TravelGuy1965

This is a good place to use your Authentic Meal Platinum Cert.
They give an appetizer, meal, and a dessert. There is a default they choose for you but at times they will make some exceptions to allow you to choose.

The Bartenders are good to talk with Yegor..
The good Tequila's can get pricey though

LarkSFO

We had a very enjoyable four night stay at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess during baseball spring training in March 2016.

We arrived in our own car (do not love the PHX airport remote car rental location!), and the valet and bell staff were excellent – as they were consistently throughout our stay.

I let them know our stay was in the Fairmont Gold area, which they quickly validated, and they loaded our luggage on to a golf cart and whisked us off to the Gold lounge for check in. It was nice to avoid the main lobby check in, which seemed crowded at times (especially when the huge group who arrived for some type of award trip arrived).

The Gold staff was welcoming, check in was quick, and we were off to our “Fairmont Gold Junior Suite”. A junior suite is not really a suite (in my opinion), as there is no door to close separating the sleeping area from the living area. That being said, it was nicely sized and well laid out, with a huge bathroom, comfortable living area, and a nice outdoor deck with a table and chairs.

The bed and pillows, as we find consistently with our Fairmont stays, were excellent.

Living area included a sectional couch, coffee table, as well as the mini bar and a large television. It was a pleasant place to sit and relax. Outdoor deck was also nice, but we were not really in one of the better locations and our deck overlooked a cart / walking path which was fairly well trafficked.
Bathroom included dual sinks, a large soaking tub, separate shower, a very large closet, as well as the toilet area. Le Labo toiletries, which is another area where Fairmont has it right.

The Gold lounge, and the Gold staff (Thank you Marty, Clara, Andrew, Derek, Emilee, Shani, and Kristin!) were truly the highlight of our stay, and the reason we would consider a return to the Princess. The entire team was unfailingly friendly, pleasant, kind, and helpful. This resort awards pins to employees for their customer service related achievements, and the Gold Team wore them in abundance. It was clear they are the cream of the employees here, which showed in every interaction with them. Exceptional.

The Gold lounge itself was also very nice. Delicious full breakfast with hot and cold options, as well as a nice expresso / cappuccino machine. Indoor / outdoor seating area. The Hors d’oeuvres in the evening were very good the couple nights we sampled them. Honor bar for any desired drinks.

Housekeeping and turn down were good, with the typical water bottles delivered with turn down.

Arrival amenity was very nice – western themed chocolate creation.

A Gold stay also includes access to Well and Being Spa ($50/day?), which is a large, well outfitted, well staffed spa. We did an excellent massage one day with knowledgeable, accommodating, and experienced masseuses. The spa facility itself is exceptional – it actually benefits from the size of the resort. Excellent exercise facility with great equipment. Private rooftop pool with nice views. Steam room, sauna, Jacuzzi, cold plunge pool, swiss shower, ‘inhalation room’ in both the men’s and women’s separated areas. The ‘grotto waterfall’ is co-ed, and was a first for us. Essentially, you can sit under a 10 foot waterfall with water streams of various strength. We really enjoyed this, very nice to move around under the water streams to work different parts of your body.

The grounds here are very well maintained and pretty. Desert / cactus mainly, but also some ponds / streams. Back side of the resort is on the TPC Scottsdale course – this would be a good location if you are coming for the tournament.

With all of the positives of our stay, this resort is likely not for everyone. It is huge (700 or 800 rooms?), and getting bigger. They are adding another 100 rooms as well as a large beach / pool area (in addition to the pools and waterpark and water slide area they have now). If you are coming with younger children, then they will probably appreciate it as there are many fun things to do.

If you don’t have children, it is nice how they have segregated the waterpark area so it really does not affect your stay unless you go to that area. From the Gold area, we were completely isolated from the pools / common areas which made our stay much more relaxed.

Location is a little far north for us for a spring training trip, we would prefer being a little closer in to old town. That being said, Uber was always quick to arrive at the resort, and it was not too long a trip to get to the stadiums or old town restaurants we went to.

Food was not exceptional in our case, but we primarily ate outside the resort. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/26347088-post42.html

Overall, a quite enjoyable stay. If we stay here again, we would make sure to book in the Gold area again.

Just FYI:
Valet Parking: $20.00 per day
Resort Fee: $29.00 +$2.11+$1.45+ $00.48 tax per day

curl

Anyone know what category room you need to book to use a Gold upgrade certificate?

We used last year in Hawaii and that property required you to book up 4 levels (Dlx OV) to use very.

TIA!

ptownca

I used a Gold upgrade cert here, but had also booked a suite cert. You can stack them. I've never needed to book a certain room category to use a Gold Cert.

nock

You used both a suite and gold cert to get a gold suite? Im pretty sure gold certs generally can't be combined with room/suite upgrades.

curl

I know you can stack them for sure. Alas, already have plans to burn the room and suite certs in Hawaii. The Gold certificate would come last though... i.e. room upgrade, suite upgrade, then Gold upgrade (although that would be wasting your suite UG, unless they would give you a Gold suite, which I've been told you cannot get as official policy, the cert gives you whatever the standard Gold room is)

At the Orchid, you have to book Deluxe Ocean View (below this are Fairmont Room, Partial Ocean View and Ocean View Rooms) to apply the Gold certificate, which then only got you a Gold Garden View Room.

hook13

Thinking about staying here over thanksgiving, or new years holidays....are the pools / waterpark open year round, would it be warm enough in Nov/Dec/Jan? We have a toddler we'd be bringing. Some other family members (2) may stay at a different property, would they be able to hang out at the pool with us or do you have to buy a pass for guests, etc? Any info about their christmas program/activities would also be greatly appreciated, the fairmont concierge highly recommended this resort for a holiday stay. We have some certs to use by Feb, and not sure i'm up for the flight to the orchid from ORD with a 3 yr old this year-

rfrost

They do AMAZING Christmas lights all over the property, and run a little tram around the property to view them. I was there last year in mid-December, and it was warm enough to hang around at the pool, but I think when I was there in January, the weather was damp and cool. That's obviously anecdotal at best, though.

ptownca

I was there in mid-December and it was glorious. Literally millions of lights and the property is exceptional. One of my top 3 or 4 in NA. ^

AnthonyGT

We've got a stay coming up here in a few weeks. This our first Fairmont stay and I was reviewing the Dining Certificates. It looks like all of the facilities there are listed as accepting the certificates, including the Southside Pool bar.

Do you typically register the certificates at the front desk and then they get applied throughout the stay? Or do you use them at each dining area as you go?

Anything else we should be aware of to enjoy our stay? Thanks!

Jasper2009

You can either ask the server at the restaurant to redeem your dining certs or you can ask the front desk staff to redeem them afterwards (the latter option tends to be easier if you're staying at the hotel)

AnthonyGT

Thanks for the info! We are staying there for 5 nights. I'd rather just have them redeem the certificates at the end of the trip (we have 4 $25 certs) but it looks like alcohol and tip are excluded so I wasn't sure how they would figure all of that out.

Jasper2009

You obviously need to charge all bills to your room, and the front desk staff theoretically have access to the detailed restaurant bill.

But in my experience agents usually only have a quick look to ensure it's not just alcohol + tip, but I've very rarely had an agent make a fuss about using certs for a proper dinner that may've included a glass of wine.

niehaubs

Spring Training 2018 update.
This was my first time here and I paid using Ovation certificates from the last round of Getaway Deals.

First the good news: After reading through the posts here it seemed that the 3rd night free benefit could not be used if using Ovation certificates. I called to use my suite upgrade (from the standard room to the Casita Junior Suites for reference) and since I had them on the phone, just asked if the 3rd night could also be used. She had to check something or with someone and came back to tell me that indeed, there has been a policy change and since you have to pay for ovation certs, they count as a paid stay and you can 3rd night them. Awesome! I checked in, they only took 2 ovation certs (I had all 3 just in case), they gave me 6 breakfast coupons good for 1 of 2 restaurants for $32 each including tip and tax but not alcohol. Wait, you say, you should only have had 4 breakfast coupons, 2 per Ovation night and none for the free night. Indeed, says I, however, I did not call them out on this error. The Toro restaurant let us use 4 of them on the same breakfast to cover the whole cost minus our alcohol and we still had 2 left to eat at Ironwood the other morning. Morning 3 we had to be at the airport by 6:00 so it was never in play for breakfast. The bed was super comfortable, the pillows were blessedly not the stupid kind that offer no support, and the room was nice. Other than the actual cash price, I would stay here again. Service was good everywhere we went on site. The fajitas and drink at Hacienda were pretty damn good too.

The bad news. This does not apply to all, but the spa here was weak in my opinion and I am no expert. The amenities there and pools and such are ok. I mean the rooftop pool was nice, I expected warmer water somewhere in the co-ed area, but its waterfall or pool for common space. The massage I got was ok, however the massage my girlfriend was the best she's ever had according to her, so I guess that depends on your person Only other bad is that it's not terribly convenient for spring training ball parks, except the ones in Mesa, and really, that's not a negative to the hotel because I knew that when I booked it. I'm just being informative. There was much driving.

coleworld