The Crowne Plaza has a nice view of Mirror Lake and is in Lake Placid proper. They have a pool and hot tub which are still the same from their former time as a Holiday Inn. The kids still loved the pool even though it needs to be upgraded.
The CP is on top of a hill and you can request a room with a view of Mirror Lake. It's an easy walk down to the main street of Lake Placid where there is shopping and lots of restaurants. The Olympic rinks are also at the bottom of the hill very close and so is the Speed Skating Oval which is open for public skating at night.
If you are looking for a good restaurant nearby drive over to the Lake Placid Pub & Brewery--good food and brews.
The beds were very nice and the service was solid too.
Overall this is a great base camp for all of Lake Placid. The free shuttle bus stops right at the hotel and takes you to Whiteface for skiing & boarding during the season. This was great in case some of your party wants to leave early from the mountain--It runs pretty regularly too.

I recently took my two teenage kids and their friend to Lake Placid for a winter holiday break from Mardi Gras. A week and a half of Mardi Gras is enough particularly if you have lived in New Orleans for decades.

We chose the Crown Plaza site unseen and with little info except for the hotel website and the mixed reviews on this site. The fact that the reviews were mixed prompted me to write this as our experience was great, particularly at $149 per night for a double.

When we arrived on Fat Tuesday evening, it was 44 degrees and raining so I was assuming I had made another bonehead vacation decision. But the hotel reception staff assured us it would get cold and snow that night and provided detailed, up to the minute weather conditions and ski conditions at Whiteface which cheered us greatly. They also promptly provided all the necessary toiletries for a night until I could get to the drug store the next day, as I had cleverly forgotten my toiletries kit. Then, when the main dining room was closed for a private party unless we wanted to wait 40 minutes, upon hearing of our plight, the manager on duty immediately opened the Great Room for us to dine by the fire place even though we were the only ones in there. That was a treat for the kids after a long journey.

True to the hotel prediction, that night it snowed about 10-12 inches, and for the next few days we were able to ski at the nearby Cascades Cross-country Ski Trails (Looked like the Chronicles of Narnia!), ski at Whiteface and Tube at Saranac Lake and dog sled right at the foot of the hill where the hotel lies. The hotel was also conveniently located within walking distance for skating at the Olympic 400 Meter Oval, breakfast at the Bluesberry Bakery and Adirondack Bagelry, dinner at the Great Adirondack Brewery and several other restaurants as well as the shops.

So the location was great, the rooms were fine with a nice view of the Lake, the food was good at the hotel and elsewhere, service was great and we had a good time. Yes there were boys' hockey teams there which did prevent access to the pool but that was no big deal. Definitely stay here!

We attempted to stay at the Crowne Plaza the night of February 23, 2008. We walked in without a reservation and were able to rent a standard room. The room was clean but definitely no whistles or bells. After dinner we were walking down the hallway to our room and heard barking from the room across the hall from ours. We waited for a couple of minutes and the dog continued to bark non-stop. We went into our room hoping that we would not be able to hear the dog bark once inside. Alas, we still heard the barking dog. I called the front desk and asked if dogs were allowed in the hotel. I was told the hotel is dog friendly. We complained about the dog and was told they would try to do something about it. However, my husband was so upset by the incident we decided to leave. The representative at the front desk was very nice about it and said the hotel is trying to cater to wealthy customers who travel with their pets. That is great for them but bad for people who want a quiet night sleep or for people with allergies or people who are afraid of dogs. I do have to compliment the staff on how they handled the situation but it would have been nice to know the hotel was "dog friendly" upon check in.

We stayed in the newer "Adirondack Wing" and the rooms were quite nice. However, the main part of the hotel was taken over by families in town for a hockey tournament. Management told me it was like this every weekend during hockey season. The worst part was that to get to the dining room or pool we had to navigate through a hallway of partying parents in the evening. They were sitting in the halllways drinking and enjoying themselves. Our children were quite intimitaded when they ventured out to the pool. The pool was so crowded they didn't bother staying.

It was clear that management tolerated the hockey parents behavior and for that I was quite disappointed. At $269 night for a double room I expected and deserved a much better experience.