Carnival Cruise Line Announces New Ship for Mobile

Carnival Cruise Line announced updates to its fleet plan Thursday, including word that it will bring a newer ship, the Sensation, to Mobile.

Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson shared the news on social media after asking "Who’s ready for some good news?"

Indeed, the word from Carnival follows recent news that the Carnival Fantasy, the ship that previously operated out of Mobile, had been sold and apparently was on its way to a scrapyard. This didn’t necessarily mean Mobile had lost its footing as a cruise port -- Carnival had previously announced plans to replace the Fantasy with the Fascination in 2022 -- but it did create some uncertainty.

While it’s still unclear when the COVID-19 epidemic will subside enough for the cruise industry to get back up to speed, Carnival’s announcement does provide some assurance Mobile won’t be left behind when that happens.

"It’s a big, big, big, deal," said David Clark, president and CEO of Visit Mobile. "This is years of work to make it happen."

"This morning I received a phone call from Carnival Cruise Lines letting me know the Carnival Sensation will move from Miami to Mobile and take up itineraries previously assigned to the Fantasy and Fascination," Stimpson said in a statement released later Thursday morning. "This is the great news for our City and a huge shot in the arm for our tourism industry. We had a great team, a great strategy and we never stopped working to make this happen. Mobile believes in Carnival, and today’s announcement is validation that Carnival believes in Mobile."

Clark said the effort to build a relationship with Carnival has been a team effort. Among those who deserve credit, he said, are Stimpson, the city council, Visit Mobile and Joe Snowden, Stimpson’s executive director of maritime and transportation.

Clark said he sees Mobile’s inclusion in the Carnival announcement as a signal that the city isn’t an afterthought for the company.

"I think in the past mobile has been viewed as possibly a secondary market," he said. "This is a sign that Mobile is being viewed as more than that now."

According to Carnival’s announcement, the Sensation has previously served Miami, where it will be replaced by the Carnival Sunrise. The Carnival Sensation is a Fantasy-class ship that entered service in 1993, three years after the Carnival Fantasy.

According to Press-Register archives, the Sensation has visited Mobile before: It was one of three Carnival ships chartered by FEMA to house victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. After that mission it and a sister ship came to a Mobile shipyard for repairs and refurbishment.

Carnival’s announcement provided no new information on the Fantasy, saying only that it and the Inspiration had been sold. The announcement said two other ships, including the Fascination, were being moved to "long term lay-up status, with no specific timeline identified for a return to operation."

"We have used this pause in operations to think carefully about our fleet and to build a plan that gives our guests new choices and upgrades to current ship offerings," Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line, said in Thursday’s announcement.

Duffy said that Carnival will "continue to invest in the four remaining Fantasy class ships that we are keeping in the fleet. We have many guests who prefer our Fantasy class ships which work so well for shorter itineraries from smaller ports that cannot accommodate our larger ships."

"With our future fleet plan resolved, we are focused on ensuring we are ready to return to operations once it is determined that the time is right to resume cruising in the U.S.," Duffy said.