Carnival Sensation’s Mobile Restart Pushed Back to January 2022

Cruise fans waiting for the return of sailing from Mobile will have to wait a little longer. Carnival Cruise Line said the Carnival Sensation’s restart from the Port City is being pushed back to January 2022 — more than two months later than the previously announced October 21 resumption date.

The change came in a September 2 announcement in which the line laid out restart dates for six of its North American ships, part of a phased return to service after more than a year of pandemic-related suspension.

Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy pointed to supply chain disruptions as the reason for the shifted timeline.

“We are making slight adjustments to our timeline to take into account supply chain realities and ensure that our destination and shore excursion offerings can meet the strong demand we are seeing from our guests,” Duffy said in the release, adding that ship and shore teams were prepared to keep delivering the guest experience while managing health and safety protocols.

At the time of the announcement, Carnival expected its restart to grow to 15 ships sailing from seven U.S. homeports by mid-November. The line also confirmed that Carnival Valor would begin four- and five-night sailings on November 1 and that Carnival Pride would launch new service from Tampa on December 13.

For Mobile, the delay meant the Alabama Cruise Terminal would sit without passenger sailings through the remainder of 2021, with the Sensation now slated to bring cruises back early in the new year.

Cruising’s pandemic pause

Carnival suspended all of its sailings in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic spread. Cruises from U.S. ports began resuming in the summer of 2021 under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Conditional Sailing Order, which set health and safety requirements lines had to meet before carrying passengers again.