Divi Mega AI

30th Anniversary, Jan 16 - Jan 21, 2005 by Old Mike

USAIR direct flights from Philly great both ways.
Arrived Aruba airport on Sunday about 3:00 quickly got through customs, the lines were not too bad.
De Palm bus to Divi pretty quick and nice. Arrived Divi, sun is of course out, quick check-in and drinks and up to the room.
Vista I building paid for ocean view and that is what we got, room 218 and 216 for our friends. Nice rooms good view, no smell, perhaps a bug or two they get under the door. These were right on the ocean end of the building,10 steps to the beach. Actually no real need to have ocean view room did not sit on the porch even once, was always on the beach. Had a problem with the slider, lock was broken and no stick to lock it. It was fixed the next day. Maid service was good.

Drinks good, Balashi is great, bartenders pretty good, Eric is exceptional, never really had to wait long for a drink at any time and I was averaging at least 2 and hour for the week. Food- The buffet food is buffet food, but overall quite good, breakfast anything you could want except for chipped beef which I love. Dinners always a 5-6 different kinds of meats plus some fish. Coffee good. Weather- Sunday,Monday,Tuesday, mostly clear and hot, Wed and Thur some clouds but still hot.

Fri clear hot, beach great, nice and flat some waves, the beaches up by the Bucuti are quite different there is a sharp drop off from the beach to the water and more wave action.
On Wed we saw a once or twice a year event. Huge waves hitting the Bucuti beach 6-8 footers and the surfers were out, we talked to locals and were told that this is exceptional for this side of the island.

Divi at night good music after the shows lots of dancing and lots of laughs with some people that were really ripped. Entertainment interesting some good some not so good but the Salsa dancers on Tuesday night were great. The crowd at the hotel was mixed with lots of older folks many older than us, I am 56, but there were sufficient 20-30's to keep us entertained. For some reason liked Divi better than Tam even though it has all new lobby.

The restaurants at the Divi and the Tam are just OK. We only went out one night to El Goucho food good large portions.
De Palm Island good snorkeling, worth 50 a person? Spent the rest of the time on the beach, and floating in the water.
Took many walks up past the Bucuti and yes you will see a few topless ladies along the way.
We never found the service slow at any time or anywhere we went whether it was just for drinks, getting dinner or even the bill.
The Divi I don't think has quite enough huts but we were always up early and got one. Aruba is clean and the people quite friendly, the girls went shopping for gems one day and thought they got good buys. Great trip would go back in a minute. Liked the all inclusive, especially since you can eat when you want to. After drinking all day and getting a lot of sun, going out into town for dinner was a chore at least at my age, and I love to go out to dinner.

SPF 30 might be too strong I have less tan than I would like to have, never did get burned but we all were careful.
Again Thanks to the many people on Aruba Forum for providing good info for our trip.

Old Mike in Philly