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Back From the Mozart - Avoid This Room!


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We were on the September 10 sailing of the Mozart. This was our first river cruise. Our quick observations:

 

What we liked:

 

  • The ship is first class in design/décor.
  • The crew is fantastic – from the front desk and concierge tothe dining room, housekeeper and butler.
  • The food is exceptional and lives up to its billing.

What we didn’t like:

 

Our cabin, 235. We would advise against booking it or any cabin near the rear, especially (based on this cruise) the port side. We cannot say this strongly enough. It is a two-star room in a 5-star hotel, therefore bringing down the entire experience.

 

Our primary complaint: The size, the noises, the bed and … the smell.

 

The size: We knew this would be small – this was a deluxe with a French balcony – but knowing and experiencing are two different things. Although It is new, beautifully decorated and technologically ahead of many ships and hotels, it’s a very tight space – especially between the closet and the bed and the foot of the bed and the wall. The bathroom has no storage, other than one shallow drawer and virtually nowhere to place anything at the sink. While the vessel sink looks nice it is impractical. We also didn’t like being blocked in night-after-night by another ship.

 

The noises: We were directly under the kitchen *–specifically, under the pastry/baking section. That meant every night, ataround 10 or 11 the bakers would start preparing the next day’s bread and goodies.That meant the mixer would start roaring just above our heads, from slow to high. And the food carts would roll. And for those who think that’s what we get for going to bed early – surprise: The carts would start rolling around at around 4 a.m., as well – loud enough to wake us up. Back and forth, back and forth. There was also the tick, tick, tick or drip,drip, drip (all night long when docked overnight) of – and I’m guessing – the sound of the motor from one of the ships, amplified because we were tethered to the other ship. We also had a terrible vibration noise in the room when the ship was moving. We tracked it down to the bottom hinge of the cabin door. When engineering arrived, the maintenance guy seemed unenthused about fixing it (he was the only negative person we encountered on the ship) and reluctantly thought about it and realized he could fix a gasket in the hinge. It actually resolved the situation for two nights. Then the rattle resumed, and we fixed it by getting up multiples times at night kicking the door!

 

The bed: This reminded us of the old beds on the Symphony. Even with a topper, it wasn’t very comfortable.

 

The smell – and (unfortunately) we’re not talking about the smell of fresh-baked bread or deserts: Starting our first night we were often docked alongside the A-Rosa Stella. The kitchen vents of these ships are at the rear –very close to our cabin. Imagine a tight wall next to another wall with kitchen fumes belching out and bouncing into a narrow alley. Somehow those fumes wound up in our cabin – and I suspect the cabins of others. It was like our room was in a deep fryer, with frying oil odors so intense they made our eyes burn. The mornings would be bacon or some other greasy smell. One night, all night, our best guess is that it was pot roast. It made it tough to sleep. We complained the first night, but there was nothing that could be done. Based on the body language of multiple crew members we mentioned this to – none coming right out and saying it – we suspect we were not the first people to ever mention this. I’m surprised nobody has mentioned this on Cruise Critic.

 

Also, there was the issue with the river levels – something out of Crystal’s control. Crystal did a great job of trying to get us to Budapest but could only go as far as Bratislava because of low water levels on the Danube. The destinations department gets high marks for juggling more than 100 passengers (and smiling through the process) and getting them into hotels. Wefeel Crystal corporate, however, could have done a better job with compensation for the reduced time in Budapest.

 

Finally, this is a nitpick, but: We also didn’t like the music in the dining room at breakfast and lunch. It seemed like Crystal was targeting the cruise to the generation before ours, rather than a mix of ages. (We are in our mid-60s.) It made us feel old – or older than we are;).

 

It might have been a very different experience if we had been in a different cabin. We will never know.

 

Herb

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