The Sea Side Hotels chain is entering the river cruise market. The company has acquired the Riverside Mozart from the bankruptcy of Crystal Cruises to position itself in the upper luxury segment. The ship will undergo refurbishment before restarting its activity next year. The ship had 100 cabins for a total of 207 guests. After a refurbishment in 2016, the Crystal Mozart only has 78 larger and more luxurious cabins for 160 passengers.
The ship that Sea Side Hotels has purchased was built in 1987 as Mozart at the Deggendorf shipyard for the First Danube Steamship Company. She sailed under the Austrian flag with her home port in Vienna until 1993. In 1993 the shipping company Peter Deilmann purchased the Mozart. The ship reflagged her to Germany with her home port of Passau. After Deilmann's bankruptcy, Premicon took over Mozart in December 2009. The ship was extensively modernized in 2010 and reflagged to Malta.
Following TUI as charterer in the 2011 season under the name TUI Mozart, Dertour chartered the ship for an initial period of three years from the start of the 2012 season. On 2 November 2015, Crystal River Cruises announced that it had purchased the ship to operate on the Danube from 13 July 2016 under the name Crystal Mozart after an extensive conversion by the R&M Group in Ennshafen. On July 11, 2016, the Crystal Mozart was baptized in Vienna.
