You Can Be Among The First To Book A Celebrity River Cruise: Here's How

How to find the best price, perks when booking a cruise

Find the cruise that works for your budget with these tips.

• Celebrity Cruises will begin its first river cruises in 2027 on the Danube and Rhine rivers.
• Priority booking opens Sept. 3, with a refundable $500 deposit.

Celebrity Cruises’ first-ever river sailings won’t depart until 2027, but travelers can start the reservation process next month.

Passengers who make a refundable $500 deposit per cabin can be among the first to book, the cruise line said this week. Priority booking access will open on Sept. 3 at 9 a.m. Eastern time, and guests will be notified when they can convert those into bookings.

“We are excited to offer guests the chance to experience the first-ever Celebrity River Cruises vacations in 2027 with Priority Booking Access,” Laura Hodges Bethge, the cruise line’s president, said in a news release. “Guests will enjoy the warm hospitality Celebrity is known for, on innovative ships, with land experiences unlike any other, as we set sail on Europe’s iconic Danube and Rhine rivers.”

The cruise placed an initial 10-ship order. Details on the vessels are still to be announced, but Jason Liberty, president and CEO of the line’s parent company Royal Caribbean Group said “essentially we're going to try to miniaturize Edge Class on river.”

“When we go on river, it's not going to be what has been seen in the past,” he said during a roundtable aboard Royal Caribbean International’s Star of the Seas ship earlier this month. “It's not that we can redefine it … but we think there's a really good opportunity to do everything just better and elevated and innovated.”

Pricing info is not yet available but fares will include meals; drinks, including alcoholic beverages; Wi-Fi; one shore excursion per day and more, according to the release. Travelers can sign up for priority booking via Celebrity’s website – along with other updates on its river offerings – by calling 1-833-474-8803, or through their travel advisor. Existing guests can also visit the Future Cruise desk on Celebrity ships.

Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter with USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at ndiller@usatoday.com.