Pool Parties

Spring is the crunch. April and May together account for more than a third of the bachelor and bachelorette requests we get, and those are the groups filling Scottsdale's pools on a Saturday.

Friday is the sleeper. It's the top night for those same groups, ahead of Saturday, which tells you something useful: the party lands Friday and the pool day is Saturday. If your plan is the reverse, you're competing with fewer people.

Group size is consistent. The median bachelor or bachelorette group here is 12, and most are 15 or under, which puts you squarely in 14-passenger limo Sprinter or 16-passenger party bus territory. For a pool day specifically, the party bus wins on floor space — wet towels, coolers, tote bags and twelve people changing shoes need somewhere to go.

If your pool day is a Saturday in March, April or May, the vehicle carries a six-hour minimum that day, which is one more reason two shorter runs often beat holding it at the pool.

The Valley's pool calendar isn't the same as the rest of the country's.

Spring training in March and the golf crowd in February pull visitors into Scottsdale at the same time, so those weekends compete on every front — hotels, restaurants and vehicles. If your date is flexible at all, late April is the sweet spot.

Summer groups get the best availability of the year and a pool that feels like bathwater by 3:00 p.m. That's a real trade-off, not a consolation prize.

The shape is almost always the same, and the timing matters more than the venue.

• 11:00 a.m. Pickup. Earlier than people want, but day clubs fill their good spots first.
• Noon to 5:00. At the pool. This is the long block, and the vehicle can either wait or come back.
• 5:00. Back to the house or hotel to shower and change. Non-negotiable if dinner is involved.
• 7:00. Dinner, then Old Town if anyone's still standing.

That's a nine- or ten-hour day if the vehicle stays with you the whole time, which is more than most groups need. The cheaper version: book the ride out and the ride back as one block with a gap in the middle, and talk to us about how that works for your hours.

Map your legs with the drive time calculator — Old Town to a North Scottsdale resort is 20 to 25 minutes, not five.

They look similar from a website and they behave nothing alike.

Day clubs sell tickets or cabanas with set entry times, and they have their own rules about arrival and bag checks. Book the club first, then tell us the entry time and we'll work the pickup backward.

Resort pools often require you to be a guest or to buy a day pass, and the drop-off point is rarely the front door — big vehicles usually go to a side entrance. Worth asking the resort before the day.

Private houses are the easiest logistically and the hardest on parking. A rental house in Paradise Valley or North Scottsdale on a narrow street may not take a 30-foot vehicle at the curb. Send us the address ahead and we'll check.

Whichever you pick, door-to-door drops are the point. A three-block walk from a lot at 2:00 p.m. in June undoes everything the air conditioning did.

Phoenix sun at the pool is stronger than people expect and it works faster than the drinks do. The two together are what actually ends pool days early.

• Water on board, iced, and more of it than seems necessary. One bottle per person per hour is the floor.
• Real food before 2:00 p.m. Not just what the pool bar sells.
• Sunscreen reapplied at the vehicle, since nobody does it at the pool.
• A shaded meeting spot for pickup, not the middle of a parking lot.

Ask us about coolers and what's allowed on board when you book — it depends on the vehicle and it's a quick answer. Same for whether anyone in the group is under 21, which changes what the whole group can do.

The ride home is the part you're really buying. Nobody in a pool group should be driving at 6:00 p.m. If the day rolls into a night out, the Scottsdale nightlife page covers Old Town routing and the bachelorette page covers the full weekend.

Three things to sort before you call, and the call gets easy.

The pool venue and its entry time. Everything else is built around it. If you're still deciding, book the vehicle window generously and narrow later.

The honest headcount. Pool groups grow — someone's cousin lives here, a couple of friends drive in from Tempe. Reserve for the number you'll probably have. The group size calculator does the seat math.

Whether the vehicle waits. Holding it for five hours at the pool costs more than two separate runs. For most groups, two runs is the better deal. We'll price both if you ask.

Collect from everyone before you reserve. The split cost calculator gives the group one number, and it's easier to get money out of people in March than the morning after a pool day.