Royal Caribbean Group's river cruise launch may have been a surprise move from the ocean-cruise titan, but travel advisors say the rivers are ready for a new player with Royal's reach.
Royal placed an order for ten 180-passenger ships for its Celebrity brand and plans to launch Europe operations in 2027. The company also signaled that Celebrity River Cruises may be followed by luxury river cruises from sister brand Silversea.
"This is not a hobby for us," Royal Caribbean Group CEO Jason Liberty told investors during the company's Q4 2024 earnings call on Jan. 28. "We are taking this extremely seriously, and we want to make sure we can live up to delivering the best vacation experiences in the world and make sure we're doing so in a responsible way."
Liberty said about half of the group's guests have experienced or intend to take a river cruise, so there's a great opportunity keep that demand in the corporate family. River cruising has seen double-digit growth over the past decade, he said.
After launching a loyalty program in 2024 that applies a guest's highest status with one brand to the company's other two, Liberty said past passengers have become "stickier" within the Royal Caribbean Group.
"We have well over 8 million guests a year, we have a database of 35 million people who are continuing vacationing with us," he said. "So it's a great opportunity to use that flywheel to generate high-quality demand."
How will Celebrity stand out?
Travel advisors concurred. Alex Sharpe, CEO of Signature Travel Network, said there is "tremendous" opportunity in river cruising and that Celebrity fans would place it high on their list when considering a river cruise, opening the line to a higher-yielding passenger.
"With river, you are talking about fewer guests and higher-impact guests, spending more money ashore and really digging into local cultures," Sharpe said.
Royal said it may go after those higher-spending river cruisers more intentionally, with the possible launch of a luxury river product with Silversea.
"We're going to start off with Celebrity. We're going to assume that's where we think that there is great scale opportunity," Liberty said. "And then, of course, we'll be looking to see if there's other ways to expand it for our other brands as it sees fit."
Jennifer Kellum, president of Neverland and Main Travel in Jacksonville, N.C., called river cruising a "trending" sector, and said Celebrity would have an "undeniable following out of the gate."
The big question for Kellum is what Celebrity will do to differentiate itself from other river cruise lines. The brand will need to make a bold entrance into the market, she said, such as offering new experiences on the traditional mode of sailing in Europe.
Kellum and Karen Quinn-Panzer of Dream Vacations, who specializes in river cruising, said Celebrity could introduce the river cruise industry to a younger audience.
Quinn-Panzer said Celebrity's "fun, hip perspective" could attract younger cruisers. Kellum said Celebrity could tap into a trend that river cruising is already seeing.
"The demographics of river cruising are changing, and we're seeing a younger population onboard," Kellum said. "I think brand loyalty could work to their benefit with a demographic change."
A 10-ship order indicates that Celebrity is not just dipping its toes in the river.
"They're not going to be a new river cruise line on the Danube," said Richard Turen, owner of the Churchill & Turen agency and a Travel Weekly columnist. "They are going after Europe, and they're going to have ships on every major European river."
Quinn-Panzer also said the large ship order signaled the company's intent to invest in a growth market, noting that there are still plenty of baby boomers looking to travel -- the prime demographic for river cruising.
She has high expectations: "Celebrity's elevated hospitality is second to none," Quinn-Panzer said.
Royal said the Celebrity River ships would mimic the design of Celebrity's Edge-class ships. Liberty said that in terms of brand offering, the Celebrity river vessels will differ from many existing river lines by extending Celebrity policies such as not being all-inclusive and allowing children to sail.
However, Henry Dennis, a luxury-focused travel advisor with Frosch based in Charlotte, wondered how Celebrity would distinguish itself in what "many people think is a market that is getting oversaturated. In some ports you already have to walk across three or four ships to get ashore. And there are only so many rivers."
He also suggested it could be a challenge for a company that has specialized in big-ship ocean cruising to pivot to such a different product.
"Are they going to put the Magic Carpet on the side of their ships?" he said cheekily, referring to the platform on Edge-class ships that moves up and down on the exterior of the vessel.