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| - This is where you come when you want to be waited on. When every single person I met in four days (I'm guessing for me it was about 15 staff) is so friendly - genuinely - and helpful, you will feel pampered.
Not the phony "you're not rich enough" treatment you can get at some of the coastal resorts - you know them if you've been treated like that.
One day I had a facial from Marcella, who'd been trained in Hawaii and had worked the Doral in Florida. I came out looking like and feeling like a new woman.
Another day I got a massage from a young woman who had the sweetest voice and most powerful arms. That's the massage of my dreams and I floated out of there.
Then Margo did my hair. She gave me five tips I've never heard in years of hair appointments. I got raves on my coarse and difficult to manage hair.
I'm sure many of the staff have worked this place since it was built - about 25 years ago. Talked with Lucy at the Spa - 22 years; Albert since he was 16 and he's 32. The staff number about 1200 and everyone gets a full meal free when they work.
$70 million renovation in 2009 - the public areas are beautiful but not over the top.
The eye candy is the landscape - 2 acres of dozens of varieties of cacti. Palm trees, nine swimming pools, three world class golf courses.
Our room (on the company dime or should I say C notes) underwhelming. All the comforts - robes, slippers, toiletries, etc but style wise - a bit too retro for me. That alone is why I didn't give five stars.
But look out the window or step onto your private veranda - Camelback mountain is right there with beautiful landscaping all around. The resort is huge, 250 acres, but there are golf carts and courteous drivers everywhere to whisk you wherever you need to go.
The first night the company hired 2 hot air balloons for rides in the evening - fabulous! The food - whether it was a sit down dinner for 400 or soup and salad at Il Terrazzo - excellent.
At some point, when you can and need to spoil yourself, stay here.
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