ABOVE: Carnival Cruise Lines is negotiating with Mobile to return operations to the Alabama port. (Courtesy of Carnival Cruise Lines)

Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson announces Carnival negotiations from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

A contract restoring cruise service with Carnival Cruise Lines from the Port of Mobile could be finalized by Sept. 30, Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson confirmed Thursday afternoon.

“With the forward momentum we are experiencing in Mobile, we have an incredible opportunity to bring all the stakeholders to the table and begin to put the ribbon around this package that is an exceptional place to visit. It’s time to invite the world to our great city,” Stimpson told reporters just minutes after his return flight from Miami landed at Mobile Regional Airport.

Stimpson said the city is “very close” to having a final contract in hand with the cruise line that last sailed from Mobile in 2011, effectively idling the Alabama Cruise Terminal. Carnival officials determined at the time New Orleans was a more profitable port.

Mobile Mayor Sand Stimpson provided a hint to the Carnival negotiations on social media.

Once completed, the contract will go before the Mobile City Council for final approval, but Stimpson said specifics regarding a timeline for resumed service, potential routes, the specific ship involved and any terms regarding a commitment of time to the city’s port by the cruise line will be addressed solely by Carnival officials.

“I don’t think anybody’s going to be disappointed with the contract. … The citizens of Mobile will be delighted,” Stimpson said. Attempts to reach Carnival officials for comment were not immediately successful.

Sheila Gurganus, director of the Alabama Cruise Terminal, did confirm restored service would result in the creation of about 150 “contract worker” jobs, roughly one-third of which are considered Carnival employees, ranging from security positions to stevedores.

“I knew they’d be back eventually, one day,” Gurganus said of Carnival, adding, “We’re a good port for them.”

Thursday’s announcement comes on the heels of Stimpson’s Tuesday unveiling of the “Mayor’s Initiative on Tourism,” intended to “tie together all of the wonderful arts, cultural and attraction amenities the city of Mobile has to offer to both our citizens and guests.”

Listed sixth among the initiative’s 10 core components is “Recruit a cruise line(s) back to Mobile.”  Stimpson confirmed Thursday that Carnival is the only cruise line with which the city is negotiating and said, “Carnival knows more about the Mobile market than anybody else.”

The remaining nine components of Stimpson’s tourism initiative are:

• Transform the current guest experience and exceed their expectations;
• Create new vibrancy and reasons for guests to visit and stay in Mobile;
• Enhance Mobile’s image;
• Emphasize Mobile’s history, eco-tourism, maritime and aerospace opportunities;
• Bolster civic pride among Mobilians;
• Add jobs to the hospitality sector by attracting talent and businesses to Mobile, especially destination management companies;
• Grow visitor numbers and hotel room nights annually;
• Increase local tax revenue generated by the tourism industry; and,
• Instill confidence that we can be ourselves, not another city, and compete with the best destinations in America.

Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson wants to boost tourism over the next five years. (Kelli M. Dugan/Alabama NewsCenter)

Stimpson said the resurrection of cruise service in Mobile will “definitely impact the debt service” on its long-vacant terminal. The city pays about $1.7 million per year toward the debt owed on the facility, used primarily during the past four years as an event venue.

Gurganus confirmed Thursday the terminal is already booked solid for 2016. She also noted resumed service will require her to boost terminal staff from two to five, but she has no immediate plans to advertise available positions.

After relocating its Elation from Mobile to New Orleans in October 2011, Carnival called on its former port of call for assists between February and July 2013:

• Its Triumph limped into Mobile on Valentine’s Day that year after being set adrift in the Gulf of Mexico following an engine-room fire. A media frenzy erupted when the ship’s 4,229 passengers and crew suffered nearly five days without power – and increasingly unsanitary conditions – before finding a hospitable welcome in Mobile.
• The terminal again housed the beleaguered Triumph two months later – that time for 38 days – after a violent April storm set the vessel adrift on the Mobile River from BAE Systems, where it was undergoing repairs from the February incident.
• In July 2013, Carnival diverted its Conquest – and her 3,661 passengers – to Mobile after a sunken tug boat closed portions of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, preventing the ship’s return to her New Orleans homeport.