Two weeks on Riverside Mozart

[iticlaudia]

Just got back a couple days ago from our first river cruise.  What started out as a 7-night cruise ended up being a 14-night cruise because we loved it so much and extended.  

I have posted a review on the ship but of course there is no way of putting everything into a single review.  Before booking our cruise, I was looking for information on the ship and the cruise line and finding very little.  Having spent two weeks on the ship I will happily answer any questions you may have concerning the ship, food, excursions, etc.   Please keep in mind that it was our first river cruise so I can't make comparisons to other ships or lines.  

Edited September 20, 2023 by iticlaudia

[CastleCritic]

I would just start writing, I dont think Ive ever heard of someone deciding not to get off a ship before and just booking the next cruise.

 

you might want to say where you went.

[Got2Cruise]

Hi. Can you post pics? How did you like the food and tours. Were the tours in English? 
 

Also how did you extend your cruise? What was the itinerary?

[Pompein]

Which itinerary? How was food, excursions? What was not included?

[Coral]

I loved that ship under Crystal!!!!! I hope your trip was just as amazing as mine was! 

 

I would be curious what was included and what was extra? With Crystal - almost everything was included.

 

I understand that there is a lot of the same staff as Crystal.

[Coral]

This ship can only do Danube.

[iticlaudia]

14 hours ago, CastleCritic said:

I would just start writing, I dont think Ive ever heard of someone deciding not to get off a ship before and just booking the next cruise.

 

you might want to say where you went.

We had plans for an additional week in Europe after the cruise staying in hotels in Vienna, Salzburg and Munich.  Having enjoyed the cruise so very much, the Saturday before debarkation I contacted my travel agent about extending.  The cruise line is new and wasn't booked fully which made it possible to not only book another week but also stay in our cabin.  Our hotels were booked with AmEx points which made that part super easy to cancel.  Flying home was a bit more interesting having to stay overnight in Frankfurt to be able to catch a flight in the morning, but that wasn't a big deal since I used my refunded points for the night stay.  

The Mozart being so wide can only do the Danube.  I'll post the maps and itineraries.  

[iticlaudia]

These are the maps and itineraries for both weeks.  

We were on the all-inclusive program which included most drinks and excursions.  There were some specialty sprits and wines that were extra cost.  Also, the Vintage dining room is extra, but being only the two of us we didn't do it.  There were a couple singles onboard that told us that the line is doing a special and presently not charging a single supplemental.  

English is the language used onboard by the staff.

The television in the cabin is mainly all in German similar to the same service used in German hotels.  

 

Edited September 21, 2023 by iticlaudia

[Coral]

I don't think the Vintage dining room ever happened during our cruise. The food was so good in the dining room, no one was really interested.

 

The Mozart was the most luxurious ship I have been on and the food we had was some of the best I have had at any restaurant. I hope yours was the same under Riverside.

Edited September 21, 2023 by Coral

[iticlaudia]

11 hours ago, Coral said:

I don't think the Vintage dining room ever happened during our cruise. The food was so good in the dining room, no one was really interested.

 

The Mozart was the most luxurious ship I have been on and the food we had was some of the best I have had at any restaurant. I hope yours was the same under Riverside.

The food was amazing!  It's obvious that they are still trying out some new items/ideas like the evening of Asian inspired food which was really good.  There are also local specialties included on the menus such as Wiener schnitzel, apricot fill dumplings and a couple Hungarian item I couldn't pronounce. The pasta I had was obviously freshly made on the ship.  I'm assuming the bread is baked daily on the ship and the butter that came with it was usually infused with truffle or herbs.  The wines served with dinner were local, plentiful and very tasty.

Even the cocktails were made special with slices of dried citrus, smoked rosemary and some infused syrups/spirits.  There was talk at the end of our two weeks of maybe a new page being added to the artisan cocktail menu featuring spicy cocktails (which I love!).

Looking back, I wish I taken pictures of the food and menus.  But we were on vacation so most of my pictures are of castles and the river.  

[Coral]

5 minutes ago, iticlaudia said:

The food was amazing!  It's obvious that they are still trying out some new items/ideas like the evening of Asian inspired food which was really good.  There are also local specialties included on the menus such as Wiener schnitzel, apricot fill dumplings and a couple Hungarian item I couldn't pronounce. The pasta I had was obviously freshly made on the ship.  I'm assuming the bread is baked daily on the ship and the butter that came with it was usually infused with truffle or herbs.  The wines served with dinner were local, plentiful and very tasty.

Even the cocktails were made special with slices of dried citrus, smoked rosemary and some infused syrups/spirits.  There was talk at the end of our two weeks of maybe a new page being added to the artisan cocktail menu featuring spicy cocktails (which I love!).

Looking back, I wish I taken pictures of the food and menus.  But we were on vacation so most of my pictures are of castles and the river.  

So glad to hear the Mozart's food is still amazing! I would love to sail on this ship again. I had an outside cabin and still loved it. Yea - everything tasted fresh and home made to me also!

[iticlaudia]

6 minutes ago, Coral said:

So glad to hear the Mozart's food is still amazing! I would love to sail on this ship again. I had an outside cabin and still loved it. Yea - everything tasted fresh and home made to me also!

We had a cabin with a french balcony, but to be honest we were so rarely in our cabin that it wouldn't matter to us which cabin we get the next time.  One thing we did figure out a couple nights in was ear plugs are a must for us to block out the noise of the moving ship and going through the locks.  

My husband has never been to the Christmas markets in Europe and if possible, I might try to get back on the Mozart so he can experience the markets that way.  If that happens, I'll make a better effort to take pictures of the food and menus.   

[Coral]

Just now, iticlaudia said:

We had a cabin with a french balcony, but to be honest we were so rarely in our cabin that it wouldn't matter to us which cabin we get the next time.  One thing we did figure out a couple nights in was ear plugs are a must for us to block out the noise of the moving ship and going through the locks.  

My husband has never been to the Christmas markets in Europe and if possible, I might try to get back on the Mozart so he can experience the markets that way.  If that happens, I'll make a better effort to take pictures of the food and menus.   

I actually did the Mozart for the Christmas Markets in 2018 I believe. Amazing!

 

I did a river cruise in Russia once and the first few times, we hit the locks, I ran up stairs in the middle of the night to watch it. After the 5th one - it was like "no big deal"!!!! 🙂 Yes, it is loud!

 

The markets in Vienna are amazing. We also went to Salzburg for their markets and they also had an excursion to the Austrian Lake District and their markets.

 

I absolutely loved this trip. It ranks as one of my favorites (Christmas Markets, Mozart, itinerary, etc...).

[iticlaudia]

7 minutes ago, Coral said:

I actually did the Mozart for the Christmas Markets in 2018 I believe. Amazing!

 

I did a river cruise in Russia once and the first few times, we hit the locks, I ran up stairs in the middle of the night to watch it. After the 5th one - it was like "no big deal"!!!! 🙂 Yes, it is loud!

 

The markets in Vienna are amazing. We also went to Salzburg for their markets and they also had an excursion to the Austrian Lake District and their markets.

 

I absolutely loved this trip. It ranks as one of my favorites (Christmas Markets, Mozart, itinerary, etc...).

The locks were so fascinating!  I'm an early riser and was up on the sun deck every morning.  We did several locks during the day in our first week.  Most of the locks in the second week were while we were sleeping.  

One of the most amazing lock encounters was with the AmaMagna.  When I got up early that morning I saw the Manga ahead of us.  Later in the morning we all watched as the two largest ships on the Danube shared a lock.  We were just a couple of feet apart.  The crazy thing is there was a couple we had met on our flight to Budapest that were on the Magna and we were both waving at each other like crazy.  It's really a small world.