Catazog
TUG Member
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- Mar 11, 2007
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I thought I'd do a quick belated trip report on our week at WKV during the last week of October. We exchanged our summer week at SMV for a week at WKV (an even exchange for a 1BR premium). I called exactly 8 months out and had no trouble reserving our week.
This was our first trip to Kierland and I thought the resort was lovely. The villa was spacious, larger than our premium 1BR at SMV, and nicely furnished. We stayed in Building 7 which is the newest one, so the furnishings didn't show any wear that I could notice. The kitchen was very large and well-appointed, but the one thing we didn't like was the microwave -- or I should say, the lack of a regular oven or even a convection oven. I read the manual to the microwave to try and determine if it was also a convection oven but as far as I could tell it wasn't. There were instructions on how to bake fish, but our one attempt didn't turn out very well. We stuck to pasta after that.
Aside from that small issue we loved the villa and had a nice golf course view. I'd read that Building 7 was a bit far from the pool area, but it was a quick and easy walk. Even the walk to the Kierland hotel was a leisurely 5 - 10 minutes. I LOVED the lazy river at the hotel! And the slide was fun too. I really like how the pool areas at the hotel and the villas are surrounded by trees and other plants. It makes for a very pleasant environment. And being a fair-skinned redhead I have to admit I was happy that the lazy river was mostly in the shade during the late afternoon!
The weather was almost perfect. I say almost only because it was unseasonably warm in Scottsdale for the end of October, 93 to 95 degrees every day, which was a little too warm for us to do any hiking in the area. But coming from cool and rainy Seattle I have to say that the sun felt glorious (thank goodness for SPF 55 sunscreen)! It wasn't too warm, however, to have our Tournament of Mini-Golf Champions. My husband and I played mini-golf at four different course, one which had four separate 18 hold courses and another that had three different courses. We had a blast!!
One of the places we played, Castles and Coasters (the one with 4 different courses) was probably the best place I've ever played.
We also took a day trip to Sedona (amazingly gorgeous) and visited several museums in the area. I'd also highly recommend visiting the Botanical Gardens and taking one of the docent tours. I really learned a lot about the southwest and fell in love with the saguaro cactus. Oh, and we did do the owner's update (we had a free morning and figured it was worth the $100 AmEx card). It was low-pressure and our salesperson, Suzanne, was very nice and understood that we'd had bad experiences before with owner updates. They made us an offer to purchase an EOY (odd) Platinum 1 BR premium at Lagunamar (44,000 SO) for $9,900 plus a 60,000 Starpoints bonus; or an EOY (odd) Platinum 2BR lockoff at Desert Willow (148,000 SO) for $13,950 plus 60,000 Starpoints. We also had to option to purchase an additional 80,000 Starpoints for $1,550 and had until June of 2011 to do so for Desert Willow, and until June of 2009 for Lagunamar.
For one brief moment we were tempted by the 1BR Lagunamar offer, but then cooler (TUG-like) heads prevailed. If we want to buy another EOY week we will do so at resale (we currently own an EOY even 1BR premium at SMV and a 2BR lockoff at WKORV). Frankly, since we don't use our 2BR lockoff in Maui every year we can exchange our studio side for a great week in Kierland if we so desire, so we don't really need another week at this point. We were also offered the explorer package (4 days/5 nights at WKV plus 50,000 Starpoints for $1,695 plus a $99 processing fee to be used within 18 months) which we turned down as well. This was the first time we took a "survey" after the sales presentation, which is when the explorer package was offered to us. Again, no high pressure, so it was not a unpleasant experience. The whole thing took just under 2 hours and could have been less if we hadn't asked some questions. We used the AmEx card to pay for most of a delicious dinner at Deseo, a restaurant over at the hotel resort.
So, that was our week in Scottsdale. We were there Oct 25 - Nov 1. It ended up being one of our best vacations and we definitely look forward to going back. Gotta play more of that mini-golf!
This was our first trip to Kierland and I thought the resort was lovely. The villa was spacious, larger than our premium 1BR at SMV, and nicely furnished. We stayed in Building 7 which is the newest one, so the furnishings didn't show any wear that I could notice. The kitchen was very large and well-appointed, but the one thing we didn't like was the microwave -- or I should say, the lack of a regular oven or even a convection oven. I read the manual to the microwave to try and determine if it was also a convection oven but as far as I could tell it wasn't. There were instructions on how to bake fish, but our one attempt didn't turn out very well. We stuck to pasta after that.
Aside from that small issue we loved the villa and had a nice golf course view. I'd read that Building 7 was a bit far from the pool area, but it was a quick and easy walk. Even the walk to the Kierland hotel was a leisurely 5 - 10 minutes. I LOVED the lazy river at the hotel! And the slide was fun too. I really like how the pool areas at the hotel and the villas are surrounded by trees and other plants. It makes for a very pleasant environment. And being a fair-skinned redhead I have to admit I was happy that the lazy river was mostly in the shade during the late afternoon!
The weather was almost perfect. I say almost only because it was unseasonably warm in Scottsdale for the end of October, 93 to 95 degrees every day, which was a little too warm for us to do any hiking in the area. But coming from cool and rainy Seattle I have to say that the sun felt glorious (thank goodness for SPF 55 sunscreen)! It wasn't too warm, however, to have our Tournament of Mini-Golf Champions. My husband and I played mini-golf at four different course, one which had four separate 18 hold courses and another that had three different courses. We had a blast!!
One of the places we played, Castles and Coasters (the one with 4 different courses) was probably the best place I've ever played.We also took a day trip to Sedona (amazingly gorgeous) and visited several museums in the area. I'd also highly recommend visiting the Botanical Gardens and taking one of the docent tours. I really learned a lot about the southwest and fell in love with the saguaro cactus. Oh, and we did do the owner's update (we had a free morning and figured it was worth the $100 AmEx card). It was low-pressure and our salesperson, Suzanne, was very nice and understood that we'd had bad experiences before with owner updates. They made us an offer to purchase an EOY (odd) Platinum 1 BR premium at Lagunamar (44,000 SO) for $9,900 plus a 60,000 Starpoints bonus; or an EOY (odd) Platinum 2BR lockoff at Desert Willow (148,000 SO) for $13,950 plus 60,000 Starpoints. We also had to option to purchase an additional 80,000 Starpoints for $1,550 and had until June of 2011 to do so for Desert Willow, and until June of 2009 for Lagunamar.
For one brief moment we were tempted by the 1BR Lagunamar offer, but then cooler (TUG-like) heads prevailed. If we want to buy another EOY week we will do so at resale (we currently own an EOY even 1BR premium at SMV and a 2BR lockoff at WKORV). Frankly, since we don't use our 2BR lockoff in Maui every year we can exchange our studio side for a great week in Kierland if we so desire, so we don't really need another week at this point. We were also offered the explorer package (4 days/5 nights at WKV plus 50,000 Starpoints for $1,695 plus a $99 processing fee to be used within 18 months) which we turned down as well. This was the first time we took a "survey" after the sales presentation, which is when the explorer package was offered to us. Again, no high pressure, so it was not a unpleasant experience. The whole thing took just under 2 hours and could have been less if we hadn't asked some questions. We used the AmEx card to pay for most of a delicious dinner at Deseo, a restaurant over at the hotel resort.
So, that was our week in Scottsdale. We were there Oct 25 - Nov 1. It ended up being one of our best vacations and we definitely look forward to going back. Gotta play more of that mini-golf!
