Last year, my dear friend Stephanie of Metropolitan Mama and Give Every Day blessed (and surprised!) me and my family with a 25,000 point credit with Marriott’s Reward Program. What that translated into was a free night at the JW Marriott Spa and Resort at Starr Pass here in Tucson a week before I headed into surgery.
Marriott’s free rewards program allows you to earn points for every night you stay. Points can be earned in a variety of other ways when traveling. You can redeem your points for free nights at over 3,400 locations throughout the world.
We stayed for two nights over the 4th of July weekend. It was the first time we has been to Starr Pass and it was absolutely amazing. Our room (when we were in it) was clean, beautifully decorated and quite. We had a balcony with the best view in the entire resort. The landscaping was emmaculate. Every person we were in contact with ended our conversation with “It was my pleasure…” Customer service is obviously a priority here.
The kids enjoyed the lazy river and waterside.
I enjoyed lounging by the pool and drinking my strawberry margarita as I floated in the inner tube.
We ate at “The Plunge”, a pool-side, full service restaurant, and visited the Starbucks several times. But the big hits were the 3 pools and ordering snacks and drinks pool-side.
Our weekend ended with a spectacular fireworks show on the greens, positioned directly outside our balcony. No kidding. It was amazing. And as if that werent enough, God decided to put on His own fireworks show about an hour later with a nice big monsoon storm…complete with lightning and a deluge of rain. It was our lucky weekend.
If you are in or traveling to the Tucson area, I highly recommend staying at the JW Marriott Starr Pass. But be prepared to pay a pretty penny for the amenities, food and extras…they’re not cheap. It was a little bit of sticker shock for this city employee salary family. Having said that though, you can get some amazing deals during the off season (August – December)…we’re talking $139 a night! That’s a sweet deal.
So thank you, Marriott, for a wonderful experience. And most of all, thank you, Stephanie, for choosing us to be the recipients of this amazing and generous giveaway. It was just what we needed to end the Summer right!
