Aruba Cruise Day: Umbrella and Chairs Waiting at the Beach

Check availability & book your umbrellaReserve online. Umbrella and 2 chairs, set up for you.

Short answer

Cruise ships dock in Oranjestad, about ten minutes by taxi from Eagle Beach and a little longer to Palm Beach. Hotel shade is not available to you, and the public palapas are gone by the time you walk off the ship. Reserve an umbrella and two chairs for the day and walk down to a spot that is already yours.

Aruba is one of the best beach stops on a southern Caribbean itinerary, and the day goes wrong for the same reason every time: people arrive at the beach at 10 or 11 AM, find every scrap of shade taken, and spend the day half-cooked on a towel. This is how to do it properly.

Getting from the ship to the beach

The cruise terminal is in Oranjestad, the capital, right on the waterfront. Taxis wait at the terminal exit and run on fixed government rates per ride rather than a meter, so ask the driver the fare before you get in. Eagle Beach is the closer of the two main beaches, about ten minutes away. Palm Beach, with the high-rise hotels, is a little further up the coast. The public bus along the main road is the cheap option and runs regularly between Oranjestad and the hotel beaches.

Which beach for a cruise day

Eagle Beach is wide, quiet and low-rise, with calm water and more space between people. It is the better choice if you want sand and sea and not much else. Palm Beach has the piers, the beach bars, the watersports huts and the crowds, and it is the better choice if you want lunch and a drink within a short walk of your chair. We set up on both, and the price is the same.

Why hotel shade is not an option

The palapas and loungers in front of the hotels are for hotel guests. On Palm Beach the attendants check wristbands and will move you on. The public palapas on Eagle Beach are first come, first served and claimed early in the morning, long before a ship clears. As a day visitor you arrive after all of that has happened.

The reserved set

Book an umbrella and two chairs for your port day. We set it up and anchor it for the wind before you arrive, and it is reserved in your name from 10 AM to 4 PM, which fits most port calls. You get the exact meeting point by email after booking, walk down, and sit.

Cruise day shade

Umbrella plus two chairs, $100 a day plus 20% tax and fees, $120.00 all in. Eagle Beach or Palm Beach. Up to eight sets in one booking for a group off the same ship.

Booking from the ship, or before

Book before you sail. Dates 24 hours or more ahead are paid online and confirmed at once, so you board knowing the beach is sorted. If you are reading this on the ship the night before, the calendar sends us a request without taking payment, we check the beach, and a payment link comes back by email once a set is confirmed free. Ship wifi being what it is, the earlier the better.

Timing the day

Our sets stand from 10 AM to 4 PM. Most ships want you back on board in the late afternoon, so leaving the beach at 3:30 PM gives you a comfortable margin for the taxi and the walk through the terminal. Keep an eye on ship time versus local time: they are not always the same, and the ship does not wait.

What to bring

Towels from the ship, reef-safe sunscreen, water, and cash in small US dollar notes for the taxi and the beach bars. Aruba uses the florin but dollars are accepted everywhere. The sun is strong all year and the trade wind hides how fast you are burning, which is the whole reason you reserved the umbrella.

Cruise Day in Aruba: A Beach Umbrella and Chairs Waiting for You