Last Cruise out of Mobile set for Saturday

MOBILE, Al.
One more time Saturday, passengers will line up at the rails of Carnival’s Elation as it sails down the Mobile River toward its destinations of Cozumel, Mexico; Roatan, Honduras; and Belize.
A week later, the ship will come back up the river, docking at the Alabama Cruise Terminal.
Then, Mobile won’t be a cruise town any more.

The Alabama Cruise Terminal

The Elation itself will make a brief stop in dry dock and then will sail over to New Orleans, its new home. The first cruise from the Louisiana port will be a five-day trip beginning Nov. 5, Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen said.
Miami-based Carnival Cruise Lines will move another ship, the Ecstasy, from New Orleans to Port Canaveral, Fla., on the Atlantic coast. The 2,052-passenger Elation and its predecessor, the 1,452-passenger Holiday, were consistently full for the cruises that left every four to seven days year round. But the company said it couldn’t charge prices in Mobile that were as high as in other ports, meaning sailings from here were less profitable.
Mobile city officials, meanwhile, will continue efforts to find a new tenant for the cruise terminal. Without parking revenues, the city will have to make payments on the $25.9 million in debt out of general tax revenue, an amount projected to be $1.9 million in the budget year that began Oct. 1.
The move is also bad news for the city’s tourism and travel industry. Cruise ship passengers have been a measurable presence in area hotels. Though most drive to Mobile, some have flown in and out of Mobile Regional Airport for their vacations.
After officials spent nearly 10 years courting a cruise line, Carnival began service from Mobile in 2004 with the Holiday, the smallest ship then in its fleet. It replaced the Fantasy with the Elation in 2010.