Palm Beach --. The new Riu Palace taught us a lesson in construction; it also taught us a lesson in how to get a place open racing against time. The transformation of the sleepy Aruba Grand into a cross between India’s Taj Mahal, Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia and the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, is indeed very amazing. First of all as far as construction is concerned the builder who put the resort together managed to grow a floor every two weeks which is really unheard of in the tropics. His method of recruiting qualified construction help is now canonized in Aruba as the ‘Riu Protocol,’ because it engineered a new work permit process to facilitate the project. In short, the fact that the Riu Palace is available for business and in full swing is nothing but a miracle, against any backdrop, a testimony to the strength of the human spirit and its ability to harness abundant resources to meet a phenomenal end. Our friend Richard Velasco, the general manager of the Aruba Grand who stayed at the helm during construction, god bless that man, I am curious to see how salty his salt & pepper hair is today. I only visited the lobby and ran into a lovely executive who has been here for just three month, a blonde Dutch national, who stands in the middle of the lobby greeting and meeting her guests at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night. General Manager Lelianne Bakens – I guess she shares room at the top with Velasco - reports the resort already has 70 guests in-house, a mix of Europeans and Americans and that the restaurants are cooking, the bars are pouring and the pool is open. She also said her staff of 150 is busily dusting. While construction is almost done in the main building, the dusting-clothes and polishing-machines are doing double duty. The grand lobby, fit for a central train station, is a challenge to behold and absorb. I noticed the colored glass vitrage, the very tall ceilings, the ornamental wall frescos, the iron work above the front desk, the tri-colored inlaid marble floor and the brocade chair upholstery, and then I stopped. Wow. It is so ornate and detailed, a shocking departure from the sleek, sophisticated, contemporary style we now seek. The running, long hallways with the straight line of fan blades reminded me of the Raffles hotel in Singapore and a Far Eastern tropical, colonial palace. But as you exit the lobby for a look at the pool that’s when the Taj Mahal comes to play. The plunging view is spectacular from the raised staircase overlooking two water elements with the main pool and the palm trees in the distance. Well, the white-washed Minarettes, used in both Byzantine and Ottoman cultures, are what visitors see first. In fact from my house I see them towering over pastoral Palm Beach. The resort is a definite over-the-top statement and will usher our strip into a more Vegas-style mode, catapulting it from its Caribbean state of mind into something new and exciting. And the gleaming white-wash, poor governor Stuyvesant, he must be rolling in his grave, squinting, reaching for Advil, at the bottom of his coffin . . .
COOL CASINO. The company operating the casino within the Riu Palace is Cool Gaming, headquartered in Jamaica. Which is cool by itself. They are a multi-tasking conglomerate which sells anything from phone cards, to Caribbean tee shirts and beach gear. Their Oasis gas stations are cool. And you bet that their Cool Wind air-conditioning company is literally cool. Cool Cash, ATM machines and Cool Casino both fit in nicely with the mix. Aruba’s Cool Casino is a coin-less operation, ticket-in, ticket-out, conserving clean hands and making the lugging of coin-buckets obsolete. The casino featured 13 table games among them one Crap table, two Roulettes, one Let it Ride, two Caribbean Stud Poker table, one three-card Poker game and some new games Shoe Blackjack and 2-Deck Pitch Blackjack, which I have not seen before. General Manager Kenneth Morriss reports the casino offers the excitement of island gaming, wrapped in definitive 5-star service. Morriss, a Brit who drinks hot chocolate and has a weakness for Silky-Terriers, and animals in general, is a veteran of the casino world, having opened a few around the world, including Russia in the early hellish nineties. Morriss promises friendly service, great music, no Papiamento chit chat between associates in front of guests, and fun-filled entertainment. The locals came out in droves Friday and Saturday night, we’re all so curious. Andre Grant, the Director of Cool Gaming reports the IGT novelty slots were so busy over the weekend, there were no chairs to be had. The good looking Jamaican-born executive and the suave Brit experienced the casino opening in just five day. The Riu Palace handed Cool Gaming bare walls on Monday, and on Friday they were open for business. Morriss says his casino staff of 150 were on fire, dragging 200 pound slot machines up the stairs, installing cables, polishing brass, it was the fastest opening both Morriss and Grant have ever seen. Yet the casino looks relaxed, and comfortable, notice the little foot-rests under the slot cabinets, and it is gorgeous too, with crystal chandeliers overhead, roulette colored ceiling trim, an old-world bar and grand wooden doors leading to lobby with beveled glass. Morriss informs there are gaming lessons given every afternoon, so hurry up, up the stairs for the complimentary champagne, every day at 11am.
