Originally Posted by
Efrem
And there is the crux of the problem. You were on a river cruise. River cruise ships are built to tight (and normally identical, regardless of cruise line) size constraints because of the nature of where they have to go.
Should have elaborated that the ships have to fit into locks and under bridges and make it through shallow waters so limited in width, above water height (I took a KD Rhein cruise decades ago and marvelled at the bridge house retracting down to fit into the locks) and draught and length. So think of a long rectangular box and that's what the ship has to fit into.