I'm going to be nitpicky here, but I think it's the little details that allow a hotel to be considered "excellent."
My wife, son and I enjoyed our stay at the JW Marriott in Tucson. The pools were nice. The restaurants were nice. The free scheduled activities were nice. But none of it really wowed me.
The lazy river is a fairly small loop without much in the way of fountains or waterfalls. The slide is pretty slow (as an adult, I had to push myself along to keep moving). The lazy river/water slide was unexpectedly closed one afternoon for an event when we planned to use it.
The restaurants are expensive and don't quite live up to the cost. We did enjoy the BBQ place (although we didn't realize you needed to take a shuttle bus to get there; it's unclear on the website).
Among the free activities:
- The morning hike was pretty cool. A nice way to see the desert. It was, for the group of 15-20 we joined, a hike straight out and straight back, not a loop. And it was difficult to hear the guide unless you stood right by him. He was quite knowledgeable. We later hiked the other (slightly more difficult) loop on the other side of the front entrance ... and discovered that it's fairly easy to go the wrong way without realizing it. Our intended 45-minute hike turned into a two-hour trek. (That's our fault, not the hotels -- and just a word to the wise who want to make that hike.)
- The morning ritual was interesting and informative. Worth doing once, I'd say.
- The tequila toast. OK, I like tequila. I was looking forward to this, but didn't get to do it until our last night. I showed up at 5:28, and had no idea what to do or where to go. Around 5:33, someone got up in front and announced the toast would be coming up ... in about 15 minutes. First, the tequila would be passed around, "please do not drink it until we do the ceremony," he said. The tequila for the toast would be, he announced: "orange creamsicle." As he started to explain what that meant, I left. I'm not waiting another 15 minutes for that. No thanks.
The service was very good, verging on excellent. We used valet parking and never had to wait for our car. The waitstaff was always very friendly. The poolside service was fast and friendly.
Really, it's a very nice place ... but nothing about it made me feel like this was a true luxury. Maybe I'm aiming too high and expecting too much. (I'm probably spoiled by that couple nights at the Ritz on the club level back in Toronto -- THAT is an excellent hotel.)