Celebrity Cruises' buzzy new river cruise product won’t launch for the first time until late next summer, but the premium line has been steadily releasing tidbits about exactly how it is planning to bring its popular ocean cruise products to the rivers of Europe. Brand fans have certainly taken to the idea — the initial release of inventory for the inaugural season sold out in under six minutes.
TravelAge West recently spent some time with Celebrity executives in the Netherlands for a behind-the-scenes look at how Celebrity Compass — the first of 20 planned river ships — is coming together at the shipyard in Rotterdam.
Tellingly, Celebrity has chosen Zwijnenburg to build its ships — a company with expertise not in riverboats, but in super yachts. The company has experience, however, in building ships with shallow drafts (the part of the ship that submerges underwater), a bonus for river cruising, which lives and dies by inland water levels.
What’s Onboard
The hulls themselves are still very much in the skeletal stage, so our visit to the stateroom mockups at Willemsen Interieurbouw helped make the product feel much more real. Here, it almost felt like a homecoming for the Celebrity-acquainted, with textiles, signage and furnishing styles that brand fans will easily recognize from the company’s ocean ships.
We were warned that these are still in the concept stage, and some of the items will be swapped out (such as a “too-shiny” marble, for example), but we were still able to stand in the (surprisingly large) showers, have a seat on the balconies (which have enough space for plush seating and a table) and see how layouts change between rooms with step-out balconies and those with the vaunted infinite balconies that Celebrity first introduced at sea.
The rooms are admittedly on the smaller side (Celebrity says it wants to maximize public spaces, and the VR views we got of those venues certainly confirmed that), but they’re so richly furnished, and have such a surprising amount of storage, that it would be easy to get used to. Design features include art-deco-like touches in creams, greys and golds — definitely from the same DNA as oceangoing staterooms, but somehow even more luxe to reflect the more-inclusive, premium nature of the river cruise product.
A new cabin category is the Skylight Infinite Balcony Suite, which will come with a skylight (with retractable privacy screen) to the top deck, an Infinite Balcony, butler service and a spa-inspired bath. Vista Balcony Suites will have step-out balconies with plush seating and separate living and sleeping areas.
A rendering of a Skylight Infinite Balcony Suite, which will have a skylight with retractable privacy screen
Photo Credit: 2026 Celebrity River CruisesWhen it comes to those expansive public spaces, Michael Scheiner, chief marketing and product officer, says that the company was intentional about what spaces they put “up front.”
“On most river ships, you step onboard right into this giant guest services desk,” he explained. “On our ships, you’ll step onboard to Cafe al Bacio and [the] Martini Bar.”
That momentous arrival experience is something the company has cultivated over its years at sea, and it wanted to make a similar experience for the riverboats — not only welcoming guests onboard with the most alluring spaces, but with the “greatest hits” from its ocean ships, so brand fans will feel immediately at home.
It will just be a bonus, Scheiner adds, that when the ships are double docked and passengers on other ships are walking through the Celebrity lobby, they will hopefully have their interest piqued from their walk-through.
Another ocean-ship favorite, the Sunset Bar, will also make an appearance on Celebrity Compass, and there will be a new feature: retractable Magic Edge dining pods, which will extend over the water for memory-making views.
Celebrity hasn’t completed plans for dining spaces onboard yet, so there was still a good amount of “to-be-determined” details in the discussions. There are ultimately plans for six different food and beverage outlets onboard, and also for round-the-clock food availability, although the specifics on that have yet to be detailed.
A rendering of an Infinite Balcony stateroom
Photo Credit: 2026 Celebrity River CruisesStoryteller Series Shore Excursions
Contracts for shore excursions providers are still being finalized, but we got a sneak peek at the types of excursions on offer in Amsterdam. While other group members roamed the canals with a local street artist or went behind-the-scenes with an art expert, I ate my way through central Amsterdam with a guide who tied the types of foods we were trying to the Dutch people’s heritage as global traders.
Our first stop was the Schreierstoren, on the city’s waterfront, which once stood sentinel over the various ship arrivals and departures. In a cozy, sunny chamber on an upper story of the tower, we relaxed with coffee and learned how the city’s early culinary culture was shaped by the spice trade in the form of the famous spiced biscuit the Dutch call speculaas.
At our next stop, we indulged in a cheese tasting, with explanations on how the introduction of certain imported spices, honeys and fruit chutneys helped improve the flavor of cheese, which also made an ideal food for seafarers because it could easily be preserved in wax for long journeys. At the last stop (in spite of being full of cheese), we descended into a basement classroom at Melly's Stroopwafels for a quick class on how to make the famous Dutch cookie.
Thinking this must certainly be a premium shore excursion offering led to another surprise reveal by Celebrity: This is the type of excursion the line plans to have fully included in the river cruise fare.
There’s certainly more detail to come while we wait for Celebrity Compass to be fully built and outfitted with its gorgeous new furnishings, but based on what we’ve seen so far, there will certainly be a lot to love about Celebrity’s river cruise product. The line has embarked on a mission to reinvigorate river cruising — making it fresher and a bit more youthful. And from what it has assembled and put out for public review at this point, the brand appears to be hitting all the right notes.
