Crystal Cruises announced the riverboat fleet's expansion in order to meet post-pandemic demand for European voyages. MS Crystal Mozart is a Catamaran River Cruiser (double-hull vessel) launched in 2016 after a complete drydock renovation.
Following the rollout of 4 newbuild riverboats, in May 2019 was announced that Crystal Mozart would be retired in 2020 and transferred to the parent company GHK-Genting Hong Kong for use on a venture to be revealed later.
However, on Monday, March 8, the company said the boat would stays with Crystal River Cruises and restarts operations in March 2022 with 7-night Danube itineraries roundtrip from Vienna Austria.
Additionally, in what the cruise line called an industry-first, Crystal Mozart will offer a total of 38 deluxe window suites specially dedicated to solo travelers with no single supplement on all cruises. The move, Crystal said, will reduce capacity from 158 to 120 passengers, making it "the most the most spacious" river ship with the highest crew-to-passenger ratio in the European river cruise industry.
With the return of Crystal Mozart (previously owned by Peter Deilmann), the cruise line said it would deploy Crystal Mahler to Main, Rhine and Moselle rivers with various itineraries ranging from 5 to 16 nights, including some that include all the 3 rivers.