My wife and I took our 4.5 y/o son to the Scottsdale Princess for our 5th Anniversary. Expedia had a great rate with airfare that saved us about $1000 total for a 7-day stay. We stayed in the Casitas, which have their own small-ish pool, but we went to the main pools instead. The South pool is really nice and big, and was pretty empty (this late in the season, most people are there on business); nice hot tub in this one. The East pools were also nice, but the one for the kids with the zero-entry and water slides did not seem to be heated. Even with temps in the high 70's, the nights are pretty cool, and the pools simply should be heated. The other pools were heated, and were pretty comfortable. The room was OK; clean, nice CD/radio, fine TV's. Fair-sized closet. Minibar was well stocked, but left no room for leftovers. Free tea and coffee in the room were tasty. Bed wasn't so good, but I sleep on memory foam, so any spring mattress makes me sleep poorly. Gas fireplace was a nice touch in the main room. Really nice bathroom, but the WC had only a sliding door, which was a bit odd. Shower is an open curve with a built-in seat - neat idea, but can be breezy. Only complaint as another reviewer said was about the towels. Use some softener!

Grounds are very well maintained, and everyone was very nice all around. We arrived late, and the porter already knew who we were. The setting is gorgeous, and having rabbits all around thrilled our son. We liked how the property is far enough off the main road to feel secluded, but it's only 5-10 minutes away from the shopping districts to pick up incidentals cheaply and avoid resort overcharging.

Restaurants were very good. We preferred the Cazadores bar for a cheap pastry/fruit/cereal breakfast, just get your coffee outside the LV Bistro downstairs for free. LV is fine, but pricey and adds up quickly for something that is usually just diner food, though the free morning bread platter was awesome. Did not go there for lunch or dinner. Marquesa is their 5-diamond Riviera-inspired restaurant, but not worth the high price; the ambiance and service are great, but the food was just good. For great dining, instead go to La Hacienda on-site and The Grill at the nearby TPC golf course (we would have eaten at La Hacienda every night). Also check out Deseo at the Westin about 10 minutes away. Cazadores had some good tapas in the evening if you want something light and like to eat outside.

Do yourself a favor and take a day off to drive to Sedona, an easy 2-hour daytrip. Also good for kids is Crackerjacks, a little fun park 10 minutes away with mini-golf, bumper boats, go-carts, and an arcade.

We also took advantage of the Kids Club. The counselors were very nice and good with the kids, and seemed to at least be in their 20's. The Club itself has a good selection of games, about 8 Nintendo GameCubes, plus little pool and foozball tables. Plenty of books and movies there, too. Our son would go from about 8:45a to 11:30a, but was too young for the lunch and afternoon sessions, where kids need to be able to swim on their own. Still he enjoyed going, but is generally happy any time he gets to play videogames anyway. They would do nature walks, go to the sandbox, some arts & crafts stuff, then come back for the parents to pick them up. They also leave the Club doors open all day, so we could have let him go back if we wanted to stay with him, but we always found something else to do. Very nice that it was included if you are a guest at the hotel.

Overall, we really liked this hotel - a nice place to kick back and not do much, but do it comfortably... and eat a lot.

The Fairmont is hands down one of the most beautiful hotels I have stayed at..the bathrooms no matter what kind of room you were in were large, had a giant shower. We arrived on a Thursday and were upgraded to a Casita suite which had two rooms, and was wonderful. Unfortunately, we had to move to a smaller room on the weekend(one I had originally booked) a Casita signature. It was a bit of a let down from the much larger suite.

The service on Thursday was unbelieveable. Then the convention (s) arrived. The hotel was packed, and service definitely slipped. I paid $400 a night for my room and the Casita room was $589 (which I covered with my American Express points). For these prices...service should not vary. Our second room had a broken TV stand which was not fixed although we called. Also my room keys stopped working for some reason. The increasing number of staff on the weekend appeared to not have as much knowledge as to how to help you. The concierge we saw one day was not familiar with Scottsdale too much...Also we asked them to make reservations for a bike trip and they didn't do a good job, telling us they were booked and offering a pricey alternative when they could have told us to rent bikes on our own cheaply and enjoy the many trails around the city.

The French Press coffee they provide in the room is also too strong and a pain to make..I like high class but in America we invented a better way to make coffee!

If the rates had been lower, all would have been fine. But since they book conventions at a much lower price than what we paid, I do not feel we should have been experiencing the effects of someone else's psuedo work trip. Also, I left my phone charger in another room and it was not recovered (I assume staff took it since it was a blackberry and they can be expensive chargers) though I called the next day.

The Casitas are the best place to stay if you are looking for privacy and romance. They are far from the main hotel but the walk is very pretty. The entire outlying area is also under construction. We didn't hear noise, but the grounds were not 100% beautiful because of it.

I would definitely stay there again, if prices were reasonable. But I cannot say it was entirely worth it. The spa treatment I received was average...the spa was very nice but not all that personable. Very large and the people working the front desk appeared to know nothing about the place.

We booked a weekend stay at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess after a conference in Phoenix. We'd read on Trip Advisor to watch out for the billing system here, and I was glad to have had the heads up. That's one of my few complaints about this resort. I had booked the Girlfriends Getaway Package and it seemed no one I spoke to at the hotel or the spa was aware of exactly how this worked--even though it's heavily promoted on the hotel website. When I booked the package, I called ahead and asked detailed questions about exactly what kind of breakfast was included, what kind of spa treatment was included, etc. And I took names. That saved me several hundred dollars, because--as expected--I was billed incorrectly for most of the weekend.

That bit of unpleasantry aside, our time there was great. The grounds are amazing, the food at La Hacienda restaurant was exquisite, the room service breakfast was set up for us on our balcony overlooking the waterfall on the plaza, and the front desk/bellman/valet staff were efficient and cheerful. But the room itself was just a notch above average. I'd read elsewhere on Trip Advisor that the beds weren't very comfortable, and that's true. They are on the unpadded side. So if you like firm with no pillow top, you'll love these beds. Otherwise, they are just adequate.

But the firm bed and the billing issues all pale in comparison to our visit to the Willow Stream Spa. It was everything we expected and more. Our only regret was that we lingered over breakfast and didn't get as much time in at the spa as we would have liked. You truly can make a full day out of it there--and you should. From the gym classes and personal training in the morning, to the organic tea, muffins, and cookies that are available in the atrium, to the multi-service relaxation area (jacuzzi/steam/inhalation/plunge pool/sauna), to the AMAZING roof top pool and falls, this place delivers on the pampering.

I know this review is somewhat late but I wanted everyone to know this Hotel is charging top dollar but not worth it. After attending a well known event in January 06 I didnt want anyone to make the same mistake we did since we are going to attend the same event Jan.07
The bed was so bad and uncomfortable we did not sleep one night more than a couple hours .It was lumpy too soft and had seen its share of guest. There was some type of humidity problem in the room the quality of air flow was poor .If this is your last resort for somewhere to stay and you are booking late all I can say is Good Luck .