Celebrity Cruises is expanding its business in a huge way, into a cruise segment that is still largely untapped but that’s soaring in popularity. In fact, we feel this move could open up this niche in cruising to millions more, paving the way to even more activity in the field.
In a press release, Celebrity Cruises announced it will begin offering river cruises, starting with an initial order of 10 new ships. These ships “will take guests to historic cities on the world’s most iconic rivers, launching in Europe,” according to the cruise line.
Celebrity says that trips will start sailing beginning in 2027.
As a luxury-focused cruise line with a more affluent and older passenger base, offering river cruises seems to be a natural fit for the Celebrity brand. In fact, the cruise line boasts that “Celebrity Cruises will bring the elevated design and sophistication of the Edge Series ocean ships to the river.”
According to Celebrity, about half of their passengers have taken or intend to take a river cruise. Being able to extend the brand to this field should give them a big head start in converting their sea-going passengers to river cruisers.
So far, the details surrounding the new launch of Celebrity river cruises are sparse. We know that there will be 10 ships, the launch will be in 2027, and trips will launch in Europe. But we don’t know much more than that.
For instance, there are no details about the size of the ships or when they will be delivered (it’s unlikely all 10 ships will be delivered at once for the 2027 launch). River cruise ships are much, much smaller than your average ocean-going cruise ship. For instance, Viking River Cruises offers ships that carry only a couple of hundred passengers at once. In that way, a river cruise is almost nothing like a typical ocean cruise which can have thousands of people.
And other than starting in Europe, we don’t know where ships will be positioned. Other popular river destinations are the Mississippi River and Asia.
We also don’t know anything about pricing. River cruises usually run significantly more expensive than traditional ocean cruises. For instance, an 8-day Viking river cruise of France in July 2025 starts at a price of $3,600 per person.
Even with few details, it is an exciting announcement. We could also see it as the start of major ocean cruise brands diving into river cruising to expand their business.
We will continue to watch for updates as Celebrity does say it will release more information — including booking opportunities — in the months ahead.
