Former Crystal Mozart - able to book, now Riverside Luxury Cruises

[Coral]

14 hours ago, notamermaid said:

The Mozart has been spotted sailing! The folks on Binnenschifferforum say that she has left the shipyard in Linz and was seen sailing towards Vienna. It sounds as if her transformation is complete.

 

notamermaid

 

I am following someone who works for the new company and she said she was going to board the ship in 24 hours in Vienna.

[steamboats]

Yes, the ship is going to Vienna for a media presentation/event tonight. Then she´s heading back to Linz.

 

Their main focus are their existing hotel guests. They now have four price models on the website. "Full Board" which includes the meals and water. And "all inclusive" option which includes a beverage package and afternoon coffee/waffles. And then you can have both packages with one excursion at each port.

 

steamboats

[Coral]

5 hours ago, steamboats said:

Yes, the ship is going to Vienna for a media presentation/event tonight. Then she´s heading back to Linz.

 

Their main focus are their existing hotel guests. They now have four price models on the website. "Full Board" which includes the meals and water. And "all inclusive" option which includes a beverage package and afternoon coffee/waffles. And then you can have both packages with one excursion at each port.

 

steamboats

That is an awful pricing model.

[steamboats]

30 minutes ago, Coral said:

That is an awful pricing model.

 

It´s not geared to cruisers but their hotel guests.

 

steamboats

[Coral]

2 minutes ago, steamboats said:

 

It´s not geared to cruisers but their hotel guests.

 

steamboats

Well - it is not the first time a cruise line has tried something and it didn't work and they had to adjust accordingly.

[steamboats]

4 minutes ago, Coral said:

Well - it is not the first time a cruise line has tried something and it didn't work and they had to adjust accordingly.

 

Well, you have to see it from their perspective... They don´t want to act as a cruise line but a hotel brand. Same with Ritz-Carlton´s Evrima... and there´s another luxury hotel brand which recently announced that they are building a small luxury cruise ship.

 

I assume we´re not the target group ;-).

 

steamboats

[steamboats]

Se here´s a little more about the MS Mozart and her future with Riverside. Sorry, but the text is in German so you need to use an online translation.

 

steamboats

[notamermaid]

Thank you for the link and cheers to Mr. Neumeier for the very informative interview. Very nice interior I must say. The last photo of the lounge/bar is leaning towards Art Deco. Really classy.

 

notamermaid

 

[steamboats]

2 hours ago, notamermaid said:

cheers to Mr. Neumeier for the very informative interview.

 

I´ll forward the kudos 😉 (but first DB has to get me back home).

 

steamboats

[notamermaid]

Was a bit confused about this as I thought Karst and Schreiner are the bosses of Amawaterways and have been since founding the company. Just a short note as the article is behind a register-to-read wall:

https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/ex-amawaterways-boss-stuart-perl-set-to-return-with-new-river-line-36911

Apparently Stuart Pearl was managing director for the UK and left in 2020 (as stated in another online article).

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Coral]

1 hour ago, notamermaid said:

Was a bit confused about this as I thought Karst and Schreiner are the bosses of Amawaterways and have been since founding the company. Just a short note as the article is behind a register-to-read wall:

https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/ex-amawaterways-boss-stuart-perl-set-to-return-with-new-river-line-36911

Apparently Stuart Pearl was managing director for the UK and left in 2020 (as stated in another online article).

 

notamermaid

 

 

They have had some good hires. They should just buy the rest of the fleet.

[steamboats]

11 hours ago, Coral said:

 They should just buy the rest of the fleet.

 

The basic problem is that the rest of the fleet is more or less owned by banks. And they want their money back they loaned to Crystal. Therefore it might be cheaper to build new ships than to buy those.

 

steamboats

[Coral]

7 minutes ago, steamboats said:

 

The basic problem is that the rest of the fleet is more or less owned by banks. And they want their money back they loaned to Crystal. Therefore it might be cheaper to build new ships than to buy those.

 

steamboats

How were they able to buy this ship? Same issue or different issue?

[steamboats]

6 hours ago, Coral said:

How were they able to buy this ship? Same issue or different issue?

 

The Mozart was no newbuildt and obviously Crystal had paid the massive renovation out of the pocket with no bank loans.

 

steamboats

[notamermaid]

I guess it is not much different from building a house as regards the banks. I have seen the publicly available info on the Viking ships being built with a bank loan to be paid back per contract over a period of eight years. I do not remember which ships they were but I calculated at the time that they would be paid off by 2021. Of course, you can choose to pay back faster. It is standard to have a bank in the background and/or an investor (group) for financing. The individual contracts will differ.

 

Crystal (Genting) were very enthusiastic about the share they could get in the river cruises market with their newbuilds (saw an interview), unfortunately, together with the  idea that the Mozart would do well on the Chinese market, they got it wrong. Granted, very much connected with the pandemic, but not entirely.

 

I agree with the interviewee that the Mozart can give the luxury the new venture wants to provide but the smaller, minimally scaled-down other ships, cannot - especially with the loan in the background causing financing worries.

 

For now, I see the future of the remaining ships a bit bleak.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[notamermaid]

An article expanding a bit on the takeover and plans: https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/New-river-line-plays-a-familiar-tune-with-former-Crystal-Mozart?ct=river

 

and new from the UK with info on booking through travel agents: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/travel-agents/riverside-luxury-cruises-unveils-raft-of-booking-offers

 

Certainly looks promising for the re-launch of the Mozart.

 

notamermaid

 

[Coral]

On 12/3/2022 at 9:24 AM, notamermaid said:

An article expanding a bit on the takeover and plans: https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/New-river-line-plays-a-familiar-tune-with-former-Crystal-Mozart?ct=river

 

and new from the UK with info on booking through travel agents: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/travel-agents/riverside-luxury-cruises-unveils-raft-of-booking-offers

 

Certainly looks promising for the re-launch of the Mozart.

 

notamermaid

 

Good to hear. Service was exceptional on that vessel. 

[steamboats]

According to this very short notice Riverside will also take over the other four Crystal river cruise ships.

 

steamboats

[Coral]

21 hours ago, steamboats said:

According to this very short notice Riverside will also take over the other four Crystal river cruise ships.

 

steamboats

Thanks. They were gorgeous ships. Glad they are all together again!

[notamermaid]

The Clia RiverView Conference takes place in Vienna in March and the Riverside Mozart will be there: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tourism/start-up-river-cruise-line-to-showcase-ship-at-clia-conference

 

notamermaid

 

[steamboats]

The purchase is confirmed now. The Riverside Debussy is supposed to start Mid April on the Rhine river, the Riverside Ravel early May on the Rhône river. The Riverside Bach and Mahler will follow in 2024.

 

steamboats

[notamermaid]

Thank you, saw the article this morning, great news. Some reporting from the anglophone industry: https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/new-luxury-line-riverside-acquires-four-more-crystal-river-ships-37951

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Still a doubt here: https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/ship-operations/crystal-river-vessels-reportedly-going-riverside-luxury-cruises

 

notamermaid

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

Sounds like a better itinerary distribution than Crystal, which clustered all their ships (even the ones with French names, which were originally intended for French rivers) on the Rhine and Danube.  Even with only the first three ships Riverside is covering the three big river itineraries. It will be interesting to see where they put the other two.

[NJCruiserBoy]

32 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Sounds like a better itinerary distribution than Crystal, which clustered all their ships (even the ones with French names, which were originally intended for French rivers) on the Rhine and Danube.  Even with only the first three ships Riverside is covering the three big river itineraries. It will be interesting to see where they put the other two.

 

We sailed Crystal on the Danube, Rhine and Moselle, which was delightful and not offered by many in the way Crystal sailed it.  So now a ship will do the Rhone, which was no big deal to us because we've already done that with Uniworld.   I'm just saying it just sounds like more of the same.  And 3 day cruises?  Who wants to fly all the way to Europe for a 3 day cruise?