Brinley Hineman
I spent a few days in Amsterdam in April with Celebrity River Cruises, and I got a first look at what the ocean cruise line has in store for Europe's rivers.
I've covered Celebrity's entry to the market pretty extensively, as the brand has promised to make a splash: it is shaking up the typical river ship design and is hoping to lure a new demographic of travelers to the industry. Finally, after months of hearing about its innovation, I got to see it firsthand. And what I experienced gives me hope that Celebrity could make good on its word.
Though Celebrity has no ships to show as of yet, the brand brought me and a small cohort of journalists to visit the shipyard where the Celebrity Compass is under construction. We toured stateroom mockups.
We also got a chance to experience an excursion, which was something of particular interest to me. River cruise lines are sometimes limited on how they can differentiate themselves when they visit the same ports and cities on the same routes. But Celebrity brought a fresh take to an old city: Amsterdam.
This was my third time visiting Amsterdam in the last year. I've done the canal tours. I've eaten the gouda. I've visited the Rijksmuseum.
The author tries her hand at graffiti art during an excursion at the STRAAT Museum in Amsterdam. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Brinley Hineman
And now, I've left my mark on Amsterdam -- literally -- by trying my hand at graffiti.
We sampled one of Celebrity's storyteller excursions. Remember: Celebrity will offer four styles of excursions, and the storyteller series is focused on bringing the stories of locals to the forefront. In this case, it was a guided tour from a street artist and guide Alex Pope, who also works at the STRAAT Museum, which features a collection of street art and graffiti in a former shipyard.
Straat is the Dutch word for street, and as Pope explained, street art is incredibly important to the city's culture, evolving from an illegal act to respected artistry.
We reached the museum not by coach bus, as is typical, but by ferry, joining dozens of locals (and their bikes) as they made their way to work during the morning rush hour.
Though I do genuinely enjoy art museums, by the hour mark my eyes sometimes start to glaze over and I start glancing around in search of a cafe for a coffee to perk me up. But this museum kept me engaged the entire time, with each piece of art capturing my full attention. Though the museum opens at 10 a.m. to the public, our group arrived early for private, before-hours access.
Pope, who has spent a decade giving tours focused on street art and graffiti, did his university thesis on graffiti, focusing on its transition from building walls to high-brow galleries.
And after we had our fill of spraypainted artwork, we got to try -- key word, try -- creating art ourselves. Clad in coveralls, hair nets and gloves and armed with spray paint cans, we received a brief lesson in techniques before we were turned loose to spray to our heart's desire.
Typically, my go-to creative outlet is a paint-by-numbers and podcast pairing, but there was something freeing about going wild with spray paint.
The museum, which opened in 2020, said Celebrity is the first cruise line to reach out about an excursion partnership, which indicates that the line is serious about seeking out new experiences and offering creative excursions in cities that cruisers think they already know.