Carnival Cruise Line is returning to Mobile with a larger ship and a longer contract

Hannah Ruhoff
·3 min read
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Carnival Cruise Line is returning to Mobile after a year-long absence — this time with a longer commitment.

According to WALA in Mobile, Mobile’s City Council will vote next week on a 5-year contract for a new berthing agreement in which Carnival would pay the city $8 per passenger with a 3 percent increase every year. The contract also could be extended by two additional years by mutual agreement.

Carnival Cruise Line had already announced in May that it would be returning to the Mobile port with the Carnival Spirit, a much larger cruise ship, to replace Carnival Ecstasy, which was relocated from the Mobile port last October.

“When Carnival Spirit arrives for her first season this year and then returns for the cruises we’re announcing for next year, she won’t just be bringing a newer and larger ship experience to the port, she’ll deliver more opportunities to visit beautiful destinations compared to our past operations there,” Fred Stein, Carnival’s vice president of revenue planning and deployment, said in a press release in May.

Carnival Cruise Line has previously offered cruises out of the Mobile port since 2001, but a new 5-year contract would be one of its longest continual stretches of cruise offerings.

Carnival left Mobile in 2011 and did not return until 2016, despite high demand for cruises, citing fuel costs and the inability to raise prices. Carnival then paused its offerings in 2020 due to the pandemic and again last year as the Ecstasy left.

In the past, Carnival cruises out of Mobile followed four and five-day itineraries, mostly to three locales. The Spirit will be able to embark on longer journeys of up to 12 days and visit more destinations, but it will only operate from October through March.

The Mississippi Coast could see some benefit from these new Carnival Cruises as Mississippians will once again have the opportunity to take cruises out of both New Orleans and Mobile.

Cruises out of Mobile “provide opportunity for our friends and neighbors to have a close-by vacation experience and for tourists to have a pre- or post-visit to the Coast,” said Coastal Mississippi Chief Executive Officer Judy Young. “There’s multiple positive impacts including an increase in jobs and higher quality of life.”

According to Young, 2023 has been a good year for cruises, as they are finally rebounding from the pandemic. She said the Port of New Orleans has seen 155,000 passengers and 39 vessel calls as of March.

Cruise offerings on the Carnival Spirit from Mobile are on sale now and will operate in the fall 2024 and spring 2025. Here are examples of some of the cruises available:

  • Eight-Day Exotic Western Caribbean Cruise departs Mobile on Oct. 26, 2024, and visits Mahogany Bay, Isla Roatan; Belize; Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico.

  • Eight-Day Bahamas Cruise departs Mobile on Nov. 9 and Nov. 23, 2024, and visits Key West, Fla.; Freeport, Nassau and Half Moon Cay, Bahamas.

  • Eight-Day Western Caribbean cruise departs Mobile on March 15, 2025, and visits Grand Cayman, Cayman Island; Ocho Rios, Jamaica and Cozumel, Mexico.

  • Six-Day Western Caribbean Cruise departs Mobile on several dates, including Nov. 11, 2024, Nov. 17, 2024, Dec. 1, 2024, Dec. 15, 2024 and Dec. 29, 2024, as well as Jan. 12, 2025, March 23, 2025 and April 20, 2025, and visits Belize and Cozumel, Mexico.

  • Six-Day Western Caribbean Cruise departs Mobile on April 6, 2025, and visits Cozumel, Mexico and Mahogany Bay, Isla Roatan.

  • Five-Day Western Caribbean Cruise departs Mobile March 10, 2025, and visits Yucatan (Progreso), and Cozumel, Mexico.

  • 12-Day Carnival Journeys Cruise departs Mobile Jan. 18, 2025, and visits several spectacular Caribbean destinations, including Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos; Aruba; Curacao; Ocho Rios, Jamaica and Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.