JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa

Beautiful place to relax, recharge, and get spoiled!

Great new water slides!

Exquisite 3 night stay in Room 3252 from May 16-19, 2024. Wonderful property for families. The lazy river is a blast for kids. Room was very good size with large bathroom and very spacious balcony. The Marriott beds are like sleeping on a cloud. The Griffin Club staff was excellent. Their food and beverage service was top notch. We will stay again. My 9 year old son declared that it’s his second favorite hotel after the Fairmont Whistler. The grounds are stunning and we loved feeling like we were tucked in a luxury oasis for our 3 days. Thank you, JW Marriott Desert Springs. Paul, Erin & Brooks S

Found getting around the hotel was a challenge.

Good

The property is gorgeous. The pools and water park were a blast for both kids and adults. The food was pretty good. We were hosting my wife’s 40th birthday, so there were 25 of us. We rented a suite with a huge patio that had seating for nearly 20 people. We brought in Mexican food and our own bar and had a fabulous birthday party. At night, they had live music outside the lobby bar. It was a wonderful weekend. The only downside is the service did not match the quality of the resort and grounds. Caveat - we typically do the Four Seasons so our bar is high. As an example, the suite had a bedroom with a king and a living room with a pull out. We booked for my wife, my kids and me. We arrived at 1000 pm. The pull out was not made up. A true five star resort has the pull out made up or asks in advance. My wife called and asked them to come make up the bed. Response “we don’t make up the pull out - sheets in the closet.” Not a big deal but immediately clued us in that service was not five star service. Another example: we spent $400 on reserved pool lounge chairs. We ordered a pile of food and drink. They were happy to sell us the food and drink but nobody would pick up the empties. I finally started stacking them in the walkway so they had no choice. Again, the service was fine but it was far from exceptional. If I was the GM, I would bring in a consultant to emphasize five star service. All that said, for families, this is a lovely resort with entertainment for everybody. Clean and beautiful. I gave it four stars because I love top notch Four Seasons type service and am willing to pay for it. My true rating of this resort is 4.5 stars. By the way, we have taken our kids to a Disney resort. This was far better. You couldn’t get me back to a Disney resort. I would happily come back here . . . while wishing I was at a higher end resort. First world problems.

This resort needs to really get control of the crowd at the pool. A physical fight broke out between two grown men on May 4th at the lazy river over a raft as there are not enough rafts to accommodate the guests. One of them men was clearly the instigator/aggressor and should have been kicked out of the pool. I genuinely felt unsafe sitting next to him at the pool given his extreme level of emotionally instability and action to violence. Security was called and essentially did literally nothing and allowed this drunk violent man to remain at the pool. We left the pool as it felt unsafe. Marriott needs to get more rafts and to have zero tolerance for intoxicated violent guests if they want this to be a family resort. Regarding the spa. It was nice enough n it The spa had a group of 11 women and another group of 8 and then a few smaller groups so there were about 25 women crammed in the relaxation room and talking loudly. Then a big group of them were also very rowdy in the steam room. The spa should have warned me of this large loud group and given me the opportunity to book a different day or time. Service at Tia Carmen was awful. Food was average. Food was great at kembara. Overall the resort feels like a conference type of hotel and not really luxury. It is nice but just sort of meh in some places. They have pumped a lot of money into the fire pit area and lawn which was nice. The showers are tiny in the standard rooms. The lounge for Marriott members is nice and had a good selection of food. We did enjoy the fire pits and live music as well as the Crystal sound bowl healing and body scrub making. The lawn games were also a lot of fun. The singer on May 3rd was phenomenal.

I was expecting more based upon my experiences staying at other resorts. There was a lack of attention to detail. The resort is huge. It’s at least a 10 min walk to get from your room to the front desk. The restaurants were good but very expensive for what they offered. Breakfast though was delicious and memorable. Beds were comfortable. However, new pillows are needed. The bathroom was ok. The shower stall was very small and cramped. I liked that there was a low motion sensor light that turned on when you entered the bathroom. I also liked that there were robes in the closet. With regard to parking, there is a high fee to park each day. We called the valet to bring our car out before we left the room. At first they didn’t answer. When they finally did, they forgot to get our car. The first night we were there we were told that the water would be shut off throughout the resort at 11pm for a few hours and that no one could use the toilets or showers. Also, it is important to note that the lazy river and the slides shut down around 4pm.