TROPICANA-OLDER ROOMS/SECTION
Start with our 362 one-, two- or three-bedroom suites. Each is a private haven of comfort and tranquility, with air conditioning, a complete kitchen, a spacious living room, and a private balcony or patio surrounding the oasis swimming pools. Step outside and take a refreshing dip while sipping your favorite beverages at the swim-up bar. Take the kiddies down the 150-foot water slide or enjoy the plunge by yourself (you know you want to!). Drop by the Bikini’s Bar & Grill for tropical cocktails and live music or try your luck on the slots and table games at the Trop Club & Casino.
High-speed Wi-Fi wireless Internet access is available from the onsite hotspot locations. Free Wi-Fi is available in the lobby , Pool areas, Restaurants and at The Trop Club & Casino. Wi-Fi cards are sold at the Front Desk @ $10.00 for 24 hours continuous access and $35.00 for one week continuous access.
RESORT AMENITIES
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150-Foot Waterslide
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Two Swimming Pools
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Swim-Up Bar
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Children’s Pool
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Two Whirlpools
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Shuffleboard
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Picnic Area
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Barbecue Grills
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Oversized Checkers and Chess Boards
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Internet Stations
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SPA
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Fitness Center
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Water Sport/Tour Desk
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Laundry Facilities
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Beach Tennis Courts
ROOM AMENITIES
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Room Configurations Include:
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In-room Refrigerator
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Microwave
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Easy Access Outlets
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Cable TV
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Coffeemaker, Hair Dryer, Full Length Mirror in Each Room
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Complimentary Wireless High Speed Internet
We vacationed in Aruba as a family of 3: mom, dad and daughter, who is now 9 years old.
This will be our first land vacation in Aruba (and not our last) and second time in Aruba (with the first being this year, in April, by cruise ship).
We booked the Tropicana online, using Airbnb, with a person who owns a bunch of these rooms at the Tropicana. He only owns the "non-renovated" rooms. Online they still looked very nice and we did not plan on spending a lot of time in them so we figured why not.
Booking was fairly simple and he had good communication, answering all of my questions prior to booking. However, after booking, the communication did drop down a notch and I would end up having to email a few times to get a response.
Check-in was a bit of a process, but when smoothly enough...until it was time to get our room. It was after 3pm, which 3pm is check-in time, but they kept telling us that they were not sure our room was ready. How can it not be ready if you have a check-in time of 3pm?
We finally got our tickets and the "go-ahead" to go to our room and off we went. I do do have to admit that Tropicana is not exactly what I had pictured in my mind. It's a little more run down than what I had thought. I know we're staying in one of the older rooms but for those that had told me the pictures for other places on airbnb were deceiving, I think the pictures for this place are a little deceiving as well for the rooms.
I was quite shocked at the condition of these rooms and the pictures look much better online than the actual place we got. There were lines in the tub (cracks) that made it look like hair was in it, the wood for the entertainment stand looked like it had gotten really wet at the bottom and was curling up, the walls were in bad shape, and there was a warped back door that you could see outside from the inside and if someone really wanted in, it wouldn't take much to pull the door the rest of the way out. This also made the door hard to open and close.
We did like that we were on the 1st floor and had a back door to walk out and sit on the patio. However, it was obvious that they did not bother to clean that area up because there were cigarette butts everywhere and several beer caps laying on the patio. Also, we found 2 rusty nail laying by the door.
Once in the room, we put everything away in it's proper place and headed straight for the pool. My daughter is a mermaid…a real mermaid if you ask her. She had been practicing swimming like a mermaid for many years before she got her first mermaid tail and she’s a pro at it (I tried it once and so did my older daughter…it’s not as easy as I looks!). She has quite the collection going on…6 to be exact. She morphed into a mermaid and she didn’t turn back into a human until hours later. She did manage to get her first boo-boo this vacation…rubbed her knee on the concrete bottom of the pool. Ouch! She was a bloody mess for awhile and it took a nice chunk of skin out. The following pictures are a compilation of pictures during the 10 days we were there.
The pools are really huge and really nice. There are 2 of them. One has a swim up bar and shallow end for the "littles" and it also has a water slide. The other pool is a little smaller and it has a waterfall, which is really cool. We enjoyed our time at both pools the entire time.
There is a Superfoods Grocery store directy across the street from Tropicana. We decided prior to coming to Aruba that we would load up on food to make for breakfast and also grab snacks and lunch meat for our day trips to the beach. This would save on some money during our trip.
We were true tourist, who only speaks English, in a store with multiple languages printed on the food packaging. It was quite hilarious. I ended up with “snacks” in every ham flavor there was. I didn’t really realize they WERE ham flavored. I don’t like ham (I’m weird) and that first bite…ooohhhh weeeee. Nope! Not for me. Do Arubans love ham…like a lot?
I also decided to make dinner that night. Noodles and pasta sauce was on the menu. However...it took 1 hour and 10 minutes for the water to even boil on the cooktop. Ugh! Another thing I noticed was the refrigerator did not feel cold at all. I was really worried that our groceries would go bad. I turned it all the way up and hoped for the best. (It took about 2 full days for our pop/soda to get cold enough to drink it without having to add ice.)
The bathroom: I did notice that it looked like there were hairs in the tub and it wasn't cleaned. However, upon trying to spray it down and it not moving, I would discover they were actually crack in the tub instead of hairs. Another problem with the shower was there was next to no water pressure. Like barely any at all. Both my daughter and I have really long hair and I just knew washing it was going to become an issue. I did notice some type of weird looking white substance in the bathroom sink, but it quickly washed away with water.
It the kitchen, we were told that there is usually a dishwasher and also a washer and dryer in the older units. I had brought detergent for the dishwasher and also lanudry detergent. However, the unit didn't have either.
In the living room, there is a couch that pulls out into a bed. However, this particular one is SO THIN that I once sat on it and almost went through it...my ankle/leg did and it got hurt on the bar. Thank goodness that it was my young daughter sleeping on it and not an adult. The mattress and the couch was very dingy and filthy looking with stains and the sheets and blankets also had a few stains.
Then when it was time for bed...I noticed...my husband and I had separate beds. They were 2 double beds instead of a king, like I had asked multiple times with the guy we rented for and he said he would put it in the system for us.
The resort really pushes trying to get you to buy a time share there. They would stop my husband on every trip to Dunkin Donuts in the morning and they would start calling our room around 7-8am. I'm on vacation...I want to SLEEP IN!! I ended up having to unplug our phones (there's 2 of them) just to get some rest. It was rediculous.
Then comes the reason why we seen a white substance in our bathroom sink the first day. We would come home for the night and the first thing I usually do is take a shower before bed. Well, this is what the bathroom sink and tub looked like. It got worse and worse as the week went on. I would spend 1-2 hours trying to get all the soap suds out...remember, there was no water pressure in the shower and it took forever to wash it down.
When I seen that these bubbles and filth was all over my hairbrush, toothbrush, medications, hair ties, and inside my blow drier...that was it! The bubbles were all over the floor as well. There was nasty black stuff and scum in it.
I had had enough and went down to the front desk. I told them what was going on and showed them pictures of the bubbles all over everything. The front desk said that they would call maintenance and they would be there within 15 minutes. They IMMEDIATELY knew what was wrong and said it happens all the time and is a well known issue. I waited 1 hour 25 minutes and went back down when they didn't show up. Then they said it was an issue with the drainage in the rooms above us and their soap from taking a shower was draining into my shower!! They said they would not need to come to my place to fix it. I informed them SOMEONE was coming to my place to clean up the mess because I was not doing it again another night. I had been doing it EVERY night since we had the place and since there's NO water pressure in the bathroom it took about an hour a night to clean it up...which consisted of using a bowl from the kitchen and scooping it up over and over until it was gone (little did I know I was scooping up dirty bathwater from other people!!). They said no housekeeping until the following day. Once again, someone is going to come clean my shower and sink TONIGHT! They called maintenance who also informed me that it was not only shower water from above but also people doing their laundry!! So now I have dirty clothes water/bubbles AND dirty people water in my tub! I had a long day at the beach, I'm hot and sticky and need a shower....NOW! I am not a complainer (obviously since I hadn't complained up until this point and we had been there 5 days already) but this was my breaking point. I had had enough!
They offered to move us to another room, which happened to be in the newer section, until the end of our stay (we stayed a total of 10 days). We were told we could move some of our things that night and finish moving the rest the following day since it's "basically your place that day too". I wanted to make sure that housekeeping didn't come in that following morning (we moved and were putting things away at the new place until 3am and decided to sleep in the following day and were tired) that I dead-bolted the door AND put the chain on and went out the back door so that no one would come in until we got everything out...guess what!?! When I returned the next day, they had already gotten in, stripped the beds and couch with the linens on the floor and table, threw away the food left there, and were going through the room!!! So much for having another day to move and get everything out!
The grounds at the Tropicana are pretty and there were a lot of the blue lizards and iguanas wondering around the property. You will also see birds, frogs and even snails roaming around.
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We tried Pizza Bob's the night before we left and it was good (pricey) and we also went to the casino on the premises to eat breakfast one day and it was very nice there and the food was excellent. We also went to Dunkin Donuts on the premises for donuts, coffee, and bagel sandwiches. They were ok, but very expensive. They do have grills that you can use, but you need to sign up for them ahead of time to use. There's games to play (such as chess and shuffleboard) on the grounds as well.
Parking seems to be an issue and if you are not someone who stays at the hotel early in the evening, you may come back to no parking spaces and have to park really far away!
I doubt that I would ever stay at this location again and definitely never in the older section! It's not even directly located on the beach. You do get a free "chair and umbrella" on Eagle beach to use but they are placed so far from the actual water it's impossible for those with younger children to use them and be able to watch them around the water. :( If you do stay here, either stay in the newer remodeled section or if staying in the older section NEVER EVER take one on the 1st floor.
If you are interested in reading about the newer rooms that are in the remodeled section, you can check out my review of it (after they moved us from this room) and it's located here ....