Update from Carnival on Mobile & New Orleans

[JohnG]

Carnival hopeful for Mobile, uncertain about New Orleans

30/8/2005

Carnival Cruise Lines officials are hopeful that sailings will be able to resume from Mobile this weekend, however they say it’s too early to predict when New Orleans might open to ship traffic.

Carnival Conquest and Sensation sail from New Orleans, while Holiday homeports year-round from Mobile. All three ships diverted as Hurricane Katrina barreled into the Gulf Coast.

The situation in Mobile seems to be improving. Brendan Corrigan, svp cruise operations for Carnival, is hopeful the U.S. Coast Guard and the port authority will open Mobile on Thursday or Friday so cruises on the Holiday can resume on Saturday.

‘They’ve done surveys of the channel and the pier,’ Corrigan told Seatrade Insider. All passenger cars parked at the Alabama Cruise Terminal are fine and everything inside the terminal is dry, he added. Meanwhile, the Holiday remains docked in Tampa.

While Mobile is looking up, things took a turn for the worse today in New Orleans as two levees broke, flooding an estimated 80% of the city. Workers are scrambling to shore up the break with sandbags, and evacuations are underway.

Carnival Conquest, which disembarked passengers in Galveston on Monday, is now en route to Freeport for a previously scheduled, routine two-week drydock. Sensation will end its current cruise in the Texas port on Thursday, and its Sept. 1 and Sept. 5 sailings will operate roundtrip from Galveston.

‘We don’t want to commit to anything beyond the 5th until we can get a good feeling for what’s really going on in New Orleans in terms of their reopening and we can get a realistic date for when Sensation can return,’ said Carnival spokesman Tim Gallagher.

Even though the situation in New Orleans is dire at the moment, Corrigan expressed optimism for the port’s recovery. ‘I cannot believe that this great country of ours will let one of the biggest economic engines go closed for long,’ he said.

[schatje]

Thanks John for posting this needed information!

[JoeyandDavid]

is carnival the only ones to sail out of NO

[Dan]

RCI also sailed out of NOLA, although I'm not sure if that was year round, or seasonal. Also, Princess was supposed to do a couple sailings from there, but I can't remember when. Sometime in the winter I think.