River cruises in Europe have certainly matured in the past few years, offering the kind of amenities, luxury and cuisine once only found on ocean-going ships. As their popularity increases, all the river fleets are expanding rapidly, to the point where is can be almost too much of a good thing. At popular cities on the Rhine and Danube, there’s so much demand for limited dock space that cruise ships often end up double- and triple-parked and guests go ashore walking through other ships.

That’s leading the river lines to seek out new ports and new rivers to cruise. Some lines are downsizing their new ships so they can reach cities on shallower rivers not previously on regular cruise itineraries. The coming year will see Avalon Waterways pioneering cruises on the Meuse River in Belgium. Cruise lines are also expanding their itineraries on the Elbe in Germany, the Seine in France and the Douro in Portugal as well as in Asia. Here are notable arrivals and new routes on the rivers coming in 2016: