclusive and I don’t think it is worth it.. The food was very similar to what we would get at a Japanese buffet here in Wisconsin for 11.99.
During the day my wife lounged by the pool and I walked around and visited some casino’s. Made some and lost some. I also walked around our resort being nosy. There are a lot of things not finished and some things missing such as some glass doors missing, painting not done etc. I also spoke with some staff I hadn’t seen in two years, How can I say it – they are down in the dumps. The place lacks fun now. I am not going to mention names but they told me that all they hear are complaints. People are pissed off. I thought maybe it was just us Americans- but I spoke with people from England, Spain etc who could not believe the place. Most everyone I spoke with who did not own a timeshare said they would not return and regretted being there. The people with a timeshare want out or changes made- especially to the all-inclusive part.
We also ate at the L’Olio’s on Thursday night. The service was very good. Our waiter was from Colombia- very nice guy – worked hard and deserved a tip which we left. The bread was very good, the salad was good but when it comes to the main course it sucks. It is bland and lacks something- when you are done eating it seems like you just left a fast food Italian place. It’s hard to describe but it all just lacks any spark. After this meal, we decided to cancel our reservation at Desires and went downtown to eat Iguana Joes (see below) instead.
Wednesday night they had a Managers party or something to that effect. They never told anyone we found out walking by. It was a nice gesture, I met the Hotel General Manager Miguel Eugene. We spoke a little but I will tell you right now. They do what they want and no matter what we as guests or as timeshare owners say they are not budging. It is like they cannot see there hand in front of their face. Of course Carlos Pancheco was there. Talking to him is like talking to a wall. All he does is talk around things. His answer to everything was to upgrade. More money yada yada yada. I also work in sales and I hope to God I don’t sound like him. We were told that the reason the dress code was put in place was to preserve furniture and because the A/C was cold. Gimme a break. Then the General Manager stepped in to say it was to create ambience. Aruba has a great ambiance already and it doesn’t need Occidental trying to refine it.
There was just a sense of uneasiness while we were there. I think it was coming from the staff. I really feel for the workers. Not the people in white shirts but the workers. They are not happy- I think you had to be there before Occidental to understand.
We had some great meals but unfortunately they were all off the resort. We ate at Texas De Brazil. I love it there – although a bit pricey- 170.00 for 3, we had deserts and drinks we didn’t have to have but the food and salad bar are great. We also ate at Iquana Joe’s downtown. I had a native Aruban dish called keshi yena. It is chicken and gouda cheese. It was so good. The best. The lethal Lizards are also great.
All in all it was a great time. It is just sad that the Occidental didn’t contribute to it other than the friendly staff I mentioned earlier.
I told Carlos Pancheco that the best compliment anyone can give a business is to recommend them to family friends or fellow travelers. I cannot honestly do this. There are much better places to stay than the Occidental such as Radisson or the Wyndham I believe.
There are people that have posted negative reviews and I thought boy- how can things be that bad. I have now rethought my position and yes they are. The worst ripoff the Occidental is doing is the all inclusive. It just doesn’t seem to sink into these people that they are making a bad situation worse by making people eat substandard food at a resort that is going through growing pains. I, like a lot of others regret being at this resort now where before we loved it.
Things they could do:
Do not require all inclusive
Do not force people to wait in line to make reservations for restaurants that they leave dissatisfied
If you want to call it 5 star then provide 5 star amenities- such as ice and a stocked fridge
In Aruba formal wear is not the norm but an exception- change the policy
Lighten up- we want fun not a morgue
One last thing, we went to Radisson to gamble a little, and the general manager of the casino approached us because he saw our wristbands. He asked how the Occidental was doing and at first we just said “okay”. He then stated he had lived in New York for the past several years and after chatting with him a bit we wanted to tell him the truth. We were very honest about our likes and dislikes. He just shook his head, and told us that the past 11 people that he has spoken with that were staying at the Occidental had the very same problems and were also very dissatisfied. His exact words were “the Occidental is in trouble”. He said it is well known all around the island and he felt really bad for the timeshare owners.
We also had the same experience with our cab driver. When he picked us up at the airport he didn’t want to say anything before we had the chance to experience it ourselves, but when he picked us up on Saturday to take us to the airport, and we told him how we felt, he said it is so well known that people are very unhappy about the changes at the resort.
This reviewer did not enter property or destination rankings.
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