A couple of nit-picks:
1. Park City Transportation is indeed the name of one of our local shuttle services. You are correct - it is very professional. It is the one I use when I don't want to drive down to the airport myself.
2. It is not "the snow park", but Snow Park. It is one of the two original day lodges built at Deer Valley. The other one is Silver Lake, the halfway point of the resort. The names are now also used to designate the different base areas of the resort. Snow Park has the Seafood Buffet in the evening. Worth the price if you want to eat a really good variety of food well prepared.
3. Jan's is a local ski/bike shop. They have several locations at the local resorts as well as the main store on Park Ave. The resort stores are usually populated with seasonal employees. I am surprised that they don't rent helmets.

I think the St. Regis just had a case of the opening jitters. If the staff stays together, it will become an excellent place to stay. Let's all hope that the major positions there do not fall prey to "seasonititis", where lots of the staff leaves at the end of the season!
I'm really sorry you tore your ACL on your trip. Did you get to experience our just-opened hospital??? I hope you mend well and will come back to visit Park City again.

We were at Deer last week and noticed that the Snow Park Lodge parking lot attendants are getting frusterated with some of the St. Regis staff. My understanding is that there is an employee lot and shuttle bus that staff is supposed to use; however, many employees attempt to park at Snow Park and take the funicular to work. The one St. Regis employee really tried hard to lie her way out of the situation, but an attendant recognized her and sent her on her way. I think there needs to be a little communication between Deer and St. Regis management, becuase the siatuation was rediculous.

How much do they charge for parking at St Regis? Valet? Self?:confused:

We just returned from a three night stay at the St Regis and loved it. We used 21,500 points a night and they upgraded us to one of their delux suites.
The room was large and very well appointed. We had a full kitchen, dinning room table and sitting area plus a king size bedroom and beautiful bathroom. The suite have everything from a coffee maker to plates, dishes, wine glasses microwave and full refrigerator. We had two decks off our room so we did not have one single complaint about the room.

The hotel is beautiful and while we were there it was empty. All of the staff members knew our name or at least our faces. The check in was super easy and we were greatful for the the upgrade.

The service at the hotel was excellent. Room Service arrived exactly on time and the food was great. The drivers of the Escaldes were super friendly and pretty much became our tour guide of the area. The hotel was empty so when we had some errands to run the driver actually spent the next hour and a half with us taking us to the Ski and See in Silver Lake then to the wine shop and one other quick stop. The Escalade service was a really great touch to this hotel. The ski vallets were great too. It was so nice to just hand over your skies when you were done for the day. They guys helped you in and out of your boots each day and set up your poles and skies outside the door. They were also helpful when we went to Park City and took the skies to and from the car for us.
My only complaint is the lack of a Apre Ski atmosphere. The bar while nice is sort of stuffy and there is no TV to watch any football games. The service was a little slow but nothing horrible. They have great outdoor space but no one seemed to used the outside firepits. If they had heat lamps out there I have a feeling the place would have been more popular.
We also enjoyed the two hot tubs which were pretty empty each evening. We brought down our own beverages and no one seemed to care.
Overall great hotel and we can't wait to go back.

I was there over New Years and would give the hotel mixed reviews. Many pluses, and good point value, but not in same league as top quality hotel such as Four Seasons.

Pros:
1. The ski valets were great, extremely friendly and helpful with everything. Very quickly came and helped with skis. Took care of returning skis to rental place and also in picking them up from Jans.
2. The drivers were friendly as well, and cars nice.
3. Check-in was smooth.
4. Rooms are nicely furnished, spacious enough.
5. Bathrooms are nice. Counter space is not enough though.
6. The gym was great.
7. Location is great.
8. Free coffee in mornings and hot chocolate at ski valet area was nice.


Cons:
1. Certain aspects of service were lacking. For example, there were no porters around when we arrived to check in, so we carried our bags ourselves to room (no problem at all when checking out).
2. Oftentimes, no one would answer the phone for 10+ rings when we dialed zero. I finally asked for and got the direct extension ot the front desk, who always promptly answered.
3. The 2 handsets didnt work over half the time.
4. Internet didnt work some of the time.
5. It would take too long for people to come to work on the above problems.
6. I more than once had to call multiple times for basic requests such as to get ice.
7. The bar was way too and understaffed for the new years time period. Waited 10 mins for a waitress who never came, even after the host said she'd get the waitress. Finally, we went up to and ordered drinks ourselves at the bar. (After that, the bartenders were helpful in occassionally coming around to see if we wanted more drinks.)
8. HAving to take the funicular down to get to the car was a pain.

Stay at the 'Bird and ski Alta.

One Week Minimum at St. Regis Deer Crest?
 

I just looked into booking a stay at the St. Regis Deer Crest for December 2010 and was told there was a minimum stay requirement of 7 nights between Christmas and New Year's. The best rate I was offered was $1325 a night plus tax, but only if I stayed 7 days, and Starpoint redemption was not available. I then asked about availability for December 2011 but was informed that the St. Regis Deer Crest only books 550 days out. Anyone have any better luck?

Pretty standard requirement for ski resorts during the last 10 days of the year.@:-) That's the peak of the peak season for ski resorts.

Slidergirl,

Sorry for the delay in responding - computer issues and then a ton of work has kept me off of Flyertalk. In any event, my accident was luckily the last day - about an hour and a half before we were done. Always happens that was it seems.

Despite my relatively low speed fall, I managed to slightly tear my calf muscle (it's healed), fracture my tibia (hairline - another two weeks of healing), and tear my tibial spine (ACL surgery in three weeks). All of this with zero pain on the fall. Bad luck I guess.

I am planning to come back though - perhaps President's Day or Spring Break 2011.

Thanks,
Bankingguy

Man, so sorry that happened. I hope you got good care from the PC medical establishment. Good luck with the surgery and the physical therapy. And, do make it back to Park City!!

Back on track here - some of the locals have a bad taste for the St. Regis after the Freestyle International World Cup event at Deer Valley a few weeks ago. For some reason, the hotel decided to close the bar at 9:30pm. Lots of folks were up there, celebrating. One of the funiculars was inoperable, so it took quite a long time for everyone to make it back down to the parking lot. I know some of the people who were there, and they are not the rowdy "party hardy" types. Word got around about the closure. Too bad - it was a hard fought battle to get local approval for the hotel, so they need to keep the locals thinking they made the right decision.

I'm new to the forum, but I just wanted to post an extremely positive review of this hotel. I stayed here the week after New Years (Anyone wanting to ski around the holidays, this is BY FAR the best time to go as the hotels are very slow) and we had a great stay. This hotel in my opinion was so much better than the St. Regis Aspen which I stayed at last holiday season. As a plat, I was upgraded to a 1 bedroom suite on a points stay which was amazing. They seem to have a decent number of suites, so upgrades to kitchens are not impossible like in Aspen. The hotel pool and hot tub area was also amazing. The walk to them was a little far, but I liked the large feel of this property.

The few drawbacks are that the ski shop is pretty poor and the location on the slopes isn't that great. The ski shop only had 1 type of demo ski and only had it in two sizes which was really crappy for such a slow week. The location also wasn't that great in relation to the skiing because the runs on that side of the resort are pretty limited. I'm an advanced to expert skier, and the black runs and harder blues on that side are basically just normal blue runs with moguls. I think it would be a pretty good location for someone learning to ski though because there is a nicely groomed green that runs from the nearest Deer Crest lift to the hotel. The service on the ski beach was pretty slow, but we had excellent service everywhere else in the resort.

All-in-all I absolutely loved the hotel and will be going back for Spring Break.

St. Regis Deer Crest V. Hilton Dakota
 

I know snow boarding is not allowed at Deer Valley but could someone please compare/contrast the St. Regis Deer Crest versus the Hilton Dakota on location, amenities, luxury, service, etc. thank you

Just got back from a 3 night stay and I wanted to post an updated review. I stayed at the property back in January and since then I think they've really done a great job fixing the few issues that I had on my first trip.

I was upgraded to an Astor Suite as a platinum without having to ask which was really nice. The suites come with butler service and it's one of those things that you wouldn't even know you liked until you had it, and now I fear I will always want it. From the complementary pressing to the daily in-room morning coffee or tea, they are really getting all the service down and this is now hands down my favorite ski hotel.

The ski shop is also finished now, so they have a wider selection of apparel and skis now which was a drawback on my first visit. The in house ticket office means that you really don't have to walk more than 15 feet from the slopes for anything ski related. The ski butlers were also a little more efficient this time around.

The complementary car service was never too crowded, I think they had 3 or 4 Escalades now and every request was handled within 10-15 minutes. There was also no more construction noise, and there was drink service by the pool in the afternoon. The service on the terrace cafe for lunch and apres ski was quick and there were plenty of servers this time.

The only thing that could use a little more work is the turn-down/maid service. The first stay we had great houskeeping staff, but this time they entered the room several times after one-quick knock and neither woman spoke a word of English. Not a huge deal, but when you can't tell them to come back in 30 minutes, it's a little frustrating. I felt like i had to have my privacy light on all the time to keep them from coming in so quickly. The one morning I left it off, they came in to try to clean at 7:55am while I was in the shower.

But the rooms are what makes this my absolute favorite ski hotel. I've stayed at several great hotels (St. Regis Aspen, Four Seasons Whistler, Resort at Squaw Creek, Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch) and this is the best in my opinion. The service at the others was comparable or even slightly better in some cases, but the size and comfort of the rooms and the pool/hot tub area was much better at the St. Regis Deer Crest. See the pictures below.

I highly recommend this hotel to anyone looking for an excellent 5-star ski resort. The prices are a bit high but this is a great value for using points and they also ran specials a few times this year where you could get a room for under $500.

Oh and one note about the internet. They have a free option for all of the guests and a faster paid service. I paid for the faster service and they removed the charge after I asked, but they said that since they provided a free service they didn't have to remove the charges for Platinums. I mentioned to him that it says just to accept all charges on and they would be removed on the spg so that he may want to mention that to platinum guests going forward.


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A local's birthday stay
 

Wanting to do something for myself for my birthday, I decided to take advantage of the St. Regis Deer Crest for a relaxing overnight and spa day. I made my reservation for the day after Deer Valley closed for the season. I did my reservation via spg.com and picked the lowest priced room available.
I drove up to the entrance and the very nice valet took car of my car. Another nice young man escorted me into the lower lobby, where I was checked in. The FA acknowledged my Gold status and that this was a birthday stay. I was upgraded to a Deluxe King bedroom. The hotel seemed deserted, but the escort said it was actually pretty full with 2 conferences. The hotel took me by surprise, decor-wise. It wasn't the chi-chi stuff I expected, but a rather tasteful, low-key decor. It didn't seem stuffy, but welcoming. My escort showed me the pool and fire garden area, the bar, the J&G Grill (with it's HUGE wine cellar), and the location of the Remede Spa (where I would spend all day the next day). Knowing that I was a local, my escort pointed out something very cool - the wallpaper print in the hallways is actually from photos of Park City! If you weren't told about it, you wouldn't look twice at the pattern.
My room was very welcoming. Again, not stuffy, but a cozy warmth. The bathroom was nice - I would like to have this one in my home! Soaking tub, nice shower (fantastic rainshower head), WC, and a vanity with a TV built into the mirror. My room looked to the East - not the scenic view to PC, but for those of us who know, gives a great sunrise view (but, I had such a good sleep, I went past sunrise :-) ). I plopped myself on the King bed and had a nice, long sleep. How nice to not have to wake up at 5:30am to get to work at the Resort!
The next morning, I went downstairs to check out before my spa day. The FA there told me that I should be sure to call next time and ask for the local's rate. If you have a Utah ID, you can get it. I think I'll definitely use that this summer - the place will be a nice place to spend a summer night!
The Remede Spa is verrrry nice. Expensive, but I knew that going in. All the services I had that day were expertly performed and I left totally relaxed and happy. Now, I have to try The Golden Door Spa over at The Dakota Lodge to see how it measures up (I've used the GDS at The Boulders in AZ). The Spa FA said that they will be having local's specials in the summer - I'll look forward to that!
All in all, I definitely enjoyed my short stay. If I need a place to run and relax to, this will be on my list. The fact that I can drive to it in minutes is very nice.

I am looking to go in a couple weeks. The locals rate was $175 for a King and $299 for the Astor suite. Both rates included breakfast.