I hope this isn't true. I've already read they switched the flirt to members and towers only. Pretty soon the sexy pool will be off limits without membership.
I would not be surprised if this is true. The resort really pushes the Tower (it's evident from the TTR website). From the outside, it seems to me that the changes over the last year reflect a strategy to stratify everything at the resort to compel people to book the Tower, or ideally, into buying a membership. If they didn't want people in Garden rooms, they should have ripped down the Chill and Relax wings and built towers there, too. They need to fill the Garden rooms to stay in the black, but then their policies have the effect of making the Garden guests feel marginalized. As someone who started going to TTR in 2011, I've seem the character of the resort really change post-reno. While the resort used to market itself as being a place for 30-something sexy people, the clientele they actually got was instead regulars in their 40's thru 60's who would go 3x a year. I used to giggle when I read Tripadvisor reviews by 20-somethings, complaining about all the "old" people at the resort. Sadly, as nice as the reno is, it priced many people out of TTR completely, or they are only able to afford to go once per year. I really miss seeing some of the repeaters from my pre-reno days. Now there is a more diverse crowd with more young people (not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, except to the extent that former repeaters have been forced out). The irony faced by resort management is that younger people don't have the money of people in their late 40's, and 50's and 60's. So the resort is focusing on getting people to shell out bigger coin for Tower rooms and memberships, but the Millenials and people in their 30's with little kids and mortgages can't afford an expensive vacay or timeshare. Sorry, I did not intend to write a philosophical analysis of TTR demographics but I am having a stream-of-consciousness moment.
We stayed in the Tower our first two trips and had access to the rooftop. I think we only went up once or twice during the trip. Food is good. But the service can be a bit slow. It was pretty quiet up there, but you get lots of space for privacy. If I didn’t have access I’d only go if I had friends going up. Both our trips were in August, the hotel wasn’t at capacity. Maybe during a busier time you may want the space... The did have an evening show up there during our last trip. It was pretty fun.