Thread: Poor, Shipless Mobile

The cruise port at Mobile, Alabama, has not seen a cruise ship since October, when the Elation left for the last time, to begin sailing from her new home port of New Orleans.

The city of mobile had invested in a new terminal and gangway, among other things, and now still holds a huge debt load, with no way to service that debt.

It's a sad story, especially in today's economy.

It's a shame there isn't a pack of great ideas out there, coming from some innovative entrepeneurs , to help make lemonade out of Mobile's lemons.

Anyone got a juicer?

Are there any plans for more ships to call or is that it? They need to try to attract another ship and soon.

We cruised out of Mobile twice, the latest time being this past Sept. It was our nearest cruise port as we can drive to the city in about 10 hours. While there we heard a few rumors about a NCL or RCI ship maybe moving in. We sure wish that would happen as we love the city.

There don't appear to be any plans by any of the lines to send a ship there in the near term. That's the problem.

That is a real problem. All they can do is look at the reason why they ahve been dumped and try to do what it takes to put it right. Then it's time for the hard sell. Good luck to them.

Was Carnival the only cruise line to port in Mobile? I wonder what expectations Mobile had when they built the port...any promises of service for a specified length of time?

I hope things turn around for them in the near future.

Carnival WAS it at that time.
The terminal is about 7 yars old, I think. Other things were added - like a new gangway - to accomodate a larger ship than the old fantasy class they started with.

According to an article I read, Mobile THOUGHT they had a 16 year commitment from Carnival, but it was only verbal...

Although the ship was sailing full, or almost full, the cabins had to be consistently sold at a lower than average rate to fill them. Seems like the figures I saw indicated that inside cabins on a same class ship, similar itinerary were selling at around $50-60 more pp for saiings from NOLA.

Also, it's getting moe expensive to sail the GOM because of new regulations that will be going into effect in the new year. Basically, it requires ships to carry two different types of fuel, and use the more expensive one while inside a certain zone. So, with the abiity to raise the basic fare from Mobile to cover the added cost, the cruise line simply moved the ship.

Ah...the bottom line was not profitable. Strange that Mobile only had a "verbal" agreement with Carnival! That would raise a red flag with me if a signed contract wasn't forthcoming before I put any more money into the port.

Here's an excerpt from an article about it:

According to a 2003 Press-Register report, Carnival officials arrived in Mobile saying that while there was no written commitment to keep a ship here, the company had never pulled a boat from a city without replacing it with another.

That same article indicates an even bigger price disparity on oceanviews - $130. That's a big difference?

Wonder whatt he differences were in balcony and suite cabins?

LINK TO ARTICLE: Carnival to leave Mobile; officials shocked, saddled with cruise terminal debt | al.com