Dawn passengers left “stranded” on African island

[scubacruiserx2]

19 minutes ago, TRLD said:

Sure now give the rest of the story as Paul Harvey used to say.

 

The excursion got cut off from the port by a mud slide and had no way back to the ship. The Captain waited until he had to leave in order to make the scheduled Panama Canal transit time. HAL took care of all arrangements to get the passenger to Colon where the ship made an unscheduled stop to pick them up.

 

Cruise lines do not guarantee that they will always wait for cruise line excursions. They do guarantee that they will take care of the passengers and get them to the ship as soon as possible during those few times when they cannot wait.

 

 We spoke to 2 of the ladies who missed the Canal transit and they told us that was the reason that they booked the cruise .

[cwsdks48]

35 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Oh great. Now we all get to pay for their stupidity!

 

Edit: now seeing they are only being reimbursed for travel from Gambia to Senegal. That is more reasonable since NCL did miss the Gambia port stop. But still, none of this reimbursement would be necessary if the group hadn't missed the ship in the first place.

Maybe this was covered in another post.
But we need to defend Norwegian. We book NCL excursions which are plentiful and fairly priced. We look for advantages where we can find them. DH has a $50 excursion credit and both of us get an additional 10% off the excursion fare for having silver status.

This gives us an agreeable price per excursion. And most importantly peace of mind. Even though we are often with a larger group, the majority of our excursions has been well managed with knowledgeable local guides.

We were on the Dawn February 2023 and are also from South Carolina, about an hour from Myrtle Beach and WPDE is our news station. Glad our fellow Palmetto State cruisers made it back okay. 

[blackwing]

57 minutes ago, Sacruiser62 said:

At this point if I were ncl.  I would refund there money and fly the. 1st class where ever they want to go and have them sign a release and that they will never travel ncl ever again....

Why?  There are hundreds of people who get left behind because of their own stupidity / lateness / selfishness every year.  I don’t recall seeing many of these pier runners on international news and morning news shows.  
 

The lead couple who are supposedly “experienced cruisers” contacted media in an effort to try and milk NCL to pay for all of their costs.  They have brought a lot of negative publicity towards NCL.  
 

If I were NCL I would reward these two twits with a lifetime ban. 
 

49 minutes ago, david_sobe said:

True or false.  Does it say the guests will be reimbursed for their travel costs?  OMG people love to fight around here.  So in reality NCL paid the people to get back on the ship?  The 8 got to another place on their own.  Seriously, that's your point you want to argue? 
I am out of this conversation.  This board is bad for mental health.  Lets fight about the dumbest things to keep the thread going.
Ready.  Set.  Go!

People aren’t fighting.  You just read the article wrong and you are continuing to insist you are right.  As has been explained, only the costs to get from Gambia to Senegal are being reimbursed because NCL missed Gambia.  The costs of everything from São Tomé to Gambia including hotels, food, flights etc are completely the passengers’ responsibility. 

[TRLD]

Just now, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

 We spoke to 2 of the ladies who missed the Canal transit and they told us that was the reason that they booked the cruise .

Thems the breaks. The cruise line does not guarantee that they will not miss any sights. Only that they will get then back to the ship.

 

My understanding is that there was some compensation in addition to picking up all.expense in getting them back to the ship.

 

The only alternative would be to miss the canal reservation, causing substantial delay and impacting the thousands on board.

[Sacruiser62]

@blackwing I agree, just figured it would be cheaper than dealing with media circus!

[WonderMan3]

26 minutes ago, Mike07 said:

 

 

And viewers can make their own determination on NCL.

It doesn't help when they included misinformation in the story saying that the ship was docked when it actually was anchored which is what complicated getting the passengers back on the ship.

[blackwing]

One article said that these people went through seven countries to get from São Tomé to Gambia.  I’m curious as to how.  Seven flights or a train ride?  I wonder how long it took. 

[JamieLogical]

14 minutes ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

 We spoke to 2 of the ladies who missed the Canal transit and they told us that was the reason that they booked the cruise .

 

That is unfortunate, but what was HAL to do? Either 33 people could miss the canal tranist or 3000 people could.

[Mike07]

20 minutes ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

 We spoke to 2 of the ladies who missed the Canal transit and they told us that was the reason that they booked the cruise .

 

 

That's the only reason to book a canal transit, and I assume it was a full one. While a cool transit, I wouldn't want to do it again.

 

It's like the people that booked an Antarctica itinerary on the Star and then got something else.

Edited April 3 by Mike07

[southerngoose]

@blackwing   Not sure of their exact path, but when I looked it up, out of curiosity, it looked like this.  So I think that this is close to what they did.   I think it takes so long because not every flight runs every day or multiple times a day and I guess the connections aren't that good?

[TRLD]

16 minutes ago, Mike07 said:

 

 

That's the only reason to book a canal transit, and I assume it was a full one. While a cool transit, I wouldn't want to do it again.

 

It's like the people that booked an Antarctica itinerary on the Star and then got something else.

Not the only reason. We booked one to get from LA to Fort Lauderdale to catch another cruise ship and avoid a 6 hour flight.

[Mike07]

Just now, TRLD said:

Not the only reason. We booked one to get from LA to Fort Lauderdale to catch another cruise ship and avoid a 6 hour flight.

Ok, second best reason 😁

 

That 100% beats flying.

[Overtime4me2]

Just curious, but does anyone know how late they were? I have read lots of news articles and nothing is mentioned about how late they were. One of them did use the word "hours" late 😯

[omahabob]

1 hour ago, deckguy said:

What a horrible precedent to establish regardless of the amount paid.  Dock runners who don't make the ship will from now on have their hands out.  Courts too will now recognize that a policy of reimbursement has been established and through the Reasonable Person Standard, others now have the reasonable expectation of financial payment.

It's not a precedent. The reasonable person standard only applies when there are no laws, regulation, standards or policies to cover a situation. In this case, there were.

[Panhandle Couple]

47 minutes ago, Mikel1733 said:

I understand cruise lines having strict guidelines regarding sailing times.  We've alway taken ship tours to alleviate worrying about getting back on time.  I'm really concerned NCL had left an elderly woman 2 days earlier who was disembarked at the same port who was thought to have had a stroke, then according to family didn't even contact them.  I'm sure the news will sort more information out, but I'm disappointed in NCL.  Not sure we will sail with them again.

According to which family?

The ones producing hourly FB posts, or the actual relatives back in the states?  Has anyone actually interviewed the unfortunate ladies relatives?  And, is her emergency POC the ones they interviewed?  You don't get a list of 4 or 5 on your contact list. 

 

And the unfortunate lady was in the hospital at the time the ship left.  What exactly was NCL supposed to do?

[Aggie83]

On 3/30/2024 at 3:25 PM, yakcruiser said:

Maybe a security issue? Piracy is a real thing in that neck of the woods. And I'm sure their Coast Guard boat in no way resembles one of ours.

"That neck of the woods?" This island is off the west coast of Africa. And why make a derogatory comment about their Coast Guard?

[omahabob]

36 minutes ago, blackwing said:

One article said that these people went through seven countries to get from São Tomé to Gambia.  I’m curious as to how.  Seven flights or a train ride?  I wonder how long it took. 

Since Sao Tome is an island, I'm dying to see the trip report of the train ride from there to the mainland. The underwater portion must have been amazing!

[omahabob]

6 minutes ago, Panhandle Couple said:

According to which family?

The ones producing hourly FB posts, or the actual relatives back in the states?  Has anyone actually interviewed the unfortunate ladies relatives?  And, is her emergency POC the ones they interviewed?  You don't get a list of 4 or 5 on your contact list. 

 

And the unfortunate lady was in the hospital at the time the ship left.  What exactly was NCL supposed to do?

Norwegian never asked us for emergency contacts.

[blackwing]

6 minutes ago, omahabob said:

Since Sao Tome is an island, I'm dying to see the trip report of the train ride from there to the mainland. The underwater portion must have been amazing!

I thought maybe a boat to mainland and then train through multiple countries.  

 

2 minutes ago, omahabob said:

Norwegian never asked us for emergency contacts.

When you e-check in, there is a line to list emergency contact.  

[Capitan Obvious]

3 minutes ago, omahabob said:

Norwegian never asked us for emergency contacts.

 

Sure they do, it is part of the online check in process.

[Panhandle Couple]

5 minutes ago, omahabob said:

Norwegian never asked us for emergency contacts.

You provide the info on pre-cruise check in.

[G-DawgMN]

1 hour ago, RocketMan275 said:

True, there are no passenger planes that can carry 4000 people at one time.  NCL had to use multiple aircraft.  And, it is very difficult to charter a large number of aircraft at one time.

Darn.  I forgot my sarcasm indicator when I responded. …

[ChiefMateJRK]

9 hours ago, Tyler414 said:

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

Yes, but will you ever set foot on another NCL ship?

[ChiefMateJRK]

9 hours ago, cltnccruisers said:

I really think the captain, almost certainly in concert with NCL corporate staff, made the right call.

The call that the Captain made is to "follow our process."  There was not on-the-fly decision making.

[Oakman58]

I wish I could sit down to dinner with the folks that got left behind.  I'd bet the story of getting from San Tome to Gambia and then to Senegal would be incredibly interesting.