Positives:
Room was modern & nicely decorated.
Common areas were modern & nicely decorated.
Good location near Darling Harbour.
Only 5 minutes from the train.

Negatives:
No pool
Internet cost extra

My husband and I booked the Crowne Plaza in Darling Harbour for two nights. When we arrived after our evening flight from Tasmania the receptionist told us that they were overbooked and we don't have a room. That he proceeded to start searching for a room for us in other hotels. Eventually ( twenty-thirty minutes later) we were told that we can go to Rydges ( the night manager told us that is was a nice five star hotel and it was not!) and we had to switch hotels again next day. At least we got some taxi vouchers for all the hassle between the hotels. The night manager promised that we will be taken care of when we come back to Crowne Plaza the next day but I really did not notice anything different in the room than the any other Crowne Plaza room in any other city in any other country. The check out process was easy and seamless.

In June I spent 2 days exploring Sydney at the end of a long business trip. I stayed at the Crowne Plaza Darling Harbour. The hotel lobby and dining area's were all really new and nice. I strayed down to the bar to have a few glasses of wine and was surprised at how expensive it was. The wine served at the resturants around the city seemed much cheaper then at this hotel. The food on the dine in menu was the same way. I wouldnt reccomend spending the money and eatting or drinking at the hotel. However Darling harbour is right across the street and there are plenty of nice resturants and places to eat.
The rooms with a view of the harbour are more expensive then the rooms that do not have a view. In general, the room was clean, however they very small and very dark. So dark that it was acutally difficult for me to put my make up on in the a.m.

Overall, the hotel was clean and the most resonably priced for that particular neighborhood but you are really just paying for the location as the hotel is right across the street from the famed Darling Harbour.

We spent 6 nights here as part of our honeymoon. Over all the hotel was quite good, very clean, spacious and comfortable but there were a few issues:

1) upon arrival (7.45am) we were told we couldn't check into our room until 2pm....not what you want to hear after a 13 hour flight. the hotel had been given advance notice of our arrival time so after a bit of an arguement we got our room about an hour later.

2) the breakfast buffet is very, very expensive. We chose to eat most mornings at one of the many restaurants in Darling Harbour

3) Access to Darling Harbour itself is a 5 minute walk via some very busy roads and bridges. There was extensive building work in the area at the time which may have caused this but I wouldn't have fancied the walk with kids or a disabled person.

All in all not a bad hotel but not worth the money we paid in my opinion.