LIVE FROM CRYSTAL MOZART - MAY 10, 2019 SAILING

[Keith1010]

LIVE FROM VIENNA, AUSTRIA & THE CRYSTAL CRUISES MAY 10,  2019  MOZART RIVER CRUISE

 

Welcome to my live thread.

 

My wife and I are getting ready to complete an adventure on Crystal Serenity sailing from December 21, 2018 thru May 4, 2019.  This included Crystal Cruises 2019 World Cruise along with five cruises preceding/following the World Cruise.

 

We will fly to Vienna, Austria for a five-day pre-cruise stay before boarding Crystal Cruises Mozart for our first River Cruise, starting on May 10.  It is a ten day  Vienna Round  Trip sailing.

 

We are very excited to experience our first River Cruise and to visit Vienna, Austria for the very first time.

 

Since we began this adventure we have been blogging about it.

 

The following URL will take you to the Blog.

 

http://www.followourtrips.com

 

To view the blog, click on the tab that says Current Blog on the navigation bar at the top of the home page.

 

We will add to the Blog daily postings from Vienna and from Crystal Mozart.

 

We look forward to sharing this adventure with you. 

 

I will  posting daily in  the  coming  days.

 

In the meantime I am also posting daily on the Crystal Cruises Board and the thread is located at:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2614136-live-world-cruise-2019-more-a-new-adventure-unfolds-121518-52119/

 

We welcome comments and/or questions throughout this journey.

 

Cheers,

 

Keith

 

 

 

 

 

[ellbon]

Have a blast! Stay Safe! I love Vienna. Enjoy the palaces and the church and the yummy sweets.  

[Keith1010]

Thank you so much, Robin.

 

Keith

[acwmom]

Welcome to the river cruise board! (And thank you for your help, thus far, on the Crystal board) I am more of a regular on this board, having done an annual river cruise for the past 5 years (one on Avalon, four on Uniworld). Crystal has been on our river cruise radar, so I'm looking forward to following your live thread. 

 

Enjoy Vienna, it's one of our favorite cities.

 

Robin

[robertmartha]

Keith

 

I second acwmom - crystal river cruise is on my radar as well so looking forward to your blog and sailing along with you! Enjoy!

 

Bob

[jimbri]

Have a wonderful time.  Enjoyed your World Cruise blog and am looking forward to your river cruise!

[ctjon]

Will be very interested to hear your river experiences as we enjoy your ocean ones.   I assume your web site will also have this river blog.

Have a great time.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Thanks Keith.  You are such a help on the Crystal ocean forum, I'm sure your blog will be of great interest to the members of this forum.  Also please come back here at the end with your comparison of Crystal river and ocean.

[Keith1010]

Thank you so much Robin, Bob Jimbri, Joanathan and Host Jazzbeau.

 

I really appreciate your nice comments and good wishes.

 

I will update this thread each day and also update the Blog.

 

Keith

[andydates]

Keith.

 

Looking forward to hear about your river cruise experience as well especially on the differences in food variety.

 

As an aside, I am wondering how do you prepare for your tax returns when you are away during the entire tax season in the US when all the annual statements such as 1099’s come in at the end of January.  Do you just file an extension and deal with it when you return?

 

Thanks

[TLCOhio]

16 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

We are very excited to experience our first River Cruise and to visit Vienna, Austria for the very first time.

 

WOW!!  For such an incredible, super World Traveler as Keith, I am totally surprised that you have not, yet, visited Vienna.  I have been there twice, 1970 and 1997.  You will love Vienna and other locations in Austria.  No stopping at Salzburg?  That town is also an amazing city with great history and architecture in a scenic location.  But, it looks like you will have stop in Budapest, the capital of Slovakia and other fascinating locations.  Right?

 

Look forward to hearing about your impressions, seeing your nice visuals to bring back great memories, etc.  Below are just three of my visuals to help build up excitement for this trip and your first attempting of a river cruise.  It's a different style, but that is not all bad. 

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

For latest live/blog, see “Holy Lands, Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Dubai, Greece, etc.”, with many visuals, details and ideas for the historic and scenic Middle East.  Connect at:

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2607054-livenautica-greece-holy-lands-egypt-dubai-terrypix’s/

 

Here are only a few highlights and potentials in Vienna from our Spring 1997 visit.  First, from spectacular Vienna, this great “Imperial” city has a nice pedestrian-only area that runs from St. Stephen’s Cathedral towards the main Hofburg Palace area. Second is an example of the main live music/dance program that we attended.  Third is an example inside their main art museum with its great treasures. I could also post visuals from 1,441-room Schoenbrunn Palace.  But, will leave it at just three examples.  Hope that is OK.   So much to see and do in Vienna and Austria, etc., etc.:

(Open your screen/viewer wider to see these pictures larger/better!)

 

 

 

[Coral]

The Wienerschnitzel was excellent on the Mozart. 

 

I loved the Mozart - hope you do also!

[boblerm]

Hi Keith,  Fancy meeting you here!😁 

I believe that you mentioned on your Serenity thread that you had pre-booked a tour on the Crystal site beforehand, am I understanding that correctly?  The reason that I ask is that on my previous river cruises on Tauck, and on my upcoming one on Uniworld, there was no opportunity for pre-booking, in ports where choices are offered, you make your choice once on board.

 

Jeannie and I wish you and Anne Marie a wonderful stay in Vienna, and a fabulous River Cruise on the Mozart.  No doubt you will have a great time.

 

Bob

[Coral]

20 minutes ago, boblerm said:

Hi Keith,  Fancy meeting you here!😁 

I believe that you mentioned on your Serenity thread that you had pre-booked a tour on the Crystal site beforehand, am I understanding that correctly?  The reason that I ask is that on my previous river cruises on Tauck, and on my upcoming one on Uniworld, there was no opportunity for pre-booking, in ports where choices are offered, you make your choice once on board.

 

Not Keith but I did sail on the Mozart in November. Yes - you can pre-book your excursions in advance on Crystal's website. Most of the shore excursions are free (even full day ones). There are private drivers, Michelin dinners and a few other excursions that are extra. On my trip - all the excursions I wanted were included.

 

Crystal seems to run their river cruises somewhat like their ocean cruises. They don't do the "meeting every night to discuss the next day", etc... You book your excursions online but can change them onboard if there is availability. I thought Crystal did a great job with their river cruise product.

Edited May 4, 2019 by Coral

[CruiserFromMaine]

We’re looking forward to your reports as well! We’ll be on the Mozart in June, our first time on Crystal. We have also booked our first ocean cruise with Crystal for next January! 

[Keith1010]

Just now, boblerm said:

Hi Keith,  Fancy meeting you here!😁 

I believe that you mentioned on your Serenity thread that you had pre-booked a tour on the Crystal site beforehand, am I understanding that correctly?  The reason that I ask is that on my previous river cruises on Tauck, and on my upcoming one on Uniworld, there was no opportunity for pre-booking, in ports where choices are offered, you make your choice once on board.

 

Jeannie and I wish you and Anne Marie a wonderful stay in Vienna, and a fabulous River Cruise on the Mozart.  No doubt you will have a great time.

 

Bob

HI Bob, so glad you posted here.  As Coral mentioned we can pre-book the tours using PCPC in the same manner we could book the Ocean Vessel tours.  Many tours are included in the fare as is the case on other River Cruise Lines and they are marked accordingly.  For those with a cost you can book them in advance as well and like the Crystal ocean ships and yacht you won't be charged ahead of time.  We pre-booked all of our tours that we wanted many months ago.

 

Anne Marie and I send our very best to you and Jeannie.

 

Keith

[Keith1010]

Just now, andydates said:

Keith.

 

Looking forward to hear about your river cruise experience as well especially on the differences in food variety.

 

As an aside, I am wondering how do you prepare for your tax returns when you are away during the entire tax season in the US when all the annual statements such as 1099’s come in at the end of January.  Do you just file an extension and deal with it when you return?

 

Thanks

Thank you andyates.

 

You are corerct.  We file a tax extension and deal with them after we return from the adventure.

 

Keith

[Keith1010]

Thank you Terry, Coral & CruiserFomMain for your posts and Terry for those photos and blog.

 

Keith

[caroak]

Keith, very much enjoyed following you and Ann Marie's great adventure on Serenity and now on to your first river cruise.  We've never done a river cruise so look forward to hearing about your experience.  We did a land trip to Vienna and Budapest and enjoyed them both.  If you would like Italian food one night I highly recommend Trattoria Toscano La No.  The owners and wait staff are from Italy and the food was as good as we've had in Italy.  It was so good we went back a second night.  We were surprised to find such a great Italian restaurant in Vienna.  It's very close to the Spanish Riding School which is something you don't want to miss.  When we were there the Vienna Boys' Choir also performed and it was a most memorable experience.  Also, not to be missed are the stables.

 

Carole

[Keith1010]

Carole, so glad you enjoyed following our adventure on Serenity and now on the RIver Cruise.

 

Thank you so much for your restaurant suggestion in Vienna and for the VIenna Boys' Choire and Spanish Riding School.

 

Many thanks,

 

Keith

[maryogreen]

Hi Keith, How wonderful you're venturing out onto the river! We did our first ever river cruise on the Mozart last fall. It's a terrific itinerary and an interesting comparison with ocean cruising. Vienna is just magical...very walkable and easy to tour on your own. I have blogs with stories and photos from every port, if you need additional information or excursion ideas. Don't miss the honey-walnut cake at the bakery in Bratislava 🙂 

 

Mary

Travel Blog: www.themodernpostcard.com

[Lois R]

Hi Keith, If I recall you always write a wonderful thread.  I hope you both have a great river cruise

[MalbecWine]

For tax tax extensions you still need to pay the estimated tax from the previous  year.  I just went through this settling an estate with my mother.  If we are away I get the whole thing and can sign online after reviewing the return.  It was easy.  This tax reform screwed up all accountants as they had to reprogram the changes.  Many people are on extension this year due to this so called tax reform.  Cough. 

[Keith1010]

Thank you Mary and Lois.

 

Keith

[Keith1010]

GOOD MORNING FROM VIENNA

 

I want to start with something that happened on our way to the Club Floor room for a pre-dinner drink and I'll work backwards from there.

 

It is a "small world" and that was proven yesterday.

 

We just left our room when we are passed by a woman and we said hello and she said hello.  Her voice was familiar but I couldn't remember why.  We walk a couple  of more steps and she says Mr. & Mrs. Steiner......I am Anastazija and I was your  penthouse attendant on Serenity a few years ago.  Sure enough it  was her.  She left Serenity in 2013.  She  married, move  to Vienna, has  a four year old and is the supervisor of housekeeping at the Ritz Carlton.  She remembered  a few things that  we like from when she took care of us.  She certainly learned well from Crystal Cruises to remember names and things we enjoyed.   It is a "small world".  

 

As soon as we board Mozart I will post all about the River Cruise on the River Cruise thread only.  We board this Friday.

 

Once again that thread can be found at:

 

We flew from London Heathrow over to Vienna yesterday.  For those of you who have stayed at the Sofitel LHR hotel before or have plans to stay there about five months ago British Airways set up a service where you can check your luggage for flights out of Terminal 3 and Terminal 5.  I believe you have to check the luggage in at least three hours prior to your flight.  

 

Our flight was out of Terminal 3 and with two large bags plus one carry-on each rather than taking the train I arranged a private taxi (really a private van) after we checked into the hotel.  If I would have known about the BA service we would have taken the train.  Now we know and I thought it might be of interest to some of you about this feature.

 

Check in for the flight was easy as was getting into the departure area and there was no line for security.  The only hold up which was no big deal was that Anne Marie and I were each selected for a random screening and in my case they checked me over for explosives.   However I had one more  unexpected check.  I had posted this on another social site but it was so fast I didn't read where i need to remove my iPad  from my luggage.  A  few  things  about that.  In the USA with Global Entry/TSA  Pre Check we don't have to remove items such as computer/belt/jacket/3-2-1 and other related items.  We didn't have to remove  the  iPad either  in Athens and last I rarely travel with an iPad these days.  I only brought it to read books as I love my MacBook Air and carry  it around with me like I would an iPad.  Anyway, when I got through the explosives check one of the agents was standing next to my check in piece and mentioned the iPad.  Because of that she had to remove everything from my carry   on.  Oh well.  Lesson learned.  

Flight  was  uneventful.  

 

Now  to Vienna.  A few weeks ago they had great weather and the other day turned rainy and cool.  In fact, we didn't bring our heavier of the fleeces with us as we shipped them home.  We still have fleeces and other items to layer.  Yesterday it was rainy so when we got to the hotel at 2:00 PM we didn't go out.  As it turned out our room was not ready  until 4:00 PM (1 hour late which they apologized to us about) so we might not have gone out until later as we had too many valuables with us and to complicated to take them out to put in a hotel safe.   I had dinner reservations at a restaurant and while we could have taken a taxi instead of the original plan to walk we decided to eat at the hotel instead.  I  felt  older at the restaurant.  As we  found in places  like the  Ritz Carlton at San Francisco the restaurants have gone trendier.  This one was even more trendier.  Anyway, we survived (LOL) and at the time the check was supposed to come we were told it was on the Hotel for the room not being ready.  Now  if I had known that before we ordered. LOL.

 

 

Octopus appetizer which looked like the real thing.  

 

 

Salad

 

 

Swordfish with some  type of  onion on the side.

 

 

 

 

We have a lovely room.  I posted photos on the blog showing the room.

 

 

I have a tour arranged for us for this morning.  A  walking  tour on a  cold day.  I  know that the city  is easy to get  around but I do have tours for today and tomorrow.  I find that while we do a lot on our own it is nice to have commentary from time-to-time to learn more about one is seeing.  

 

I will close now.

 

Cheers,

 

Keith