Divi Aruba Phoenix Beach Resort

Customer ratings & reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

3486 reviews

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  The good, the bad, and A LOT OF UGLY...........

  Where to start.... We booked Divi Phoenix through Redweek as we have friends who own a Timeshare and suggested we stay there as well. We ended up with Room 841 & 842(4th Floor) The Good.... 1) The staff were very polite and accommodating. We used the Concierge several times to book excursions and rearrange dinner reservations. 2) The Pure Beach restaurant actually had decent food and great happy hour specials. They were also very polite and accommodating. Our group fished one day and Pure Beach actually prepared our fish and made fish tacos for us just by asking. 3) Pure Ocean restaurant was amazing. I can honestly say it was one, if not the best, restaurant that we ate at all week. It's definitely overlooked for sure but the food was off the charts. We had the Grouper and the Shrimp Risotto. 4) The pool and pool bar are nice features and not overly crowded. The Bad..... 1) Supposedly many of the buildings have been 'renovated'. If you consider painting the walls a renovation, then I guess they have been renovated. But in all seriousness, there is nothing renovated about these buildings, nothing! Freshly painted walls, new face front cabinets that don't close, and that's it!! Everything else is the same old stuff. Terracotta tiled bathrooms and old worn out furniture and fixtures. 2) The place lacks some of the basic essential items for cooking. We had no type of spatula for cooking nor did we have measuring cups. Also, they literally provide you with just 4 of everything; 4 forks, 4 knives, 4 plates, 4 cups. No extras so you're constantly washing items so you can prepare your food. 3) Save your money and don't bother going to the spa. It was awful. I'm honestly not even sure if they massage therapists are licensed?? Probably the worst massage I've ever had. It was literally just a rub down with gallons and gallons of oil. And I'm in no way a "spa snob" but it was just that bad! The Ugly.... 1) The place REEKED of mildew and mold the second you walked in. The smell was overbearing and a huge huge turn off. It appears mold and mildew have been mentioned in other reviews but nothing has been done to rectify it. 2) My husband ended up getting sick the night we arrived. Sneezing and stuffy nose. A coincidence? I think not. Our friends suggested we request a dehumidifier for the room which we did. However, it needed to emptied every few hours just to keep up, including in the middle of the night. We ended up running it our entire stay which helped my husband to sleep better at night. 3) The washer/dryer combo was literally the worst thing EVER. I think this was the biggest annoyance of my stay. The washer also smelled like mildew so clothes never came out smelling clean. But the dryer, the dryer was basically a joke. It simply wouldn't dry the clothes. Nothing ever came out dry, EVER!! No matter how many times you ran the dryer, it was still wet!!. We ended up throwing our clothes in a trash bag and rewashing and drying everything when we got home. 4) The gym was a HUGE disappointment. The equipment is as old as when the hotel was built and that's not a joke. The facility itself is not maintained, the equipment is extremely dirty, and you feel completely GROSS working out like you need to wash your hands after every use. We went twice and decided to just walk on the beach each day instead. 5) Lastly, the Palapa situation was incredibly annoying. In fact, the whole beach situation was. If you wanted a palapa you had to get up everyday at 5am, take personal items down, and "reserve" your spot. By 6am every palapa had been taken and many guests didn't even make an appearance until 11am or after lunch. I really didn't want to spend my vacation having to get up everyday just to do this, but it's what was needed if I wanted to get a spot on their small beach. Needless to say, there are sooooo many other better places to stay on Palm Beach and we won't be returning.

  Jan 19, 2025
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  Love Aruba

  Love Aruba on a bad day. Weather, food, people, always great and doesn’t change. Normally stay at one of the high rise hotels, but did a redweek here. Grounds were nice, and were able to get a palapas on the beach no problem. Beach was a little on the small side, but was not crowded at all. Pools were nice and clean, and again easy to get a chair. Gym in resort was perfect, plenty of cardio equipment, and Dumbells and machines gave you enough options for a full body workout. Little farther of a walk to the restaurants, but definitely doable. Staff weren’t the usual go out of the way type, except for Bethelie Peter, who worked at Puredeli. She really went out of the way to accommodate us, and was truly a joy to see everyday.

  Jan 16, 2025
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  Very good experience

  Really good place. Friendly staff, not crowded like some of the other facilities. Pure Deli team was great, as was the food. A few issues with our door lock and shower parts falling off, but this did not diminish the very good wee we had here. We will be back.

  Jan 11, 2025
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  It was everything and more

  This was one of our best vacations. Everything was so nice, from the staff to the food to the amenities. We would definitely go back.

  Jan 09, 2025
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  The Good and the Bad - follow up with go a long way

  I’ll start with the positives - the staff is nice, friendly and tries to be helpful. Unfortunately they don’t communicate when they switch shifts and no one seems able to fully resolve any issues we have had with our rooms. As they deal with issues, presumably from all of the “upgrades” they’re doing, I think less focus should be on changing paint colors, and more focus should be on HVAC issues, fixing basic items in the rooms and on the pool deck and ensuring that the air in the rooms is safe and clean. The grounds are very nice. Pool is beautiful. The new grill is a nice addition. However, the situation with getting huts on the beach and beach chairs is absolutely awful. Unlike other resorts, no one asks for a room number when you take a chickie/hut so people take many Chickies/huts for one room, which means there aren’t nearly enough for everyone to sit on the beach. They need to rectify the situation and hire people to walk around and check the people are where they signed up to be. This is how it’s done at other resorts here in Aruba and it is much more effective. It’s actually a pretty simple process if they care to try to make it a pleasant experience for everyone staying. Restaurant food is good. Servers are generally on their game, but there aren’t many options. Happy hour is fun and the live music is a plus for sure. There’s a lot of room for improvement here. Communication, follow through and certainly a bigger focus on building infrastructure rather than putting “paint on a pig” as they say, would go a long way. And ensuring that people who stay especially owners. should not have to spend their trip dealing with room issues, etc.

  Jan 06, 2025