Dawn passengers left “stranded” on African island

[Travelling2Some]

3 hours ago, dmwnc1959 said:

Despite of what we know, despite how informed we may be, and despite of what we may think as morally or ethically right, or right based on the shareholders (really, really, the shareholders?), in the court of public opinion they are guilty of absolute abandonment. Guilty of possibly putting their passengers in grave danger. And guilty of absolutely failing on their job to keep passengers out of harm’s way.

 

These are well-traveled adults.  They are not helpless children and cruise lines are not babysitters.  Most of the general public knows zero about cruising and the media is capitalizing on that to sensationalize the story.

[dmwnc1959]

Just now, DCGuy64 said:

If NCL elects to reimburse passengers, even though it has no liability whatsoever and is in no way required to, I'm sure that won't stop the haters on here who will still somehow say NCL is evil and should be boycotted, sued or burned at the stake. 🤣🤣

… or the NCL cheerleaders, or the stockholders who think they have a financial obligation to protect NCL, or the people that have traveled NCL all of their life and think it’s the best cruise line ever and the NCL can do no wrong. Those shoes fit on both feet.

[Tyler414]

One more, of many reason's I will never step foot on another NCL ship.

[graphicguy]

30 minutes ago, dmwnc1959 said:

So, there is some ‘admission of guilt’ by NCL. 

Huh?  Goodwill gesture!

 

Pretty much run its course.  

 

This time next week this will be a "remember the time those people in Africa missed the ship?"

 

 

[cltnccruisers]

I keep going back to the logistics of reboarding these folks.  Elderly, infirm, wheelchair bound, possibly injured.  Being ferried out by an alleged Coast Guard boat that, according to a post from someone 'on board' looked nothing like any CG vessel he'd ever seen.  The tenders are all recovered and secured.  Hatches are locked.  That leaves, maybe, the little platform used to board harbor pilots.  I can't see any sane captain sanctioning that.  Not to mention that their passports were no longer on the ship.  What can of worms would that pose for the passengers down the road.  I really think the captain, almost certainly in concert with NCL corporate staff, made the right call.

[Faulkh]

3 minutes ago, Tyler414 said:

One more, of many reason's I will never step foot on another NCL ship.

Can I ask then @Tyler414 why are you still on the NCL board? Wouldn’t it make more sense to partake in board discuss where you plan to cruise?

[dmwnc1959]

Just now, graphicguy said:

Huh?  Goodwill gesture!

 

Pretty much run its course.  

 

This time next week this will be a "remember the time those people in Africa missed the ship?"

It won’t even be a week. Once we all let this thread die it’ll be a matter of days. There will always be some other NCL controversy that will take precedent! 

[Two Wheels Only]

2 minutes ago, cltnccruisers said:

I keep going back to the logistics of reboarding these folks.  Elderly, infirm, wheelchair bound, possibly injured. 

 

 

https://www.insideedition.com/south-carolina-tourists-stranded-on-island-off-central-african-coast-after-missing-cruise-departure

 

Getting the elderly woman onto the boat from the dock was difficult....(:32 in the video)

 

 

[mjkacmom]

10 hours ago, giustot said:

My opinion on this.

 

The passengers who missed the ship were completely in the wrong. But they realized they were late and communicated with the authorities.

 

The ship's captain knowingly chose to leave behind sick, elderly and pregnant passengers on a small island off the coast of Africa.

 

There is a difference between what's legally right and what's morally right. The captain should be ashamed of himself.

An island where they chose to take an independent excursion? They weren’t in any danger that I’ve read about. Apparently some felt so safe that they didn’t even bother to bring a credit card, which is crazy.

[ppcox]

6 hours ago, Hamwen3839 said:

Can any Australian passengers help me ? We have paid a deposit for a similar cruise later in the year and now find we have to get Visas for Cape Verde, Ivory Coast ,Senegal,Ghana, São Tomé and Toga. Just wondering if any Aussies on this cruise found they had to do the same and if so was the process easy or did the ship do the Visas for you at your cost ?

Can I also ask if you had a Yellow Fever Exemption Certificate and has that worked ok ?
Thanks so much in advance.

Might be better to ask this on the roll call for your cruise or in the relevant port section. You will have more chance of someone in the same situation seeing the post. Hope you get some valuable advice. 

[dmwnc1959]

7 minutes ago, Tyler414 said:

One more, of many reason's I will never step foot on another NCL ship.

Yet despite all of this, my 😢 ‘reputation’ here of being 😉 ‘the agitator’, and the countless threads I’ve started and posted in questioning NCL, I’m still booked on a 32-night cruise from Florida to Alaska, already have my pre-flight hotel booked in Pittsburgh, already have six shore excisions booked, and will be booking my pre-cruise hotels this Friday. For a cruise that’s still a year away. 
 

Despite all of the appearances on how this was handled by both sides, I’m still going on my cruise as a first-timer. And I’m pretty damned excited about that. 

[DCGuy64]

29 minutes ago, dmwnc1959 said:

… or the NCL cheerleaders, or the stockholders who think they have a financial obligation to protect NCL, or the people that have traveled NCL all of their life and think it’s the best cruise line ever and the NCL can do no wrong. Those shoes fit on both feet.

If I have the choice to believe a multibillion dollar company that ferries 1,000s of passengers all over the world every single day and has to abide by multiple sets of maritime and landbased laws and regulations, and a group of irresponsible adults who are trying to have their 15 minutes of fame, I'll choose the corporation Every. Single. Time. Others are free to do differently. EDIT: People here are probably familiar with how a newspaper can print a "scoop" kind of story on page 1 in large font and then, when errors in the story are discovered, they print a retraction on page 28 in small type. Reminds me how often people can paint a cruise line (ANY cruise line, mind you, not just NCL) of ripping people off, stranding them, etc. and then when the full details emerge and the cruise line didn't do anything wrong, the haters are nowhere to be found to say they jumped to conclusions and were wrong.

Edited April 2 by DCGuy64
added more context

[ppcox]

1 minute ago, mjkacmom said:

An island where they chose to take an independent excursion? They weren’t in any danger that I’ve read about. Apparently some felt so safe that they didn’t even bother to bring a credit card, which is crazy.

I may be wrong but I think she said theirs was the only credit card accepted on the island. In general credit cards are only accepted in large hotels and debit cards are useless as ATMs do not accept foreign cards. Euro is the preferrred currency to exchange.

[marrashadow]

They all re-boarded so we shall see what comes next. I do not see any boards where NCL is villainized. Most threads are calling them idiots many saying their interviews made them look entitled.

The 80 year old mentioned by them had a stroke while on an excursion so they sent her to the hospital. A ship does not have the facilities to care for her so it was the best option. They would not state what happen because they couldn't. It's reported the ship was trying to contact her to set up a return home once she was well but wasn't able to reach her. Her family is upset that they left her at a hospital alone.

[graphicguy]

1 minute ago, DCGuy64 said:

If I have the choice to believe a multibillion dollar company that ferries 1,000s of passengers all over the world every single day and has to abide by multiple sets of maritime and landbased laws and regulations, and a group of irresponsible adults who are trying to have their 15 minutes of fame, I'll choose the corporation Every. Single. Time. Others are free to do differently.

Speaking of which....I'm shopping a cruise on the NCL Joy either to Bermuda this summer or Canada this Fall.  

 

 

[Tyler414]

2 minutes ago, dmwnc1959 said:

Yet despite all of this, my 😢 ‘reputation’ here of being 😉 ‘the agitator’, and the countless threads I’ve started and posted in questioning NCL, I’m still booked on a 32-night cruise from Florida to Alaska, already have my pre-flight hotel booked in Pittsburgh, already have six shore excisions booked, and will be booking my pre-cruise hotels this Friday. For a cruise that’s still a year away. 
 

Despite all of the appearances on how this was handled by both sides, I’m still going on my cruise as a first-timer. And I’m pretty damned excited about that. 

Enjoy, my first ever cruise was on NCL, and I really enjoyed it!!

[dmwnc1959]

2 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

If I have the choice to believe a multibillion dollar company that ferries 1,000s of passengers all over the world every single day and has to abide by multiple sets of maritime and landbased laws and regulations, and a group of irresponsible adults who are trying to have their 15 minutes of fame, I'll choose the corporation Every. Single. Time. Others are free to do differently.

Enough said. 😎

[www3traveler]

4 hours ago, MommaBear55 said:

Two of the passengers were just on Today Show and they basically said NCL abandoned them, they took no responsibility for missing the ship. They've flown through 7 countries over the last 48 hours to get to Gambia where the ship is, but now they aren't sure they'll board the ship today due to lack of trust. Sadly, the interviewers were playing into this and making NCL look like they were at fault.

The Dawn is NOT in Gambia, She is in Daktar, Senegal.

[Tyler414]

5 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

If I have the choice to believe a multibillion dollar company that ferries 1,000s of passengers all over the world every single day and has to abide by multiple sets of maritime and landbased laws and regulations, and a group of irresponsible adults who are trying to have their 15 minutes of fame, I'll choose the corporation Every. Single. Time. Others are free to do differently.

I'm guessing you think Facebook is the greatest thing since sliced bread. 😂

[cltnccruisers]

13 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

 

https://www.insideedition.com/south-carolina-tourists-stranded-on-island-off-central-african-coast-after-missing-cruise-departure

 

Getting the elderly woman onto the boat from the dock was difficult....(:32 in the video)

 

 

Imagine how difficult and dangerous it would be to get her from a small boat onto the pilot platform.

[DCGuy64]

Just now, Tyler414 said:

I'm guessing you think Facebook is the greatest thing since sliced bread. 😂

FB has its pluses and minuses, but the comparison is a poor one since they aren't in the cruise industry, which is the topic of both this thread and my reply to it.

[www3traveler]

39 minutes ago, cltnccruisers said:

Read somewhere that this is a repositioning cruise.  As such, there may not have been a lot of options on the route.

Yes, Re-positioning from Winter cruises in Africa with several itinerary changes because they not sail in the Red Sea or the Suez Canal.  Heading for Barcelona, Spain and finally Southampton, Great Britain and Her summer season. 

[mjkacmom]

1 hour ago, dmwnc1959 said:

So, based on this, you know all of the details of exactly what happened while they were out on their shore excursion, you know exactly why it was late, and you know exactly why they couldn’t make it back to the ship. How nice of you to make blanket condemnation of people that do non-cruise line sponsored shore excursions. 

It really doesn’t matter, the ship is very clear that they won’t wait.

[DCGuy64]

4 minutes ago, dmwnc1959 said:

Enough said. 😎

Glad we agree!

[njkate]

45 minutes ago, beastlet said:

This was years ago, before the Ukraine invasion. 

Even then Russia is not a place to be stranded