20th Trip to Aruba - Amsterdam Manor Beach Resort

September 17 – October 4, 2009 by Corrine

Aruba Forum Profile: Corrine

This was our ninth trip to Aruba. We used our own unit at LaCabana Beach & Racquet Club.
We went from Thursday to Friday. Our daughter Jamie came with us for a few days.

Thursday

Luckily, we live close to JFK, so an under 30 minute cab ride got us there. Jet Blue's new Terminal Five is fabulous and you they have a huge food court with excellent quality food. We got some sandwiches and drinks -good thing as on board we were served one 4 oz. bottle of water or soda. Wow, thanks! But the flight was fine and we landed on time. Customs and the whole airport thing was a breeze, with minimal crowds.
What a pleasure to have Optima/Payless waiting right there to pick us up and take us two minutes away to their office. A few minutes later, we were in our Corolla.

We were welcomed home by the front desk staff at LaCabana and were lucky that for our one night rental, our own unit was available. We unpacked and ran to Lings. I noticed my Aroma Rood coffee was awfully cheap....hmm.
That night we went to dinner at Bingo and were served an ice cold Bright immediately – Oh yes! The meal was excellent as usual - I had my favorite Bingo Brochette and Steve and Jamie had pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon. I topped it off with an Aruban coffee with Ponche Crème. Perfect!

Friday

I find out why my Aroma Rood was so cheap - it is not ground! Yikes, this has never happened.
The room certainly doesn't have a grinder. Thankfully, our mini-mart carried a ground bag.
Then, a nice long day at the beach. Jamie and I shared a float... aah.
Went back to the room for lunch –
ACK! What is in our room?? A rather ugly little lizard thing. After about 15 minutes, Jamie and I capture him in a plastic Tupperware and dumb him outside. That night was our anniversary so we went to Gasparito. We were greeted by owner Reimundo and he served us complimentary wine for the occasion. Our food was incredible – I had coconut shrimp, Jamie had shrimp scampi and Steve had Mahi Mahi. I loved the Aruban style veggies on the side -funchi, carrots and broccoli with coconut rice and pan bati bread. I had something called a Chocolate Kiss for dessert - ice cream with chocolate liqueurs - yum!

Saturday

A nice day at the pool. It was "mating season" for the iguanas. Two of them kept a lot of us (especially the kids) entertained for the day. Some poor mother had to tell her kids that the iguanas were playing "tag". We met a nice couple from Jersey. Jamie and I went to Happy Hour and the band was a lot of fun - doing the Electric Slide, Cupid Slide and my favorite - a shake your butt contest. We met a nice couple from Boston and actually had a civil conversation regarding Yankees/Red Sox. I hope we s ee them next year.

Steve and I went up to Gianni's for dinner. The food was DELICIOUS.
I felt the service was good but a bit rushed. The Visit Aruba card was supposed to entitle us to a free glass of wine but the waiter said he never heard of it. The manager relented and gave us a complimentary limoncellos instead. We walked around, tried a new coffee place I didn't like near Café Rembrandt. Sopranos and Buster's had nothing going on so I bought a few things at the Lazy Lizard instead. Nice store! We checked out the inside and pool area of the RIU. OMG, the place is huge and very luxurious!

Sunday

I was burned as usual. I left the beach early and we all went to Paseo Herencia mall. Steve bought some nice linen shirts and pants at Havana Nines while I went to Maggy's for perfume. I got 10% off with the Visit Aruba card. We went to Bugaloe to try their dinner and listen to the band. Our burgers and sandwiches (and Brights) were delicious – I was surprised how good the food was. And the band was great so a good time was had by all.

Monday

Jamie is itching to go to DePalm Island. We got our tickets in back at the Aruban.

Note: If you drive yourself and not use their bus, a half day is 11am-6pm, NOT 9-1pm or 1-5pm. And it was only $79, minus $10 per person with a coupon in my Little Switzerland bag. You have to ask to find this out. The three of us went and got there at 11:30am. Unfortunately, it was filled with cruise people. We found lounge chairs all the way at the end and went snorkeling. We had a ball feeding those large blue fish, boy they come right up to your face! For the first time, I saw a black and white check square jaw shaped fish and a big turquoise guy with a pink head. Jamie still cannot master this so she gave up and watched. We had lunch - the buffet was very good again. Then by about 1 or 1:30pm the cruise people all leave. Nice! They play music all day, plus serve frozen drinks. After some hammock time, swimming time and water park time, we left. The three of us love this place! Jamie made some tuna/pasta salad for dinner as no one felt like going out.

Tuesday

We took Jamie to the airport to go home - she already missed enough school. She was miserable to leave! I was a bit relieved, as she was spending quite a bit of money at Happy Hour and all the bartenders knew her name! I now had sun poisoning so we spent a day in town. We had lunch at Rumba (can't believe they are closed). Steve had the Rumba Sandwich and I had my favorite Rumba salad. I checked out Seaport Mall - all the stores are gone except Rage!! Where is Shabby Chic?? The Renaissance has bought a lot of the space and they are making offices. The Waterfront Crabhouse was gone too. :( I got a nice bracelet and a couple of birthday gifts at Rage while Steve fed the iguanas.

Across the street, I was trying to find a new café/museum on Mainstreet, but I never did. After visiting Sean Jewelers where unfortunately they didn't have anything that caught my eye, I went to Gandleman and Gemani. I was very impressed with Gemani. They give us a business card with their lowest price and the item number of the piece, so there is no confusion later if you return. We went back to them, where my husband surprised me with a white and black diamond band. It just sparkles, it is lovely!

We had dinner at Café Rembrandt. Steve had the special - Dutch pea soup, Dutch sausages with mashed potatoes and spinach and apple pie - a happy customer was he! I had my favorite, Nasi Goreng. I also had the B52 coffee with Kahlua and Baileys. We love this place but noticed the menu is a bit more Americanized than last year.

Wednesday

I stayed under our hut a good part of the day. We tried the new Islander Grill at LaCabana for lunch - oh no! The food was not as good as it once was, the crab cakes and salads were gone and our waitress was not overly pleasant. Too bad. Back at the beach, Steve fed the fish - some kind of white angel fish. We stayed on the beach til 6pm. Sooo nice……. Then he went to join a poker game at the Holiday Inn and I enjoyed a nice quiet evening alone with my book on my patio. You know you are not in America when the people next door ask if I mind if they put their music loud!!

Thursday

Our last full day :( We chose the pool and had a wonderful relaxing last day. I did not want the Islander Grill for lunch again so I did the walk to Tulip, since Amy had talked about it so much. I never realized it is an under five minute walk from LaCabana! I ordered a croquette sandwich and "potatoe special", fries with a curry mayo. OMG!!! Amy, you were right, I have my new favorite lunch place! And reasonable priced.

We went down to the beach to watch the sunset and then off to dinner to Steve's favorite, MJ's. This is just my opinion - but to me it is not the same. First, it was the second time I was next to loud mouth Americans. The tables seemed closer together and Steve and I literally could not hear each other talk. Second, we each had the Gianni Versace steak - 2 petite Filet Mignons with lobster medallions, portobello and spinach. If there was lobster in this meal, it was awfully small. We each had one of our steaks overdone, like it was reheated in a microwave. All the Dutch desserts were gone, replaced by things like "Fried Oreos". We were served complimentary champagne with a liquor in it a nice touch. In conversation with our excellent waiter, we heard that the owner comes to the US to check out what we like to eat. I think it is getting too crowded and the food is not the same. I prefer Marandi. Again, JMO.

Friday

We had breakfast at Café The Plaza, as the Dutch Pancake House is not looking too clean these days. Our breakfast and the service were great! They do not have Dutch pancakes but nice combos of eggs, pancakes and sausages with excellent coffee. For a Friday, the airport moved very smoothly and I picked up some Aruba Aloe products. Our plane was a bit delayed. On the flight home, we had two screaming kids in back of us, with parents with no control. These kids were actually crawling on the dirty FLOOR while the parents pretended they didn't hear. This was in contrast to the little girl in front of us, whose parents provided her with toys and encouragement – she was an angel! I needed ear plugs, so I had to suck it up and watch the Princess and the Frog, the only movie I hadn’t seen before. It turned out to be quite funny!

Another great trip in Aruba! We never had an issue getting a hut the entire week. The weather was warmer than usual , it rained only at night and the breeze was a bit less . I look forward to next year when my unit will be renovated – I was pleased to see that the renovations are moving along at LaCabana. They do need to work on their restaurant issues. Unfortunately, we did not get to buy Steve’s boss’s unit as it had sold while we were away. But a one BR in Aruba is better than a 3 BR in NY any day!