Bob & Wendy Evans

It’s easy to see why Aruba is everyone’s favorite. It’s clean, the buildings are all pretty pastels like Disneyworld main street, and there’s lots to do. As you exit the terminal take a booklet from the kiosk, it has a good map insert of the island and of Orangestaad. Walk off the ship, go maybe 100 yards to the main drag, turn right, go 1 block to Weststraat, and everything starts there. Across the street is the Royal Plaza mall, three 3-story pink buildings with tons of shops with pretty interior courtyards, lots of shade. A block further down is the Seaway Mall, an inside mall. Booze and jewelry were expensive ¼ rum was twice the ship price, and tanzanite .75 carat earrings with diamonds were $1300, but a similar pair on the ship at their 40% off sale were $300. But we got a great beach bag for $5 (saw them for as much as $35 other ports), and got a wooden hanging face mask bargained down from $45 to $30, never saw them cheaper than that. Oil paintings that were about $20 in Dominica were $40.

For night life there are 5 party bars at this intersection, 3 in the Royal Plaza and 2 on Weststreet. Iguana Joe’s and Mambo Jambo are on the second floor at either end of the Plaza, with a great view of the strip, the harbor, and the ships. Le Pitit Café is in the middle section of the Plaza, same great view, and a Latin dance bar is above the café on the third level. Two young Dutch kids who boarded in Aruba told us the name, something like Doridos J and said it had good music. The Bahia is up Weststaat towards the ship, and Carlos and Charlies is a few more doors down. It and it’s sister bar Senior Frog’s have branches all over the Caribbean, and have a rep as party places. You can see Carlos’s sign from the gangway. Bahia had a good rock band, playing Eagles etc., and was a classier place.

Because of the Carlos and Charlies rep we had to check it out. It looks like a standard roadhouse, plank floors, bar decorations. Before about 8pm there is canned rock music, no cover charge, and people are drinking at the bars and eating snacks at the tables. After about 8pm there is a $5 cover charge, and a DJ comes out to start the action with some bar games like “guess the song” for a free drink, and he handed out about 10 of these, with everyone shouting and having a good time. Then he took it up a notch, offering a free shooter of Tequila to everyone who joined his conga line. In a flash he had about 100 people behind him, wild rock music, dancing past a waiter standing on a chair who poured a big shot (or 2) in everyone’s mouth as they passed him, spilling as much down their front.

By now it was close to 9, standing room only, the staff takes away most of the tables and chairs, and the DJ starts the serious bar games, like bar top dancing contests for free shooters. The winner got a free shooter down the throat, then the losers got them, then everyone standing on the floor within the DJ’s reach with their mouth open got them. Police sirens and whistles going off, lights dimmed, everyone screaming, dancing, singing along with the songs. He often killed the volume at the chorus, and 300 people “sang” the chorus. Guess what, all 300 knew the exact dirty chorus to “Monie, monie” (sp). It was wilder than the movie Coyote Ugly, more like in front of the stage at a wild rock concert. Except we didn’t see anyone dump a pitcher of beer on anyone’s head, and to be fair, there was no nudity like “Girls Gone Wild” in Florida, there were no fights (gorilla bouncers), and no one passed out on the floor. There were more girls than guys, about 3-1, and with the Crystal gone it was just Destiny cruisers, resort people, few locals. Every few minutes large water vapor misters sprayed the crowd, a nice touch, and sometimes the staff shot clouds of paper clippings all over. Several times we were going to leave to check out other bars, like The Cellar, Club 2000 in the Royal Plaza (couldn’t find it while shopping), E-Zone on Weststraat for Euro music, La Fiesta, and the three places the Banana Party Bus stops, Tumazu, La Ronda, and Choose a Name. But then some new game started and we just couldn’t stop watching, and stayed until the ship sailed. Small local beers were $4, regular size beer like Coronas were $4.50, and liquor was $5, or just follow the DJ around with yer mouth open. What a scene. The young hotties told us the Aruba Carlos has a “badder” rep than the one in Cozumel; imagine, the conservative Dutch out-partying the Mexicans. There’s hope for us Canuks.

About our tour, we love catamaran cruises, lots of deck space and more stable than the yatchs. We took the Aruba Sailaway Beach Cruise run by Pelican Tours through the ship which was terrific. Large 73 foot cat, the Fun Factory 1, free booze. First stop was snorkeling the WWII wreck of the Antilles, a fascinating scene. We anchored behind the wreck and then snorkeled from the stern of the wreck towards the bow, with the wreck getting closer to the surface the closer we got to the bow until it was only a few feet underwater, covered in golden coral, beautiful, tons of fish. You can stand upright and touch the wreck with your fins. Bubbles rise from the divers inside the wreck. A great snorkel whether you arrange it yourself or through the ship. Next stop snorkeling a brain coral reef, lots of fish.

Last stop a chicken and ribs b’b’cue at the Pelican Company pier on Palm Beach, stores and café on a large pier, lunch or dinner in the café depending on your tour time, then free time on their section of the beach. Water equipment, great sand, papillas thatched umbrellas and loungers, over an hour there. Then sailed back to the ship pier laying on the webbing with our drinks. Our other favorite spots are sitting in front of the windshields or dangling our feet over the side holding the railing. A fun crew.

Check out the shore excursions available in Aruba.
Aruba Shore Excursions

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