Note - I am posting this here as well as in the Luxury Travel forum review thread for this property.

Three night stay over Columbus Day weekend 2020. Paid ~$280/night on a AAA rate, plus taxes and the $50/night resort fee.

The quick verdict is that this hotel remains one of my favorite Ritz Carltons. It’s really a wonderful hotel in both hard and soft product and it excels in multiple ways for multiple types of guests.

Checked in around noon and, even though we’d alerted them to our arrival time, were told our room wasn’t quite ready. We took a seat on the patio at Ignite, and within about ten minutes, got a call that the room was ready for us. We were given a third floor room overlooking the adjacent mountain and event lawns. Hard to say if it counts as an upgraded room (I am platinum) but getting in and unpacking was more important to us than the “highest” room type. Front desk was friendly and efficient, and gave us a great rundown of what the current status was of all outlets and activities due to Covid (more on that later).

Rooms seem to have been refreshed since our last visit in 2018 and honestly the hard product of the room - really, the entire hotel - is almost perfect. Lovely, understated decor, spacious room, walk in closet, really nice and spacious bathroom, pleasant balcony with chairs and table in every room, and zero wear and tear. The hotel feels essentially brand new even though it’s gotta be ten years old at this point.

One positive and one related quibble on the room design. Positive - the rooms are all designed to be adjoining in that the adjacent rooms are paired with an alcove that serves both doors, and if you book adjacent rooms they use/lock the door on the outside of the alcove so that your rooms are acoustically and physically separated but able to be passed between freely. Great design - except that the negative is the door is directly connected to, and very close to, the wall the bed frame is nailed into. So that when your neighbor slams their door it is loud and shakes the wall and the bed. Our neighbors definitely woke us up with a door closing a couple times. Surprising they didn’t think about this, and it is a real issue.

Outside the rooms, the hotel continues to impress. Lovely lobby and a super pleasant bar area and patio - called Ignite - that looks out over the pool area and mountains beyond. It’s a wonderful place for drinks and dinner. Some have noted the exterior design isn’t particularly stylish or impressive. It’s not. It’s brown. I get it. If you want sexy design, you won’t find it. My take is that the hotel is designed to quietly and luxuriously feel a part of its surroundings. In this way I think it succeeds admirably.

Anyway, the pool setup is a nice one-two punch of quieter infinity pool on the upper level with hot tub and louder kid-oriented pool on the lower level. The lower pool has an awesome, long, water park quality waterside that is really impressive. Another quibble here would be that the upper pool is obviously designed to be an adult pool. I have no idea why they don’t enforce it as such. If they installed a hot tub at the lower pool and enforced an age limit on the upper I’m sure everyone would be happier about it. Not sure what the reticence is around this question.

Service at the pool is outstanding. Everyone remembers your name, even over multiple days, drinks come quickly, and the food quality was very high. Highly recommend the quinoa bowl.

In fact, the service and soft product excel pretty much everywhere. The massage was great - exactly what I needed. The spa facility seems to have been refreshed recently and feels pretty new all around. Whirlpools are open but steam and sauna are closed due to Covid.

The nicest place in the whole resort is the spa pool complex. I wish we’d spent more time there. It’s very peaceful, they have food and drink service, it has its own whirlpool... it’s perfect. A world away. I can’t compliment it enough.

Covid-19 did put some dampers on the stay - the breakfast restaurant was inexplicably closed on our last day when clearly the occupancy was well high enough to support it. Literally dozens of people were in line or waiting to get food at the to-go coffee/breakfast outlet. The spa is also closed Mondays. And the burger place at the golf club is only open for HH and dinner Thursday-Sunday. Moral of the story is call ahead to learn what’s open and plan your visit accordingly.

The food at all outlets is excellent. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were all of very high quality. The dinner at Ignite was outstanding.

I was a bit annoyed with the 1pm checkout granted on our last day, but we pushed it to 1:30 and no one said anything so I’ll call it even.

A note on location and resort fee. Location - this hotel is on an island so to speak. It’s the end of the road in the Dove Mountain resort, 40 minutes from Tucson. To me, this is its best attribute. Stunningly beautiful surroundings, ample hiking, great weather, and you never feel crowded even though it’s a large complex. However, know what you’re getting into. Other than the golf club there just isn’t anything nearby. Resort fee - I hate them just like everyone, but this place does better than most in terms of providing value for something you can’t choose to not spend. Includes range balls, tennis balls, tennis racquets, self parking, dozens of bottles of water a day (sorry to all environmentalists), and probably a gallon of sunscreen over the course of a weekend. Was it $150 worth? Likely not, but I didn’t feel ripped off like I usually do with resort fees. On that note, don’t bother to valet. The self parking lot is a three min walk.

Overall this is a resort I could come back to again and again. It’s gotten better with age and I continue to be very, very impressed by it. Highly recommended. I can’t wait to return.