I had to smile because we visited Aruba for the first time in December 2016 and felt pretty much the way you do. And unlike Pat's experience, we found the water to be much rougher (at least Eagle Beach at the time we were there) than most in SXM. The food was nothing to write home about and it was too 'Americanized' for us. Of course, everyone's mileage varies and I know people who love it there. There were some good points -- cleanliness, the bus system (we didn't have to rent a car). But not enough to draw us back.

We have visited many of the Caribbean islands, but have found that we can't go expecting it to be SXM. You have to go with an open mind, or at least a different mindset. SXM is unique and few islands, in our experience, match it. With that being said, we did visit Curacao this past October (2017) and very much enjoyed our time there. It is on our list of places to maybe return to (unlike Aruba), but this time around we went with the expectation to enjoy IT for what it was. There are always going to be comparisons to SXM, however, regardless of how hard we try.

Carol is right about going some place completely different. We did a Paris/Amsterdam trip last year and LOVED it.