February 17, 2025 • 34 mins
This episode celebrates a memorable surprise anniversary staycation at the newly renovated Grand Hyatt Scottsdale, showcasing the couple's enriching experiences with their family. Insights into hotel amenities, dining options, and spa highlights deliver practical tips for families considering this luxury getaway.
• Surprise staycation for anniversary
• Overview of the Grand Hyatt Scottsdale renovations
• Benefits of securing club access
• Dining experiences and reviews of hotel restaurants
• Highlights of the spa and wellness treatments
• Tips for families planning a visit to the hotel
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
In today's episode we are sharing all the details of
the newly renovated Grand Hyatt,scottsdale, after a surprise
staycation for our anniversary.
So listen in.
Hi, I'm Raya.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
And I'm Dwayne.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
And we are your hosts of the Travel Party of Five
podcast, where we share how wetravel as a family of five
around the world.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
We will also share how we use points and miles to
travel as affordably as possibleand sometimes even completely
free.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
So if you're wanting to travel more with your family
but you're not sure how, we'dlove for you to listen in.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn
a thing or two to get youcloser to your next trip.
Welcome back, friends.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Hello, welcome back.
Happy Mondayay.
If you're listening to this ona monday, um, we, so duane,
surprised me for our anniversarywith a staycation at our
favorite hotel, so that is whatthe meat of today's episode is
going to be about.
Favorite hotel in.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Arizona.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
In Arizona.
Yes, Thank you, but before weget into that, there is an
elevated offer on a Southwest,on a few Southwest cards
actually, that I wanted to makeyou aware of, and so we're going
to talk about that first.
So all three Southwest personalcards right now have, I guess,
what you could consider anelevated offer, and I, all three
(01:47):
have this.
It's the same offer on allthree cards.
So you can earn a companionpass good through February 28th
of 2026, plus 30,000 bonuspoints when you meet the minimum
spend on any one of the threepersonal cards, which I think
are all around $4,000 minimumspend.
So you open the card, you meetthe minimum spend and then you
(02:09):
would effectively earn acompanion pass for a year-ish
plus 30,000 bonus points.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Which basically means buy one ticket, get one free.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yes, on Southwest Yep , Southwest Yep.
Now, I don't think that's asuper great offer because the
regular way you would earn thecompanion pass, which is by
opening up two cards and thenearning the companion pass, by
earning 130,000 Southwest pointsor miles, whatever Then you
(02:43):
have the companion pass plus,you have those 130,000 points to
spend on flights, and you'llhave it for roughly close to two
years if you do it where you,if you time it correctly, if you
time it correctly.
Thank you, yes, and we actuallyhave a podcast episode one of
our very first ones about how weearned two companion passes one
(03:05):
for me, one for Duane so youcan go back and listen to that.
It's about a year old, but themethod is still the same, and so
I think that's the better wayto go.
However, if you have a fewtrips coming up, you're already
planning to fly Southwest andmaybe you don't care about
booking them with points, thenthis is a great way to
(03:28):
effectively save some money onthose flights that you were
already going to book anyways.
So I do think it makes sensefor people if that is your
situation, you know, or ifyou're planning to travel to a
place where Southwest flies.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
So wait, you can't use a companion pass if you book
on points.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
No, no, you can.
I'm just saying you're onlygoing to earn 30,000 points,
whereas typically you would earnmuch more than that.
So you're just not going tohave a lot of points to use to
book flights.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
So, yes, I think if you're already planning to fly
Southwest, maybe you have like akid in competitive sports or
something and you have to fly toall these little, you know,
random cities for them to dotheir competitions and whatnot,
and you can fly Southwest.
This is a great use for thatbecause you essentially would do
buy one, get one every time youneeded to go.
So you just have to keep inmind does this make sense for my
(04:24):
situation and then evaluatefrom there.
But I did want to make you allaware that that is currently an
offer that's out there and couldbe good for some people.
Okay, so on Thursday of lastweekend, our wedding anniversary
(04:50):
is February 10th.
So on Thursday, which was a fewdays before the 10th, I came
home and Dwayne kept saying wehave to talk about our
anniversary and I thought okay,like I hadn't really given it
much thought.
Quite frankly, that's just whathappens when you have busy
lives.
I think I said okay, and sothen he says I booked us a
(05:10):
staycation, the kids are goingto go to your parents, and again
it's Thursday night and Ithought, okay, that's great.
When is it Thinking?
It was a few weeks out.
And then he said tomorrow and Iwas like oh, so why?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
don't you share?
Yes, so I had planned astaycation at, like she said,
our favorite hotel here.
I booked her a nice little spapackage, I got some reservations
, or I made a few reservationsfor dinner because I didn't know
which restaurant she was goingto pick.
(05:47):
But yeah, I had plannedeverything up until that point
dropping kids off, havinggrandparents watch them.
But I did forget one thing,which I was reminded of like a
few days before, which is thedog.
We recently got a dog and Icompletely forgot to set up like
a dog sitter for that.
(06:08):
But shout out to my nephew, hecame through and stayed at our
place for a couple of nights todo so that we could go do that.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah, dwayne coordinated his nephew to come
and stay at our house to watchthe dog because he's still a
puppy, he can't be boarded yetactually the dog, because he's
he's still a puppy, he can't beboarded yet, actually he.
We have him scheduled for aninterview, as they call it, with
the dog boarding place in acouple of weeks, but they
require that he be four monthsand he's not quite there.
So Dwayne literally coordinatedeverything he did.
(06:40):
He scheduled me a massage, hemade a couple of different
dinner reservations and told meto pick which one I wanted, and
it was a really fun littlegetaway.
That was totally unexpected andI really appreciated it.
So we're going to share.
We've done an episode on theGrand Hyatt, Scottsdale.
Before it used to be the HyattRegency Ganey Ranch.
(07:03):
We've been going there everysummer with our kids for five or
six years at least.
Right yeah, we actuallyoriginally fun story.
We originally started goingthere because a long time ago my
sister used to work for a Hyattin Orlando and when she came
out to visit she was talkingabout the hyatt employee rates
(07:23):
and she had booked a room there.
And so she, I think she did.
She book us two rooms there andwe stayed and she stayed or
something like that.
Um, I think it was just one room, we were all just in um.
But that was our firstintroduction to this hotel and
we've been going back everysummer since.
They generally have pretty good, cheap summer rates because
it's so hot here in ph, andthey've been undergoing a big
(07:45):
renovation, like multi-milliondollar renovation, like, I think
, hundreds of millions ofdollars.
Yes, and when we were thereover the summer, the pool part
was completed but the rest of itwas not.
So there were tarps everywhere,drywall, dust, construction,
lots of construction, and so itdefinitely wasn't like we were
there for the pool and it wassummer, so it was fine, but it
(08:08):
definitely wasn't like a superrelaxing resort.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
It didn't have a resort feel to it yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
So the renovation is now done and we got to explore
some parts of the hotel that wedon't normally get to explore
with kids, and so we did thinkit was worth another episode.
I do know that this hotel ishighly anticipated for a lot of
people, and so we're going toget into the details.
So we checked in on Fridaythere were no suites available.
(08:37):
Okay, sorry, let me back up.
Thursday night, when Dwaynetold me he booked this, he did
not use points because therebecause there was no way for him
to use points without mefinding out about it the points
live in my account, and so wedid pay cash.
But I remembered when he saidthat that I had a guest of honor
(09:00):
award that was about to expireat the end of February, and so I
immediately called and appliedthe guest of honor award to his
reservation so that we could getmy globalist benefits on this
day, and so it was pretty easyto do that.
As a side note, the guest ofhonor that I had was actually
(09:21):
gifted to me, and we alreadyused it once at the Hyatt
Regency Huntington Beach overLabor Day weekend last year, but
for some reason it neverdisappeared out of my account.
I think that just happenssometimes.
I'm not sure if it wasn'tapplied correctly or what, but I
still had it.
So, effectively, we got to usethis guest of honor twice and I
(09:43):
had to because it had beengifted to me.
I couldn't gift it to him, butI could call and apply it to his
reservation, and so that's whatI did.
I called the globalist line andthey applied it over the phone
and now it is gone from myaccount.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
So, yes, we basically got and it was definitely worth
it because, like she said,there's a new club lounge.
I don't think I said that yet,but yes there is yes.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Well, yes, after the renovation there's a new club
lounge.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
I don't think I said that yet, but yes, there is yes
well, yes, after the renovation,there is now a club lounge
there, which?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
it had just opened, I think two or three days, two
days before we got there, beforewe got there, so we checked in
there were no suites available,no standard suites.
I looked on the app and therewere none available.
But this was one of theweekends of the Waste Management
Open, which is a really biggolf tournament here in the
Phoenix-Scottsdale area, so it'sa very busy time and I think
(10:36):
the hotel was fairly full fromit and I think that's why there
were no suites available.
So we didn't get upgraded,which was fine.
Well, I'm sorry they didupgrade us to like a better view
room.
I think we had a courtyard view, which I don't think was quite
what you booked.
The room was great.
It was a renovated room.
It was completely fine.
It had a king bed, had a littlepatio area, nice bathroom.
(11:01):
I'm actually going to make anInstagram reel about our weekend
.
So by the time this episodecomes out, that Instagram reel
will be live on my Instagram.
So if you want to check thatout, it is at travel party of
five on Instagram.
So come, give us a follow andif you want to see the hotel
with your eyeballs instead ofjust hearing about it, you can
(11:21):
check that out.
You want to talk about the club.
So the for globalist Breakfastit is in the club lounge.
Sometimes you'll have an optionof being able to order from the
restaurant menu or in-roomdining or the lounge, and at
this hotel it was only thelounge, but the breakfast was
not bad.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, breakfast wasn't bad.
Well, let's back up.
So we get there Friday.
We put our bags in the room andwe immediately immediately go
check it out which is brand new,really nice indoor seating,
outdoor seating um.
They had the like folding doors, so you know it was the indoor
outdoor feel um.
They had fancy coffee machines,espresso machines.
(12:04):
We got there right before happyhour, which began, I believe,
five to seven, which is freebeer and wine?
Yeah, they had a lot ofappetizers.
Yeah, a lot of finger foods.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
It was like there was , you know, like raw vegetables.
Locks for bagels, or was thatbreakfast, that was breakfast
they had charcuterie, cheeses,salamis, crackers, and then they
did have two hot dishes.
It was like these littleartichoke balls.
Oh yeah, fried artichoke balls.
(12:43):
Almost like spinach artichokedip, but in a fried ball form.
Oh yeah, and shrimp tempura,shrimp tempura which was quite
good it was really good actuallyand so we made little plates.
We had plans to grab dinner atthe bar, but we made little
plates, had some drinks and Imean I was telling duane, this
(13:03):
would have been plenty for ourkids to eat for dinner like they
they could have eaten a fulldinner there yeah, I mean, our
oldest wouldn't have been happy,but he would have he would have
loaded up like 10 shrimptempura on his plate probably,
but the food was quite good.
They also had you.
You could order cocktailscocktails from the bar, but for
(13:25):
a fee, so those were not free.
But the beer and the wine wascomplimentary.
And, yeah, I think throughoutthe day they have snacks, juices
, sodas.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yep, that's readily available whenever you're there.
Soda water juice.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Yep, and so we visited the lounge, then headed
over to the bar.
We sat at the bar and haddinner.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Which the bar is a completely new thing.
It's like right in the centerof the lobby when Live music
used to be.
Before the renovation there wasa stage there.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
They still have the stage for live music.
It's just moved a little bit.
It's out in the courtyard.
So if you've been there before,fridays and Saturdays they
still have live entertainmentand they had it while we were
there.
I think the bar where it's atnow is way better than what it
was before it was reallybeautiful and if you sit on one
(14:23):
side of the bar you can look outat the courtyard and the
mountains and it's a reallybeautiful view.
We didn't sit that way, but itwas.
Yeah, as we were sitting at thebar we were like we love this
hotel so much Maybe that was thewine talking a little bit.
It's just really feels likeyou're on vacation, even though
(14:43):
you know for us we're 20 minutesfrom home, and so that was
really nice.
They also had a very nicesancerre, which is like a, a
white wine that's not too drybut also not sweet, and I really
enjoyed that.
Um for dinner, for food, I hada burger.
Duane ordered wings.
We switched halfway throughbecause I liked his wings better
(15:05):
and he liked my burger betteryeah, which never really that
never happens to us.
But he ordered lemon pepperwings and he kept saying these
wings are so salty.
And then I tried one and I'mlike oh no, no, it's not salty,
it's very, very tart, like itwas very sour and lemony, which
I love.
He's not so much a fan, no.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
So we swapped I'm a huge fan of wings, though, but
these were yeah so the burgerwas pretty good yes, and the
service was great.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Um, the bartender that we had was was very nice,
so that was great.
And then we went back to thelounge, because they also do put
out some little desserts yeah,from like six to eight.
I think they do desserts,something like that I wouldn't
have high expectations for thedesserts, but if you just want
like a little sweet bite, it wasfine.
(15:54):
The first night we had they hada few different options and I
had a coconut macaroon.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
That was quite good, and again they had just opened
up.
So so I'm sure you know withinsome time they're going to up
their game a little bit.
But yes, it was not too fancy.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
I would say that dinner appetizers were the best
part in the lounge, specifically.
Um.
So then we just went to bedbecause we still had to go to
our son's football game onsaturday morning.
So we woke up, had breakfast inthe club and again the
breakfast was kind of like yourbasic club lounge.
(16:32):
They had smoked salmon.
They didn't have bagels butthey had toast.
Um, they had what like one meatright like bacon sausage.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
It was bacon that day with French toast, french toast
.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yes, and wasn't there an egg dish?
That was the next day?
Oh, okay, and you know, theyhave cereal, they have fruit,
yogurt, oatmeal, I think.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Again your coffee, your juices.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yes, again, our kids would have been thrilled with
the breakfast, Like they wouldhave eaten it just fine.
And if you have globaliststatus or if you can get a club
access award or even book a clubaccess room, then if you're a
family, I think it's 100% worthit to save money on food.
Then we headed out to footballand I told Dwayne we just went
(17:22):
to the field, watched the gameand then left, said bye to the
kids again and I told Dwayne myplan for today is to sit by the
pool, read my book and then goto the spa for for my
appointment, and that's what wedid.
So this hotel has two pools.
There is an adult pool, whichis fairly small, and then
(17:46):
there's what I call the familypool, which is much, much bigger
and has like a.
It's huge, actually it's huge.
There's a big water slide andthere's also a beach area with
sand and that goes into the pooland it's really great for kids
and families and when we go withour kids we sit and that goes
into the pool and it's reallygreat for kids and families and
when we go with our kids we siton that side of the pool.
(18:07):
For this trip we went to theadult pool.
The adult pool was actuallyfairly busy.
I would say it was a nice day.
February weather in Phoenix canbe a little tricky.
It can be warm or it can becold, and there's just no way to
know.
Fortunately it was in the 70sand so it was warm enough to sit
by the pool, and the pool washeated so.
(18:28):
Yeah.
And so we sat by the pool, weordered lunch, had a drink, I
read my book and it was verypeaceful and wonderful and nice
to be out in the sun after a fewmonths of cold weather.
And then I went to the spa.
And what did you do?
Speaker 2 (18:44):
I sat by the bar, had some good whiskey puffed on a
cigar, which I never do.
I even had a Google like what'sa good cigar for a beginner?
Speaker 1 (18:54):
They had, is it called a humidor?
We saw it kind of in thelobby-ish area and D duane was
kind of joking that he was goingto have one and I said, well,
please send me a video.
He was like I'm gonna wear myfloral button-down shirt and my
cuban hat and my fedora.
(19:14):
Yes, I said, please send me avideo of you doing that.
He did take a video, uh, but hewas not dressed.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
The part no no, I couldn't find a shirt or a hat,
yeah, but I enjoyed it.
You said it took you a longtime, right?
Yeah, I mean, I puffed on thatthing for at least an hour.
I mean not straight, but youknow it lasted an hour.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Did you feel sick?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
No.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Did you inhale it?
Speaker 2 (19:41):
No, you're not supposed to inhale.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
I know, I mean I know , I just like I don't look
what's the appeal?
Speaker 2 (19:50):
I don't know, but I was on a little mini vacation
and you were at the spa, sothat's what I did.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Fair enough, fair enough.
Okay, let's talk about the spa.
Well, first of all, all do wewant to talk about lunch,
because you had something thatyou really liked for lunch at
the pool, and mine was quitegood too oh yeah, I had bagogi
fries, which is, yeah, korean,korean beef, korean beef with
(20:18):
kimchi on top of some fries, andit was really really good.
I also ordered I ordered acaesar salad with chicken, which
was also actually surprisinglygood.
It was like a kale caesar.
I didn't want something heavygoing to the spa, you know it
was quite good.
So pool food delicious.
(20:39):
Would recommend pool drinks, Imean it's hit or miss with pool
drinks.
Dwayne had a pina colada thatwas so strong I took one sip and
I was like ugh.
No, thank you.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
It was okay.
The best pool drinks, though,is at the Hyatt Regency in Maui.
Yeah, yeah, I agree, go therefor the drinks.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
You know what?
I just saw that.
You know they had the grotto intheir pool and it's been under
construction.
As a side note, They've now,like it's, completely walled off
, so instead of the grotto, it'sjust a big wall, which is, yes,
I saw that they were.
You saw that, Yep saw that theywere.
(21:26):
You saw that yeah, the wall didnot look nice anyways, too, too
expensive to fix.
So, yeah, well, anyways.
Um, okay, we digress.
So let me talk about the spa,because I've never been to the
spa at this property and I had areally, really wonderful time,
and I think if I had known whatto expect, I actually would have
allowed longer time.
And when Dwayne made theappointment, originally he had
booked a deep tissue massage.
(21:47):
I don't love deep tissue justbecause it hurts, and so I
looked at the menu and I endedup swapping that out for a hot
stone massage, which waswonderful.
So my appointment was at 4.15and I headed over there around
230.
Thinking that would give meplenty of time to, you know, use
all the facilities and theyhave.
(22:09):
So some of the amenities thatthey have are they have a steam
room that has chromatography,and so there's a light in there
that basically changes colors,and outside the door it tells
you what each color does for youand your body, and it's like
it's supposed to be healing.
They have a sauna, which wassadly out of order during my
(22:32):
stay, and then they have a coldplunge and a hot tub.
This is all in the women's side.
I'm sure the men's is similar,and then you can go out into
this co-ed area, which is anarea between the men's and the
women's side, and they have aCeltic mineral pool that you can
(22:54):
swim in.
They have all these comfychairs around the pool and you
can also order food and drinksat a cost, obviously and then
they have these comfy couchesand chairs with big fireplaces
and the fires were roaring andit was very cozy and like if you
(23:15):
had also had an appointment, wecould have like had lunch there
and like relaxed and and justto know, if you get a spa
package or anything at the spa,you can use the facilities from
when it opens to close yeah, andby like literally you just have
to book a service any serviceand you can use it for the day.
(23:37):
And so I I was unaware that theyhad this big co-ed area and
that you could order food anddrinks.
So I told Duane, I said if Iwere going to do this over again
, I would have both of us have aservice and then have us,
instead of going to the adultpool, we could have come here.
They had alcohol andnon-alcoholic drinks and you
know, food, and I would haveordered food and drinks there
(24:00):
and enjoyed it, cozied up on oneof the couches by the fire.
It was really beautiful, likethe spa was very beautiful and
they have a little relaxationroom where you wait for your to
be called back for yourappointment and they have tea
and infused waters and littlesnacks in there that you can eat
(24:23):
too.
And so I did all the things.
I did the cold plunge, I didthe hot tub, I went in the
mineral pool twice actually Iwent in the steam room, I used
all the things I could use andthen I did the hot stone massage
, which was wonderful actually,I would 100% do that again.
Wonderful actually, I would ahundred percent do that again
(24:49):
and finished up about 5, 15 Ithink, 5, 20 and the spa closes
at six and they also haveshowers that you can use and the
showers are wonderful becausethey have a rain shower, a
regular shower head and then onthe wall like they have three
shower heads on each side of you.
So when you get in the showerthere are eight shower heads
(25:11):
hitting your body.
It was crazy.
I've never had a shower likethat.
So that was very nice.
So I took a shower.
They have blow dryers and stuffyou can dry your hair.
I dried my hair and then wewent to dinner.
But I would a hundred percentcome back to that spa and if
you're local to Phoenix, Ibelieve they have some type of
locals maybe discount, because Ithought I heard the woman on
(25:33):
the phone scheduling anappointment talk about that.
So I'm going to look into thatmore.
But the spa is called SpaAviana.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
I don't know if locals get it, I bet you it's
the community, it's the GaneyRanch community.
I bet, oh, maybe, maybe, Idon't know.
I mean, I'm assuming that's howit is maybe, maybe I don't know
.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
I mean, I'm assuming that's how it is like, but I'm
considering taking my mom backthere for Mother's Day because I
think that would be a reallynice gift.
So it was really really niceand I'm gonna try to go back
this summer too when we go there.
It was great, so I would highlyrecommend the spa and then for
dinner.
So Dwayne had made a couple ofreservations one was at ruth
chris and the other one was atla zozona, which is inside the
(26:15):
hotel and is a new restaurant,and you had a hard time making
reservations right because ofthe golf tournament.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Yes, I, yes, was on open table probably like eight
or nine days prior and Icouldn't get a reservation
between six and eight at any ofthe nice places around there.
Yeah, and I was like what the F?
But then I realized it wasbecause it was Super Bowl
weekend.
It was the waste managementopen.
(26:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
So everywhere I went to book, it was, like you know,
either eating there at 4, 30 or10 pm and it's like well, not
doing that yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
So I chose la zozona one because it was new and I
thought it would be fun to checkit out, but also it was in the
hotel, so I didn't have to rushleaving the spa, and that was
important to me, because youdon't want to get all relaxed
and then kill your vibe, youknow.
So we, we went to eat at therestaurant.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Um, I would say we didn't love the food overall I'm
gonna be honest like I'm I'llnever go back there again the.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
So in the beginning they serve you homemade bread.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
That was good yes, that was great it was the
ambiance, you know theaesthetics.
It's real nice in there.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
But they also served us complimentary champagne.
That was also very nice.
And then we ordered the burrataappetizer and that was also
great.
I really enjoyed it.
After that it went downhill.
Yeah, I'm gonna.
I'm gonna be fair and say that Iordered a pasta dish that I
don't generally enjoy, but theserver said it was his favorite
and so I gave it a try.
(27:57):
I should have listened tomyself.
I didn't like it.
It's cacio e pepe.
I don't love the amount ofpepper that is used in that dish
.
Generally it's too much for me.
Not spicy wise, but like pepperis so fruity, I just don't like
it, and so I ordered that.
It wasn't very good to me.
Maybe, if you like cacio e pepe, maybe it's, maybe you like it.
(28:19):
Um, dwayne ordered the ribeyespecial because they were out of
the porterhouse.
They have a porterhouse thatserves two and it's pretty
expensive, and D was like I'mgonna order this.
That was his plan, but theywere out of it so couldn't do it
.
But they had a ribeye it wassupposed to come with like a
truffle butter.
(28:40):
It didn't taste like truffle,it was okay.
It was, it was okay.
And we also ordered some friesand some rapini for the table.
Those were fine.
Fries were great, oh, and wealso ordered a side of scallops.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
The scallops were good scallops were great, but
the presentation of them wasthey were just thrown on a side
plate on a plate sorry, sorry, Ikeep shaking, I keep hitting
the microphone, apologies yeah,and those were the best things,
and there was only three littleones, so I was pretty upset
about that.
Well, not upset, butdisappointed.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
So, yeah, I would say it was a mixed bag on the
dinner.
I would go back and I would trysomething different.
Apparently, dwayne would not.
And then again we headed backto the lounge.
We grabbed well, they hadlittle cupcakes out for dessert.
They were pretty dry, honestly.
(29:34):
I took one bite and was like,oh, I'm not eating any more of
that, I'm sure they were dry thewhole time, but I mean this was
right before they closed.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
It was like right before 8.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
I grabbed a cup of tea from the lounge.
That was nice.
And then we called it a nightand woke up the next day and had
to head home.
We had they offered us a latecheckout but we didn't need it
because we had a super bowlparty to go to the next day.
We had to do all the groceryshopping and all that.
So we're gonna pick up the kids,yeah my parents, uh, were like
(30:05):
can you, can you please pick upthe kids by noon on Sunday,
cause I think they knew theywere going to be over it by then
, and they were, so we did.
That's fine.
Um, one more note, though,about coffee.
So they do have coffee in thelounge which is free.
I drink decaf coffee lately,and both of the beans containers
(30:28):
in the lounge said regular, soI don't think that there was any
decaf, quite frankly, there isalso a what is it called?
Press coffee?
Thank you, press coffee in thelobby that you can order, and so
we got coffee from there bothdays.
That way I could have a betterchance of it being decaf.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Before the renovation it was a Starbucks, but now
it's a press coffee which isncaf.
Before the renovation it was astarbucks, but yeah, now it's a
press coffee, which isn't bad no, it was good.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I don't know if that's just a phoenix.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
It is a phoenix chain , yeah it's a phoenix chain.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Um, all in all, I think we really enjoyed our stay
.
There are a couple of otherrestaurants that you could eat
at if you didn't want to go thefancy route at la zozona.
One is called tiki taki.
Tiki taki, that's not what it'scalled.
It's tiki taka or something.
Tiki takla, it's like a?
Um tapas.
(31:22):
Uh, spanish and japanesejapanese fusion restaurant.
Yes, they were making likeyakitori on the patio one day
and it smelled really good Sushi.
Yeah, so that is a fun optionto try.
And then is there one otherrestaurant yeah, mesa Central.
(31:43):
Oh, yeah, mesa Central.
Is that like a buffet?
Speaker 2 (31:46):
I mean in the morning it is, but I don't, they don't
have one at night.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Just breakfast or menu at night?
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Yeah, we didn't eat there, but I'm sure it's decent.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Yeah, we didn't eat there.
You have to walk through it,though, to get to the lounge.
The lounge is kind of tuckedaway.
So all in all, I think we had agreat stay.
We are excited to go back inthe summer.
One thing I found interestingis the regular pool was so empty
and again, february can be hitor miss in Phoenix but there was
(32:19):
almost no one there, and I knowthat in the summer every single
chair will be full becausewe've been there in the summer.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Yeah, I have to go down to the pool early, grab
some towels and set them out.
Yeah, to save our seats.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Yeah.
So, all in all, wouldabsolutely recommend.
I definitely think if you havekids and you're coming to the
Phoenix area, if you need tostay at a Hyatt, that is the
Hyatt you should stay at.
It is the best one for familiesin the phoenix area.
Hands down, no question.
Um, yeah, don't you agree?
Speaker 2 (32:54):
oh yeah, I agree.
Yeah, and if uh your husbandout there looking for an idea
for an anniversary gift yeah, itwas a great time yeah, look
there, book a spa, she'll behappy I was thrilled, I loved it
.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
I told dwayne this might be the best gift you've
ever given me.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
So well, I'm a pretty bad gift giver that's not true
I am.
You're a great gift giver, butthat's not true.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
I got an espresso machine for christmas.
That was a great gift, yeah,okay.
So anyways, hopefully thatanswers any questions.
If you've been planning a tripto the scottsdale or phoenix
area, would 100 recommend thishotel.
Get club access.
If you've been planning a tripto the Scottsdale or Phoenix
area, would 100% recommend thishotel.
Get club access.
If you don't have globaliststatus, it will save you a ton
of money.
And if you have additionalquestions, find us on Instagram
(33:40):
at TravelPartyof5.
And send me a DM.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Yes, we appreciate you listening.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
We will talk to you soon.
Bye.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Have a good one.
In today's episode we are sharing all the details of
the newly renovated Grand Hyatt,scottsdale, after a surprise
staycation for our anniversary.
So listen in.
Hi, I'm Raya.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
And I'm Dwayne.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
And we are your hosts of the Travel Party of Five
podcast, where we share how wetravel as a family of five
around the world.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
We will also share how we use points and miles to
travel as affordably as possibleand sometimes even completely
free.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
So if you're wanting to travel more with your family
but you're not sure how, we'dlove for you to listen in.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn
a thing or two to get youcloser to your next trip.
Welcome back, friends.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Hello, welcome back.
Happy Mondayay.
If you're listening to this ona monday, um, we, so duane,
surprised me for our anniversarywith a staycation at our
favorite hotel, so that is whatthe meat of today's episode is
going to be about.
Favorite hotel in.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Arizona.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
In Arizona.
Yes, Thank you, but before weget into that, there is an
elevated offer on a Southwest,on a few Southwest cards
actually, that I wanted to makeyou aware of, and so we're going
to talk about that first.
So all three Southwest personalcards right now have, I guess,
what you could consider anelevated offer, and I, all three
(01:47):
have this.
It's the same offer on allthree cards.
So you can earn a companionpass good through February 28th
of 2026, plus 30,000 bonuspoints when you meet the minimum
spend on any one of the threepersonal cards, which I think
are all around $4,000 minimumspend.
So you open the card, you meetthe minimum spend and then you
(02:09):
would effectively earn acompanion pass for a year-ish
plus 30,000 bonus points.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Which basically means buy one ticket, get one free.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yes, on Southwest Yep , Southwest Yep.
Now, I don't think that's asuper great offer because the
regular way you would earn thecompanion pass, which is by
opening up two cards and thenearning the companion pass, by
earning 130,000 Southwest pointsor miles, whatever Then you
(02:43):
have the companion pass plus,you have those 130,000 points to
spend on flights, and you'llhave it for roughly close to two
years if you do it where you,if you time it correctly, if you
time it correctly.
Thank you, yes, and we actuallyhave a podcast episode one of
our very first ones about how weearned two companion passes one
(03:05):
for me, one for Duane so youcan go back and listen to that.
It's about a year old, but themethod is still the same, and so
I think that's the better wayto go.
However, if you have a fewtrips coming up, you're already
planning to fly Southwest andmaybe you don't care about
booking them with points, thenthis is a great way to
(03:28):
effectively save some money onthose flights that you were
already going to book anyways.
So I do think it makes sensefor people if that is your
situation, you know, or ifyou're planning to travel to a
place where Southwest flies.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
So wait, you can't use a companion pass if you book
on points.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
No, no, you can.
I'm just saying you're onlygoing to earn 30,000 points,
whereas typically you would earnmuch more than that.
So you're just not going tohave a lot of points to use to
book flights.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
So, yes, I think if you're already planning to fly
Southwest, maybe you have like akid in competitive sports or
something and you have to fly toall these little, you know,
random cities for them to dotheir competitions and whatnot,
and you can fly Southwest.
This is a great use for thatbecause you essentially would do
buy one, get one every time youneeded to go.
So you just have to keep inmind does this make sense for my
(04:24):
situation and then evaluatefrom there.
But I did want to make you allaware that that is currently an
offer that's out there and couldbe good for some people.
Okay, so on Thursday of lastweekend, our wedding anniversary
(04:50):
is February 10th.
So on Thursday, which was a fewdays before the 10th, I came
home and Dwayne kept saying wehave to talk about our
anniversary and I thought okay,like I hadn't really given it
much thought.
Quite frankly, that's just whathappens when you have busy
lives.
I think I said okay, and sothen he says I booked us a
(05:10):
staycation, the kids are goingto go to your parents, and again
it's Thursday night and Ithought, okay, that's great.
When is it Thinking?
It was a few weeks out.
And then he said tomorrow and Iwas like oh, so why?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
don't you share?
Yes, so I had planned astaycation at, like she said,
our favorite hotel here.
I booked her a nice little spapackage, I got some reservations
, or I made a few reservationsfor dinner because I didn't know
which restaurant she was goingto pick.
(05:47):
But yeah, I had plannedeverything up until that point
dropping kids off, havinggrandparents watch them.
But I did forget one thing,which I was reminded of like a
few days before, which is thedog.
We recently got a dog and Icompletely forgot to set up like
a dog sitter for that.
(06:08):
But shout out to my nephew, hecame through and stayed at our
place for a couple of nights todo so that we could go do that.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah, dwayne coordinated his nephew to come
and stay at our house to watchthe dog because he's still a
puppy, he can't be boarded yetactually the dog, because he's
he's still a puppy, he can't beboarded yet, actually he.
We have him scheduled for aninterview, as they call it, with
the dog boarding place in acouple of weeks, but they
require that he be four monthsand he's not quite there.
So Dwayne literally coordinatedeverything he did.
(06:40):
He scheduled me a massage, hemade a couple of different
dinner reservations and told meto pick which one I wanted, and
it was a really fun littlegetaway.
That was totally unexpected andI really appreciated it.
So we're going to share.
We've done an episode on theGrand Hyatt, Scottsdale.
Before it used to be the HyattRegency Ganey Ranch.
(07:03):
We've been going there everysummer with our kids for five or
six years at least.
Right yeah, we actuallyoriginally fun story.
We originally started goingthere because a long time ago my
sister used to work for a Hyattin Orlando and when she came
out to visit she was talkingabout the hyatt employee rates
(07:23):
and she had booked a room there.
And so she, I think she did.
She book us two rooms there andwe stayed and she stayed or
something like that.
Um, I think it was just one room, we were all just in um.
But that was our firstintroduction to this hotel and
we've been going back everysummer since.
They generally have pretty good, cheap summer rates because
it's so hot here in ph, andthey've been undergoing a big
(07:45):
renovation, like multi-milliondollar renovation, like, I think
, hundreds of millions ofdollars.
Yes, and when we were thereover the summer, the pool part
was completed but the rest of itwas not.
So there were tarps everywhere,drywall, dust, construction,
lots of construction, and so itdefinitely wasn't like we were
there for the pool and it wassummer, so it was fine, but it
(08:08):
definitely wasn't like a superrelaxing resort.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
It didn't have a resort feel to it yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
So the renovation is now done and we got to explore
some parts of the hotel that wedon't normally get to explore
with kids, and so we did thinkit was worth another episode.
I do know that this hotel ishighly anticipated for a lot of
people, and so we're going toget into the details.
So we checked in on Fridaythere were no suites available.
(08:37):
Okay, sorry, let me back up.
Thursday night, when Dwaynetold me he booked this, he did
not use points because therebecause there was no way for him
to use points without mefinding out about it the points
live in my account, and so wedid pay cash.
But I remembered when he saidthat that I had a guest of honor
(09:00):
award that was about to expireat the end of February, and so I
immediately called and appliedthe guest of honor award to his
reservation so that we could getmy globalist benefits on this
day, and so it was pretty easyto do that.
As a side note, the guest ofhonor that I had was actually
(09:21):
gifted to me, and we alreadyused it once at the Hyatt
Regency Huntington Beach overLabor Day weekend last year, but
for some reason it neverdisappeared out of my account.
I think that just happenssometimes.
I'm not sure if it wasn'tapplied correctly or what, but I
still had it.
So, effectively, we got to usethis guest of honor twice and I
(09:43):
had to because it had beengifted to me.
I couldn't gift it to him, butI could call and apply it to his
reservation, and so that's whatI did.
I called the globalist line andthey applied it over the phone
and now it is gone from myaccount.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
So, yes, we basically got and it was definitely worth
it because, like she said,there's a new club lounge.
I don't think I said that yet,but yes there is yes.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Well, yes, after the renovation there's a new club
lounge.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
I don't think I said that yet, but yes, there is yes
well, yes, after the renovation,there is now a club lounge
there, which?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
it had just opened, I think two or three days, two
days before we got there, beforewe got there, so we checked in
there were no suites available,no standard suites.
I looked on the app and therewere none available.
But this was one of theweekends of the Waste Management
Open, which is a really biggolf tournament here in the
Phoenix-Scottsdale area, so it'sa very busy time and I think
(10:36):
the hotel was fairly full fromit and I think that's why there
were no suites available.
So we didn't get upgraded,which was fine.
Well, I'm sorry they didupgrade us to like a better view
room.
I think we had a courtyard view, which I don't think was quite
what you booked.
The room was great.
It was a renovated room.
It was completely fine.
It had a king bed, had a littlepatio area, nice bathroom.
(11:01):
I'm actually going to make anInstagram reel about our weekend
.
So by the time this episodecomes out, that Instagram reel
will be live on my Instagram.
So if you want to check thatout, it is at travel party of
five on Instagram.
So come, give us a follow andif you want to see the hotel
with your eyeballs instead ofjust hearing about it, you can
(11:21):
check that out.
You want to talk about the club.
So the for globalist Breakfastit is in the club lounge.
Sometimes you'll have an optionof being able to order from the
restaurant menu or in-roomdining or the lounge, and at
this hotel it was only thelounge, but the breakfast was
not bad.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, breakfast wasn't bad.
Well, let's back up.
So we get there Friday.
We put our bags in the room andwe immediately immediately go
check it out which is brand new,really nice indoor seating,
outdoor seating um.
They had the like folding doors, so you know it was the indoor
outdoor feel um.
They had fancy coffee machines,espresso machines.
(12:04):
We got there right before happyhour, which began, I believe,
five to seven, which is freebeer and wine?
Yeah, they had a lot ofappetizers.
Yeah, a lot of finger foods.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
It was like there was , you know, like raw vegetables.
Locks for bagels, or was thatbreakfast, that was breakfast
they had charcuterie, cheeses,salamis, crackers, and then they
did have two hot dishes.
It was like these littleartichoke balls.
Oh yeah, fried artichoke balls.
(12:43):
Almost like spinach artichokedip, but in a fried ball form.
Oh yeah, and shrimp tempura,shrimp tempura which was quite
good it was really good actuallyand so we made little plates.
We had plans to grab dinner atthe bar, but we made little
plates, had some drinks and Imean I was telling duane, this
(13:03):
would have been plenty for ourkids to eat for dinner like they
they could have eaten a fulldinner there yeah, I mean, our
oldest wouldn't have been happy,but he would have he would have
loaded up like 10 shrimptempura on his plate probably,
but the food was quite good.
They also had you.
You could order cocktailscocktails from the bar, but for
(13:25):
a fee, so those were not free.
But the beer and the wine wascomplimentary.
And, yeah, I think throughoutthe day they have snacks, juices
, sodas.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yep, that's readily available whenever you're there.
Soda water juice.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Yep, and so we visited the lounge, then headed
over to the bar.
We sat at the bar and haddinner.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Which the bar is a completely new thing.
It's like right in the centerof the lobby when Live music
used to be.
Before the renovation there wasa stage there.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
They still have the stage for live music.
It's just moved a little bit.
It's out in the courtyard.
So if you've been there before,fridays and Saturdays they
still have live entertainmentand they had it while we were
there.
I think the bar where it's atnow is way better than what it
was before it was reallybeautiful and if you sit on one
(14:23):
side of the bar you can look outat the courtyard and the
mountains and it's a reallybeautiful view.
We didn't sit that way, but itwas.
Yeah, as we were sitting at thebar we were like we love this
hotel so much Maybe that was thewine talking a little bit.
It's just really feels likeyou're on vacation, even though
(14:43):
you know for us we're 20 minutesfrom home, and so that was
really nice.
They also had a very nicesancerre, which is like a, a
white wine that's not too drybut also not sweet, and I really
enjoyed that.
Um for dinner, for food, I hada burger.
Duane ordered wings.
We switched halfway throughbecause I liked his wings better
(15:05):
and he liked my burger betteryeah, which never really that
never happens to us.
But he ordered lemon pepperwings and he kept saying these
wings are so salty.
And then I tried one and I'mlike oh no, no, it's not salty,
it's very, very tart, like itwas very sour and lemony, which
I love.
He's not so much a fan, no.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
So we swapped I'm a huge fan of wings, though, but
these were yeah so the burgerwas pretty good yes, and the
service was great.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Um, the bartender that we had was was very nice,
so that was great.
And then we went back to thelounge, because they also do put
out some little desserts yeah,from like six to eight.
I think they do desserts,something like that I wouldn't
have high expectations for thedesserts, but if you just want
like a little sweet bite, it wasfine.
(15:54):
The first night we had they hada few different options and I
had a coconut macaroon.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
That was quite good, and again they had just opened
up.
So so I'm sure you know withinsome time they're going to up
their game a little bit.
But yes, it was not too fancy.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
I would say that dinner appetizers were the best
part in the lounge, specifically.
Um.
So then we just went to bedbecause we still had to go to
our son's football game onsaturday morning.
So we woke up, had breakfast inthe club and again the
breakfast was kind of like yourbasic club lounge.
(16:32):
They had smoked salmon.
They didn't have bagels butthey had toast.
Um, they had what like one meatright like bacon sausage.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
It was bacon that day with French toast, french toast
.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yes, and wasn't there an egg dish?
That was the next day?
Oh, okay, and you know, theyhave cereal, they have fruit,
yogurt, oatmeal, I think.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Again your coffee, your juices.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yes, again, our kids would have been thrilled with
the breakfast, Like they wouldhave eaten it just fine.
And if you have globaliststatus or if you can get a club
access award or even book a clubaccess room, then if you're a
family, I think it's 100% worthit to save money on food.
Then we headed out to footballand I told Dwayne we just went
(17:22):
to the field, watched the gameand then left, said bye to the
kids again and I told Dwayne myplan for today is to sit by the
pool, read my book and then goto the spa for for my
appointment, and that's what wedid.
So this hotel has two pools.
There is an adult pool, whichis fairly small, and then
(17:46):
there's what I call the familypool, which is much, much bigger
and has like a.
It's huge, actually it's huge.
There's a big water slide andthere's also a beach area with
sand and that goes into the pooland it's really great for kids
and families and when we go withour kids we sit and that goes
into the pool and it's reallygreat for kids and families and
when we go with our kids we siton that side of the pool.
(18:07):
For this trip we went to theadult pool.
The adult pool was actuallyfairly busy.
I would say it was a nice day.
February weather in Phoenix canbe a little tricky.
It can be warm or it can becold, and there's just no way to
know.
Fortunately it was in the 70sand so it was warm enough to sit
by the pool, and the pool washeated so.
(18:28):
Yeah.
And so we sat by the pool, weordered lunch, had a drink, I
read my book and it was verypeaceful and wonderful and nice
to be out in the sun after a fewmonths of cold weather.
And then I went to the spa.
And what did you do?
Speaker 2 (18:44):
I sat by the bar, had some good whiskey puffed on a
cigar, which I never do.
I even had a Google like what'sa good cigar for a beginner?
Speaker 1 (18:54):
They had, is it called a humidor?
We saw it kind of in thelobby-ish area and D duane was
kind of joking that he was goingto have one and I said, well,
please send me a video.
He was like I'm gonna wear myfloral button-down shirt and my
cuban hat and my fedora.
(19:14):
Yes, I said, please send me avideo of you doing that.
He did take a video, uh, but hewas not dressed.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
The part no no, I couldn't find a shirt or a hat,
yeah, but I enjoyed it.
You said it took you a longtime, right?
Yeah, I mean, I puffed on thatthing for at least an hour.
I mean not straight, but youknow it lasted an hour.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Did you feel sick?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
No.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Did you inhale it?
Speaker 2 (19:41):
No, you're not supposed to inhale.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
I know, I mean I know , I just like I don't look
what's the appeal?
Speaker 2 (19:50):
I don't know, but I was on a little mini vacation
and you were at the spa, sothat's what I did.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Fair enough, fair enough.
Okay, let's talk about the spa.
Well, first of all, all do wewant to talk about lunch,
because you had something thatyou really liked for lunch at
the pool, and mine was quitegood too oh yeah, I had bagogi
fries, which is, yeah, korean,korean beef, korean beef with
(20:18):
kimchi on top of some fries, andit was really really good.
I also ordered I ordered acaesar salad with chicken, which
was also actually surprisinglygood.
It was like a kale caesar.
I didn't want something heavygoing to the spa, you know it
was quite good.
So pool food delicious.
(20:39):
Would recommend pool drinks, Imean it's hit or miss with pool
drinks.
Dwayne had a pina colada thatwas so strong I took one sip and
I was like ugh.
No, thank you.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
It was okay.
The best pool drinks, though,is at the Hyatt Regency in Maui.
Yeah, yeah, I agree, go therefor the drinks.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
You know what?
I just saw that.
You know they had the grotto intheir pool and it's been under
construction.
As a side note, They've now,like it's, completely walled off
, so instead of the grotto, it'sjust a big wall, which is, yes,
I saw that they were.
You saw that, Yep saw that theywere.
(21:26):
You saw that yeah, the wall didnot look nice anyways, too, too
expensive to fix.
So, yeah, well, anyways.
Um, okay, we digress.
So let me talk about the spa,because I've never been to the
spa at this property and I had areally, really wonderful time,
and I think if I had known whatto expect, I actually would have
allowed longer time.
And when Dwayne made theappointment, originally he had
booked a deep tissue massage.
(21:47):
I don't love deep tissue justbecause it hurts, and so I
looked at the menu and I endedup swapping that out for a hot
stone massage, which waswonderful.
So my appointment was at 4.15and I headed over there around
230.
Thinking that would give meplenty of time to, you know, use
all the facilities and theyhave.
(22:09):
So some of the amenities thatthey have are they have a steam
room that has chromatography,and so there's a light in there
that basically changes colors,and outside the door it tells
you what each color does for youand your body, and it's like
it's supposed to be healing.
They have a sauna, which wassadly out of order during my
(22:32):
stay, and then they have a coldplunge and a hot tub.
This is all in the women's side.
I'm sure the men's is similar,and then you can go out into
this co-ed area, which is anarea between the men's and the
women's side, and they have aCeltic mineral pool that you can
(22:54):
swim in.
They have all these comfychairs around the pool and you
can also order food and drinksat a cost, obviously and then
they have these comfy couchesand chairs with big fireplaces
and the fires were roaring andit was very cozy and like if you
(23:15):
had also had an appointment, wecould have like had lunch there
and like relaxed and and justto know, if you get a spa
package or anything at the spa,you can use the facilities from
when it opens to close yeah, andby like literally you just have
to book a service any serviceand you can use it for the day.
(23:37):
And so I I was unaware that theyhad this big co-ed area and
that you could order food anddrinks.
So I told Duane, I said if Iwere going to do this over again
, I would have both of us have aservice and then have us,
instead of going to the adultpool, we could have come here.
They had alcohol andnon-alcoholic drinks and you
know, food, and I would haveordered food and drinks there
(24:00):
and enjoyed it, cozied up on oneof the couches by the fire.
It was really beautiful, likethe spa was very beautiful and
they have a little relaxationroom where you wait for your to
be called back for yourappointment and they have tea
and infused waters and littlesnacks in there that you can eat
(24:23):
too.
And so I did all the things.
I did the cold plunge, I didthe hot tub, I went in the
mineral pool twice actually Iwent in the steam room, I used
all the things I could use andthen I did the hot stone massage
, which was wonderful actually,I would 100% do that again.
Wonderful actually, I would ahundred percent do that again
(24:49):
and finished up about 5, 15 Ithink, 5, 20 and the spa closes
at six and they also haveshowers that you can use and the
showers are wonderful becausethey have a rain shower, a
regular shower head and then onthe wall like they have three
shower heads on each side of you.
So when you get in the showerthere are eight shower heads
(25:11):
hitting your body.
It was crazy.
I've never had a shower likethat.
So that was very nice.
So I took a shower.
They have blow dryers and stuffyou can dry your hair.
I dried my hair and then wewent to dinner.
But I would a hundred percentcome back to that spa and if
you're local to Phoenix, Ibelieve they have some type of
locals maybe discount, because Ithought I heard the woman on
(25:33):
the phone scheduling anappointment talk about that.
So I'm going to look into thatmore.
But the spa is called SpaAviana.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
I don't know if locals get it, I bet you it's
the community, it's the GaneyRanch community.
I bet, oh, maybe, maybe, Idon't know.
I mean, I'm assuming that's howit is maybe, maybe I don't know
.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
I mean, I'm assuming that's how it is like, but I'm
considering taking my mom backthere for Mother's Day because I
think that would be a reallynice gift.
So it was really really niceand I'm gonna try to go back
this summer too when we go there.
It was great, so I would highlyrecommend the spa and then for
dinner.
So Dwayne had made a couple ofreservations one was at ruth
chris and the other one was atla zozona, which is inside the
(26:15):
hotel and is a new restaurant,and you had a hard time making
reservations right because ofthe golf tournament.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Yes, I, yes, was on open table probably like eight
or nine days prior and Icouldn't get a reservation
between six and eight at any ofthe nice places around there.
Yeah, and I was like what the F?
But then I realized it wasbecause it was Super Bowl
weekend.
It was the waste managementopen.
(26:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
So everywhere I went to book, it was, like you know,
either eating there at 4, 30 or10 pm and it's like well, not
doing that yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
So I chose la zozona one because it was new and I
thought it would be fun to checkit out, but also it was in the
hotel, so I didn't have to rushleaving the spa, and that was
important to me, because youdon't want to get all relaxed
and then kill your vibe, youknow.
So we, we went to eat at therestaurant.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Um, I would say we didn't love the food overall I'm
gonna be honest like I'm I'llnever go back there again the.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
So in the beginning they serve you homemade bread.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
That was good yes, that was great it was the
ambiance, you know theaesthetics.
It's real nice in there.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
But they also served us complimentary champagne.
That was also very nice.
And then we ordered the burrataappetizer and that was also
great.
I really enjoyed it.
After that it went downhill.
Yeah, I'm gonna.
I'm gonna be fair and say that Iordered a pasta dish that I
don't generally enjoy, but theserver said it was his favorite
and so I gave it a try.
(27:57):
I should have listened tomyself.
I didn't like it.
It's cacio e pepe.
I don't love the amount ofpepper that is used in that dish
.
Generally it's too much for me.
Not spicy wise, but like pepperis so fruity, I just don't like
it, and so I ordered that.
It wasn't very good to me.
Maybe, if you like cacio e pepe, maybe it's, maybe you like it.
(28:19):
Um, dwayne ordered the ribeyespecial because they were out of
the porterhouse.
They have a porterhouse thatserves two and it's pretty
expensive, and D was like I'mgonna order this.
That was his plan, but theywere out of it so couldn't do it
.
But they had a ribeye it wassupposed to come with like a
truffle butter.
(28:40):
It didn't taste like truffle,it was okay.
It was, it was okay.
And we also ordered some friesand some rapini for the table.
Those were fine.
Fries were great, oh, and wealso ordered a side of scallops.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
The scallops were good scallops were great, but
the presentation of them wasthey were just thrown on a side
plate on a plate sorry, sorry, Ikeep shaking, I keep hitting
the microphone, apologies yeah,and those were the best things,
and there was only three littleones, so I was pretty upset
about that.
Well, not upset, butdisappointed.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
So, yeah, I would say it was a mixed bag on the
dinner.
I would go back and I would trysomething different.
Apparently, dwayne would not.
And then again we headed backto the lounge.
We grabbed well, they hadlittle cupcakes out for dessert.
They were pretty dry, honestly.
(29:34):
I took one bite and was like,oh, I'm not eating any more of
that, I'm sure they were dry thewhole time, but I mean this was
right before they closed.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
It was like right before 8.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
I grabbed a cup of tea from the lounge.
That was nice.
And then we called it a nightand woke up the next day and had
to head home.
We had they offered us a latecheckout but we didn't need it
because we had a super bowlparty to go to the next day.
We had to do all the groceryshopping and all that.
So we're gonna pick up the kids,yeah my parents, uh, were like
(30:05):
can you, can you please pick upthe kids by noon on Sunday,
cause I think they knew theywere going to be over it by then
, and they were, so we did.
That's fine.
Um, one more note, though,about coffee.
So they do have coffee in thelounge which is free.
I drink decaf coffee lately,and both of the beans containers
(30:28):
in the lounge said regular, soI don't think that there was any
decaf, quite frankly, there isalso a what is it called?
Press coffee?
Thank you, press coffee in thelobby that you can order, and so
we got coffee from there bothdays.
That way I could have a betterchance of it being decaf.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Before the renovation it was a Starbucks, but now
it's a press coffee which isncaf.
Before the renovation it was astarbucks, but yeah, now it's a
press coffee, which isn't bad no, it was good.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I don't know if that's just a phoenix.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
It is a phoenix chain , yeah it's a phoenix chain.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Um, all in all, I think we really enjoyed our stay
.
There are a couple of otherrestaurants that you could eat
at if you didn't want to go thefancy route at la zozona.
One is called tiki taki.
Tiki taki, that's not what it'scalled.
It's tiki taka or something.
Tiki takla, it's like a?
Um tapas.
(31:22):
Uh, spanish and japanesejapanese fusion restaurant.
Yes, they were making likeyakitori on the patio one day
and it smelled really good Sushi.
Yeah, so that is a fun optionto try.
And then is there one otherrestaurant yeah, mesa Central.
(31:43):
Oh, yeah, mesa Central.
Is that like a buffet?
Speaker 2 (31:46):
I mean in the morning it is, but I don't, they don't
have one at night.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Just breakfast or menu at night?
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Yeah, we didn't eat there, but I'm sure it's decent.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Yeah, we didn't eat there.
You have to walk through it,though, to get to the lounge.
The lounge is kind of tuckedaway.
So all in all, I think we had agreat stay.
We are excited to go back inthe summer.
One thing I found interestingis the regular pool was so empty
and again, february can be hitor miss in Phoenix but there was
(32:19):
almost no one there, and I knowthat in the summer every single
chair will be full becausewe've been there in the summer.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Yeah, I have to go down to the pool early, grab
some towels and set them out.
Yeah, to save our seats.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Yeah.
So, all in all, wouldabsolutely recommend.
I definitely think if you havekids and you're coming to the
Phoenix area, if you need tostay at a Hyatt, that is the
Hyatt you should stay at.
It is the best one for familiesin the phoenix area.
Hands down, no question.
Um, yeah, don't you agree?
Speaker 2 (32:54):
oh yeah, I agree.
Yeah, and if uh your husbandout there looking for an idea
for an anniversary gift yeah, itwas a great time yeah, look
there, book a spa, she'll behappy I was thrilled, I loved it
.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
I told dwayne this might be the best gift you've
ever given me.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
So well, I'm a pretty bad gift giver that's not true
I am.
You're a great gift giver, butthat's not true.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
I got an espresso machine for christmas.
That was a great gift, yeah,okay.
So anyways, hopefully thatanswers any questions.
If you've been planning a tripto the scottsdale or phoenix
area, would 100 recommend thishotel.
Get club access.
If you've been planning a tripto the Scottsdale or Phoenix
area, would 100% recommend thishotel.
Get club access.
If you don't have globaliststatus, it will save you a ton
of money.
And if you have additionalquestions, find us on Instagram
(33:40):
at TravelPartyof5.
And send me a DM.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Yes, we appreciate you listening.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
We will talk to you soon.
Bye.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Have a good one.
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