A year ago, Carnival Cruise Line unexpectedly abandoned Mobile, Alabama as a cruise port.
Carnival cited rising fuel costs and an inability to raise prices for its cruises out of the cruise terminal in Alabama. The unexpected news shocked local officials in Mobile which had worked for a decade to lure the cruise line to the Alabama port.
Mobile over-extended itself financially to create the cruise terminal. With Carnival pulling its cruise ship, the city was faced with no cruise line customer and no revenue to pay the millions in debt remaining on the seven-year-old terminal.
But like a desperate suitor with no one left to court, Mobile is not giving up. A local news station reports that rumors are that Mobile continues to talk with the cruise lines trying to lure a cruise ship back to town.
The news station compares cruise lines like Carnival to the popular, pretty girl in high school who can pick and choose her dates, while Mobile is "the nerd." The problem seems to be that there are plenty of empty cruise terminals and not enough cruise ships to go around. Plus, Mobile has a lot of competition with other ports on the Gulf of Mexico like Houston, Galveston, New Orleans and Tampa, but its crossing its fingers for some good luck in 2014.