Mobile's cruise port has received the top national customer service award -- Port of the Year -- from Carnival Cruise Lines, based on feedback from customer comment cards.

The award recognizes, at least in part, the work of Cruise Services USA Inc., a shore services company with 35 to 50 employees in Mobile, who serve at the Alabama Cruise Terminal downtown.

The Charleston, S.C.-based company has been under contract with Miami-based Carnival for almost two years, Walter Thorn, president of Cruise Services, said Thursday. Thorn said he's proud of reaching the top during the company's first full year in Mobile.

The Holiday, though one of Carnival's oldest and smallest ships, has been popular since making Mobile its home port in 2004.

The ship's capacity, based on double-occupancy of cabins, is 1,452 passengers, but it left Mobile on Thursday with 1,625 passengers, a typical load, said Sheila Gurganus, general manager at Alabama Cruise Terminal.

Gurganus said that on cruise days, about 100 people work the terminal.

Snagging the top award among Carnival's 11 year-round home ports is a team effort, involving everyone from terminal staff to the longshoremen who load and unload luggage, Thorn said.

"It only takes one person to tick off a guest, and they remember that all the way through their cruise," he said. "Cruisers expect a good time from the time they get out of their car at the terminal to the time they leave."

Vance Gulliksen, Carnival spokesman, said Mobile's embarkation team "gives new meaning to the term 'Southern hospitality.'"

The Holiday has since Oct. 18 sailed from Mobile without a contract between the cruise line and the city.

Al St. Clair, director of the Alabama Cruise Terminal, along with city leaders, has been negotiating a new agreement with Carnival. That deal, which would be back-dated to Oct. 18, will go before the City Council on Tuesday.

The new agreement includes three one-year contracts, with the first running through the end of 2008.

Both the old and proposed contracts give Carnival the right of first refusal should another cruise line want to set up shop in Mobile. City and terminal leaders have been courting a second or larger cruise ship for at least a year and have said that strong demand for Holiday cruises bodes well for making that happen.

The customer service award can only help, Gurganus said. "It lets (cruise lines) know we can take care of guests," she said. "We want a bigger ship, and this is one more thing that shows that we can do it."

(Business reporter Jeff Amy contributed to this report.)