The Phoenician Resort Amenities and Activities
If you love luxury points-friendly resorts that offer something for all members of the family, then The Phoenician, A SPG Luxury Collection Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, may fit the bill nicely. We visited the resort in May of this year using a combination SPG points and a cash upgrade to score a large suite. You can read all about how and why we selected the resort, as well as get a detailed look at our suite in this post.
One of the main attractions for us at the resort were the pools, water slide, and splash pad area, so I dedicated a whole post to those attractions here.
However, even though there are nine pools, a 165 foot water slide, and a splash pad, that is really just the beginning of what this resort has to offer. Here's a look at some other amenities available at The Phoenician that we were able to see or sample on our weekend visit.
Tennis Courts
This resort has an impressive array of tennis courts including a Wimbledon championship grass court, seven Plexipave hard-surface courts, two courts with a Rebound Ace surface, and a Prestige Plexicushion surface on center court. I'm not sure what all of that means exactly, but I can tell you it looked impressive. Included in your $29 daily resort fee is complimentary tennis court and equipment rental for up to one hour of play, excluding the grass court.
There are also tennis pros available for instruction, as well as a tennis shop. We didn't play any tennis on our visit, but we did see the courts on our way to the outdoor chidlren's play area...
Children's Outdoor Play Area
The resort has an outdoor children's play area near the tennis courts that is covered at least somewhat from the pretty powerful Arizona sun. Adjacent to the play area is a half basketball court that isn't protected from the shade.
Even though it will be quite hot outdoors during the summer at this resort, it is still pretty awesome that they offer kid-friendly amenities such as this play area.
The Centre for Well-Being Spa
One of the things I was most looking forward to on this trip was a visit to the 22,000 square-foot spa, especially since I was able to score a discounted massage via a Living Social coupon, saving about 40% over the regular massage prices. A quick call to the resort verified they would accept the coupon for a prenatal massage, and we were all set.
The large spa looked pretty impressive going in, and they even had a massage table with an indention for my (quite large) belly. I have had a few prenatal massages during my two pregnancies and I can tell you that the quality and techniques used during those massages varies tremendously. Some people seem very hesitant to really apply pressure to pregnant ladies, some have you lie on your side, some have these belly contraptions as shown below, some have you lie on your backs, etc.
I think this massage contraption would have been good if I was earlier in my pregnancy, but given how far along I was it still wasn't really comfortable with my big belly, and I spent most of the massage being stressed out that I was on my back or my belly, neither of which was very good at that point. I should have expressed my preference to switch to laying on my side at some point, but I didn't, and as a result my massage ended up being kind of stressful instead of relaxing. Whoops. That was largely my fault, so I don't blame the spa, but just wanted to mention it for those who may consider getting a prenatal massage at some point.
The Funician Kid's Club:
Our older daughter has grown to love resort kid's clubs and really looks forward to going to them while we are on vacation when they are available. This resort has what they call a "Funician" Kid's Club for children 5-12. You can book full day, half-day, or Saturday evening sessions at prices that range from $85 for a full day from 9-4 and a half-day or evening 4 hour session for $65. If your child or you just want to check out the facility they offer daily tours from 4P - 5P where you can meet the staff and adopt a complimentary stuffed bunny.
Little C went to the Kid's Club for their Saturday evening session while my husband and I went to dinner at the resort. One really cool bonus with the Kid's Club's Saturday evening session is that they give you a voucher for 25% off at the Il Terrazzo or Relish restaurants which happened to cover where we were headed. This helped offset the cost of the Kid's Club a little bit and was a nice gesture that they offer for the parents.
While at the Kid's Club she did crafts, was fed dinner, roasted marshmellows, watched the evening release of the Phoenix (a bird), and basically had a blast for a few hours. Even when we ran into her and the kid's club instructor after dinner she wanted to keep playing for a bit longer!
Dining at The Phoenician:
We ate most of our meals either in the room or by the pool, but we did have one "adults" dinner at Relish, which is located at the resort golf course. This was a casual burger spot that seemed to be pretty popular with the golfers finishing up their late afternoon rounds.
We had a reservation, but as long as you weren't picky about whether you were sitting indoor or outdoors that reservation didn't really seem necessary the day we visited. The menu is made up of soups, salads, starters, milkshakes, beers, and of course burgers. I had the delicious black bean burger, but there are "meat" burgers ranging from the kobe beef burger to salmon, turkey, and tuna burgers.
The service and food here were very enjoyable, especially given the relatively painless dinner prices (for a resort). If we come back to the resort I would certainly visit Relish again with or without the kiddos with us. One money saving tip if you want to eat or drink at Relish is to go during happy hour from 3:30 - 6PM daily where there are $6 margaritas, $4 beers, and appetizers ranging from $3 - $9.
Many of our other meals were eaten by the pool at the Oasis Pool Bar and Grill both for convenience and to keep the prices a bit lower than room service or some of the more formal restaurants might offer. The food quality was good and the prices weren't terrible with the children's prices being especially gentle on the wallet as far as resort prices go...and we might have ordered several of the entrees off the children's menu for ourselves. The spring rolls below were $7 and Little C's smoothie was $2.25!
If you want to stay here using some of the points earned from via the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express note that the resort is currently 20,000 points per night on points or 10,000 points + $180/night via a cash and points rate. I also recommend simply checking cash rates as during some times of the year you may get better deals that way rather than using valuable SPG points since I like to get well over 2 cents per point value from my SPG points.
Have you ever visited The Phoenician? What did you think of the resort?
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