![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
At the Scottsdale Plaza Hotel
May. 8th, 2025 12:54 pmWednesday afternoon I checked in to the Scottsdale Plaza hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona, after an easy mellow day visiting a client in the area. Well, the hotel was part of what made it a mellow day. That's because while it bills itself as a resort hotel it's really more like a low-key motel with a bunch of pools. And it's not very crowded right now.
When I checked in the gal at the front desk directed me back outside to the bell desk for a driver to escort me to my room.
"How far away is my room?" I asked, incredulously.
"Oh, it's in the next building," she said, and pulled out a map.
"Thanks, I'll walk," I responded. It was, like, 100 feet away.
Walking outside between buildings gave me a chance to check out the pool area. It's not a hoppin' place full of kids on rafts, nor are there water slides, but low key was kind of my speed anyway. Plus, I ultimately decided no-key was my speed. I didn't use the pool at all on Wednesday, preferring instead to relax in my room.
As I've walked around the hotel I've chuckled to myself, is this really a resort? Because while it's nice... -ish... it's not quite what I think of when I think "resort". Frankly it's more like a Holiday Inn from the 1980s painted in shades of desert brown.
The decor in my room extends the feeling of "It's a Holiday Inn, but nicer". The furniture is decent but not special. It's comfortable, though. This is like the hotel equivalent of a comfort food restaurant. Unless you want to read a book in your room— because the lights in here suck. When I made the photo above I turned on every light in the room and still brightened the result to show the layout. In real life pretty much none of the lamps are brighter than a 30W equivalent bulb. 🤣
I continued the evening in the range between low-key and no-key. For dinner I caught a ride with the hotel shuttle driver to a nearby grocery store and bought myself a dish of sushi, a slice of cheesecake, and a 6-pack of Coke Zero. Then I retired back to my room until about 9:30 to see which of my colleagues were left at the bar. I didn't want to join them earlier because I didn't want to be coaxed into spending the whole evening drinking. So I went downstairs just before last call and drank two rounds with them.
Good news: I was back in my room by 10:15. Bad news: I still couldn't fall asleep until 11:45. Also bad news: dawn is at freakin' 5:30am here in Phoenix because Arizona doesn't do Daylight Saving Time, and I awoke at 4:45am because it was already getting light outside.
When I checked in the gal at the front desk directed me back outside to the bell desk for a driver to escort me to my room.
"How far away is my room?" I asked, incredulously.
"Oh, it's in the next building," she said, and pulled out a map.
"Thanks, I'll walk," I responded. It was, like, 100 feet away.
Walking outside between buildings gave me a chance to check out the pool area. It's not a hoppin' place full of kids on rafts, nor are there water slides, but low key was kind of my speed anyway. Plus, I ultimately decided no-key was my speed. I didn't use the pool at all on Wednesday, preferring instead to relax in my room.
As I've walked around the hotel I've chuckled to myself, is this really a resort? Because while it's nice... -ish... it's not quite what I think of when I think "resort". Frankly it's more like a Holiday Inn from the 1980s painted in shades of desert brown.
The decor in my room extends the feeling of "It's a Holiday Inn, but nicer". The furniture is decent but not special. It's comfortable, though. This is like the hotel equivalent of a comfort food restaurant. Unless you want to read a book in your room— because the lights in here suck. When I made the photo above I turned on every light in the room and still brightened the result to show the layout. In real life pretty much none of the lamps are brighter than a 30W equivalent bulb. 🤣
I continued the evening in the range between low-key and no-key. For dinner I caught a ride with the hotel shuttle driver to a nearby grocery store and bought myself a dish of sushi, a slice of cheesecake, and a 6-pack of Coke Zero. Then I retired back to my room until about 9:30 to see which of my colleagues were left at the bar. I didn't want to join them earlier because I didn't want to be coaxed into spending the whole evening drinking. So I went downstairs just before last call and drank two rounds with them.
Good news: I was back in my room by 10:15. Bad news: I still couldn't fall asleep until 11:45. Also bad news: dawn is at freakin' 5:30am here in Phoenix because Arizona doesn't do Daylight Saving Time, and I awoke at 4:45am because it was already getting light outside.
