We stayed in a 2 bedroom from June 25-July 2 and loved the canyon villas. There is so much room and it was wonderful to have free wireless available. Every morning my husband and I walked over to the JWmarriott for coffee and danish at the Starbucks which opens very early for the golfers. It was a very pleasant walk - we did it about 7am. Even though the days were usually 112 degrees, it really didn't bother us. usually from 2-5 if we weren't in the pool, we either went to the movies at the huge shopping complex nearby or were in room there. we even enjoyed the 2 great hot tubs in all that heat. The bigger pool was cooler than I prefer, probably because of the waterfall, so we used the 'lap' pool that wasn't restricted to laps. I loved looking at mountains in the distance everywhere. One day we went swimming at the marriott as I was excited about the lazy river. our cards didn't work in the gate, but someone was there to let us in and told us the villa cards never work. we got tubes and went around about 5 times and then went back to villa. that very night we got a voice mail saying the next day the tubes would be $10/day for a person! I was very glad we went the day we did. we didn't go back. I really think that is terrible. there were plenty of tubes and people used them when they wanted and then put them back. we had a nice pool at the villas so never went swimming again at the marriott. it was so easy to take our rental car and drive to the villas. the roads are all very easy. the shopping complex is so great- has so many restaurants. we ate there each evening. we also saw 2 movies there. we went to mini golf about 12 minutes away and one day went bowling right when it opened and got fantastic rate per game. we took the morning tour in the desert where we were able to shoot six shooters, potato gun and throw tomahawk. my 17 year old thought that was one of best highlights. we took the whole day detours trip to grand canyon. you go to sedona, see the red rocks, have 30minutes in a shopping area, then off to helicopter spot by grand canyon. all 12 of us in the van did it and it was amazing. little pricey but it was a highlight. then off to the south rim and saw the grand canyon from 3 different locations. breathtaking. on way back we stopped at navajo trading post. long day, but wonderful. we also went to heard museum one day which my husband and son found boring, but I enjoyed. we went to taliesin west one morning- get there when they open and definitely take their umbrella to walk around. it was too expensive for what they offered, but I did enjoy it. I really recommend the villas. the price was so much more reasonable that the hotel, we had so much space and the wireless internet was free.

We stayed in a two bedroom and absolutely loved this place. Check in was a breeze. The front desk people were very nice. As a matter of fact, all the employees (even the maintenance people) were really friendly. The unit we stayed in was nice sized and clean. It came with a few extra stuff that most timeshare units don't provide. (extra TP, paper towels, coffee filters, porcelain coated pans).
We all (2 adults and two kids) loved the pools. There were plenty of chairs available at all times. There is a tiki style bar at the pool that serves drinks and food. Prices are what you can expect from a resort type pool bar. Bar staff were really fun to talk to and gave good advice on what to do in the area. They had live "Cowboy Music" on one of the nights that was pretty fun.
There are nice gas grills available both near the main building and some near the condo units. There are planned activities for kids and adults you can sign up for.
There is a pool table, ping pong table, and a "life sized" chess board to use for guests.
As mentioned here, the resort has a free shuttle that will take you to the sister property the JW Marriott and a nearby mall. The mall (Desert Marketplace??) has an Albertsons and a Target store as well as other similar stores including bars and restaurants. As a guest at Canyon Villas, you can use the facilities at JW. The pool here is beautiful. They have a fantastic lazy river that we enjoyed. There are staff on site that will bring a pitcher of ice cold water right to where you sit down by the pool.
We booked this thru a "getaway" on II. We have stayed at numerous timeshare properties and the Canyon Villas was the nicest so far.

My husband and I arrived at Canyon Villas after a long drive from California. The reception desk was very pleasant and they gave us the keys to the villa and keys to the hotel pool should we wish to use it.
Our villa was itself was quite small as it was only an efficiency villa so we didn't have any cooking facilities, we had a comfortable bed and a smallish bathroom. The villa however was clean and quite pleasant, unfortunately the cleaning staff had forgotten to remove coats and trousers that had been left by the people before us and we had to remove these ourselves as nobody came to take them away even though we rang down numerous times and were told somebody was on their way ! The people that owned these coats etc came back for them early evening just before we went out and were fortunate to find us there. When we rang the front desk asking for these to be removed for the fourth time and nobody came we gave up and we thought this was very bad indeed of the staff there. Having said this, we have stayed at the Phoenician in Phoenix and this Resort is a hundred times nicer.
However, the whole resort is absolutely fantastic as it is next to the JW Marriott Resort & Spa and you have full use of their facilities. The pools are beautiful, the selection of restaurants are v.good indeed and we went to Roys Asian Cuisine most nights which is situated just at the side of the lounge within the hotel. The hotel is simply beautiful and has every facility imaginable. There is a large Starbucks that opens at 5.30am in order that golfers can grab a coffee and pastry before playing golf as it is 38C by 10.30. We went to Starbucks quite a lot.
The most wonderful scenery surrounds this resort and in fact surrounds Phoenix, Scottsdale and Arizona in general and we would love to go back one day as it is a relaxing place to be.
The villas are not attractive, there are far better Marriott villas and we can only assume that these were intended to be in keeping with the South Western style. However, the hotel facilities make up for the villas as it is absolutely beautiful.

We stayed at the Marriott Canyon Villas from May 31 to June 6. We checked into the hotel around 11:00am and our room was not ready, which was fine because we had requested a room on the third floor overlooking the pool. However, we came back to check in we were given a second floor room not quite overlooking the pool. However, when I went to fix the kids a snack, the dish area was crawling with ants. I called the front desk and the maintenance man sprayed for the ants. The smelled bothered me and I requested another room. We ended up in building 3300 (the farthest area from the pool) on the first floor looking at the desert (as described, but really some desert plants and a dirt road for the maintenance men.) Our next incident with bugs came after my son took his bath. There was a cockroach behind the toliet. Again the room was sprayed. (Bug season in Arizona is what I was told, haven't had these issues at the Marriott resorts in Florida) I then awoke at 4:00am to use the bathroom and the door was locked. (I closed the door to not smell the spray and the door ended up locking.) Unfortunately, there were no other rooms. During the rest of our visit, we encountered the following items: a missed wake up call, keys that did not work at the JW pool area and an unannouced visit to our room (a request was made for new towels in another room, but our room was changed in error - did not expect someone to entry our room while we were away.)
Overall, we enjoyed Arizona. We took the AZ Hummer Tour which was awesome.
The best part of the resort was the pool.
It would have been nice if an attempt was made to reconcile the issues that we encountered.