Stranded Australians Violetta and Doug Sanders have travelled through seven countries in 48 hours to be reunited with Norwegian Dawn in Senegal.
Their dream cruise turned into a nightmare after they became struck with six US citizens on the island of São Tomé and Príncipe, off the coast of Nigeria. The ship left without them because they were late to return from a private shore excursion on the island.
Norwegian Dawn had departed Cape Town, South Africa, on March 20 for a 21-day voyage up the coast of Africa. It ends in Barcelona, Spain, on April 10.
Returned to the ship an hour late
The eight passengers were over an hour late in returning to their ship which had an all-aboard time of 3pm.
The group, including four elderly passengers and one quadriplegic, attempted to board with the help of the local coast guard. But they wee denied re-entry and Norwegian Star raised anchors off port and departed without them. Their story made headlines around the world.
“Guests are responsible for ensuring they return to the ship at the published time,” the line said.
Subsequently, their passports were delivered to local port agents after they failed to return in time, Norwegian said. The line said it was working with authorities to understand “the requirements and visas needed for the guests to reboard the ship at the next available port of call”.
“It’s been the worst experience of our lives to be abandoned like that in a strange country, can’t speak the language,” Doug Sanders told Sunrise on Channel 7.
“It’s Portuguese and African. We have no money, our credit cards aren’t accepted.”
American passenger Jay Campbell said on NBC’s TODAY show: “The lovely people of São Tomé were very gracious, very hospitable. They had reached out as much as they could to help us find hotels.
“We were able to get to a tour agency there to arrange flights to the next port of call.
“Very difficult process – you’re dealing with multiple languages, language barriers, you’re dealing with different currencies … finding someone that even has dollars … trying to get an agent to understand where we need to get to.
“It’s one of those ‘You can’t get there from here,’” Jay Campbell added.
Very unfortunate situation, says Norwegian
A Norwegian spokesperson said the incident was a “very unfortunate situation”.
Subsequently, on Monday, all eight passengers had made arrangements to rejoin the ship in Banjul, Gambia. But the ship was unable to safely dock because of “adverse weather conditions” and “tidal restrictions,” Norwegian said.
The guests were provided with further information and they were able to rejoin the ship at Dakar, Senegal, on Tuesday.
In addition, they were also reimbursed for flights, accommodation and travel costs in their bid to be reunited with Norwegian Dawn.
“Despite the series of unfortunate events outside of our control, we will be reimbursing these eight guests for their travel costs from Banjur, Gambia to Daka, Senegal,” Norwegian said in a statement.
Would an airline wait for a late passenger, regardless of the reason? Then why should a cruise ship be held to a higher standard when everyone is repeatedly informed of the time to return (with time to spare)? We normally take ship tours if in doubt and if doing our own thing allow at least an hour extra for anything that might go wrong.
If you have disabilities or special circumstances then there is even more reason to err on the side of caution. Otherwise you are holding up thousands of passengers and costing the cruise company thousands of dollars in port fees, etc, because you think you know better or are too cheap to do things properly.
I agree that consideration of their ages and frailty should have been taken into account, yes they should have been back in time, but due to unforeseen circumstances this was not possible.
So where has this world gone wrong where the Captain makes the decision to leave 2 elderly people and a quadriplegic in a foreign country, at the end of the day it’s all about the almighty dollar… How sad we have all become
To me the important point is departure time was not critical. The passengers had been delayed by circumstances beyond their control, the ship had been contacted. The ship choose to ignore the plight of the passengers and depart rather than wait for possibly less than one hour. I was recently on a P&O cruise and something similar happened. The ship delayed departure and the passengers were given the chance to board. People can say that NCL acted within their rights, but I will act within my rights and choose never to cruise with NCL. It works both ways. BTW, were all the ships passengers financially compensated because the ship could land at Gambia. The ship would have claimed that was because of circumstances beyond its control. Well maybe realise that happens to passengers as well.
Whilst I feel a bit sorry for these people, it cant have been a pleasant experience, they only have themselves to blame. You are notified more than enough when a ship is in port, of the return to boat time. I have always made sure that I am back on that ship an hour before the actual time given. I dont think NCL should take the blame for this and the backlash they are getting I dont feel is fair. There are rules, and just because you dont adhere to them, it doesn’t give you the right to elicit sympathy or have a go at the rule maker, because you didnt follow them. Just be thankful that someone had the smarts to take their credit card so that you were able to catch up and rejoin the ship!!!
Why are the cruise line paying compensation of costs, that’s clearly covered by individuals travel insurance companies. This is NOT the cruise ship at fault, but people wanted a cheaper shore excursion. Their decision so it’s their fault when cruise ships always advertise they must wait for all their own excursions to return, not when people are running late after doing their own thing for the day. DONT badmouth a good reputation of a reliable ship.
I’m sure there is more to this story.
As some have suggested, once the ship was at sea they would not have been able to get the wheelchair bound passenger back onboard. The other seven yes, that single passenger no.
It would have been contrary to every safety policy they have and that passenger would have sued then for gazillions if they had been hurt in any attempt to manhandle them onboard.
I’m sure as a group they decided they would stick together. That’s all good until as a group they can only board once the ship is at a pier.
We have taken the risk of private tours when we’ve cruised. We usually take half day tours specifically so that we are back in ample time. We also do enough research to know what kind of credit cards are accepted in a port, take at least a day of medications with us, and have a copy of the photo page of passport if we’re in a foreign country.
In my eyes NCL has done more than they needed to here.
We all know to be on board an hour before ship leaves. Don’t put all the blame onto ncl. You are very lucky to be reimbursed. Next time take a tour organised by ship. Always allow for some delays.
If you want to be guaranteed return to ship, book your excursions though the ship. If you want to book something independent, make sure they offer a guarantee to get you back in time or organize and pay for alternatives.
The problem for the ships are the extra port charges for keeping the ship waiting in port, tidal issues, availability of sailing time slots allocated by the port authorities, the availability of a port pilot and the extra cost of fuel to go faster to reach the next port in time. All up that can be tens of thousands of dollars which passengers will eventually have to pay for in their next cruise fare.
Given the unreliability of flights, it’s now important to book a flight the day before the cruise departs and stay the night before.
Going on tours off ship is always the risk of breakdowns. I know because it happened to me where a tour bus broke down with over twenty passengers. Fortunately, in our case the cruise ship (Royal Carribean Line, Explorer Of The Seas was notified and waited for us). At several ports there always seemed that some people and usually the same ones were always running close to the wind or late getting back but fortunately the cruises I’ve been on no one was ever left behind.
Apart from the rights and wrongs of this affair, this has hit the headlines and airwaves in a big way world wide, and the resultant publicity is not good for a cruise line that already did not enjoy the best of reputations.
The terms “arrogance” and “inflexibility” spring to mind, and not least “lack of empathy”.
I wonder how other cruise lines would have hadled the situation.
What a terrible customer service and reprehensible situation to place loyal customers in. This is a badge of honour for large cruise ships – to deliberately punish guests who are late to port, especially if they chose an operator for a day tour who was not one paying commissions to the line. Appalling. At Coral Expeditions, one of our mantras for 40 years is to never leave a person behind. We are proud to make it our mission and it has bred great loyalty. The RCL offers to re-imburse guests is too little too late and has only really been made given the massive brand damage they are encountering after many days of disrespecting the guests who paid them good money.
Unfortunate for the Cruise ship Passengers but you have to switched on and make sure you have plenty of time in case of mishaps. Not the Cruise Lines Fault.
It’s a good response from NCL, and I’m not sure why this has been news… a fair few people miss ships – there’s nothing newsworthy about that.
Does a plane, a bus or any other transport wait for you if you are late? No, so why expect the cruise ship and all its passengers to be disrupted because you are late?
Each excursion you take you should make a plan and assess the risk, just as you would otherwise. The cruise is a transport, but if you make your own excursion that is on you, not the cruise line.
I think both NCL and the guests have to share the blame and stop going on about it. Yes NCL could have opened the door but rules are rules. I don’t think just because one person is disabled is a reason for opening the door: aren’t we treating everybody equally these days. But if you are going to give them their passports; give them everything. Leaving them without clothes, meds and fresh undies is just inhumane.
It was AFRICA people and this should have made you think about taking a tour outside of the ships tours in itself! Sometimes it is better to pay a little extra for peace of mind. Anyway I will never be caught out like that. Best to be early and never late.
Given that the tour operator had notified the ship of their predicament re; truck breakdown leading to late arrival to the ship and considering the ship was still at anchor these elderly passengers should have been shown some compassion. Appalling arrogant behaviour of the Captain, allowances should have been made given the circumstances and ages of passengers. I would not consider taking a cruise with this company in the future.
I think the whole response from NCL was absolutely deplorable! Their tour bus broke down so it wasn’t their fault. What an unnecessary waste of time and energy to refuse to open the door to the coast guard to let them on, then have to dig through their belongings to find passports, then ferry these ashore by boat, then help them find flights to the next port. What kind of sad world are we living in when simple common sense and compassion flies out the window just to stick to a rule to teach passengers a lesson. 🙁
Unfortunately every one who cruises should know the rules when booking independent tours. Also ensure boarding times are noted and make sure they onboard at least one hour before last boarding time. Do not feel sorry for these passengers. At least Norwegian has compensated them for additional costs. Rules state it is at your own expense if you miss the ship.
Given their ages and medical condition, transfer at sea might not be a great option.
I think Norwegian were very considerate in reimbursing costs
They are not entitled to any compensation from the cruise line – rules are rules – the time to be back on is very clear, try your tour company they stuffed up not NCL
The all aboard time is not what passengers should aim for, but at least an hour before that.
Private tour operators need to work to that expectation.
However if anyone in the group was sick or disabled, as it appears to have been, the ship should have made allowances for that and accepted boarding from the Coast Guard boat. The next day was a sea day and the departure time was not that critical.
I have been on a cruise where passengers were waited for, for several hours, due to a miscommunication. They joined the ship at the next port.