Being that this is THE symbol of the Toronto skyline, we really had no choice as tourists but to give it a go. We wanted to make the most of our trip and see/experience everything 'Toronto' and the CN Tower screams Toronto whenever anyone mentions the city.
We doled out the $35 to go up the tower to view the city from above and left feeling very empty. If anything, we felt that the CN Tower exposed the lack of scenery in Toronto. When we got to the top and took a look out the windows, we realized that we didn't recognize any of the buildings that were viewable. There were no iconic buildings out there. The view was nice from above, but definitely not very scenic.
So what does this all mean? If you're going to go to the CN Tower's observation deck no matter what, then by all means do so, but don't spend any more. We were glad we did not spend the extra $12 going to the Skypod because there wasn't really much to see in the 1st place.
The only cool/fun aspect about going to the observation deck was the trip up itself! The elevators are made of glass and give a pretty scary view of the city as you rise. Other than that, the CN Tower's views were a pretty big bore.