We are in complete agreement here. Au contraire indeed (ma souer).
Several of my sniffier NYC friends tend to look down their noses at it, even while many have never been. They tend to associate it too much with the borsch belt past (of which it wasn't really a part, not the classic circuit). Too old, too musty.
Nope. It is a positively sublime setting, and the kind of 'hotel' they will never build again.

Meanwhile, even though wife and I swore our leisure travel was done for the year - i.e. no further discretionary planning for 2024 - she's trying to book the two of us into Wildflower for a w/end in September. Some considerable part of me is now wishing i hadn't immediately texted her that AD article.
FT may well be 'worse' for me/my wallet than the vintage guitar forums i follow.