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Carnival signs five year deal with Mobile

tidecat

By tidecat,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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ledges1 Great Review Rare

ledges1

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Will the Spirit be around in 5 years? This is good news for Mobile. They need the $s from parking to pay for the bond issue on the cruise terminal and parking deck. It remains empty during the off season. It is difficult with only about 5 months of cruising. I live in the area and prefer New Orleans. Parking in Mobile is $20 a day. That is steep for an 8 day cruise and there are not other parking options in Mobile. You can find reasonable priced parking in NO (Fulton Garage). I am bored with the Conquest Class in New Orleans.

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stobe1

stobe1

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8 minutes ago, ledges1 said:

Will the Spirit be around in 5 years? This is good news for Mobile. They need the $s from parking to pay for the bond issue on the cruise terminal and parking deck. It remains empty during the off season. It is difficult with only about 5 months of cruising. I live in the area and prefer New Orleans. Parking in Mobile is $20 a day. That is steep for an 8 day cruise and there are not other parking options in Mobile. You can find reasonable priced parking in NO (Fulton Garage). I am bored with the Conquest Class in New Orleans.

Here's to hoping Spirit class ships stick around for a while. They are definitely my favorite class of ship. Hopefully they get the "Sunshine" treatment like the Destiny class if that's what it takes for them to stick around. As long as they dont add in staterooms at the expense of public venues. They already are taking out Deck 1 of the nightclubs in exchange for cabins on Spirit class ships as they go into drydock.

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tidecat

tidecat

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3 hours ago, ledges1 said:

Will the Spirit be around in 5 years? This is good news for Mobile. They need the $s from parking to pay for the bond issue on the cruise terminal and parking deck.

The Spirit is a little over 22 years old now.  Sunshine is 27 now, which is how old Spirit will be in five years. Sunshine is scheduled to go to drydock in 2025, so Carnival will likely get 32 years out of her. I would expect the same for Spirit, possibly longer. 

 

Mobile works because it's a convenient place to put a ship outside of the Alaska season. The Spirit class works well for Alaska since it can transit the older Panama Canal locks and has a very high percentage of balcony cabins

 A third ship in New Orleans would be limited to short cruises, which potentially doubles short cruise capacity out of New Orleans. Galveston already has Miracle during the Alaska off-season. Luminosa does her off-season in Brisbane. Tampa serves the same purpose with Europe.

 

Carnival might cycle the Spirit class ships between Baltimore, Brisbane, Tampa, Mobile, and Galveston (and maybe even Jacksonville), but I expect all of them to be in the fleet in 2030. Fantasy was originally scheduled to have spent just shy of 6 years in Mobile (2016-2022), I would expect Spirit to have a similar tenure in Mobile.

 

Keep in mind Star Princess in 2025 is the last scheduled new build across all of Carnival Corporation. There are zero ships on order for 2026, and 2027 may wind up the same way based on remarks made during earnings calls. The existing fleet is going to be here for a while.

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tidecat

tidecat

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21 minutes ago, happy cruzer said:

I thought it was the oil company..  The one that used to sponsor Masterpiece Theater.  Now that would definitely prove the times they are a changin.

A good way in Mobile to show that you are not a local is to pronounce it like "Mobil" (the oil company that merged with Exxon).

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stobe1

stobe1

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44 minutes ago, CarnivalShips480 said:

Carnival would tell you Glory is about to switch with Liberty

 

On 9/6/2023 at 8:35 PM, ledges1 said:

 I am bored with the Conquest Class in New Orleans.

 

I recall reading an official statement from Carnival after they moved the Dream out of NOLA about how they felt (at the time) that Dream class was too much ship for the NOLA market and that Conquest class was the right size ship. It said how they had to sell cruises at rock bottom fares to get occupancy rates up so they moved it where it would make more money. They stopped short of saying they lost money, only that it could make more money elsewhere. I'm sure some internet sleuth out there can dig up the article somewhere.

 

Of course, economics change along with the times so they may make some other moves as times change to either not lose money in a market or move ships from one market to another where they can make more money.

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