This river cruise was a first for both the Crystal Mahler, my wife and me. Both my Wife and I are experienced ocean cruises and this was our first River cruise. The cruise was not supposed to be the the first one for the Mahler but due to construction delays, This became the inaugural cruise. When we booked it it was supposed to be from Budapest to Amsterdam for 16 days but due to construction delays, they were unable to get the boat down to Budapest to start the cruise as planned but instead created a new itinerary Round trip Amsterdam down the Rhine to Basel, Crystal offered a generous compensation for those of us that decided to take the new route. Air arrangements had to be changed, which Crystal helped with and transportation was provided between the airport and ship.

The Mahler is a beautiful new ship! We were in Stateroom 209 (S2 category suite), it was nice sized with comfortable beds and pillows, the bathroom was nice with a great shower. One nice surprise was the endless swimming pool that worked great. Food was the best yet on any ship we had been before,( Crystal, Seaborn, Celebrity, Princess, etc) Service was always with a smile and excellent. Breakfast and lunch are served buffet style, dinner is full service.

Only hiccup was when the 24 hour automatic coffee/expresso machine, which is built in quit on day 2, but hot coffee was always available and expresso products from room service.