Carnival Says Goodbye to Mobile, Tweaks Gulf Coast Itineraries

[Goerkel]

Because of the way Carnival treated the city of Mobile and generally the lower quality (albeit cheaper) cruise experience, Carnival is off our list for future cruises. There are too many alternatives on the market. After 16 cruises on 5 different cruise lines, I am confident that I can find a better value. The shoddy way Carnival pulled out the rug from under the city and citizens of Mobile is futher incentive for me to turn away and never look back. This is yet another way Carnival defines "cheap" as in "cheap shot".

[PaulMedik]

Because of the way Carnival treated the city of Mobile and generally the lower quality (albeit cheaper) cruise experience, Carnival is off our list for future cruises. There are too many alternatives on the market. After 16 cruises on 5 different cruise lines, I am confident that I can find a better value. The shoddy way Carnival pulled out the rug from under the city and citizens of Mobile is futher incentive for me to turn away and never look back. This is yet another way Carnival defines "cheap" as in "cheap shot".

 

 

Goerkel,

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

Interesting first post. A question of loyalty and a statement indicating lack thereof; 'After 16 cruises on 5 different cruise lines....'

 

Bon Voyage on your quest for better value.

[LHP]

Because of the way Carnival treated the city of Mobile and generally the lower quality (albeit cheaper) cruise experience, Carnival is off our list for future cruises. There are too many alternatives on the market. After 16 cruises on 5 different cruise lines, I am confident that I can find a better value. The shoddy way Carnival pulled out the rug from under the city and citizens of Mobile is futher incentive for me to turn away and never look back. This is yet another way Carnival defines "cheap" as in "cheap shot".

 

IF this is going to be your standard for sailing cruise lines, then cross NCL and RCCL off your list as well.

 

RCCL did it to California and NCL did it to Hawaii.

 

Btw, none of these cruise lines "pulled the rug". They all made business decisions for the health of their companies after LONG conversations with all the parties involved.

 

Mobile had LOTS of notice that Sam Jones (Mayor) elected to ignore and then LIE about not being informed.

[golfadj]

IF this is going to be your standard for sailing cruise lines, then cross NCL and RCCL off your list as well.

 

RCCL did it to California and NCL did it to Hawaii.

 

Btw, none of these cruise lines "pulled the rug". They all made business decisions for the health of their companies after LONG conversations with all the parties involved.

 

Mobile had LOTS of notice that Sam Jones (Mayor) elected to ignore and then LIE about not being informed.

 

Very true.

[Jabee]

Goerkel...

 

I am also very disappointed in Carnival leaving Mobile...I cruised from there often and enjoyed the fact that as a Public School employee this port generated income for my retirement...

 

BUT...what I do not understand, is that you have posted your first post on CC, and done so on a response to a thread that has not had a post since MARCH...9 months ago??

 

I will continue to cruise on Carnival and New Orleans is only 30 miles further for me than Mobile. I was upset about the move, but Carnival is in the business of making money, and if they think they can do better in NOLA then Mobile, it is a business decision. (BTW...I still think NOLA will not do that well with Two CCL ships, NCL, and RCL coming...not sure the economy will support all that.)

 

But, we shall see...but I do not know any other options then the other two mentioned that are a days drive from home, so I will continue to cruise Carnival.

[maldenmusic]

I cruised from Mobile several times and it was a convenient port for me to drive to. Now I am cruising out of NOLA and will miss Mobile.:(

[iceleven]

For Galveston you fly into Houston which is the 4rth largest city in america, not sure why you would have trouble flying there? Yes the inconvience of driving 40 minute from Galveston to houston, but its a 45 minute drive from orlando to PC, so not sure how its so hard?:confused: And there are 2 major airports in Houston . hmmm

 

Yes, Houston is a large city but it is also known as one of the most expensive airport to fly into. I fly out of SFO and can fly to NYC or Miami much cheaper than to Houston and they are twice the distance. When the Magic came into Galveston I checked out the prices to fly there, ADD ON the time and cost to drive to the port and it just doesn't seem all that interesting anymore. Oh, and we will never fly into Orlando to put up with the additional drive to PC either. I'm not cheap, by any means, but to add a couple hundred dollars just for transport from airplane to port is really just a waste of good money.

[hockeyluver]

That really sucks!! We have cruised out of Mobile twice and loved our precruise visit. Very friendly staff at the hotels and restaurants we visited. Also loved the drive down, it was not to short and not to long..... just right.... sheesh

[umograd83]

Mobile was the easiest cruise port to sail out of. I will miss sailing from Mobile. We had to book our next cruise out of NO. I prefer Mobile.

[foxesden1]

I will say that when planning our upcoming cruise, several trips out of Mobile were in the list presented to us by the travel agent, and we tended to pass over those in favor of the ports we recognized as more of a vacation destination like New Orleans and Miami. I did a little further research and found that Mobile does have more going for it than I expected, but I wonder how many cruisers turn it down right off the bat because it doesn't "sound" like a place to take a vacation.

 

Ditto, I did not even know they sailed out out of mobile!

[futaba951]

http://blog.al.com/live/2011/11/dinner_cruises_returning_to_mo.html

 

Now you can catch a dinner cruise in Mobile. The consolation prize. By all accounts, it's doing inexplicably well. It won't pay for the cruise terminal, but I bet the food is better than Carnival's.

[coats141]

Glad I found this thread, because I never knew why? lol

 

Yes I know this is an older Thread, but I took a cruise out

of Mobile and will miss it. The main reason I will miss it ???

 

Carnival used it for the older boats = cheaper rates. And

being in West TN it was but a 6 hour drive down there. I

took my Mother, & my Wife took her Mother, on this one

back in 2006. (We paid for their 1st Cruising experience)

 

I have been to other Ports where I flied into so I'm in no

way complaining cause it was the closest. But ............

it was nice for what it was. (Cheap way to try Cruising)

 

Geography places a huge part in our vacations right now,

but in 7 more yrs (No more mortgage) it won't bother me.

[maldenmusic]

Same here. Being from SE Missouri we loved going down to Mobile and the ease of it being a smaller city than NOLA. I don't have any real complaints with NOLA but enjoyed Mobile better. It was closer to the Florida panhandle and it made it nice to spend an extra day or two there after we returned.