Seven nights on the Danube with a nine-year-old
A-ROSA Sena, Easter week. The children's club is real, the food is better than it needs to be, and Vienna in one afternoon is a mistake we made so you don't have to.
Kuşadası, five minutes from the pier
Most cruise ports are an industrial estate with a shuttle bus. Kuşadası isn't. The ship ties up in the middle of town and you are on the seafront before the gangway crowd has cleared. The bazaar starts at the terminal gate. Prices there are cruise prices; walk three streets in and they halve.
The question everyone asks is Ephesus or not. If you have never seen it, yes. It is 20 minutes by taxi, the site takes two hours at a sensible pace, and the Library of Celsus is the picture you have already seen. Go at opening time in summer. By eleven the marble is an oven.
If you have seen it, or you'd rather swim, Ladies Beach is a short dolmuş ride south and perfectly good. There is also a pleasant nothing-day option: walk out to Pigeon Island, sit under the castle walls, come back for lunch at one of the fish places on the marina side, and be back on board with time to spare.
Visa. Türkiye is visa-free or e-visa for most passports. This is not the Schengen leg of your cruise. The Greek ports either side of it are.