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| - My second visit to the Scottsdale Resort at McCormick Ranch... the first was a wonderful experience in their small casita rooms many years ago.
I was surprised with a weekend stay for my birthday -- an upgraded "McCormick-King" room, about $200 per night, a very generous gift (a promotional rate for the resort's post-renovation reopening). The first evening's plans included dinner via room service (due to a cake & birthday decorations already set up in the room), but there was one problem: there was neither a table upon which one might eat a room-service meal nor chairs upon which one might sit to eat it. The large room had a great king-sized bed and a leather reading chair in the corner... and it had a very large open space whereupon absolutely nothing existed, just awkward, empty space. This didn't seem right so I went down to the front desk and asked if the McCormick-King rooms had tables in them: "no" the front desk person said, "I can have them bring up a table and chairs from the patio if you'd like...", she offered. I declined (bring up patio furniture into the third-floor room?), we'd just eat in the dining room.
Understanding that the resort had just completed its renovation, in the dining room we concluded that the reno-budget must have run into some problems, as it has all the fluorescent lighting-ambiance of a Walmart food court. Given that it's such a beautiful property, it's hard to understand how a property owner could decide, "yes, this is the ambiance that we want, and with it, we shall have loud country music streaming out from the kitchen...".
That said, and on a more positive note, our server, Sasha, provided a wonderful dining experience and our dinner was excellent. Cheers to you, Sasha (and chef!)!
Overall recommendation: there are nicer resorts for the same price elsewhere in town; the Scottsdale Resort at McCormick Ranch is a truly beautiful property but it suffers from uncomfortable management choices.
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