When my Gen X and younger friends ask me about river cruises, I always tell them to stay away. River cruises are wonderful vacations, but they're targeted at retirees, not families with kids. Each day, you'll dutifully follow a flag- or sign-carrying guide to World War II memorials and local cathedrals — your ever-present Quietvox headset marking you immediately as a tourist. River cruises are like bus tours, just on the water, and geared toward the pace and interests of older couples.
But that was before I signed up for an Adventures by Disney Rhine River cruise.
We might have stopped at the same French, German and Dutch cities as other river cruises, but the vibe was completely different. In the Black Forest, I whooped and hollered as my alpine toboggan sped around stomach-dropping curves. In Strasbourg, I got an upper-body workout canoeing through the city's canals, and in Cologne, I visited a chocolate museum with lots of samples.
Even better? My entire family came with me, allowing me to introduce my kids to several countries in Europe with activities that appealed to them, on a ship filled with other families and knowledgeable guides that would ease our travel.
Apparently, river cruising can actually appeal to younger travelers.
If you didn't know that a Disney river cruise was a vacation option, you're not alone. Disney's oceangoing cruise ships are better known. Your friends and family members have likely considered or even booked a vacation on one of Mickey's floating resorts, full of fabulous kids clubs, adults-only escapes and numerous opportunities to hobnob with princesses and your favorite Disney characters. Shorter sailings out of Florida or California make these cruises easy to pair with theme park vacations at Disney World or Disneyland.
Adventures by Disney isn't always about the water. The brand's escorted-vacation arm mainly offers land-based explorations of places like Wyoming and Paris, but also partners with river cruise line AmaWaterways to run multigenerational-family-friendly cruises on the Rhine, Seine and Danube rivers. These trips offer all the attention to detail and magical moments you love from Disney, but with a more refined vibe and a tiny fraction of the Mouse. The Disney guides on board will take the stress out of vacationing while also bringing all the fun.
If you've fantasized about floating down European waterways and introducing your kids to new countries in a hassle-free way, but are looking for more active excursions and like-minded shipmates, Adventures by Disney might be the vacation you didn't know you needed.
I spent a week in July with my husband and two kids (ages 10 and 13) on an Adventures by Disney Rhine River cruise. From our experience, here's how Disney does river cruising differently.
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Everyone age 5 and up is welcome
The under-8 crowd on our river cruise was small ... but mighty.
They were always the first people on the dance floor after dinner, even though it was well past their regular bedtime. They proudly helped the guides hold their "paddles of power" signs high in the air for the rest of us to follow along. They were the clear favorites of the ship's wait staff, who made them flowers out of napkins and masks and swords out of paper.
Adventures by Disney recommends its cruises for travelers ages 8 and up, but everyone over 5 is welcome. Nearly one-third of the guests on our 160-passenger ship were under 18, with a handful of college-age young adults mixed in. Most were traveling with their parents, but a few were in multigenerational or skip-gen groups with their grandparents.
Our shipmates included several adult couples and friend groups traveling without children, which I wasn't expecting. They tended to be Disney adults — members of the Disney Vacation Club, Disney Cruise Line devotees or folks who had vacationed with Disney with their children or grandchildren and appreciated the Disney service.
This age mix is not the typical river cruise passenger base. Whenever our ship berthed next to a ship from another company, I saw mainly gray-headed couples.
If you love Disney or its attention to detail, but you don't want to sail with kids, know that Adventures by Disney offers adults-exclusive food and wine and Oktoberfest cruises on specific dates.
Related: Best cruise lines for families
The ship is designed with families in mind
Disney doesn't just charter river ships — it partners with AmaWaterways to create a family-friendly environment on the European waterways. The family-owned cruise line even built a few river ships with its Disney passengers in mind.
Unlike most other ships sailing the Rhine, Seine and Danube, our ship, AmaLucia, has cabins and suites that can accommodate more than two travelers. Some cabins have a connecting door, so families of four or five can create a shared space. Others are triples with an easy chair that transforms into a single bed. Suites have pull-out sofa beds.
AmaWaterways' unique twin balcony setup — a true balcony just large enough to fit two chairs plus a French balcony adjacent to a small sitting area — creates space for those bed chairs and the connecting doors. My daughter was a big fan of sitting on our balcony to read, and I doubt she would have gotten as much pleasure from an open window or door inside the cabin.
AmaLucia also has one amenity that most other river ships don't have — a pool.
It's small and only 3 feet deep, but you'd be wrong if you thought it wasn't the main hangout for many of the kids on board. My daughter said the pool was half sunscreen by the end of the trip, but that didn't stop her and her new buddies from heading there every afternoon they could. The giant chess set behind it on the sun deck was also a gathering spot for the young teens.
The chefs on board make sure to have kid-friendly meal options special for the Disney river cruises. I doubt the regular AmaWaterways passengers consume as many chocolate cornflakes as my son did each morning. (They might not even be offered sugar cereals!) A kids menu each night at dinner included pasta (buttered noodles were a big hit), burgers, chicken tenders and hot dogs. One day when we came back to the ship for lunch, we ate in the casual dining space behind the lounge because pizza was on the menu.
On many days, we had the option to eat lunch in town or head back to the ship for a buffet lunch. If your kids are willing to be adventurous, you can all try the local cuisine, but if they're not, you have the option of going back to the ship for more familiar fare. Or, you can do like my family and eat giant scoops of gelato for lunch rather than sitting down to a meal.
Adventure Guides hold your hand and entertain your children
Most river cruises have a cruise manager who will organize tours and answer questions. Adventures by Disney sailings employ up to five Adventure Guides (the number is based on passenger count) who wear many hats and bring the service level on the ship up a notch.
The guides perform the cruise manager role — hosting briefings each evening to explain the next day's schedules and options, shepherding guests on and off buses, liaising with local guides, and answering guest questions. But they go above and beyond. When the lunch options on our Black Forest tour changed to something my family doesn't eat, our guide Gina proactively reached out to find an alternative and made certain that our family got the special meals we ordered.
The Adventure Guides are not technically youth staff, and they don't always plan kids activities during time spent on board. But they make a point to engage with the younger travelers. They host at least two Junior Adventure dinners, where they supervise a kids buffet so parents can enjoy an adults-only meal in the ship's restaurant or Chef's Table, and run a movie night one evening in the lounge.
They also distract kids during more adult-oriented excursions so parents can participate rather than wrangle children. On our cruise, one 6-year-old reported that her favorite excursion was the wine tasting because she got to drink juice and play with the Adventure Guides, who had whisked all the kids into a courtyard away from the adults. The guide on our tour of the Van Gogh Museum also took a young cruiser aside to help her with a scavenger hunt so her parents could listen to the local guide talk about the art; she also asked my son about the books he was reading, and patiently listened while he talked a mile a minute about this favorite fantasy series.
The Adventure Guides also know the best local treats to try ("spaghetti" ice cream in Heidelberg, chimney cakes in Rudesheim) and where to find them. They can give recommendations about activities during free time in town, but don't expect them to personally tour you around.
Guides hail from a mix of backgrounds; our fearless leaders were Americans Amanda and Gina, French Hugo and Clement, and German Susanna. All are chosen for their knowledge of the cruise area and the local language, but many also have experience working in Disney parks around the world. They come to the job with excellent people skills (Amanda has a psychology degree; Gina worked as a teacher) and an understanding of the Disney brand philosophy when it comes to creating magical family experiences.
While we loved all the guides, I found that the American guides were perhaps the best at understanding the needs of American tourists, but the European guides brought a local perspective to the places we visited. Clemente told a moving tale about discovering how his grandmother's family in Normandy had hidden Jewish families during WWII, and Susanna told funny stories about driving in Germany.
Excursions are varied and active
The biggest appeal to me of an Adventures by Disney river cruise was the excursions. Instead of endless walking tours and history lessons, we could choose from more active and hands-on tours.
In the Black Forest, we raced down a hill on alpine toboggans before visiting an open-air museum where the kids churned butter and decorated wooden whistles. In Strasbourg, France, we canoed through the canals before a macaron-making event on the ship, and in Rudesheim, Germany, we took a cable car to the top of the hill. In Cologne, we visited a chocolate museum.
More adult-minded tours were offered for cruisers traveling without children or for families willing to split up for the day. Several winery tours were offered, as well as a jovial pub crawl in Cologne to try German beer. More relaxed tours included a short trip to the village of Riquewihr in France that inspired Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" and a canal boat ride instead of the canoe in Strasbourg.
After some of the organized activities, passengers had free time in a city like Heidelberg or Cologne with multiple bus options back to the ship. Tired children or grandparents could return early, while more intrepid sightseers could stay all afternoon. In several ports, passengers could walk from the ship into town to do their own exploration or enjoy dinner off the ship. The flexible schedule worked for both independent travelers and those who wanted their hands held.
Most river ships carry bicycles for guest use, and AmaLucia had a fleet of adult-sized bikes we could borrow. Adventures by Disney makes sure to bring aboard a few kid-sized bikes and helmets, which allowed us to go biking with our 10-year-old in Rudesheim.
Related: Best river cruise lines around the world
The Disney touches are sweet and subtle
A life-sized Mickey Mouse did not cruise with us; no princess made an appearance. Still, you never forgot you were on a Disney-run cruise.
Music from the Disney songbook was always playing in the background in the ship's lounge, and Disney movies were shown on a few nights. Ratatouille made an appearance at the macaron-making event, and the afternoon tea service included Mickey-shaped cookies.
But there were two Disney traditions throughout the cruise that the whole ship loved. Each evening, a stuffed Captain Minnie doll was handed off to a new passenger, who had to take her on adventures (and keep her safe) the following day. At the evening recap, Minnie's minder would have to recount her adventures and choose which passenger would travel with her the following day. (On our cruise, Minnie loved riding the bus and always made sure to wear her seat belt.)
The other much-anticipated daily event was the presentation of the day's pin. Each day, the Adventure Guides handed out Disney-character pins related to the day's destination and activity with slogans like "Rendezvous on the Rhine." Some we found on our pillows, along with our turndown chocolates, while others were distributed on the tour bus or at the evening recap. My usually too-cool-for-school kids would get anxious when evening came around and we hadn't gotten a new pin.
You can attach the pins to a lanyard, hat or backpack, or save them to trade at Disney pin-trading events on land and sea.
Your kids will make friends
My kids are not social butterflies. They tend to be shy in big groups of kids and prefer to hang out alone or with us when we travel. My daughter is always hesitant about going to the kids club on ocean cruise ships; my son goes exclusively to play video games and not to talk to other tweens.
So I was not sure what to expect from the kid and teen social scene on board.
To my surprise and delight, my 10-year-old daughter made friends on day one with a 14-year-old girl in our group. They sat on the bus together and shared a toboggan on their first ride. Although my daughter wasn't thrilled about attending the Junior Adventurer dinner, she was willing to go because her friend was there. That friend introduced her to some of the other kids, so that by the last night my daughter was inviting other girls her age to play giant chess on the sun deck.
My son didn't make any specific friends, but he met all the young teens at the first teen dinner. When they got bored, the teens would knock on all the other teens' doors, including my son's, and invite everyone to play Roblox in the lounge or chess up on deck. Sometimes they would run through the hallways knocking on doors or try to play pranks on each other, but as far as I could tell, they were being inclusive and not forming exclusive cliques.
The trip is all-inclusive
Adventures by Disney river cruises aren't cheap. Prices start at $5,799 per adult or $5,199 per child under age 12, so upward of $21,996 for a family of four sharing two cabins. But you get a lot for your money.
All of the excursions are included; unlike other river cruises, there are no tour options you need to pay extra for. The guides would hand out tickets or tokens to try a local coffee for free or to gain entrance to a windmill, rather than letting those things be add-on costs.
All meals on the ship are included, including the multicourse Chef's Table, as well as select meals during longer excursions. Wine, beer and soft drinks are always included at lunch and dinner (as well as sparkling wine and fresh juices at breakfast). You can also enjoy free co*cktails during a daily Sip and Sail happy hour, with mocktail options for the kids.
Wi-Fi, crew gratuities, airport transfers and taxes are also included.
We mainly spent money on lunch or treats off the ship, as well as one dinner in Amsterdam when we were docked overnight, but on all of those occasions, we could have eaten on the ship if we wished. During free time off the ship, we also chose to pay for a few activities on our own, such as climbing to the top of the cathedral in Cologne and riding the funicular in Heidelberg all the way to the top (our Disney-included castle ticket included the cost to ride the lower funicular). AmaLucia offers a spa and salon, and guests can book treatments for an additional cost.
Bottom line
River cruises aren't the perfect vacation for all families. They're not cheap, and days are busy with morning tour departures at 8 or 9 a.m. and often jam-packed days of sightseeing. You're constantly surrounded by other people, sharing tables at dinner or buses to activities, and that can be overwhelming for some families.
However, if you want the ease of one home base, prescheduled meals and activities, and the support of knowledgeable guides as you introduce your kids to the joys of overseas travel, a Disney river cruise can be the ideal way to travel. It's a familiar environment from which to explore foreign countries, with just the right amount of fairy dust to make your vacation magical. And unlike typical river cruises, Adventures by Disney cruises are built to appeal to kids, teens, parents and grandparents alike.
Now when my friends express interest in a river cruise, I don't have to burst their bubble. I can tell them they've got options for family-friendly adventures on the Rhine, Seine and Danube.
Planning a cruise? Start with these stories:
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Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
