Description: Situated near the foot of the Sky Tower, the Crowne Plaza is located in the heart of the city. It sits on top of a major shopping complex, Atrium on Elliott with a variety of shops and restaurants. Attached to this complex is a large car park charging only $5NZ on the weekend and $15NZ weekdays should you have a car with you. The lobby of the hotel has a New Zealand souvenir shop for your last-minute souvenir purchases.
We checked in at the front desk and got an upgraded King bedroom due to our Gold status with Priority Club. The porters took our bags up to our room so we could go park the car. The car park was located just off the entrance to the hotel. The car park ticket had to be taken to the front desk to get out of the car park to get the cheaper rate.
Once we got up to the room our bags were waiting for us. This clearly wasn’t a King room, but it didn’t matter to us, so we went ahead and unpacked our things. Our room seemed a bit dated with a drab brownish bedspread. The room also had a blue and beige striped upholstered chair and sofa which had a rip in the cushion. Everything else was in good repair, but it just seemed dated compared to the rest of the hotel. The bathroom had a bathtub/shower with big fluffy towels and most importantly it was clean.
The hotel itself had great amenities: washer and dryer for guest use, sauna, fitness centre, high-speed Internet, restaurant and bar along with the standards such as iron, coffee and tea facilities, and hairdryer. The hotel is quite large, with 352 rooms with two floors designated Club floors with Executive Rooms and Suites. Guests in these rooms can use the Executive Lounge for evening cocktails and breakfast.
Breakfast was a standard big hotel breakfast buffet with cereals, pastries, eggs, bacon, sausage, a Japanese selection, yogurts, and plenty of fresh fruit. Plates were cleared with a smile and coffee and tea were plentiful.
We didn’t really check out the amenities at the hotel. Since it was our last day we felt really down and had a hard time keeping in the spirit of our travels. We were tired from 2 weeks of traveling, and at this point we had a couple of very long flights ahead of us. After breakfast we finished packing up our suitcases and headed out to the airport.
Overall, I would recommend the Crowne Plaza if only for the location. The hotel itself was really nice. If you are a shopper and have time the shopping centre under the hotel will keep you occupied for hours.
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