Moving through the river’s many locks draws us all to the bow to watch in awe the process of actually cruising the Rhine, particularly on one lovely moonlit night when being lowered feels as ethereal as descending to Earth in a hot air balloon. The kids love that they can wander more or less at will into our friendly Dutch captain’s wheelhouse, too, to ogle his collection of hundreds of rubber duckies. Maddy and I lay on lounge chairs, cuddled up under blankets under the still-bright sky of a 9 p.m. northern Europe summer night, and she thanks me for encouraging her to take to this year off before college to travel. “This is so much better than getting ready to rush a sorority,” she says, scrolling Instagram photos of her friends in Greek letters (but not in Greece) filling her feed. And I feel like my work here is done.
There are no at-sea days on a river cruise, so each morning brings a new reason to leave the comfort of our floating hotel. After visiting the castle in Heidelberg, where Maddy flings her golden locks over the walls and channels Rapunzel, every bit the little girl I knew just yesterday (then proceeds to send her friend group a Snap of the moment), we grab bikes from the ship to pedal into the beautiful town of Speyer, where we visit the 11th-century cathedral and snack on a schnitzel.
In the charming village of Rüdesheim, we ride a gondola to a viewpoint then gallop back down to town through vineyards, playing hide and seek with my kids like we’re all 8 years old again. Then the guides whisk the little ones off to entertain them in a leafy courtyard while Maddy and I join the adults for wine tasting in a candlelit cellar. The trip strikes just the right balance of guided excursions with moments of relevant Disney references (the Strasbourg cathedral’s astronomical clock, we learn, is said to have inspired Disney World’s iconic “It’s a Small World” ride) and plenty of unscripted time to get lost on our own.
With each port of call, it’s Maddy initiating more and more how we’ll spend our time ashore. In Cologne, when she says she’ll wander off on her own to explore the city, I fight sadness with pride that she feels confident enough to do so.
On our last evening onboard, we gather in the ship’s lounge for another round of park and film-inspired trivia we’re used to losing by now to the savvier Disney fans among us.
Maddy belts out “Faith, trust, and pixie dust!” to the question about what Peter Pan needs to fly and it feels like a nod to our upcoming farewell.
When we part ways at the end of the trip after a few days in Amsterdam, she tells me she’ll make her way to the train station to continue on her own adventure out into the great wide world.
I hold hands with my kids, grasping their little fingers a little tighter knowing these moments don’t last forever, and watch her go, dodging bikes like a pro, strolling tall and purposefully like the Dutch into the crowd. She didn’t turn back once.
Eight-day cruises from $5,799 per person, inclusive of meals. adventuresbydisney.com
