The Cruise Report With Cruise Specialists Cruise Reporter Ralph Grizzle

“Attention ladies and gentlemen. We are approaching a very low bridge, and we kindly ask that you vacate the Sun Deck until we have passed.”

Welcome to river cruising in Europe, where the experience is unlike any other you’ve ever encountered. Floating down the Moselle River toward Germany’s border with Luxembourg and France, Peter Deilmann River Cruises’ Heidelberg is passing under a bridge — a low bridge. The crew moves to remove not only all tables and deck chairs from the Sun Deck but also the side railings, and even the captain’s pilot house must be lowered so that it is flush with the upper deck.

With the bridge only 100 yards away, I squeeze my head through a canopy draped over the stairwell to the Sun Deck, completely flush except for the captain’s bald crown poking above the deck from the pilot house.

We make it under with only two inches to spare. “The captain has been with us a very long time,” jokes Wilhelm Bahrs, Heidelberg’s affable hotel manager. When I fail to get the joke, he rubs his head to indicate that the low bridges have scraped the captain’s noggin bare. 

Perhaps the biggest surprise for passengers on Peter Deilmann Cruises’ Mozart is that they will get to put their swimsuits to good use. Indeed, many of the passengers I spoke with on a September sailing along the Danube were astonished to learn that the five-star river cruiser offered a warm and welcoming watery respite, situated indoors on deck two at the front of the ship.

The fact that Mozart features an indoor pool (the only such ship in Europe to do so) may not necessarily be a key factor in choosing this ship over its competitors on the Danube, but the fact that Mozart is wide enough to accommodate a pool is worthy of consideration.