There’s a race to the rivers in the offing, as both Royal Caribbean Group (RCG) and Viking greet a rising tide of European cruisers by ordering lots of new ships.
Certainly the biggest news this week was Royal Caribbean’s announcement that it has ordered 10 new-build river cruise ships, which it will design along the lines of Celebrity edge and sail under the Celebrity flag. They will “bring the quality and sophistication of our Edge-series ocean ships to the most iconic rivers, starting with Europe,” said Celebrity Cruises president Laura Hodges Bethge.
“We see river cruising as an exciting growth opportunity that aligns with our strategy of turning the vacation of a lifetime into a lifetime of vacations, expanding our ecosystem of vacation offerings, and broadening our reach into adjacent lines of businesses,” said RCG president and CEO Jason Liberty said on the company’s earnings call this week.
And by leveraging its loyalty programs with RCG’s other brands, Royal Caribbean International and Silversea, will deepen customer engagement and keep guests within the company portfolio.
“This is not a hobby for us,” he said, stressing that there likely will be more orders before the first two set sail in 2027. The other eight on order, meanwhile, will launch in 2028 and 2029.
Indeed, he suggested this is just the start, hinting at Silversea river cruises (“We will provide opportunities for ultra-luxury guests. We’ll start with Celebrity and then we will look if there are other opportunities to expand with our other brands.”) and other continents (“There are rivers around the world that we want our guests to experience.”)
It’s a fair turnaround, one might argue, for RCG to take on Viking Cruises, the market leader, which built its business selling small-ship river cruising to the US market—and then challenged the established ocean players with its own fleet on the seas. In 2025 and 2026 it will introduce the Viking Vesta, Viking Libra and Viking Mira, and sail 10 new ocean itineraries in the Mediterranean, UK, Ireland, and Northern Europe.
But “this is not about chasing Viking customers,” Liberty said. “This is about leveraging our customers and keeping them in our eco-system.”
(For industry reaction to RCG’s entry into river cruising, see The Rosen Report next week.)
