Carnival Unveils Plan to Shift Cruise Facility to Long Beach

Cruise line operator Carnival Corp., in a potential blow to the Port of Los Angeles, on Thursday unveiled a proposal to build a new terminal next to the Queen Mary in Long Beach for its two ships currently docked in San Pedro.

The cost for the new terminal, which is expected to take up to 18 months to build, was estimated at $16 million, a Carnival spokeswoman said.

The preliminary agreement between Queen Mary operator Queen’s Seaport Development Inc. and Miami-based Carnival, which operates the Elation and Holiday leisure ships out of San Pedro, must be approved by the city of Long Beach and other government agencies as well as Carnival’s board of directors.

Port observers said that Carnival had threatened to move to Long Beach in the past and, because the plans aren’t finalized, Port of Los Angeles officials hope they can persuade Carinval to stay put. Harbor negotiators met as recently as Monday with Carnival officials to discuss the matter, L.A. port spokesman Jeff Leong said, and plan to continue the talks over the next several weeks.

Carnival representatives could be not reached for comment. Its lease at Los Angeles expires at the end of next year.

But the prospective deal could still be a blow for the Port of Angeles, which has been the longtime home of Carnival’s West Coast-based ships. The potential loss of the vessels not only threatens to hurt port revenue but also its prestige as the home of the “Love Boat.” Tourism to San Pedro would also suffer, and local merchants, particularly those at the Ports O’ Call themed shopping village, stand to lose business.

Carnival’s ships account for roughly half the annual volume of 1 million cruise passengers that stream through the port’s World Cruise Terminal, which is also home to Royal Caribbean’s Viking Serenade and a port of call for seven other cruise lines.

Plans for the new terminal call for a new 1,000-foot dock, a 1,200-vehicle parking structure, an embarkation area aboard the Queen Mary and a debarkation area inside a section of the geodesic dome that once housed the Spruce Goose.

Thursday’s announcement comes just six weeks after Port of Los Angeles officials announced that they had lured away from Long Beach shipping giant Maersk Inc., whose massive container terminal generates about 13% of the annual revenue collected by the Port of Long Beach.

Under the new contract, which is scheduled to begin in mid-2002, the Port of Los Angeles stands to earn about $2 billion in revenue from Maersk’s 25-year lease and, with the added container traffic the contract is expected to generate, may also steal the title of nation’s busiest port from Long Beach.

While Carnival’s move would hurt Los Angeles, the Port of Long Beach won’t gain directly because all revenue generated by the deal would go to Queen’s Seaport Development Inc., which leases the Queen Mary and the land around it from the city of Long Beach.