Mobile waving its final goodbye to Carnival cruise ship

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - The Carnival cruise ship “Ecstasy” will set out on her final voyage Monday.

“We’re gonna give it a good farewell with our crewmates, our Azalea trail maids, the bands, about 11 o’clock they’re coming out Monday and we invite the public to come out and experience that,” said David Clarke, CEO of Visit Mobile.

Avid cruisers who sailed it in the past have booked rooms on the “Ecstasy” for its final cruise.

“The Carnival Ecstasy has created so many memories for the cruisers over the last 30 years. I think it sailed from 9 different ports, 5.5 million passengers, we have couples coming back that got engaged on the ship 30 years ago,” added Clarke.

Local businesses say they’ll miss the ship’s visitors. Clark says it brought 200,000 people to the Port City per year who stayed in 35,000 hotel rooms.

“We’re really-- kind of sad--- to see the carnival pull out for awhile. We’re looking for one to come back because we appreciate the business. We appreciate the people that bring this into Mobile,” said one business owner.

“We can definitely tell when there’s a crowd going through the cruise or coming back from the cruise, so we’ll miss a lot of foot traffic and you can definitely tell it makes an impact on business,” stated Nicole Moore.

Some businesses even built long-term friendships with the crewmates.

“We also have some of the crew’s staff that comes in and visits us; that’s also really nice. It’s nice to keep up with them and in touch with them- and like I said, we can tell when the cruises are going in-and-out,” added Moore.

Although there will be an empty port once Ecstasy leaves, Clark says a new ship, “Spirit”, will replace it a year from now.

“The really cool thing there- the best ship ever, starting next October that’s ever sailed out of Mobile. With the best itinerary ever- they’re 6 and 8 day trips to- we’ve never had this opportunity,” said Clark.

There will be a farewell send-off ceremony at 11 a.m. on Monday, October 10th at the port downtown. The event is free and open to the public.

---

Download the FOX10 Weather App. Get life-saving severe weather warnings and alerts for your location no matter where you are. Available free in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.

Copyright 2022 WALA. All rights reserved.