For now, not for good.
On Monday, Mobile will celebrate with Carnival Cruise Line as they send off the cruise ship Ecstasy on what could be their last cruise from the port for at least a year.
Banners will be fluttering, and the Azalea Trail Maids will be present to welcome executives from Carnival Cruise Lines based in Miami.
John Heald, a brand ambassador for Carnival Cruise Line who was the cruise director on the Ecstasy back in the ship’s early 1990s iteration, will also be there.
Some couples will be attending the farewell party because they got engaged on the ship many years ago.
It will be a unique event for a port city with a reputation for cruising.
The loss of Carnival’s $6 million in annual tax revenue to Mobile in the upcoming fiscal year is unfortunate.
With fewer guests staying at their properties over the next year, hotels will need to find creative solutions to make up for the shortfall.
In addition to a decrease in income, downtown restaurants will also notice a decrease in business from hotel guests.
Although this may not seem like a cause for celebration, Mobile officials are optimistic that they can make up the shortfall in funding within a year.
Carnival Cruise Line has promised to return with a larger and more modern ship than its previous departures in 2011 and at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The Carnival Spirit’s inaugural voyage will depart from Mobile’s downtown cruise terminal on October 22, 2023. The Carnival Spirit will be the first ship of a non-Fantasy class to leave Mobile in many years.
Spotted: Pink Meanie
People in Alabama are noticing pink blobs in the water as they stroll along the beach. Quite a few of DISL’s fans have even written in to inquire further.
These weird blobs are also known as “Pink Meanies.” Drymonema larsoni is the official scientific name for this organism, which was coined by Keith Bayha, a former postdoctoral student at DISL.
As a Research Collaborator at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in the lab of Dr. Allen Collins, he has continued some of his previous jellyfish research.
Visitors to the Gulf Coast should exercise caution when walking on the beach. The advent of this scary new species of jellyfish has prompted the raising of purple flags from Fort Morgan, Alabama, to Panama City, Florida.
Beautiful as they are, these pink jellyfish are also carnivores with stinging tentacles that can stretch up to 70 feet.
There was a pink meanie on Dauphin Island in the year 2000, and it weighed more than 50 pounds. Watch out!
UM Life Shines
Niche.com’s most recent rankings show that students have a higher quality of life at the University of Mobile. In its 2023 evaluation of the Best Colleges, the popular ranking site gave the Christian university perfect scores in every category relating to campus life.
There are 4,136 schools represented on Niche’s database. The website compiled and ranked the best institutions across the United States in more than 50 categories, further dividing the results by state and city.
Housing, University Life, Student Activities, Dining, Campus Security, and Student Diversity at UM all received A’s.
In addition to receiving an A, the University of Mobile also has the best housing in all of Alabama. It’s good to be a Ram!
The University of Mobile is a Christian institution that grants undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees in more than seventy-five different fields of study.
Located on more than 880 acres of land just north of Mobile, Alabama, the University of Mobile was established in 1961 and maintains ties to the Alabama Baptist State Convention.
Check out all the universities in the Mobile AL area.
Have A Musical Evening (or Two)
The University of Mobile Symphonic Winds, led by faculty members Steve Dunn (composer/arranger/conductor), will be presenting their fall concert. It promises to be an evening of music that is both ethereal and timeless.
The concert is scheduled for Wednesday, October 17, at 7:00 p.m., and it will take place in the College Woods Auditorium on the university campus.
Hear “Stormy Weather,” a concert featuring the UM Jazz Band’s renditions of classic big band tunes. Among the songs that have been arranged are “April in Paris,” “Autumn Leaves,” “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” “Over the Rainbow,” and many more.
In honor of the university’s Homecoming 2022 celebration, this gathering will take place in Ram Hall. The show is scheduled for Monday, October 21, at 7 p.m.
The public is welcome to attend one or both events at no cost.
Earn Credits at The Dauphin Sea Lab
The Dauphin Island Sea Lab is now offering credit work to undergraduate students during the spring semester.
Developed for 2023, the spring semester at DISL will mirror the present summer semesters by having students live on campus, attend classes, and participate in field experiments.
Both in-state and out-of-state students are welcome to enroll. Students at one of the 22 institutions in the Marine Environmental Sciences Consortium (MESC), located across the state of Alabama, will need to register through their home institution.
Non-MESC students should discuss their plans with DISL’s University Programs coordinator to find out how they can participate.
Marine Operations and Research, Marine Ecology, Marine Geology, and Marine Technical Methods will all be offered during the upcoming spring semester.
At most, a student can accumulate 15 credits. The first day of class is scheduled for January 9, 2023. You should enroll for these classes no later than December 1, 2022.
