22th Trip to Aruba - Amsterdam Manor Beach Resort

September 25 – October 5, 2010 by ~Amy~®

Aruba Forum Profile: ~Amy~®

This had to be one of the more interesting Aruba trips I’ve ever had because of the weather. You’ll notice that a lot of the photos this time were taken INDOORS. LOL!!
This was a just a girls trip to relax and have fun so it really didn’t matter about the weather…we were in Aruba having fun!

Arrival

Flight on Delta was uneventful and I arrived into Aruba right at 2pm. My luggage was about the 4th bag out so I grabbed it and headed out to find the Payless car rental guy. Found him outside with a sign with my name on it, they took me to their office, I signed the papers, and off I drove in a Toyota Corolla (they gave me a free upgrade from a Yaris – it was nice to have electric locks and windows for a change.)

It looked like it had just rained when I got there - everything was WET! I was driving into downtown around 2:30 and encountered my first "river". Had to drive very slow through downtown because the main street was flooded and the water really was flowing like a small stream. I had the AC on in the car but had my window down about an inch or two just to get some fresh air. Everyone was driving so slow because of the water except....one car flew by me on the other side of the road, and yep, got an earful of water on my face through the open window. LOL!
I just sat in the car and laughed thinking "this is going to be an interesting trip". LOL!

Drove to Kong Hing and had to drive through a couple of "lakes" to get there. Pretty deep in some spots but as long as you went slow it was okay.

Amsterdam Manor

Arrived at Amsterdam Manor a little before 4pm and checked in. They now offer you a welcome drink of either fruit or rum punch while you check in – the rum punch was exactly what I needed after driving through "rivers" and "lakes".

We booked our usual 2 bedroom/2 bath at Amsterdam Manor which is perfect for 3 girls. Lots of room with a full kitchen, living room, and huge balcony. I walked into the room and there was another "oasis"...a bucket of Brights on ice....and.....6 Bright bottle koozies! I had forgotten all about those but I asked a couple of people at Amsterdam Manor if they could get me a couple and they remembered. I love the staff here!

Brought a Netbook with me and was able to sign onto the free WiFi within minutes. Just left it "on" sitting on the dining room table the entire time we were there so we could check email, Facebook, etc. at any time. Very handy.

My friends weren’t arriving for a couple of days so I had some free time to myself. I also had another friend (SueW) staying at the Bucuti who extended her trip at the last minute which was great! So she and I were out and about the first few nights for dinner together.

Weather

Well, the weather was not like my last 21 trips to Aruba. Had some rain…had some mosquitoes. Some days it only rained for a couple of hours so we could salvage the day for some beach time. We had a few good "all day" beach days and we had some days of overcast skies all day. You never really knew what the day was going to bring so there always needed to be a Plan B and a Plan C, just in case. One night I woke up at about 3am to a hellacious thunderstorm – looked out the windows on the doors to the balcony and it was like a monsoon out there. I had to stuff some towels under the door because the water was trickling in since it was coming down so hard. Never a dull moment with the weather. One afternoon we were sitting at the Bugaloe Bar and could see a waterspout off in the distance – very cool looking. There were also days when we were out and about and had to slosh/wade through water to get from point A to point B – flip flops came in handy (rubber boots would have been better!)

Beach

Eagle Beach at Amsterdam Manor was beautiful as always. Because of the rain, some mornings there would be a little seaweed along the shore line but the hotel would always have it cleaned up pretty fast. Also had a couple of days with some fun waves which we usually don’t get at Amsterdam Manor (usually the water is calm enough to use a floatie.) Had a great time getting "tossed" in the waves and just laughing at ourselves.

Also like the fact that Passions Beach Bar now stays open late at night. There were a few nights after dinner out where we’d walk over to the beach bar and have a couple of glasses of wine around 11pm before going to bed. Nice and relaxing out there.

Bulletin Board Party

I only made it to one Bulletin Board party this year because I overslept during the second one (I chalk that up to staying out too late every night – just not used to that anymore.) Had a great time at the party I did make it to. Was happy to see Karen again (gave her a framed photo of her and Tom that was taken last Sept. when we were with them at a wedding in Aruba – there were a few watery eyes at the table), and always love seeing all of the Sept. regulars. Linda brought homemade butterfly magnets that she made for everyone and NYLady brought me a lovely gift, too (which I drank during my time in Aruba) – thank you ladies! You’re the BEST! And Wanda….next year: CUPCAKES!

Restaurants / Bars

All of my restaurant reviews are at the following link: www.restaurantsaruba.com

Favorite new restaurant:
Pago Pago at the Westin. Chef Matt has created an amazing menu! Tried about 5 different appetizers with a friend and my favorite was the duck which was shredded and came with crepes and an Asian-type sauce (I forgot the name). You opened up the crepe and spread the sauce on it, then filled it with duck, and rolled it up. SO GOOD!!! He also has created the most interesting bread basket with different types of bread from all over the world.

Favorites overall for romantic dining/great food:
Screaming Eagle – always a favorite of mine! Food was great and desserts amazing.
Passions on the Beach - love the new menus at Passions, too, which light up when you open them! They’re using real glassware now, too – nice to have champagne/wine/Cosmo in a real glass.
Barefoot – brand new place with great food in a romantic setting.

Favorite casual places:
Bingo (for drinks and food and fun people),
Tulip, and Rembrandt

New bars (for me): Café Capri - local food, local bar, and a fun place at night
Buster’s – never had much of an interest in going here before but Mark and John and the crew there have converted me!
The Old Dutch Bar – another fun local place for a brewski!

Didn’t make it to all of the restaurants we had planned on because of the water/rain – some of the roads just didn’t look that good (or couldn’t get through them) so we had to pass on a few places. But next year…we’ll be back!

A few stories from the trip:

One night went over to the Bucuti to see some friends (SueW & Gerry) since it was Gerry’s last night on the island. Sat at the Sand Bar from about 6:30pm to 11pm (those Aruba Aribas were going down like water.) For my first drink, the bartender asked if I was driving. I said "no" as I grabbed my car keys off of the bar. LOL!!! We couldn't believe it was so late and the only place we knew to get dinner at that point was Salt & Pepper. So back to S&P for me for the 2nd time within one day (had lunch there earlier.) We all had burgers (burgers never tasted so good) and then they asked if we were staying for "the party". Ah yes, the afterhours party at S&P. Last time I did one of those I didn't get home until 4am. So we declined. LOL!!

Met up with Barry (singer at Soprano’s) and had a nice lunch at Cilo one afternoon. It was fun catching up with him.

One morning I stepped out onto the balcony and there is some guy standing (barely) in the middle of the road that looks like he's been on a bender from last night and is going to fall over any minute. I look out again and he's sitting in the middle part of the road (where it separates the two lanes) and he's barely sitting...looks like he's going to pass out or puke - not sure which. But at least he was sitting down since before he was reeling in the middle of the road. Put my workout clothes on and went for my walk and stopped at the front desk to let them know about the drunk guy. We watched him for awhile. He walked over to the bench at the bus stop and laid on that...then fell off and was laying on the ground. He was definitely still drunk from the night before. I was glad he was laying down though - before he was reeling in the middle of the road and even though this road is really quiet in the morning, it was starting to pick up a bit and didn’t want him to get hit by a car. The hotel called the Polis to help him get home (or to detox.) Polis arrived and they got him on his feet (he's still drunk) and got him walking (still stumbling.) But at least they got him into their car and off the street. The "drunk guy" made one last move before they put him into the police car....he decided to urinate right by the bus stop. Well okay, he did turn his back to everyone and face a palm tree. I thought he was going to fall over. I got to watch all of this from my balcony – never a dull moment in Aruba! I'm still trying to figure out how he ended up by Amsterdam Manor since it’s pretty quiet around there at night.

Went to Zissles with Sue one night at 10pm to hear Tammy T. (who used to sing at Soprano's.) Had a great time there and ran into some friends from Madame Janette's, too. Also got to see the fountain show at the mall for the first time – it was actually pretty nice and I really did enjoy it.

When it rains and is overcast all day, this is what you do: Lunch at Cafe Rembrandt, met the owners of Buster's (had drinks at Buster’s with them), went to the mgrs cocktail party at Amsterdam Manor's beach bar, dinner at Amadeus, ran into the owners of Buster's at Amadeus, drinks at Amadeus’ bar, then walked over to Cafe Capri with a bunch of friends from Buster’s and Amadeus and stayed there til the wee hours of the morning. Also met Ernesto there (the guitar player/singer that performs at a lot of the hotels – nice guy.) It was a long day….but fun!

One afternoon we were invited to Sunday Brunch at a friend’s house who is a chef in the Dutch Navy (we’ve known him for years.) It was the 3 of us girls, Jeroen, and Janine from Amsterdam Manor. We had Mimosas, wine, beer, etc. and about enough food to feed 10 people. He made some great curried shrimp, beef, grilled eggplant, couscous, Caprese salad, and a lot of other extras like cheese, fruit….you name it, it was there!

One night at Bingo…had dinner, then moved to the bar for drinks, and then it smelled like incense burning, and then it got really smoky outside like a there was a fire nearby. Turns out that someone in the neighborhood was burning tires – very, very smoky and smelled awful. The fire truck did show up…they pulled into the parking lot in front of Bingo’s and then realized it was too small for their truck to go around so there was a lot of backing up, pulling forward, backing up, pulling forward…(reminded me of that Austin Powers movie where he’s stuck in the tunnel in a golf cart – LOL!)
We just stood outside and watched…and laughed (luckily, the firemen were laughing, too.)

Departure

On our last morning, it rained – of course! LOL!! But still made it over to Mango’s for a pot of coffee and the Continental Breakfast which was very good.

Said our tearful goodbyes to the wonderful staff at Amsterdam Manor, dropped the car off at Payless…and finally met Hector. I always email with Hector for our car rental at Payless and he is a wonderful guy to work with – he does a great job!

Got through all of the security lines, customs, etc. at the airport fairly quickly and had enough time for a couple of Brights before our flight.

Thank you – to the great staff at Amsterdam Manor who were probably sick of us asking every day: "Where’s the sun?!?" Marc and Janine at AMBR – you’re the BEST! Chef Matt – your menu/food at Pago Pago is amazing (can’t wait to be back next year again!) Mark and John at Buster’s – great meeting you guys and loved talking with you – and drinking with you. Hope to see everyone again next year!!