The Carnival Fantasy has sailed out of the Port of Mobile on an unusual mission: carrying healthy crew members back to their home countries as the cruise industry idled during the coronavirus pandemic.
Carnival Cruise Line confirmed the ship’s departure from Mobile, saying it was part of a company-wide effort to reduce onboard staffing to safe operational levels while sailings remain suspended. Rather than keeping thousands of crew members aboard idle vessels, the line is using its ships as transport, moving crew between vessels in the fleet so they can travel home.
Part of a fleetwide repatriation effort
“As the company moves to safe operational manning levels, we have begun the process of returning healthy crew members to their home countries using our ships as transport,” the cruise line said in a statement. “Carnival Fantasy has departed Mobile to meet up with other ships in the fleet and allow crew members to join the vessels that will transport them home.”
The move mirrored actions across the cruise industry in spring 2020, when lines around the world worked for months to repatriate crew members stranded at sea by pandemic-related sailing bans. Mobile’s Alabama Cruise Terminal, normally a departure point for vacationers headed to the western Caribbean, temporarily became part of that logistics operation.
Cruise operations from Mobile remained paused at the time of the Fantasy’s departure, with no firm date for the resumption of passenger sailings from the Port City.