Crystal Mozart

[Netta7]

I have had so much help from this board with everyone answering my questions and helping me plan.  I am on board the Crystal Mozart now - Jan 1.  This is my first river cruise after several ocean cruises on a variety of lines.  Can I help with any questions while I am here? 

 

Happy holidays! 

Edited December 23, 2018 by Netta7

[Coral]

Have an amazing experience!

 

I was on the ship November 20-30th and loved every minute of the trip. Hope you have good weather.

[robertmartha]

Netta7

 

Thank you so much for posting/checking in to cc while on board.

What sailing are you on?

Would love to hear about your port experiences throughout the week - esp on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

We were on AMA Danube sailing last year this same time so would be a great comparison for me while getting your thoughts and experiences / perspective of each port/city during the holiday.

 

 

 

[Netta7]

Crystal Mozart 12/20 sailing to 1/2.  Christmas Eve (today) was morning in Passau.  The ship offered a shuttle to the Passau city center and the only offered excursion was a Christmas concert by German tenor Josef Baierl in the morning.  All aboard was 12:45 and we have been sailing since.   Carol sing along was offered late afternoon and a shuttle to the Linz cathedral is offered tonight for midnight mass.   We are supposed to dock at 9 pm.  

 

The docking schedule is different than the original schedule and the schedule in the cruise planner up to the last time I checked on the day before we boarded.  The original schedule had us in Passau all day with the sailing to Linz to take place overnight.   

[English Voyager]

I look forward to your reports on your cruise on the Mozart.

 

I wonder why it is not doing the Christmas/New Year cruise in 2019.

[Coral]

1 hour ago, English Voyager said:

I look forward to your reports on your cruise on the Mozart.

 

I wonder why it is not doing the Christmas/New Year cruise in 2019.

Also not in 2020. I would have been tempted due to being so impressed with the ship.

[robertmartha]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

Very interesting I agree....

Curious why Mozart would not be sailing over the holiday season- you would think being their largest river vessel they would have it sailing over the holidays. 

 

Netta - what is the passenger count on your sailing? Perhaps low passenger count does not justify sailing her vs their smaller ships? 

 

Netta thanks for the update. Love the option of attending a midnight mass on Christmas Eve. Did you attend ? Would be interested in hearing about it ...

Edited December 25, 2018 by robertmartha

[Coral]

2 hours ago, robertmartha said:

 

Netta - what is the passenger count on your sailing? Perhaps low passenger count does not justify sailing her vs their smaller ships? 

 

I know November 30th had low passenger numbers. I was speaking with my butler when on (November 20th) and they said they had a huge number of cancellations due to the record low levels on the Danube. I know someone on the 30th sailing and he did say the ship wasn't full. I don't know what insurance they had purchased that allowed for cancellations or maybe because it was obvious at final payment that the Danube had been low for many months, people cancelled. I know the previous 2 years they did sail over Christmas.

 

They have one other ship out (Crystal Bach?). A barge had hit it and due to custom glass needed to fix it - it wasn't going to sail the rest of the year. So they re-acommodated people on other sailings. Maybe they had soft bookings this winter. Between having low levels and a new riverboat company......Maybe someone with better insights can interject.

[Coral]

2 hours ago, robertmartha said:

 

Netta thanks for the update. Love the option of attending a midnight mass on Christmas Eve. Did you attend ? Would be interested in hearing about it ...

 

That is pretty cool! I agree.

[robertmartha]

Totally agree -

always about the numbers - depending on their bookings I doubt they will sail a larger vessel half full vs a smaller vessel that is full. Holiday sailings I think are always a gamble in terms of passenger counts. I can only comment on our holiday sailing last year on AMA - very multi-generational (high school / college age young adult families) and the ship was not booked to capacity but it was almost full. But keep in mind we booked two cabins in late August for a Christmas Day sailing. 

[Netta7]

I heard the passenger count was 139 from one crew member, but I don’t know how accurate that is.   There are many people on board, including us, who were moved from the cancelled Mahler cruise.  Crystal moved the Mahler to take the place of the damaged Bach.  The Mozart couldn’t have been full if Crystal was able to accommodate so many Mahler passengers.  The only place that ever feels crowded is the laundry room.  Everyone seems to want to do laundry.  

 

We didn’t make it to the Christmas Eve mass.  The expected 1:30 am return to ship was too late with our jet lag.  Christmas day excursions were offered to Salzburg and Cesky-Krumlov.   There was also a morning tour of Linz with a tram ride. We chose Salzburg.  The Christmas market was open and it was a lovely day.   On December 26 the same full day excursions were offered and we went to Cesky.    Everything seemed to be closed in Linz, so we couldn’t have dinner off the ship or do any shopping even though we were parked overnight.   

 

Today has has been a quiet travel day with only few activities offered.  

 

 

[robertmartha]

Netta

 

Thanks for checking in! and for the information on the port days during the holidays. We also experienced a very "empty" and closed Linz last year on our sailing - and that was not even on Christmas Day!

Enjoy your remaining days on board and safe travels home in the New Year!

[Coral]

Netta - also want to thank you for your reports!

[Beach Wings]

On 12/27/2018 at 8:46 AM, Netta7 said:

 The only place that ever feels crowded is the laundry room.  Everyone seems to want to do laundry.  

 

 

 

Netta.....Everyone did seem to want to do laundry, yes, and all at the same time. Probably why my wife took advantage of my night owl tendencies and sent me off after midnight to the laundry, laptop in hand. It was a great cruise, the Mozart is arguably incomparable and addictive. Not my first time in Europe or on it's rivers and not my last with Crystal.  The boss is hooked....Cabin 223

 

 

Edited January 5, 2019 by Beach Wings

[Coral]

4 hours ago, Beach Wings said:

. It was a great cruise, the Mozart is arguably incomparable and addictive. Not my first time in Europe or on it's rivers and not my last with Crystal.  The boss is hooked....Cabin 223

 

I loved the Mozart from my November cruise. Now - it comes down do I do Mozart again or try one of Crystal's smaller ships. We were docked next to Ravel but I didn't have time to look at anything except for the dining room. I loved the Mozart too much.

Edited January 5, 2019 by Coral

[Beach Wings]

We booked the Crystal Debussy for it's December A-Dam to Basel run while still aboard the Mozart because we were told that the Mozart would not be making it's last voyage as late in December as it had in the past. We have been on Avalon's boats in the past and to try and compare them with them with the Mozart is really no contest at all, the Mozart stands alone, in my opinion. And I am not knocking Avalon in any way by saying that, we had a great time on Avalon. But the Mozart?...Absolutely love at first sight.

We're going on the Debussy based on the belief that Crystal will hold firm to it's philosophy of travel that we experienced, no matter what the size of the vessel. Happy Trails, Coral

 

[Coral]

53 minutes ago, Beach Wings said:

We booked the Crystal Debussy for it's December A-Dam to Basel run while still aboard the Mozart because we were told that the Mozart would not be making it's last voyage as late in December as it had in the past. We have been on Avalon's boats in the past and to try and compare them with them with the Mozart is really no contest at all, the Mozart stands alone, in my opinion. And I am not knocking Avalon in any way by saying that, we had a great time on Avalon. But the Mozart?...Absolutely love at first sight.

We're going on the Debussy based on the belief that Crystal will hold firm to it's philosophy of travel that we experienced, no matter what the size of the vessel. Happy Trails, Coral

 

Thank you! 

 

I did an open booking and have yet to decide what I am going to do. I did ask several employees which ships they preferred (Mozart vs the 4 others). Most struggled to answer but ended up saying Mozart due to her size and more public rooms. Though - it was not a quick answer by any means. So I am sure all their ships are amazing. I am kicking myself for not walking around the Ravel.

 

The Mozart was love at first sight for me also!

Edited January 5, 2019 by Coral

[Beach Wings]

Aha ! So I was not the only one asking the staff about Crystal's other boats ! I think I may have gotten a little farther with my questions and I came to this conclusion - I got the strong impression that the people I talked to were hesitant to offer opinions like the ones were seeking mainly because they are in fact, Crystal employees, and maybe they didn't want to be perceived as possibly critical of the company's offerings, which I feel Crystal came through for it's guests with flying colors, far exceeding our personal expectations. I really believe that the Mozart staff were responding to us with a type of loyalty to the Mozart itself and not trying to hide a deficiency or fault with Crystal's other vessels. But here's one factor that several employees did let slip to me..there is more room on the Mozart than the other vessels, a lot more for us...and also for them, as they live right alongside us onboard for the whole cruise. They must share quarters aboard as part of their job.... and we don't. If I was in their shoes, I would probably feel the same way.

The Avalon vessels carried a lot more people than the Crystal river vessels do, and from everything I could learn from the Mozart staff, Crystal's service and philosophy extends to all it's operations ( Crystal should probably hire me to be a spokesman, I certainly sound like one) But the one final fact that makes me so enthusiastic about Crystal? My wife was and is soooo happy. That is priceless.

Ciao...Be seeing you 🙂

[robertmartha]

Beach - thank you for all the positive information about Mozart - really makes me want to sail on her and give Crystal a try. Curious why she would not sail thru the holiday season - with all the positive press you would think there would be demand - but then again if there isn't - makes more sense to sail a smaller vessel full vs a larger one half full. I for one would jump on the chance to sail on her over the '19 holidays.

[Beach Wings]

robertmartha...

 

I don't believe the Mozart's demand wanes in the holiday season. Europe now has the largest river cruising fleet in the world, nearly 350 vessels. All those ships vie for space in shipyards for their overhaul and refurbishment and are most likely inspected and certified before they are sent out again. That many ships probably creates a huge logistics problem scheduling them all. It's crowded out there.

My family just happens to prefer the holiday season to be Europe, kind of a tradition to cruise on a vessels last trip before it goes into the shipyards. We've been in Europe every year  at that time for the last 20 years. Go for it ! 🙂

[Coral]

15 minutes ago, Beach Wings said:

 

I don't believe the Mozart's demand wanes in the holiday season. Europe now has the largest river cruising fleet in the world, nearly 350 vessels.🙂

 

This maybe true but I believe the ship has been only out for 3 seasons (so there isn't a ton of past experience). They are still a very new line and not well known for River Cruising. I know that Crystal has a ton of cancellations late last year due to the low river levels. Their cancellation policy is a bit more liberal compared to some of the others. People definitely knew 90 days out that things were not going to get much better with the levels.

 

I can say based on my experience with the Mozart (end of November) - I came back wanting to book a holiday trip with them. So I hope in the future, they do sail until the end of the year. I do know all of their ships go in for maintenance (don't have passengers) until March. Staff return at the end of February to prepare the ship for passengers and do safety training, etc...

Edited January 7, 2019 by Coral

[Beach Wings]

We were watching all the river level reports through the whole of last year and I wasn't surprised that many lines, including Crystal, had problems meeting their goals at times, busing passengers and cancellations... that's the nature of the rivers, you're pretty much rolling the dice if you chose to cruise rivers in Europe. We've never been on a cruise where those kind of issues came up, we've deliberately chosen the latest possible dates where historically the water levels have been high. In December 2017 I saw so much water in the Danube that tree trunks were being dislodged from the shore and carried out into the middle of the Danube, creating the high water problem where the vessels cannot pass under bridges and we accordingly slowed down in order to allow the river level to lessen in order to proceed. That occurred approaching Regensburg.

I can understand the concerns of people who mainly cruise oceans and then give the rivers a try. It's a far more temperamental environment, we always have a backup plan in case things go off schedule.

I too, want the Mozart back in December, exactly at the time we cruised on her....my wife REALLY wants her back then as well. But we were told when we booked the Debussy for December of this year that the Mozart wouldn't be running this year or next year either at the time we prefer.

[Host Jazzbeau]

I know it's not Crystal, but you can book AmaWaterway's new double-wide ship the AmaMagna for December 22, 2019 and December 20, 2020.  She should be the closest thing to Crystal Mozart.

[Texas Tillie]

1 hour ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

I know it's not Crystal, but you can book AmaWaterway's new double-wide ship the AmaMagna for December 22, 2019 and December 20, 2020.  She should be the closest thing to Crystal Mozart.

 

The boats might be the same width, but AMA does not compare with Crystal.

Edited January 7, 2019 by Texas Tillie

[Netta7]

We were very fortunate to get a bridge tour while we were on the Mozart.  I learned a lot about the locks, the ships navigation process and the limited itineraries the because of the width of the ship.   I liked being on the larger ship, but it’s not possible for many of the other rivers and even some parts of the Danube because the Mozart won’t fit in the smaller locks.   This will stop my plan of finding another large ship for some of the places on my list to see. 

Edited January 7, 2019 by Netta7