Originally Posted by
DELee
For downtown Sydney, Marriott, now combined with the former Starwood properties, has a significant presence. As a long time stalwart outpost of Marriott in Sydney, the Marriott CQ has evolved as evidenced from the posts of the hotel's thread that start in late 2001, discuss its transition as a then Renaissance flagged hotel before becoming and being named as a Marriott.Given its location, the Marriott CQ provides a huge benefit to Marriott's customers and clientele who want to be in the harbor and Circular Quay. If you're interested in the Rocks, the Harbour Bridge and Barangaroo Reserve as well as the Observatory, other hotels such as the Park Hyatt and Pier One might be of greater interest. However, Marriott CQ is still fairly close by as well as even closer to the rest of Sydney's CBD, the Opera House and really the core waterfront business areas.With all of this, I would have liked to have tried the breakfast buffet downstairs as well as getting a chance to see what the Early Arrivals Lounge had to offer. Additionally, while I was grateful for our upgrade to a suite, I wasn't happy about the cavelike feeling of the bedroom, the bed not having a top sheet and the humidity/mildew problems that I encountered. Also, without built in or lamp-integrated USB plugs, we were competing for the use of my power converter to charge our different handheld electronics.I know that my wife really liked the proximity of the hotel to Circular Quay and all that was going on there for Vivid Sydney as well as the centrality of getting access to all types of public mass transit. She indicated that she would be happy returning to the Marriott CQ. At this point, I'm still divided, probably because of the room and cavelike feel plus the mildew.
I think your review is spot on for room 1823 ("opera view suite").
We are currently having a quite similar experience with our stay here. We also used points and SNA and had received a confirmed upgrade to the "opera view suite" and are also quite dissapointed with the room. There seems to be a pattern with points booking/SNA and receiving 1823.
As you already mentioned I also suspect that this is the lowest level, which offers a "view" of the opera. Based on the room descriptions/pictures it also seems like the same room on the levels below would be the "junior suite". To me it feels quite disingenuous to designate this room as suite and not merely as a "junior suite with opera view" given that the room itself is quite dissaponting. The bathroom reminds me of a US Residence Inn/Townsuites type of bathroom, complete with the shallow and small bathtub. The bedroom has no windows and natural light and the windows itself are not ideally placed to actually enjoy a view.
Given all that I would not recommend to use any SNA at this property and, if assigned room 1823, at least ask for a higher level room as it seems just too low to actually see anything from the Harbour.
In general I actually like the lounge and the location is perfect, but we would probably try out the pier one next time, because the room itself is just so underwhelming.