nodge
TUG Member
Hi Gang,
We just returned from another great week (and weather) in Scottsdale. I ended up booking five units, 3 large one bedroom villas at Westin Kierland Villas ("WKV"), 1 two bedroom lock-off villa at Sheraton Desert Oasis ("SDO"); and a last minute 2 B/R lock-off getaway via II at Marriott’s Canyon Villas ("MCV"). We toured/snooped around all three resorts and also took advantage of the adjacent hotels’ pooks (Westin Kierland Resort adjacent to the Westin Kierland Villas & the JW Marriott at Desert Ridge Resort adjacent to the Marriott Canyon Villas).
We concluded that each resort has its advantages and disadvantages, and that there really wasn’t a clear “winner” between the three resorts. We also concluded that we would be happy staying at any of them again in the future. We did; however, prefer certain aspects of some resorts over the others, and to help fellow Tuggers select between these resorts in the future, I’ve posted our perceptions below:
Best Villa (layout/decoration/interior condition/free stuff in room): Marriott Canyon Villas
MCV’s villa featured trash liners, extra laundry soap, free popcorn, and a unit in excellent condition that was decorated in southwest colors. A cascading wall fountain greeted us upon entry to the unit, along with a full sized kitchen, with oven, and full sized washer and dryer. The lock-off unit at MCV has a king bed, while the lock-off units at both WKV and SDO have queen beds. One disadvantage of the MCV is that unlike the lock-off in SDO and WKV which both have a living area with kitchenette separated from a bedroom area by a wall and door, the lock-off at MCV was a true studio with only a small mini-fridge.
SDO’s interior villa came in a close second with nice southwest themes and colors and a full kitchen with oven. It lost points for the inappropriately oversized glass topped dining table in the large side of the two-bedroom lock-off unit, and the space shuttle tub/shower combo and lack of storage space in the small side of the lock-off unit.
WKV villas were a distant third. If the curtains are drawn inside a unit at WKV, you wouldn’t know if you were in Scottsdale or a Westin off Exit 6 in New Jersey. Plus, there were lots of stains on the carpet. The sofa showed some wear and tear. As an added bonus, we were on the second floor in building 4 apparently below a family that loved to walk around in their ski-boots at 6 AM each morning. Clomp, Clomp, Clomp starting at 6 AM every morning until the grounds keepers’ power blowers started outside our window at 9 AM.
All in all, having the ability to do a direct comparison between the three resorts, we were least impressed with the WKV’s interior rooms. Then again, if we hadn’t seen SDO’s or MCV’s rooms, we probably would have thought WKV’s rooms were just fine . . . except for that whole marching band practicing above our heads in the morning thing.
Best common areas around timeshare: Westin Kierland Villas
The pools, landscaping, lobby, work-out room, on-site restaurant/sundry shop, orientation relative to the adjacent golf course and grounds around WKV are awesome. Neither SDO nor MCV come close to comparing.
MCV has a slight edge over SDO in this category, but not by as much as I would have expected. I thought SDO’s lobby is much nicer than MCV, and it, like at WKV, had free computer and printer use vs. the pay as you go computers/printer in the MCV lobby. While the timeshare pool area at MCV is larger than SDO’s, they both have a tacky home-made “rock” waterfall and nothing more than a snack bar with a few tables around. The construction quality between SDO and MCV was also comparable – lots and lots of stucco-covered drywall as far as the eye can see.
On our last day there, MCV had a good old fashioned cocktail waitress, complete with stiletto heels and a skimpy cocktail dress, walk around to all the pool chairs at the timeshare pool and offer free Margareta samples to the adults. She didn’t take food or drink orders or anything. She just walked around handing out those samples. Very weird.
Best pools at adjacent hotels: Marriott Canyon Villas
All of the kids in our group unanimously agreed that the lazy river pool at the JW Marriott at Desert Ridge is “way, way, better” than the lazy river pool at the Westin Kierland hotel. They found the water was cleaner, and more importantly, the current of that water was greater at the Marriott. The Marriott lazy river also had two person rafts available, and more water features squirting into the river. Plus, the kids didn’t like all the rules being enforced in the Westin Lazy River (only one kid per inner tube; no swimming in the lazy river without being in an inner tube, etc.,) whereas there were no such limitations on using the lazy river pool at the Marriott.
Also, a large portion of the Westin lazy river travels adjacent to the Westin casita lanais. During both times we were there, a grumpy old fart sat on his casita lanai smoking a big ol’ smelly cigar. The smoke from his stogie wafted over about 70% of the lazy river. We ended up packing up and moving over to the Marriott’s lazy river, where only a small stretch of it runs adjacent to any lanais, and no one was ever out on them, let alone smoking on any of them. Given the proximity of the Westin casita lanais to the children-laden lazy river, Westin really needs to rethink its policy of allowing folks to smoke on their lanais. Then again, if someone is paying over $1500/night for a casita at the Westin, who is really going to say anything to them?
The walk from WKV to the Westin hotel’s lazy river is shorter and prettier than the walk from MCV to the JW Marriott’s lazy river. The WKV walk takes you along the Kierland golf course filled with lots and lots of cute bunnies. The MCV walk takes you first through a massive parking lot and then through the lobby of the JW Marriott hotel before you finally arrive at the lazy river. Both the WKV and MCV offered complementary, regularly scheduled shuttle service between the timeshare and adjacent hotel.
Use of the hotel pools was free for guests at the adjacent timeshare. Both hotel pools required wristbands on the weekends. They were handed out on check-in at WKV (6 limit for the large one bedroom villa), and we had to stop by the Marriott hotel’s front desk to get them at the Marriott (No limit was mentioned when we showed up). The Westin hotel required wristbands all week but no key card was required. The Marriott hotel pools required wrist bands on the weekends, but only required a key card throughout the week.
Neither the WKV nor MCV timeshare pools required key cards to access them during the day, but MCV has child-proof latches at all the access gates to the pool area that take a little time to figure out the first time you use them (Lift the plunger on top of the gate with one hand while pulling the gate open with the other hand). The WKV “quiet” pool required a key card to access it after about 6 PM or so. SDO’s pools, with memories of this incident still fresh in SDO's management's minds, required a key card to access them all day and night.
Best Location: Westin Keirland Villas
WKV is in the heart of North Scottsdale and all the hot spots and shops of Kierland Commons (including P.F. Chang’s, Cheesecake Factory, and restaurants of this caliber) are walking distance. Second place goes to MCV which is near, and possibly walking distance to, the Desert Ridge shopping center, complete with its very own Friday’s, “In-and-Out” burger, and other restaurants of this caliber. There really isn’t anything that is walking distance from SDO, but it offers the easiest access to the 101 Freeway.
Parking and pool chair access at all three resorts was plentiful, even during peak spring break season. All three resorts had plenty of young, happy families enjoying their time together.
Best Overall Value: Sheraton Desert Oasis
SDO was a well maintained, well decorated, quiet, friendly home base for some members of my group to explore Arizona. While it lacks the fancy common areas of WKV or the complementary use of an adjacent hotel’s facilities, its two bedroom lock-off was more than comfortable for them. Moreover, given the fact I exchanged via II a small one bedroom “gold plus” at SDO for this two bedroom lock-off at SDO during peak, peak platinum season, it presented the best value of all the rooms I booked.
Room Assignment Data:
Oh Yeah, of the three units I booked at WKV, one was my own unit booked 12 months to the day out (as a 3 star elite member no less, woo-woo), one was an II exchange, and one was a nightly rental booked via SPG.com. I requested that all three reservations have a golf course view on a high floor, preferably in building 3 or 5. What do you think we got?
-nodge
OK here is how things panned out:
SPG booked room: Golf course view on high floor in building 7
II Exchange room: 2rd floor in building 4 (with a view of building 5 and daily morning sound of a power blower clearing the walkway in front of our balcony)
3 Star Elite owner’s room booked 12 months out: 3rd floor of building 4 (with view of building 5). Feel the love.
We just returned from another great week (and weather) in Scottsdale. I ended up booking five units, 3 large one bedroom villas at Westin Kierland Villas ("WKV"), 1 two bedroom lock-off villa at Sheraton Desert Oasis ("SDO"); and a last minute 2 B/R lock-off getaway via II at Marriott’s Canyon Villas ("MCV"). We toured/snooped around all three resorts and also took advantage of the adjacent hotels’ pooks (Westin Kierland Resort adjacent to the Westin Kierland Villas & the JW Marriott at Desert Ridge Resort adjacent to the Marriott Canyon Villas).
We concluded that each resort has its advantages and disadvantages, and that there really wasn’t a clear “winner” between the three resorts. We also concluded that we would be happy staying at any of them again in the future. We did; however, prefer certain aspects of some resorts over the others, and to help fellow Tuggers select between these resorts in the future, I’ve posted our perceptions below:
Best Villa (layout/decoration/interior condition/free stuff in room): Marriott Canyon Villas
MCV’s villa featured trash liners, extra laundry soap, free popcorn, and a unit in excellent condition that was decorated in southwest colors. A cascading wall fountain greeted us upon entry to the unit, along with a full sized kitchen, with oven, and full sized washer and dryer. The lock-off unit at MCV has a king bed, while the lock-off units at both WKV and SDO have queen beds. One disadvantage of the MCV is that unlike the lock-off in SDO and WKV which both have a living area with kitchenette separated from a bedroom area by a wall and door, the lock-off at MCV was a true studio with only a small mini-fridge.
SDO’s interior villa came in a close second with nice southwest themes and colors and a full kitchen with oven. It lost points for the inappropriately oversized glass topped dining table in the large side of the two-bedroom lock-off unit, and the space shuttle tub/shower combo and lack of storage space in the small side of the lock-off unit.
WKV villas were a distant third. If the curtains are drawn inside a unit at WKV, you wouldn’t know if you were in Scottsdale or a Westin off Exit 6 in New Jersey. Plus, there were lots of stains on the carpet. The sofa showed some wear and tear. As an added bonus, we were on the second floor in building 4 apparently below a family that loved to walk around in their ski-boots at 6 AM each morning. Clomp, Clomp, Clomp starting at 6 AM every morning until the grounds keepers’ power blowers started outside our window at 9 AM.
All in all, having the ability to do a direct comparison between the three resorts, we were least impressed with the WKV’s interior rooms. Then again, if we hadn’t seen SDO’s or MCV’s rooms, we probably would have thought WKV’s rooms were just fine . . . except for that whole marching band practicing above our heads in the morning thing.
Best common areas around timeshare: Westin Kierland Villas
The pools, landscaping, lobby, work-out room, on-site restaurant/sundry shop, orientation relative to the adjacent golf course and grounds around WKV are awesome. Neither SDO nor MCV come close to comparing.
MCV has a slight edge over SDO in this category, but not by as much as I would have expected. I thought SDO’s lobby is much nicer than MCV, and it, like at WKV, had free computer and printer use vs. the pay as you go computers/printer in the MCV lobby. While the timeshare pool area at MCV is larger than SDO’s, they both have a tacky home-made “rock” waterfall and nothing more than a snack bar with a few tables around. The construction quality between SDO and MCV was also comparable – lots and lots of stucco-covered drywall as far as the eye can see.
On our last day there, MCV had a good old fashioned cocktail waitress, complete with stiletto heels and a skimpy cocktail dress, walk around to all the pool chairs at the timeshare pool and offer free Margareta samples to the adults. She didn’t take food or drink orders or anything. She just walked around handing out those samples. Very weird.
Best pools at adjacent hotels: Marriott Canyon Villas
All of the kids in our group unanimously agreed that the lazy river pool at the JW Marriott at Desert Ridge is “way, way, better” than the lazy river pool at the Westin Kierland hotel. They found the water was cleaner, and more importantly, the current of that water was greater at the Marriott. The Marriott lazy river also had two person rafts available, and more water features squirting into the river. Plus, the kids didn’t like all the rules being enforced in the Westin Lazy River (only one kid per inner tube; no swimming in the lazy river without being in an inner tube, etc.,) whereas there were no such limitations on using the lazy river pool at the Marriott.
Also, a large portion of the Westin lazy river travels adjacent to the Westin casita lanais. During both times we were there, a grumpy old fart sat on his casita lanai smoking a big ol’ smelly cigar. The smoke from his stogie wafted over about 70% of the lazy river. We ended up packing up and moving over to the Marriott’s lazy river, where only a small stretch of it runs adjacent to any lanais, and no one was ever out on them, let alone smoking on any of them. Given the proximity of the Westin casita lanais to the children-laden lazy river, Westin really needs to rethink its policy of allowing folks to smoke on their lanais. Then again, if someone is paying over $1500/night for a casita at the Westin, who is really going to say anything to them?
The walk from WKV to the Westin hotel’s lazy river is shorter and prettier than the walk from MCV to the JW Marriott’s lazy river. The WKV walk takes you along the Kierland golf course filled with lots and lots of cute bunnies. The MCV walk takes you first through a massive parking lot and then through the lobby of the JW Marriott hotel before you finally arrive at the lazy river. Both the WKV and MCV offered complementary, regularly scheduled shuttle service between the timeshare and adjacent hotel.
Use of the hotel pools was free for guests at the adjacent timeshare. Both hotel pools required wristbands on the weekends. They were handed out on check-in at WKV (6 limit for the large one bedroom villa), and we had to stop by the Marriott hotel’s front desk to get them at the Marriott (No limit was mentioned when we showed up). The Westin hotel required wristbands all week but no key card was required. The Marriott hotel pools required wrist bands on the weekends, but only required a key card throughout the week.
Neither the WKV nor MCV timeshare pools required key cards to access them during the day, but MCV has child-proof latches at all the access gates to the pool area that take a little time to figure out the first time you use them (Lift the plunger on top of the gate with one hand while pulling the gate open with the other hand). The WKV “quiet” pool required a key card to access it after about 6 PM or so. SDO’s pools, with memories of this incident still fresh in SDO's management's minds, required a key card to access them all day and night.
Best Location: Westin Keirland Villas
WKV is in the heart of North Scottsdale and all the hot spots and shops of Kierland Commons (including P.F. Chang’s, Cheesecake Factory, and restaurants of this caliber) are walking distance. Second place goes to MCV which is near, and possibly walking distance to, the Desert Ridge shopping center, complete with its very own Friday’s, “In-and-Out” burger, and other restaurants of this caliber. There really isn’t anything that is walking distance from SDO, but it offers the easiest access to the 101 Freeway.
Parking and pool chair access at all three resorts was plentiful, even during peak spring break season. All three resorts had plenty of young, happy families enjoying their time together.
Best Overall Value: Sheraton Desert Oasis
SDO was a well maintained, well decorated, quiet, friendly home base for some members of my group to explore Arizona. While it lacks the fancy common areas of WKV or the complementary use of an adjacent hotel’s facilities, its two bedroom lock-off was more than comfortable for them. Moreover, given the fact I exchanged via II a small one bedroom “gold plus” at SDO for this two bedroom lock-off at SDO during peak, peak platinum season, it presented the best value of all the rooms I booked.
Room Assignment Data:
Oh Yeah, of the three units I booked at WKV, one was my own unit booked 12 months to the day out (as a 3 star elite member no less, woo-woo), one was an II exchange, and one was a nightly rental booked via SPG.com. I requested that all three reservations have a golf course view on a high floor, preferably in building 3 or 5. What do you think we got?
-nodge
OK here is how things panned out:
SPG booked room: Golf course view on high floor in building 7
II Exchange room: 2rd floor in building 4 (with a view of building 5 and daily morning sound of a power blower clearing the walkway in front of our balcony)
3 Star Elite owner’s room booked 12 months out: 3rd floor of building 4 (with view of building 5). Feel the love.
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