- Joined
- Jun 7, 2005
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- Location
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- Resorts Owned
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Westin Kierland
Sheraton Desert Oasis
Unfortunately, I felt that this resort is not yet ready for owners even though they opened for occupancy earlier this year. There are a number of rough issues which I expect will be solved in the upcoming months. However, the resort itself is fundamentally flawed which will never allow it to become as great as others. In particular:
It seems there was a lot of focus on sq ft comparisons of this resort and others. I don’t think that is a big issue now that I’ve stayed at SKR. All the other resorts have lots of wasted space (long hallways, tubs in the studio units, etc).
While the resort was deficient in many obvious areas, I greatly enjoyed staying in the south.
Studio (Building 8, 4th floor corner unit)
- The timeshare units are in the old hotel buildings across the street from the ocean, and almost all units have a view of concrete and perhaps a few trees. If you’re able to get the top floor (4) in building 8 you may see a sliver of ocean between the hotel buildings across the street.
- Currently buildings 6, 7, and 8 are ready for occupancy, though it appears that the first floor in building 7 was not utilized (all the windows toward the pool were covered). Construction crews were actively working on the other buildings located near the parking lot.
- Parking access required a longer walk to the unit than in future, since we had to walk along the road then enter the main entrance to get to the unit rather than walk direct thru the resort. Note that the parking at this resort is open to the public without parking pass, unlike all other Vistana resorts that I’ve visited. I believe it was the same 10 years ago when I first visited the island. I would prefer parking passes and some semblance of visible security.
- There is a lot of building noise within the unit and it’s easy to hear your neighbors, along with building noise.
- I experienced multiple noise issues during my stay starting at 1:15am of the first night when the TV suddenly turned on by itself with the “greeting” music at high volume, which I am certain woke my neighbors in the connecting 1-bed unit. I ultimately unplugged the TV, after the on duty engineer had no idea how to guarantee this wouldn’t occur again. Of course, my neighbors then decided to turn their TV on for 30+ minutes at 4:30am as they prepared to check out (thanks so much), and there is absolutely no noise barrier between the studio and 1-bed other than the door (it should have more insulation along the sides and bottom, since this is a hard floor).
- After I was moved to a 2-bed non-LO unit, even that unit had a lot of noise. Understandably I could hear the upstairs unit walking, but worse I could hear (and understand) their conversation whenever they were in the master bath. At ~3:15am of the second night in this unit I was woken up by loud banging which reoccured every ~12-15 minutes for hours. The following night engineering and management visited for over an hour to investigate, heard the reoccurring noise themselves, and could not isolate the source though did agree the noise was not from the unit itself. This proceeded to reoccur over the remaining nights of my visit. I am fairly sure this noise can be heard in other units, as it was audible throughout the unit, and seemed to come from the bathrooms.
- The kitchen in the 2-bed non-LO is very, very small. It’s smaller than even the 2-bed kitchen at Nanea.
- There are new building issues (even though it’s a very old structure). The tub in the master bath leaked into the unit below, requiring construction to visit and replace a cracked pipe.
- This resort feels like a hotel. They kept the existing structure and walkways. There are only two elevators for the three buildings (I’m not sure how many more there are for the others), with several outside staircases (which are nice).
- There is just one check-in area for both the villas and the hotel, and it’s apparent that they are placing hotel guests on the villa side (as I heard the people checking in just prior to me).
- The concierge staff doesn’t fully comprehend owner needs yet…and two couldn’t answer basic questions…though there were a couple that were quite nice and helpful. FWIW, they offered 20,000 Marriott points and $50 for an owners update (I declined, of course).
- There is no villa store with items we would normally expect. There is just the hotel store which looked just sad.
- The villa pool has no whirlpool.
- The units were designed extremely well. The studio unit was very efficient with minimal wasted space, unlike WPV or WKORV. Don’t let the comparison of size between these resorts stop you from visiting.
- The kitchen and laundry fit perfectly, and are very functional.
- The bathroom is quite small (note the shower/toilet area is the same size in both the studio and the 2-bed non-LO).
- The studio couch and rolling table is smart and actually more usable than the table in the WPV/WKORV studios, IMO.
- The lanai was quite nice for a studio (larger than the WKORV-N lanai).
- I was told that there are some studios without a connecting door, though perhaps may not have any view at all. If I return to a studio I will be requesting one of those units.
- The 2-bed non-LO unit was similarly designed extremely efficiently to maximize use in the smaller space than other resorts.
- The 2-bed lanai was large, though had only four chairs and two small side tables (no large table for eating outside like WKORV).
- The 2nd bedroom was small, small, small… with an en suite bathroom that seemed squeezed in like many European hotels with a sliding door.
- The 2nd bedroom has no built-in closet, with only a small wardrobe (fyi, the safe is on the bottom of the this unit, and not in the master bed).
- The kitchen is near the entrance door and has a built-in table with two movable chairs…and no views.
- The living room has a couch and a single chair, so has one less piece of furniture as compared to the living room of the 1-bed WPV or WKORV resorts. Even so, it was quite functional.
- The beach casual restaurant was quite good.
It seems there was a lot of focus on sq ft comparisons of this resort and others. I don’t think that is a big issue now that I’ve stayed at SKR. All the other resorts have lots of wasted space (long hallways, tubs in the studio units, etc).
While the resort was deficient in many obvious areas, I greatly enjoyed staying in the south.
Studio (Building 8, 4th floor corner unit)
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