IndoorCamper Thanks for such a thorough review. I had a five night stay in late April with my wife and daughter. This was our second visit in four years, and my fourth overall. Much of your experience is your experience and I'd not think to counter it. Our experience was very good, however, and I thought I'd add a bit of what we encountered.

We went mainly for the pool. We booked a cabana for each of the days that we were at the resort; it was by the Mother of Pearl pool. I picked that pool location because it was not the 'family pool' and the adults only pool was obviously not an option for us. We found this pool to be more quiet than what the family pool appeared to be. We were absolutely amazed at the attentiveness of the gentleman servicing the cabanas. Water pitchers refilled often; drinks and food showed up quickly. When we got out of the pool and set our towel down a fresh one was immediately offered. He moved / offered to move the umbrella several times each day. He was absolutely amazing. The pool itself was not very crowded. There was a mix of families and couples. The only thing I saw that irritated me a bit was a very large group using a cabana on one of the days. When I say large, it was something like four couples and their children off and on throughout the day. They were never all there at once, but there were clearly more than what was reasonable. The waterslide was open from 10:00 until 5:00 I believe. We didn't see signs but asked at the front desk. I would have liked to see them monitor this better than they did. The gentleman was not very attentive and a few times my daughter was waved on and ran into other kids who just stopped inside the waterslide; the old water slide had a camera that the attendant watched to make sure one person was out before sending another.

We ate breakfast both in room and at Mowry. I have to admit, I loved the tots! I would have preferred regular hash browns (thin sliced) but I am so partial to tots. We mostly ordered eggs and toast, and that was good. I ordered an omelet one morning and that was good as well. Another morning I ordered avocado toast in addition to my egg breakfast and told the server I'd never had it before. It was not to my liking; he didn't charge me for it. The pool food was, well, pool food. It was not bad nor amazing. It met our expectations. We ate each night at the steakhouse (J&G?) and found the food to be amazing as well as the service. We ordered drinks a few times in the lobby bar (Thirsty Camel) and found the service to be a little slow. We walked over to the pub by the golf course; I was going to try some of their craft brews but we opted to go for a brisk walk (healthier decision) instead.

We could have gone to the exercise room (a separate building) but I opted not to do so b/c masks were required and I'm not into exercising with a mask on.

We partook of the coffee bar; overall just fine.

We reserved a regular room and paid the AAA breakfast rate. That got us $65 towards breakfast I believe; better than the Marriott Titanium benefit. That applied to any food purchased between something like 6:30 and 10:30 AM I believe. I did not try to apply SNA's. I wanted to be in the main building and face the pool. Also, I've stayed in the casitas and, personally, don't care to be that far away from the main hotel facilities. The one I had years ago was on the first floor and I just didn't like seeing the creepy crawly critters on my patio and hope that they stayed outside.

I did find the resort fee to cover things I didn't want to use, including yoga classes on the lawn.

I don't know that I personally have a feel for what a 5 star resort should or should not be. It was vastly superior to the Westin Kierland in all material ways. Was it the Ritz Paris? No, it wasn't. But overall, we had a great stay and would return. If going and you can spring for it, the cabanas really help make the heat and pool more enjoyable...but they aren't cheap.