Aruba Surf Club- Ocean View vs. Ocean Side

[Luvtoride]

Hi, we will be checking in to the Aruba Surf Club in 2 weeks. I just received an email from my "pre-arrival" specialist regarding our reservation and the "special request" we had made. We are traveling with 8 adults and 2 small children (our grandkids) in two 2-bedroom villas. We reserved our unit using DC points for an "ocean view" villa. My daughter's in-law's reserved their unit as a direct MVC trade using their owned week at the Surf Club for an "Ocean Side" villa. I had simply asked that our villas be assigned close to each other with really no preference for floor height or specific building.

The specialist's email said that they would NOT be able to accommodate my request to be close by to the other villa. The Ocean Side Villa is in the Lighthouse Tower and the Ocean view villa would be assigned in either the Compass or Spyglass tower.
I have never heard of this designation and can't believe that they won't try to honor our request to be close together. I also just checked the points chart again and an OS and OV villa are the exact same number of points.

Does anyone have any suggestions of how best to address this when we arrive (or prior) so that we can be in close proximity to each other? Also, where do I find the "reservation code" that is often referred to here? I checked my confirms and don't see any such code.

Thanks as always for your help.

Brian

 

[ArubaMark]

Surf Club runs close to full capacity in the summer. It won't happen more than likely. They are a total stickler on staying in the view with 900 rooms there!

 

[Weimaraner]

You're right that your request isn't a big deal...it's a huge deal. Surf Club is very view oriented and there is a price difference between oceanside and oceanview. I can't imagine that they would change someone's view category and open up a can of worms for future guests who make a request to upgrade their view to be near family. I haven't used DC points yet but if I book Oceanview at a resort, I can't imagine I would expect the resort to switch the inventory when I got there. Have you called MVCI to see if they have any inventory so your DC points could be used to change your view to Oceanside?

Also that code you mention is used on Interval exchanges and it doesn't sound like you used II for these reservations.

You're going to love it there so don't let this minor concern bother you. Just plan on a meeting up spot for dinner etc and you will be fine,

 

[Docklander]

I can't imagine that they would change someone's view category and open up a can of worms for future guests who make a request to upgrade their view to be near family.

I didn't read it as the OP wanting an upgrade, rather that he just wanted the units to be close together. Downgrading the OS unit would have the same effect and I can't see why that request can't be accommodated.

 

[dioxide45]

Also, where do I find the "reservation code" that is often referred to here? I checked my confirms and don't see any such code.

For a DC reservation, it is a little tricky to find. It is possible however. You need to click on the "Room Details" link on the Marriott.com reservation. You need to click on this and force it to open in a new window (in Internet Explorer you do this by holding down Shift and clicking the link). Then in the address bar for the room details you will see something called the "roomPoolCode". This is the code often referred to in this thread.

 

[dioxide45]

I didn't read it as the OP wanting an upgrade, rather that he just wanted the units to be close together. Downgrading the OS unit would have the same effect and I can't see why that request can't be accommodated.

I don't think they would really want to downgrade an owner staying on their home resort reservation. I think that is at least how the OPs daughter is booked. The OP indicated "direct MVC trade". I am not exactly sure what that is since I thought that was what a DC reservation was, and that is how the OP booked their OV villa. But it seems the OP and their doughtier booked differently somehow.

 

[Luvtoride]

Hi all, thanks for the comments and suggestions. Yes we did book separately from my daughters in-laws. Perhaps I used the wrong terminology for their OS booking. They own at Surf club but booked a different week in their season they own. We coordinated our booking with DC points a year ago with them so we would both get the same week.
On another trip with friends who own 2 weeks there, our friends wanted to downgrade from their OS villa because they wanted to be in the Compass building. They agreed to do this however they made them sign a waiver that this was of their own request to downgrade. Not sure why they needed all the CYA paperwork but perhaps Interval or Marriott requires that. I suppose our in-laws could do that this time as well so that we could all be together in Compass, pool-side hopefully.
Thanks again for your advice and suggestions.
Brian

 

[Luvtoride]

I just got off the phone with a MVC advisor. Dioxide, she said that WE would have to agree to downgrade our OV in order to be in the same building. I was a bit surprised by this too. Apparently the Ocean side view usually means a garden view but it is in the Lighthouse building.
In any case I'm sure our best bet is to try to get close by villas regardless of views when we arrive. As one of us is an owner there and we're Premier owners, I'm think they will try to accomodate us.

 

[m61376]

One of the many strange things in the point allocations/ costs in Aruba is that OS and OV were assigned the same points, even though Marriott at one time charged almost a 5k differential. oS owners, like myself, were shocked at the same point allocation.

That said, they won't change your OV DC reservation to OS unless you are able to switch the DC reservation before arrival. I'd call a couple of times a day; a last minute cancellation may pop up.

Alternately- I'm still a bit confused- did your daughter switch her Marriott reservation, or was it a II trade? If the OS was a II trade, that view is not guaranteed and they can switch it.. In fact, during prime season a few years ago they upgraded a designated OV trade to an OS view to match our owned OS week, placing the second unit across the floor from ours.

What the rep told you doesn't make sense. If your daughter's unit was a trade through II, then she would have lower room assignment priority as a trader, which is prob. What the rep was alluding to. But since she is an owner at the resort trading in she should get some room placement priority. Both times I've had additional units they enjoyed some priority in placement based on my ownership, and other non SC owners have enjoyed great room placements on trades too, so not everyone gets those low floor rooms ( which, if I remember correctly, were designated GV in the Lighthouse building, with OS being floors 4 and above).

 

[ArubaMark]

Oceanside is in the lighthouse tower. It could be on ANY floor in that building but faces either the pool or the Ocean Club. All of those units have ocean views. "Oceanfront" is the lighthouse tower but at the face of the building right against the ocean. There are very limited "oceanfront" views.

My suggestion is to downgrade the Oceanside to oceanview to get a room close to each other. Or upgrade yours to Oceanside.

Otherwise... you have zero chance. It might happen somewhere else. It won't happen at the surf club in the summer due to capacity levels.

 

[Weimaraner]

[/IMGL][/IMGR]

I just got off the phone with a MVC advisor. Dioxide, she said that WE would have to agree to downgrade our OV in order to be in the same building. I was a bit surprised by this too. Apparently the Ocean side view usually means a garden view but it is in the Lighthouse building.
In any case I'm sure our best bet is to try to get close by villas regardless of views when we arrive. As one of us is an owner there and we're Premier owners, I'm think they will try to accomodate us.

Thooughly confused now. It should be the Oceanside villa downgrading to Oceanview. The views in order are: Oceanfront, Oceanside, Oceanview then Gardenview. There should be a color coded map in the Aruba Surf club area inthe TUG member resources. Hopefully this will work out for you. We used our 3 bedroom oceanview and had friends in our oceanfront on one trip and it was no big deal to be away from each other since we had a meeting location and touched base by phone.

Update don't see the map in resources so I will try posting here www.aruba.com/forum/attachments/f23...-aruba-surf-club-map-oceanside-ocean-view.jpg

 

[IngridN]

[/IMGL][/IMGR]

Thooughly confused now. It should be the Oceanside villa downgrading to Oceanview. The views in order are: Oceanfront, Oceanside, Oceanview then Gardenview. There should be a color coded map in the Aruba Surf club area inthe TUG member resources. Hopefully this will work out for you. We used our 3 bedroom oceanview and had friends in our oceanfront on one trip and it was no big deal to be away from each other since we had a meeting location and touched base by phone.

Update don't see the map in resources so I will try posting here www.aruba.com/forum/attachments/f23...-aruba-surf-club-map-oceanside-ocean-view.jpg

Unless they have changed the view type, the 2nd floor and maybe 3rd floor of the Oceanside sides are garden view. It appears that the options are for the OP to downgrade to garden view and stay in the Lighthouse Tower or for the in-laws to downgrade from Oceanside to an Oceanview and stay in one of the 2 oceanview buildings.

Ingrid

 

[Weimaraner]

Just glad I'm not in charge of room assignments at some of these major resorts. Must be a stressful job and one that should involve a tip jar. I did read a book by someone in the hotel industry which suggested people tip the front desk clerk to enjoy a better view. Haven't tried it myself. I usually ask nicely and seem to always get a great room.

 

[suzannesimon]

My son read the book and has been tipping the front desk with amazing results but he hasn't been booking at timeshares.