First of all, it was great and we had a fabulous time. We loved traveling with our "psychiatrist" Ms. Cathy Kris, she's loads of fun and the best travel partner ever.
Before we left I had a bunch of questions and some concerns regarding this cruise, the following are my conclusions related to some of them:
1. Did I miss the ocean and the ocean-going experience? Yes I did, but this all fell into perspective once I realized that river cruising is not ocean cruising and that the two should not be compared, they should be appreciated for the things that make each form of travel unique. To me, the biggest advantage of river cruising is reaching those special landlocked places that might otherwise go unvisited, for example Budapest.
2. Did the Mozart live up to expectations? Big time. From the refurbishment (you would never know this was a 25 year old ship) to the food (all made on board using the freshest ingredients) to the service (there is always someone around ready to do your bidding). The food was outstanding, better and more consistent than on the ocean ships, despite the limited menus.
3. Was it all perfect? no, there were a few issues like a flooded cabin halfway through the cruise, like the showers that leak (a lot) no matter what you do to prevent it, like the botched Culinary excursion upon arrival in Vienna, but this is really nitpicking. Overall, it was a very successful sailing despite the small shakeout issues.
4. Unfounded concerns? yes, like the number of electrical outlets in the standard cabin (only 1 US type but quite a few European). There are so many USB ports to charge phones, iPads, cameras, etc. that I never missed the plugs. I did take an adapter and used it once.
5. The fixed windows cabin. We had paid for a French balcony cabin but shortly before the cruise Crystal told me that they had no cabin for us in that category (oversold I suppose, compounded by the late-in-the-game reconfiguration of the suites which resulted in fewer balcony ones). They offered suitable compensation which we accepted and gave us a fixed window (bottom of the window is at water level) instead. Bottom line, I would pay the extra money for the balcony on any future river cruise for two main reasons: 1. About half the time during a cruise the window will be smack against the dock wall or another ship (rafted) and therefore the cabin will be in darkness. 2. I love fresh air and would like to have the option of opening the balcony door. Also, the views from the fixed window are limited (you can only see the water when standing up close to the window) and it would be nice to admire the scenery from the cabin when sailing during the day (a few times during the cruise). Some people had commented that one spends very little time in the cabin during a river cruise and therefore having a balcony is not a necessity, but we found that we wanted to spend some time in our cabin, particularly in the afternoons to get some rest away from the public areas.
6. Underutilized areas? the pool and whirlpool! We soaked up in the whirlpool three times at the end of hot and tiring days and we were the only ones there. There is a nice "relaxation" area with a few comfortable lounges and big windows facing the river and I never saw anyone there either. I assume this area may get more use in the cold weather sailings. Also the Sun Deck seems to never have too many people on it but again this could be due to the heat with many people choosing to stay indoors.
7. Anything missing? we love baths and we missed having a bathtub (only PH and up have them). It would also be nice to have Blue open for dinner and with a tapas style menu (such as Tastes).
8. Demographics? similar to Crystal's ocean going ships. We were definitely in the minority, with many passengers in their 60s and 70s and a three or four multi-generational groups. The majority was North American with some European, South American and Asian groups, probably in that order. Well over half of the passengers were past Crystal cruisers.
9. Crew. First rate, several outstanding like our cabin stewardess Mihaela and many of the servers whom we truly enjoyed interacting with. I expect that once the other river yachts roll out in the next couple of years and the pool of trained Crystal crew grows the experience will resemble that of the ocean ships even more. Deserving of special note are of course Mark Farris who is doing a great job and is an awesome ambassador for the Crystal brand and also Christian Mondaca who's running the restaurants so well.
10. Disappointments? only one. The much advertised Wider speedboat, which was supposed to be offered by invitation only to Crystal Society members (past Crystal cruisers) for special boat rides, never materialized. We learned on the last day that it was available to anyone for a fee of euro 180 per person (and as far as I could tell this was never communicated to the passengers). I really was looking forward to this, not sure why this wasn't done as advertised, I would have even paid the fees if I had known. I suspect that it may have had something to do with the fact that there were so many Crystal Society members on board.
11. Would I do it again? certainly but only for very specific reasons, like a Christmas Markets or a very special destination not reachable by sea or not likely to form part of a land trip.
Finally, kudos to Crystal for rolling out a very polished product when, according to a manager on board, barely 4 weeks before the inaugural sailing it seemed impossible that the ship would be ready. They are doing a great job and I assume some of the inevitable issues will get smoothed out in the next weeks.
For now, good bye from the three amigos!
Claudia, greatly enjoyed your blog. Gave me a good visual of river cruising, which (being a die hard ocean cruiser) may or may not be for me. Much food for thought.
ReplyDeleteLiv4cruzin (Becky)