Celebrity River Cruises will operate 33 sailings in 2027 and 160 departures in 2028. However Royal Caribbean Group has not announced anything about ultra-luxury line Silversea joining the premium brand on rivers.
Around 18 months ago, Jason Liberty, Royal Caribbean Group President and Chief Executive, said he would look for opportunities for the company's other brands including Silversea to expand into river cruising.
Speaking on Legend of the Seas's shakedown cruise to Italy on Wednesday (1 July), Liberty said there is “clear demand” for Silversea to offer river cruises, but stressed: “We want to make sure we have things up and running with Celebrity first.”
“We expect to be a big player in the river space,” he said. “We carry about 10 million guests a year so there’s a lot of excitement among our guests about Celebrity River Cruises entering the market.
“It’s about how we keep the guests happy, excited and dreaming of the Royal Caribbean ecosystem.
“We want to make sure we have things up and running with Celebrity first, but there is clear high-quality demand from Silversea guests to be on the rivers.
“We want to make sure that we have executed [Celebrity's launch] at a very high level first. If we were going to do it for Silversea, it would be very on-brand.”
Liberty confirmed local river cruise “experts” had been hired by Royal Caribbean Group to help support Celebrity River Cruises’ launch.
“We’re humble enough to know what we know and what we don’t,” he explained.
'We'll continue to have conversations with Mexico'
Liberty admitted that Royal Caribbean’s Perfect Day Mexico private resort is unlikely to launch in 2027 as planned.
In May, plans for a 200-acre private resort in Mexico were rejected by politicians because of environmental concerns.
Liberty said: “We’ve gone to Mexico for a long time. This port is one of the largest cruise ports in the world. We’re going to continue to have good conversations with Mexico, but things would have to be different for us to make a 2027 date.”
He added: “There are many destinations that have reached out to us to ask us [about private destinations]. It’s a complete home run for them. We think that it is something that should be considered.”
'A win-win scenario'
Meanwhile, he addressed reports that Barcelona is tripling its cruise passenger tax to tackle overtourism issues that have dogged the popular Spanish seaside city. Liberty stressed that Royal wanted to “take pressure off destinations”. Legend of the Seas, Royal’s third Icon-class ship, is operating from Barcelona this summer.
“We’re always engaging with governments and communities. It is very clear that we stimulate a lot of economic activity,” he continued.
Addressing destinations such as Barcelona that have recently introduced cruise taxes, Liberty said: “Do you want one thing or the other? You don’t want volumes, but you do want the guests to spend.
“It’s about finding the balance and listening but I don’t think taxation is the right way to do it. It’s about creating a win-win scenario.”
Liberty added that he hoped to base the company’s ships back in the Gulf “sometime soon”. “Maybe a couple of years from now? We set deployment about 18 to 24 months out. There’s great demand to go to Israel or Egypt.”
