Celebrity Cruises president promises ‘same level of innovation’ on river as ocean

Celebrity Cruises will bring “more innovation” to its new ocean and river ships, according to the cruise line’s president.

 

Ahead of a gala dinner for loyalty members in the National History Museum, Celebrity Cruises president Laura Hodges Bethge said more innovations would come to the line’s upcoming river ship fleet in 2027 and new ships following its Edge Class vessel Celebrity Xcel.

 

During a Travel Weekly webcast, Hodges Bethge said: “We think the top deck is an area ripe for innovation on a river ship.

 

“We want to find a way to really exploit that in a way no one else has, and being part of Royal Caribbean Group, the ships we bring out on ocean are exceptionally innovative and people should expect that same level of innovation on river.”

 

More: ‘There’s room for all of us in river’, says Celebrity Cruises boss

 

Celebrity Cruises to enter river cruise market in 2027

 

She added more announcements would come in the next few months ahead of the line’s river cruises opening for sale later this year.

 

With Xcel due to launch in November, Hodges Bethge said out of seven surprise features to the new ship, there will still be a surprise held until launch, which means there will be four more announcements to come following news about the Bazaar and “Date Night, All Day Long” concepts.

 

She hinted at new ships after the Edge Class series as older ships in the fleet will be hitting retirement age.

 

“We’re planning for the future as ships tend to retire between 30 and 40 years old, so we need to be ready to have additional capacity,” she added.

 

Hodges Bethge was optimistic about the line’s future growth, adding: “Overall things are very good.

 

“We continue to see guests wanting to spend on wonderful experiences and cruise is a great value in that place, so we don’t see anything slowing down in terms of how our guests are spending on experiences, and we’re the beneficiaries of that.”

 

During the same webcast, Giles Hawke, vice-president of international at Celebrity Cruises, said the UK was still “the number one focus” for EMEA in terms of volume and volume growth, and that the market was trading ahead of last year every week so far this year.

 

He noted an early booking trend, which he attributed to a combination of itineraries going on sale earlier and some passengers not getting the cruises they wanted earlier and changing behaviour this year.

 

Hawke added: “Agents are doing a really good job of explaining to customers to book now and not wait for a late deal.”

 

He said the trend was continuing for 2026 bookings, especially for Celebrity Apex which is “so well-sold it’s hard to get on”, with its clientele tending to be 50% North Americans, and 50% Brits and other nationalities on ex-Southampton sailings.

 

Hawke also revealed the trade-exclusive Destination Unknown campaign with Virgin Atlantic and Royal Caribbean had seen Caribbean bookings “shoot up”.

 

“We’ve all seen a big benefit from that raising awareness and agents being really keen to win their place on Destination Unknown which we will be talking about in a week or so,” he said.

 

He highlighted Europe cruises “remain really strong” for the UK market while there has also been “huge demand” for Asia, particularly for agents dynamically packaging pre and post-stays, tours and other excursions.

 

For the future, Hawke said Celebrity Cruises was working on streamlining its CRM technology to tailor communications to trade partners, from regular cruise sellers to new-to-cruise.

 

He added: “What we’re trying to do is make it easier for every agent to work with us but not treat every agent the same.”

 

More: ‘There’s room for all of us in river’, says Celebrity Cruises boss

 

Celebrity Cruises to enter river cruise market in 2027