Mobile will participate in a celebration Monday with Carnival Cruise Line ahead of the final voyage of the Ecstasy cruise ship – and maybe the last cruise voyage from the port for at least a year.

The city will have banners flying, and the Azalea Trail Maids will be there to greet executives from Miami-based Carnival Cruise Lines. John Heald, a Carnival Cruise Line brand ambassador who served as the Ecstasy’s cruise director during the ship’s earliest days in the 1990s, will also be in attendance.

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Some couples, who were engaged on the ship years ago, will also be present during the ship’s final sendoff before it’s retired.

“It’s a historic moment,” said David Clark, president & CEO with Visit Mobile.

It will also be an unusual celebration for a city where cruising takes place.

Carnival’s exit from Mobile means the city will be without an approximately $6 million revenue source for the coming fiscal year. Hotels will also be searching for ways to replace the lost room nights for the next 12 months. Downtown eateries, which see a boost of business from overnight guests, will also see some drop off.

“It will certainly have an impact,” said Carol Hunter, spokesperson with the Downtown Mobile Alliance. The day before the boat leaves is always one of the busier days of the week for retailers and restaurants downtown.”

Hopeful future

It might not sound like a reason to party, but Mobile officials are confident they can make up the financial void for one year.

Unlike previous exits by Carnival – in 2011, and during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 – there is an assurance by Carnival Cruise Line that it will return with a bigger and newer ship soon.

The Carnival Spirit, the first non-Fantasy class ship to sail out of Mobile in years, will launch out of the downtown cruise terminal for its first voyage on October 22, 2023.

The Spirit, built in 2000, is bigger than the Ecstasy and the Fantasy, which sailed out of Mobile from 2016-2020. The Fantasy was retired during the COVID-19 pandemic and has since been sold for scrap.

“I have full confidence that our staff will figure out creative ways to use the Alabama Cruise Terminal over the next 12 months, and our finance team has already created a budget that anticipates a pause in the revenue we typically see from the terminal,” Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson said in a statement to AL.com.

“As for the Carnival Spirit, we could not be more excited to welcome a newer, larger ship to the Port of Mobile next fall,” Stimpson said. “We are happy to continue working with Carnival and our relationship with the cruise line is as strong as ever.”

The attraction of the Carnival Spirit will be in its itineraries, according to city officials. Up until now, excursions out of Mobile had a Caribbean destination to Cozumel or Progreso. The Spirit’s destinations include 5–8-day voyages to the Bahamas – Bimini, Freeport, Half Moon Cay, and Nassau, as well as to the Western Caribbean.

Carnival Cruise Line is also committing to at least one voyage each year from Mobile to Alaska, where the Carnival Spirit will be homeported during summer months. It’s unclear when the first Alaskan cruise will take place.

According to city spokesman Jason Johnson, the city has yet to receive information about cruises to Alaska from Mobile. No Alaskan-bound sailings are posted yet on the company’s website.

Disappointment

Some longtime cruisers are concerned about the company leaving Mobile each year during the summer months.

Angela Gray, who administers a Mobile Carnival cruisers Facebook page, said she believes the lack of summer cruises “drastically impacts our area.”

Sue Sisak, 75, and her husband Phillip, 78, have taken 9-10 cruises out of Mobile over the years, and will be aboard the Spirit during a January 2024 cruise. They have family on board the Ecstasy for its final sendoff on Monday.

But Sue Sisak said she is concerned the lack of summer cruising out of Mobile will adversely affect families whose children are off of school during the summer months.

Sisak said she wrote her displeasure to Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy, and said she was displeased the company was leaving the city without a cruise ship – again.

“When we get it, there will be no summer cruises,” said Sisak. “It’s not fair what they are doing to us.”

Industry experts, over the years, have said that Mobile tends to attract a lower price point among cruisers. The size of cruise ships is getting bigger as well, which makes larger cities with bigger terminals and homeports more attractive for cruising.

Clark, the president & CEO with Visit Mobile, said the Carnival Spirit’s arrival gives Mobile an opportunity to prove to Carnival that it can host larger ships that can attract travelers with more spending capabilities.

“We have a very unique opportunity now in Mobile to prove to Carnival that cruising from Mobile works in the best way,” he said.

Paying down debt

The city continues to pay down its debt on building the Alabama Cruise Terminal, a 66,000-square-foot concrete structure with an attached 500-parking space deck that opened in 2004.

Johnson said the city refinanced its debt for the cruise terminal with other city obligations. The city’s entire debt obligation is now at $150 million, which is down from a high point of $325 million a few years ago, Johnson said.

He said the total debt obligations are scheduled to be paid in equal installments through 2030. At that time, the overall city debt will be paid in full, Johnson said. The cruise terminal debt is part of that.

The cruise terminal has a staff of five full-time, and three part-time employees. In 2023, they will be in charge of maintaining the facility and overseeing other events throughout the year. In past years, when the cruise terminal was not hosting a cruise ship, the venue was utilized primarily for weddings and reunions.

Johnson also said that the city has been in communication with other companies about the possibility of cruising out of the downtown terminal.

“As for local interests, we are open to new ideas from the private sector about how to utilize the cruise terminal,” he said.

Cruising is a booming business for the city’s downtown, particularly the hotels. Approximately 35,000 room nights per year is attributed to the industry.

Kent Blackinton, general manager of the Renaissance Mobile Riverview Plaza Hotel, said the lack of a ship will “take some business away” from the downtown hotels, and he admits that “we have to make it up some way.”

But Blackinton said the concerns are tempered with the fact that Carnival is returning with a new ship in about one year.

“I am disappointed for the next year,” he said. “But I am excited for them coming back the next year.”