Building on its reputation as a premium ocean cruise line, Celebrity Cruises announced a new offering, Celebrity River Cruises, a luxury river cruise line. The line has already ordered ten new ships to compete in the highly profitable river cruise market.

Celebrity Cruises’ planned entry into the river market will attract the brand a swathe of new customers and rock the boats of the sector’s established operators, agents have told TTG

Travel advisors say Europe's rivers are ready for a new player with the reach of Royal Caribbean Group, Celebrity's parent company.

Destinations and itineraries haven’t yet been revealed but Celebrity Cruises said it will sail “through the heart of Europe’s culture and history” and on the “world’s most iconic rivers”. Bookings will open later this year and sailings will start in 2027.

Celebrity will begin taking bookings this year for Celebrity River Cruises, a new premium river cruise offshoot that will begin sailing in 2027. Royal Caribbean and Silversea could be next.

Best known for its amenity-packed mega-ships, Celebrity Cruises plans to launch 10 river vessels, with the first operating in Europe by 2027. It will be the first time Celebrity has operated river ships of any kind, said Laura Hodges Bethge, the line’s president, in an exclusive interview with T+L.

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Bookings are already off to a record start in 2025 for Royal Caribbean, and the company is now set to expand its offerings further by breaking into river cruises, the CEO told Skift.