dkang

I booked two rooms using FWN's earned this year. This was the value of FWN's that I've been looking for! A free weekend with another couple at a brand new resort. We were there from 12/17 to 12/21 using 6 FWN's (2 rooms) and points for the last night. The front desk lady told me she had 70 check ins when I arrived, so I knew it was going to be fairly busy. Strangely, throughout the weekend, the hotel never seemed that packed.

Quick Summary..
On my own scale, I'd give the property 4 out of 5 stars and service 2 out of 5 stars.

Check In
Upon checking in, I was promptly upgraded to a deluxe room, adjoining with our friends. I was offered the standard 500 points or truffles, upon which I chose points as usual.

Room
The room was fantastic. The pictures posted above pretty much tell the story. Separate tub and shower with a rain shower head. The furnishings were brand new and there was a foyer that connected with our friends' room. That was particularly nice since we each had a door to our individual rooms, but the outer foyer area was connected and common.

Hotel Amenities (spa, restaurant)
The spa facilities were top notch. The inner sanctum of the spa, including whirlpool, dry and steam sauna, showers, lockers, were brand spanking new and clean. It rivaled the spa at Wynn in Vegas (Vegas winning out due to its size). The J&G restaurant was our spot for drinks, dinner, breakfast, lunch because its the only choice other than room service. Food is good. Burger is very good, drinks are solid. It's a great experience, but having 1 more restaurant choice would have been great.

Ski Valet
Other than the service, which I'll get to later, the valet is fantastic. It's ski-in/ski-out and it was the first time I've been skiing and not had to carry any of my equipment to/from anything. I will say that the resort is on the side of the mountain so every morning you have to take 2 lifts to where you really want to ski, but its really easy to get to at the end of your day. They have girls to help you put on/off your boots. Speaking for myself, I found this a bit weird. I dont know why, but, I just found it creepy. However, I did see them helping with families with kids, which seemed more appropriate.

Service
Here's where I lost it a couple of times during our vacation. Some of the people they have working there were either rude or dumb.

1. Ski Valet - My friend noticed a deep scratch on one of his skis after we skied the first afternoon (we took 2 runs the day we arrived). Background note - My friend, let's call him, John, just bought brand new skis the night before we went out there. He didn't mention it to me until after he gave back his stuff to ski valet and we were having a hot chocolate in the hotel. (John didn't unpack his own skis. A couple hours earlier, we dropped all our stuff off and ski valet unpacked all of our equipment.) I saw that it was bothering him and John thought that one of the porters probably dropped it. Let's go have a quick chat with them I offered. We went down to ski valet and calmly explained what was bothering John. The ski valet manager got very defensive and the first thing out of his mouth was "you can't prove we did that." He then went off into an argument that it is more likely that John damaged the skis as he packed them and he finished with "what are you guys trying to get out of this?" I was pissed. I said "how about admission of even the slightest possibility of guilt?" After he heard that, he backpedaled and started apologizing and we walked away. Anyway, long story a bit shorter, after a couple hours, I talked to the GM and he was very helpful. He pulled the skis out of valet and offered to have them fixed and was very apologetic. I could say more here, but I'll just leave it at that.

2. Escalades - The ski valet thing was major, everything else is pretty minor, but c'mon, this is the st. regis. There are a lack of escalades running during peak hours. One of the drivers said they had 6, but not all are always on duty. During peak hours, it is a LONG wait to get a car to park city. The car seats 6, so its pretty much 1 family/group per car. Its a 20 min round trip to/from park city (where most ppl are going), so if there's a crowd of 4 or 5 groups, it could take a while. We went down at 6:30 for a 7pm reservation and didn't get there until 7:20pm.

3. Spa - This is minor, but this should just never happen. My wife booked a treatment a couple days in advanced (24 hour cancellation). She changed her mind and canceled in person, 30 hours in advance. The day of the canceled treatment, we get a voicemail that is asking her why she isn't coming for her treatment. Oh, and every time I tried calling the spa from my room, no one ever picked up, so I left a message. 3 hours later, no one calls me back. No worries, its just downstairs, so I go down there. When I inquire at the spa, they say its been taken care of and sorry that no one returned our voice message.

4. Front Desk - The guy at the front desk told me if we took the vernicular down, we would be able to cross the street and find breakfast spots. When we took it down, the lady at the base of the vernicular said there were no places to eat anywhere around there.

5. Concierge - On the night before we left, there was a snow storm. I knew it would take a bit longer to get to the airport. I asked them how long she thought it would take. She replied "i dont know." She went on to say, on a normal day it takes 40 min. (no kidding). But, today, she said, she can't even venture a guess. Maybe, I'm asking too much, but isn't it their job to know things like that?

Anyway, the vacation overall was wonderful. We had lots of fluffy snow and deer valley is a great place to ski. This hotel is just 1 year old and I saw that they have plans to expand.