After a below average lunch on board, we found that dinner was much better on the Mozart. Here is the menu:

The potato soup was good.

My husband said the ham with egg tasted very good and interesting with egg.

I had the veal tenderloin (medium rare) and it was delicious. The sauce was a bit salty for me.

My husband’s brisket was just average. I never liked the texture of it and the meat was a bit dry.

The sacher cake was very good.

After dinner, we were going to go out but then it was raining very hard so we went to the Cove Bar and listened to Derek Conlon on the piano. We already met a lot of new friends on the ship so it was fun chatting with them.

It started to rain after lunch when we were starting the excursion “Austria in a Nutshell”.

There was a Crystal umbrella in the closet and we could also ask for another one at the lobby. Since it’s the first time we joined a ship excursion, we forgot our Crystal Clear audio device so we had to go back to the room to get them. It’s convenient that our suite is just a few rooms down the corridor.

After a 15-minute drive, we arrived at the legendary Ringstrasse, one of the world’s most beautiful boulevards. Our guide Gabriela was super good and knowledgeable. We drove by the Vienna State Opera to our washroom break where Crystal offered us complimentary coffee using a coffee bike.

We continued our walk through the beautiful Heldenplatz

to the Imperial Palace.

After the walking tour, we had apple strudel & coffee at a little cafe next to the tourist info office opposite the opera house before getting back to the ship.

Checked out from the Salzburg hotel at 7:15 am. Front desk called a taxi cab that arrived in 2 minutes and we got to Salzburg Main Station at 7:40 am. Fare was €10,20 + €1,80 tip. The traffic was a tiny bit slower than Sunday. After checking that the train left from Platform 4F (only half the train continued on to Vienna Airport and half stopped at Vienna Main Station), we had free breakfast at the OBB 1st Class Lounge and boarded the train on time. This time we saved €70 per ticket than buying it right at the station.

The Crystal reps waited for us at the train platform at Vienna Airport and we were escorted to the Crystal Coach that was waiting for us at Terminal 3 parking lot. We had to wait for over half an hour for ten more guests to arrive before pulling off to the pier. 

Crystal Mozart docked at pier #5 on Handelskai, which was directly opposite the St. Francis of Assisi Church, also known as the Emperor’s Jubilee Church.

I read many reviews before picking my suite with a French balcony, making sure that when docking at the piers the room/view would be blocked to the minimal.  So far it proved to be an excellent choice. I’ll do a summary of Mozart’s docking positions at the end of the cruise. My suite is #203 on the port side.

Check-in was a breeze, it took no more than 5 minutes, including taking pictures for our cruise cards. We did it with a rep right at the stateroom, which is on Deck 2, that means we did not have to take the stairs from the entrance of the ship. Since our luggage was already brought to the room, we started unpacking before having lunch at Waterside Restaurant on Deck 3. Our first buffet lunch on board was not good at all. Both the chicken scallopini and veal were not even warm and they were quite hard. Coffee was not good either. However, the food got much better after the first meal.

Our S1 Deluxe suite with French balcony is only 219 sq. ft. in size, we found it very small, though it’s already bigger than other cruise lines’ balcony rooms. We packed very light, knowing that only smart casual clothes were needed. Each person only brought 15 shirts/T-shirts, 7 pair of pants/shorts, 2 pieces of swim wear, 3 pairs of shoes, 1 pair of slippers, 1 jacket (my husband has 1 sport jacket too), 10 underwear, plus our toiletries and electronic gadgets like phones, tablets, cameras, chargers, etc. I also have 3 dresses. We had no problems putting everything in the 2 closets with 3 huge drawers. An iPad is on one night table, and a phone is on the other.

The TV is quite big for the room but it’s not movable, so we can’t even use our HDMI cable to see our photos and videos on the TV.

I love the sitting area. It’s facing the front of the ship so it’s great to sit on the couch to enjoy the river scenery along the way. I’ll show the balcony windows later. The mini-bar (actually a pull-out drawer) is beside the desk under the coffee machine and the cups and glasses.

The bathroom with the adorable Toto heated toilet is lovely and well-designed. Upscale Etro bath products are provided. The shower’s water pressure has been great. The middle knob is for the temperature, the left is for the overhead shower. With both the left and the right turned on, it’s the hand-held shower. There is a drawer under the sink, a shelf above the toilet, so there is enough space to leave my toiletries.

It’s a warm and sunny day (18-28° C). We started by having a delicious breakfast at a little cafe (Cafe Getreidegasse) next to the hotel.

2 regular coffees and 2 apple strudels cost €13. The coffee was super good and the apple strudels were flaky and yummy.

Then we used our Salzburg Cards for a free Salzach River Cruise. We paid €3 each to sit at the back of the ship. It was a good choice. After the 1-hour cruise, we walked to the Mirabell Palace and Gardens.

There we relived many scenes from the movie, “The Sound of Music”, including the Pegasus Fountain & the steps that Maria & the children sang “Do Re Mi” and the Dwarfs Garden.

Soon it’s lunch time so we walked 7 minutes to Cafe Bazar next to the Salzach River for lunch. Both the ham noodles and sandwich were great! The coffee was especially good.

The above lunch plus 1 beer, 1 juice, 1 Coke Zero & 2 coffees cost €41,80. Afterwards, we walked 5 minutes to Mozart’s Residence. It was a beautiful place and I bought a lot of souvenirs there. That was a big pity that Mozart died so young at the age of 35 and his wife Constance was only 29 at that time, having just given birth to their youngest son 6 months ago. We walked back to the Old Town and went inside DomQuartier Salzburg. Again, so many steps!! It’s a hot day and only a small section of the museum has air-conditioning.

We definitely needed a cold drink after the visit, so we used the DomQuartier’s ticket discount to have a “Buy one Get one free” beer at Stieglkeller next to the entrance of the Fortress funicular. The view from the terrace was amazing!

Before we headed back to the hotel to take a rest, we visited Mozart’s Birthplace, just a 5 minutes walk away. The place was so hot and it was just totally like a sauna. Mozart’s family lived in a 3-room apartment on the 3rd floor (the one with all windows opened).

Another highlight of Salzburg was the “Sound of Salzburg Show” held at Sternbrau opposite our hotel. It was very entertaining, with a lot of Austrian folk songs, Mozart and Strauss’ compositions, and best of all, many songs from “The Sound of Music” with a little bit of sing-along fun! The schnitzel there was quite good but the pork roast was just average.

We had so much fun in Salzburg that we’ll definitely go back.

After we got our Salzburg Cards, we went inside the Salzburg Cathedral for a quick walk-around. Then we went to use the Fortress funicular to go up the hill. The whole journey was only 40 seconds long. The view of Salzburg from the fortress was just gorgeous!

We joined a free 30-minute tour of the fortress where we got an audio guide, plus visiting the regency rooms, torture chamber and the watchtower at an altitude of 506 m (1,660 ft). Apart from the spiral staircases and numerous steps, the 360° views from the watchtower were most rewarding.

The dinner before the concert was at Panorama Restaurant. The food was quite good and I loved the delicious and “musical” dessert.

After the meal, it’s time to get ready for a work-out. We had to climb 137 steps to get to the Golden Hall for the Mozart concert. The music was very good, but since there’s NO air-conditioning, it was quite hot and I was all sweaty. Luckily I had a foldable fan with me so I was using it occasionally and gently.  Didn’t want to be too distracting to the performers being seated in the first row in the middle. We paid extras to be VIP’s for sitting in the front row, got a program and a glass of champagne during intermission. To go to the ladies’ room, walk down 2 levels, then up to go back to the concert hall.  There was only ONE toilet there, or you have to walk down even more to use the courtyard washrooms. While I was in the washroom, my husband took a beautiful sunset picture from the concert hall.  Remember? No air-con so windows were wide open.

When the concert was over, my husband got a pretty night view of the cathedral from the fortress.

Then we walked for 20 minutes to the Mullnersteg Bridge to take a night shot of the spectacular fortress.

Using our Salzburg Cards, we took a bus back to Franz Josef Kai, walked 3 minutes to the hotel. What a long day! See how much I walked today!!!

We used Austrian Airlines for the first time, mainly because they have direct flights to Vienna from Toronto. I chose to redeem my Aeroplan miles but still had to pay $600 tax for an economy round-trip ticket. Regular price was around $1500 return. I also paid $110 extra to get the preferred seats both ways with extra legroom located at the emergency row 19 (on a 76W aircraft). I brought my inflatable foot stool along so I had no problem sleeping for 6 out of the 8 hours’ flight. It was like sleeping on a lounger…very comfortable. I found it even more comfortable than the premium economy seats. However, the food was SOOOO bad, only the dessert and the coffee were good. Chicken was dry and pasta quite tasteless.

Arrived in Vienna at 8:10 am, got my luggage at 8:40 am, then went up to the departure level in Terminal 3 to leave our big suitcases at luggage storage. Only €4 per suitcase per day. We only took our carry-on’s to go to Salzburg.

Went down to Level -1 where the Vienna Airport (Flughafen Wien) Train Station is located. Our 10:33 am direct train from Vienna Airport to Salzburg Hbf left from Platform 2. Though I already bought the ticket online, I still checked the ticket price on the machine and to my BIG surprise, a 1st class ticket like what I got cost €104 – instead of €29 that I paid online 3 months ago.

I also prepaid €3 per ticket to get a seat selection on the OBB train site. The compartment that I chose was in the last car (Coach 27) where half the car is 1st class and half the class is business class. We ended up having the whole compartment to ourselves for the whole 3-hour journey. In that compartment, only seats 61 & 62 and 63-66 have fixed tables, others are fold-up ones like those on the planes.  The picture below shows the seats that I reserved for DH & myself, with seat 61 facing the direction of the journey. Being a morning train, seats 61 & 62 did not get the sun. Party of 4’s can book Seats 63-66, as they also have a fixed table (odd number seats facing the front of the train).

Upon arrival at Salzburg Hbf, we went to the OBB Lounge to get some free drinks and snacks (a 1st class passenger’s perk).

Then we took a taxi and paid €10 + €2 tip to get to the hotel in the Old Town, Hotel Goldener Hirsch, a 5-star Luxury Collection Hotel. I totally love this old hotel originally built in 1407. As an SPG Gold member, I got a free upgrade to a Festival room of over 40 sq. metre, overlooking the famous pedestrian street, Getreidegasse, but without any street noise from Room 44.

The furniture is all wood which I like a lot to preserve the authentic look, but the mini-bar, the safe, etc. are all quite new inside those wooden cupboards.  The best part is the bathroom which is spacious and loaded with good bath products. There are the double sinks, a bath tub with a hand-held shower, a separate shower stall, a toilet and a bidet.

After check in, we walked to the Tourist Info Office on Mozartplatz Square located 7 minutes away from the hotel at the end of Getreidegasse. There we bought our 48-hour Salzburg cards (€37 each) and used them for Salzburg Cathedral & to go up the funicular to the Salzburg Fortress. I attended the VIP dinner and Mozart Concert there.

Being an SPG gold member, I got the original Mozart chocolates (recipe created by Furst in 1884) as a gift from the hotel. We were told that these hand-made “originals” are wrapped in blue-silver tin foil. All the others, usually wrapped in red-gold tin foil, were just cheap imitations.

It’s getting really late now, so I’ll continue the blog tomorrow.

Finally the day is here! It’s a really long wait since we booked the cruise on March 23, 2017. I chose this itinerary mainly because we have an overnight stay in Vienna both at the beginning and at the end of the cruise. This 10-day cruise also includes a few full day tours to visit Salzburg, Cesky Krumlov & Munich.

Here is the itinerary map:

My full itinerary: