Cruise passengers left stranded on African island to be reimbursed for some travel cost paid to return to ship

Table Of Content

• Keep up with The Post's coverage of the Norwegian Cruise debacle
• Suspected intoxicated driver kills two children after crashing into birthday party
• How to avoid getting left behind by cruise ships
• College coach surprises basketball player by flying in his family to see him play for the first time
• A Carnival Paradise Cruise Ship Abandoned Passengers at the Dock as They Ran to Board
• Beaches and Islands
• Eight Passengers Stranded After Breaking the Number One Rule of Cruise Travel

Please be aware that shipboard time may differ from the port of call and it is the guest’s responsibility to follow the shipboard time. In the event a guest misses the ship, it will be the guest’s responsibility to pay all expenses incurred to rejoin the ship,” reads the company’s “Frequent Asked Questions” page. While I support booking excursions with local operators, it comes with the known risk that you’ll be left behind by the cruise ship if you’re late. That’s exactly what happened in this case, exactly as Norwegian’s website said would happen.

Keep up with The Post's coverage of the Norwegian Cruise debacle

From there, the group boarded a bus and had to take a ferry across a river, Kurt Gies, the son-in-law of another passenger who was left on the island of São Tomé and Principe after she suffered a stroke, told The Post. "The faster we go, the more fuel we have to burn," Royal Caribbean Captain Rob Hempstead said, according to Insider. Basically, waiting for late passengers means that the ship will have to sail faster to catch up and stay on schedule. "It’s because they are on a time constraint with the port. It cost them a ton of money if they stay past their time." The Campbells said she was left at the hospital without any money or her belongings, and her emergency contact was never notified by the cruise line.

Suspected intoxicated driver kills two children after crashing into birthday party

In many cases, the boat knows that you aren't on board because you haven't checked in. (FOX 9) - A group of Twin Cities cruise passengers were left at the terminal last Sunday, watching as the ship left without them. Other passengers may face the stress of becoming stranded in remote locations through no fault of their own. Last September, more than 200 people got stuck in a remote part of Greenland after their cruise ship ran aground.

How to avoid getting left behind by cruise ships

They said that their tour’s operator notified the cruise captain that they were going to be late to rejoin the ship and that the local Coast Guard tried to get them on the vessel but that they weren’t allowed to board. But, according to NCL, this wasn't some cruel decision to leave the group stranded without their proper immigration documents, medicine, and personal belongings. In a statement to various news outlets from the cruise company, NCL stated that the ordeal was a "very unfortunate situation." Other cruisers said being on time is a “simple” rule passengers need to follow, adding it’s why they only book tours through the ship. “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 Dakar, Senegal,” the cruise line said. Most major cruise companies have an agent at every port who will be able to assist you.

“The reality is that cruise lines aggressively promote cruise-sponsored shore excursions as a fundamental part of their business model, earning tens of millions of dollars a year in income,” he told news.com.au. US couple Jill and Jay Campbell, who were among the abandoned eight cruisers have spent more than $7,000 in travel costs to get to the port in Senegal. In response, Norwegian Cruise Line called the situation “unfortunate” but shifted responsibility to the passengers for missing the departure deadline. Back on the island, the group encountered yet another cruise passenger who’d been abandoned—an 80-year-old who was hospitalized and then left without money when the ship took off without her.

College coach surprises basketball player by flying in his family to see him play for the first time

Any parent would always bring their children on a cruise, and even if impossible, for example, on an 18+ cruise such as Virgin Voyages, ensure they are under the care of a suitable and caring adult. The two children, an 8-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl were in relatively good health when firefighters entered the apartment, and have since been handed over to a family member. 29-year-old Lakesha Woods Williams was arrested following her return from a cruise that departed from Florida in early April 2024, and which made a call to San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the Caribbean. Typically, if you haven't made it back on board, the crew will take off without you for the sake of time. Of course, like everything in life, there are some exceptions, but if you're thinking of cruising soon, you won't want to rely on getting a good-faith exception. "Watching pier runners is one of my hobbies," wrote one TikTok commenter.

A Carnival Paradise Cruise Ship Abandoned Passengers at the Dock as They Ran to Board

Faulkner said their money is being held by Travel Joy, a company that independent agents use to collect payment for bookings. She said the money would be returned, but Richardson and Goudeau aren’t buying it. But when the pair went to the cruise terminal to board the ship last Sunday, their excitement quickly turned to confusion, anger, and disbelief. One of the passengers, Cherie Goudeau, said she had been planning this cruise for a year as she was being treated for thyroid cancer.

What to do if you get left behind during a cruise stop - USA TODAY

What to do if you get left behind during a cruise stop.

Posted: Tue, 02 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]

According to the MSC Cruises website, "check-in closes two hours before the ship is due to depart in all embarkation ports." The pair were due to embark on a nine-day cruise on the MSC Splendida around the Mediterranean, starting in Bari, Italy, on August 15, MailOnline reported. Norwegian said that its care team tried to call Lenkoff several times and was unable to reach her and that it worked with its port agent in São Tomé and Príncipe for updates on her health. A silver lining of the catastrophe was that the Campbells were able to connect with another Norwegian Dawn passenger — Julia Lenkoff, 80 — who was also left on the island, but for a medical reason. But the couple was reconsidering whether they even wanted to return to the cruise. The debacle has caused a huge divide online with some taking the side of the passengers, while others have defended the cruise’s move in leaving the passengers behind in São Tomé.

"I was looking forward to hearing some Juvenile, reliving some 90s music, the fresh food that was going to be on the boat, the burgers that were going to be on the boat, just hanging out with people," said Goudeau. But it all unraveled in a matter of minutes on the day they were supposed to leave. A TikTok video showed the couple waving and begging the crew to wait for them, even though the gangway appeared to have already been removed.

One passenger had a heart condition, and another was a paraplegic, WRAL reported. Jill and Jay Campbell, from Garden City, South Carolina, took a cruise to the African continent aboard a Norwegian liner that started on March 20. "When she never came out to address people, and that boat was sailing off, and we were sitting on that port, people were in tears, people were upset, they were angry," said Goudeau. They say their travel agent passed by and said she would fix things but did not and then disappeared. The Norwegian Cruise Line said in a statement provided to BI by email that eight guests on the tour missed the last tender back to the vessel. They were refused entry to the ship upon their return, according to WPDE, even though they could still see the ship from the shore.

I also love spending time outdoors and play board games with my friends. According to WRAL, none of the other passengers had their medications or even credit cards that were accepted on the island. On Wednesday (March 27), the Campbells and six other people were on a tour in São Tomé and Príncipe, an African island nation close to the equator. The elderly passenger who was concussed was returned to the US, where she has made a "safe return," a spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Line said. The São Tomé and Príncipe Coast Guard even took the passengers to the ship, but they weren't able to get on and had to turn back, WPDE reported. Norwegian said Lenkoff was escorted on a flight to Lisbon, Portugal, then put in the care of airport staff members to continue her journey back to the U.S., where she has safely returned.

“Weird that the captain wouldn’t let them board if it was still in port? “We truly believe that although there’s a set of rules or policies that the ship follows, they follow those rules too rigidly,” Ms. Campbell told NBC’s the Today Show on Tuesday. “We’ve never had anything like this happen before,” Jill Campbell, one of the passengers, told WRAL. Upon entering the flat on April 9, authorities found Williams’ 8-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter alone in conditions that were far from safe. The home was in disarray, with a smell of urine and leftover food scattered throughout the highrise apartment. The children informed the deputies that their mother had gone on a cruise, as confirmed by Harris County Constable’s Office Precinct 5.

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The couple says the tour overran, and its operator informed the captain that eight passengers were running late. They aimed to reboard the Norwegian Dawn in the Gambia the following Sunday but low tides prevented the ship from making the scheduled stop. The group reportedly travelled through six countries and eventually met the ship in Dakar, Senegal, the final west African port call of its journey, according to the cruise line. Six Americans and two Australians were on a privately-run excursion on the island of Sao Tome on March 30 and were supposed to be back by 3 p.m.

The group have now made their way by plane, ferry and car to Senegal, over 2,000 miles from São Tomé and Príncipe, where the Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) ship departed without them last Wednesday.