Mobile's Gamble on Cruising Fails

The City of Mobile Alabama cruise terminal has no cruise line calling her home and the city resorts to booking the facility for weddings and proms to help pay the annual costs of the building. The cruise terminal was built in 2004 and Carnival Cruises originally based the Holiday and later the Elation at Mobile. This past year the Elation was redeployed to New Orelans leaving the city with a cruise terminal and no ship calling her home. Gone are all the weekly parking fees which provided the operating revenue to pay for the facility and an additional $1M in revenue to the city.

This is a case that if you build it, they will not come, at least in the numbers that you need to sustain operations. Carnival relocated the Elation primarily due to the lack of revenues from the cruises out of Mobile. While Mobile may be a convenient destination for regionally local cruise passengers, it is likely the city failed to market Mobile as a cruise destination more broadly across the U.S. and Canada. To see the rest of the story, check out The Daily Comet.

For more cruise related e-books see our brief publications listing gadgets.

Year Round Sailings from San Francisco

Princess Cruises announces year-round sailings from San Francisco to itineraries in Alaska, Hawaii, and Mexico.

Check out the cruise related e-books on the publications page.

Carnival Breeze Sweepstakes

Carnival Cruises announced today a sweepstakes on their Facebook page. Answer a couple of Mexican food favorites questions to enter the sweepstakes for a chance to win a Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Breeze. Check it out.

What makes a cruise vacation so appealing?

What makes a cruise vacation so appealing?
There are probably as many opinions on this subject as there are persons who have taken cruises. Could it be the rest and relaxation a cruise can provide or could it be the excitement of visits to new places? There are others who enjoy the spontaneity of just jumping in to the social scene and of course others live for the partying that can occur. When you think about it, the fact that all these reasons to enjoy a cruise vacation can peacefully coexist in these floating cities is in itself quite fascinating. Really, there are so many reasons that cruise vacations are popular. read more

And now for something Completely Different

Classic riverboat cruises return to the Mississippi River for the first time since 2008 aboard the recently launched American Queen. The itineraries sail the Mississippi and the Ohio Rivers bringing a bit of nostalgia back to river travel. Check out the full story from AP at ABC News