Dawn passengers left “stranded” on African island

[bedfordmom]

I remember how the Cayman Island  full day NCL excursion was like an hour late with everyone cheering as 40 of us boarded. I wonder if our delay helped other late comers. Anything with an element of risk of being unable to get back to the ship on our own I will take a ship sponsored  excursion. If I do independent I make sure I have my credit cards contact lense stuff and  - one day meds just in case. I am finding ship excursions are not that much cheaper now with FAS but certainly less people. 

Edited March 30 by bedfordmom

[Panhandle Couple]

35 minutes ago, CruiseMH said:

 

 

It`s the same every time. Guest are not following the rules and if due to this something bad happens the fault is always at the others.

There are reasons why the captain has refused reentry. He for sure didn`t make that for fun or because he was in a bad mood.

 

I usually prefer private tours over cruise line tours but there are regions in the world where i would always choose a cruise line excursion. And one of these regions is Africa. Apart from South africa and Egypt no other african country has significant experiences with cruise ships.

 

In Africa it is absolutely normal to be late.most people there do have the attitude "we are there when we are there" or "everything will become good". They don`t understand that a cruise ship will NOT wait when they return too late.

 

Exactly.

 

Looking a few things up.  Dawn is the first ship to visit Principe this year.   4 ships in May, 4 in November, 1 in December.  10 total.

 

In other areas, it is called Island Time.  

 

Per Cruisemapper, Dawn was there from 7 AM to 5 PM, 10 hours.  You really can't get a 9 hour tour in there because:

 

• Principe Island has total area approx 136 km2 (53 ml2) and population around 5,000. The island is a heavily eroded volcano and is surrounded by several smaller isles, including Ilheu Caroco, Tinhosa Grande, Tinhosa Pequena, Ilheu Bom Bom. Principe's highest elevation point (Pico de Principe)is in the south (948 m / 3110 ft), in a thickly forested area part of Obo National Park.

 

Dawn added another 50% to the population (assuming most got off).   Seems unlikely a sudden traffic jam would hold up a tour when there are only 5,000 people on the island.

 

 

[WonderMan3]

1 hour ago, 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.

My husband thought the same thing when I told him about this incident.

[complawyer]

if it was not an ncl excursion, my sympathy meter drops considerably

 

my grandpappy always "yer pays yer money and yer takes yer chance"

[julig22]

From someone on the cruise, posted on another site. Note the point on the difficulty with simply transferring someone from another small boat on the fly.  If you've ever seen how the pilots join the ship at sea, you'd understand. And yes, it's a different setup when they are using tenders.

 

Hi everybody, admin here, and I am on the NCL Dawn sailing that the news article in another post is mentioned. I made this a comment in the OP, but figured since I'm on board I would give my two cents in its own post and you are all welcome to respond. I also don't mind if somebody posts the article, but would hope most people will understand that as we local news stations will jump on anything to get ratings and that might attract attention. They often don't have all the facts. I do want to address a few things

This cruise has been visiting very much third world very poor countries along the coast of West Africa. There are a number of cruisers that like to save a few dollars and book their own shore excursions. Yes I have done the same thing in a few places I actually did a private excursion at this location. We are given strict instructions about boarding time and when people choose to think rules do not apply to them, there are issues.

One thing to correct is our ship really was never anchored They actually do a special positioning something with ships no anchor was ever dropped.

When people do not show up to check into the ship the ship knows because we sign in and off the ship. For this particular itinerary, NCL has collected and been holding our passports so the passports for the guests that did not come back aboard were given to the port agent for when those guests decided to maybe come back to the port.

These people are not stranded They just now have to spend money out of their pocket to make it to our next port stop which is in Gambia. Of course they will have to do this at their own expense and then they will be allowed to reboard the ship.

Generally when you are at a tender port, once all the tenders are back they have to be hoisted into place the doors or gangway area where the tenders are launched from are sealed up so that the ship can proceed, all of which is a process that I could not even begin to explain. Transporting from some other small boat to the large cruise ship, maybe like the experienced pilot harbors that come aboard is done through a small opening and people are highly trained to do this exchange. Seven people who cannot follow a simple rule to arrive back to the tender location on time, should we expect them to be responsible enough to actually be able to get on the ship from a small vessel.

This particular cruise has more experienced cruisers than any I have been on and I am Diamond status with NCL and have probably been on 40 or more cruises with NCL. In my opinion these people went to the media because they were upset and they are trying to look for their 15 minutes of fame and trying to put the blame of themselves onto others.

Most any cruiser especially an experienced cruiser knows that there are risks when taking and doing private excursions. This has been talked about multiple times on this cruise before this incident even happened.

Just had to give my two cents on the situation since I am actually on this cruise.

[Mrs f.]

Any word on whether these people finally got back on ship?

[www3traveler]

3 minutes ago, Mrs f. said:

Any word on whether these people finally got back on ship?

The Dawn is scheduled to arrive in Gambia on Monday April 1st.

[CynCyn]

In all of this the thing that bothers me is the 80 year old lady who was dumped at the clinic and left on her own!!!

[Mrs f.]

5 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

The Dawn is scheduled to arrive in Gambia on Monday April 1st.

Any word on if they get back on there?

[julig22]

4 minutes ago, CynCyn said:

In all of this the thing that bothers me is the 80 year old lady who was dumped at the clinic and left on her own!!!

I suspect there is more to the story, above and beyond the press lumping everything together as if the situations were the same.

 

But it would be interesting to know if, on an NCL-booked excursion, who takes responsibility if someone is injured? I'd be looking to the tour guide at least for assistance with any land-based arrangements and communication with NCL if I was injured in a foreign country. Then let the various insurance companies fight out who pays.

[icft]

I'm of the opinion the there is too much questionable or missing information.

 

One thing I would point out is that if the local coast guard did take them out to the ship then of course the ship would not take them. Their passports had been turned over to the local shipping agent and were with the agent on shore. They would not have had passports. When a cruise collects the passports (which they did in this case) it is because they are visiting some ports that require all passports be available for inspection before the ship is allowed entry. If any of their following ports were such ports, or the disembarkation port, these passportless folks would have created problems for the whole ship.

[www3traveler]

49 minutes ago, Mrs f. said:

Any word on if they get back on there?

Probably will not know until Monday.  At the moment the Dawn is 7 hours ahead of Pacific Daylight Time.

[Panhandle Couple]

1 hour ago, CynCyn said:

In all of this the thing that bothers me is the 80 year old lady who was dumped at the clinic and left on her own!!!

Per the people who won't claim responsibility of their poor decision. 

How many 80 year old women cruise alone?  OK, some might but....

 

Someone who hit their head hard enough for vision impairment has had a concussion.  The hospital (rightly so) probably mandated an overnight stay for observation in case of blood clots, that can lead to stroke.   The article never said that she wasn't being helped by NCL.  It said NCL hadn't notified her emergency POC.  If she wasn't traveling alone, there is someone on the ship making the contacts and keeping track of NCL getting her somewhere. 

 

Also, if someone hit their head that hard, they might have a hard time remembering all the facts.

Edited March 31 by Panhandle Couple

[Panhandle Couple]

1 hour ago, www3traveler said:

The Dawn is scheduled to arrive in Gambia on Monday April 1st.

And this happened on Wednesday, per cruisemappers port schedule.

[EPM]

This wasn't a normal run in the mill cruise. They were on the reposition world cruise, which is literally traveling to ports ncl has never been to. 

This should have been an exception to the rule. It's not like they were in Nassau and could easily catch a flight. They are on a random island in West Africa. 

Yes, they should follow the rules. But there are always extenuating circumstances. 

This should have been one. 

 

 

[UKstages]

49 minutes ago, Panhandle Couple said:

How many 80 year old women cruise alone?

 

a lot, actually, especially when you consider that the husbands of many 80 year old women are dead.

 

in fact, once upon a time, cruise lines actually hired male hosts to dance with unaccompanied older women. that was an actual gig!

 

52 minutes ago, Panhandle Couple said:

Also, if someone hit their head that hard, they might have a hard time remembering all the facts.

 

thank you for this. this explains so much! often, when reading cruise critic posts, i wonder why it is that some might not be able to remember all the facts.

[MrsTocko]

1 hour ago, Panhandle Couple said:

Per the people who won't claim responsibility of their poor decision. 

How many 80 year old women cruise alone?  OK, some might but....

 

Someone who hit their head hard enough for vision impairment has had a concussion.  The hospital (rightly so) probably mandated an overnight stay for observation in case of blood clots, that can lead to stroke.   The article never said that she wasn't being helped by NCL.  It said NCL hadn't notified her emergency POC.  If she wasn't traveling alone, there is someone on the ship making the contacts and keeping track of NCL getting her somewhere. 

 

Also, if someone hit their head that hard, they might have a hard time remembering all the facts.

in addition to all of this, and keeping in mind the part in the article that said they were ferried out to the ship but was refused entry, how were they supposed to get on board?  the point from the admin on board the harbor pilots are highly skilled in this, can you imagine this 80-year old, likely concussed, visually impaired lady trying to board the way the pilots do?  or the one in a wheelchair?  We usually get a balcony, midship, so OFTEN watch the pilots board...no thank you.

[IAcruising]

49 minutes ago, EPM said:

Yes, they should follow the rules. But there are always extenuating circumstances. 

This should have been one. 

 

Really? Why? What were these "extenuating circumstances" of which you speak?

 

 

[G-DawgMN]

4 minutes ago, IAcruising said:

 

Really? Why? What were these "extenuating circumstances" of which you speak?

 

 

 They wanted back on the ship even though they were late. Obviously NCL should have let them on somehow. That’s an extenuating circumstance. 
 

  While I agree it sucks they got left. It’s not NCLs fault they were late. There’s a lot of reasons they can’t hold the ship. 

[IAcruising]

8 minutes ago, G-DawgMN said:

 They wanted back on the ship even though they were late. Obviously NCL should have let them on somehow.

 

Again, why? Being late is not an extenuating circumstance. It's the very reason they were left behind. 

 

[Panhandle Couple]

14 minutes ago, G-DawgMN said:

 They wanted back on the ship even though they were late. Obviously NCL should have let them on somehow. That’s an extenuating circumstance. 
 

  While I agree it sucks they got left. It’s not NCLs fault they were late. There’s a lot of reasons they can’t hold the ship. 

Late by 5 minutes or 55 minutes?  Context matters.  We will probably never know.

Their passports were delivered to the shore.  Which means at least 1 more tender run before being brought back and pulled up.  That probably entails 10-15 minutes to determine who is missing, collecting passports, returning them to shore.  If they had been waiting at the dock when passports were delivered, odds are they would have been brought back.  So we presume they were at least 20 minutes late.

[Sugar Magnolia]

40 minutes ago, UKstages said:

in fact, once upon a time, cruise lines actually hired male hosts to dance with unaccompanied older women. that was an actual gig!

 

The Gentlemen Hosts are still sailing on Silversea 😁

 

1 hour ago, EPM said:

This wasn't a normal run in the mill cruise. They were on the reposition world cruise, which is literally traveling to ports ncl has never been to. 

This should have been an exception to the rule. It's not like they were in Nassau and could easily catch a flight. They are on a random island in West Africa. 

Yes, they should follow the rules. But there are always extenuating circumstances. 

This should have been one. 

 

This is all the more reason that the passengers on this particular special cruise should have known that taking a private excursion on a less traveled island, with an operator who might be unfamiliar or unconcerned with the rules, was a riskier move than taking a private excursion in Nassau. The passengers knowingly took the risk. NCL and other cruise lines make it abundantly clear what happens in such circumstances...extenuating or not.

 

[EPM]

50 minutes ago, IAcruising said:

 

Really? Why? What were these "extenuating circumstances" of which you speak?

 

 

It was Western Africa not Nassau. I explained it in my original comment.

[IAcruising]

11 minutes ago, EPM said:

It was Western Africa not Nassau. I explained it in my original comment.

 

No, you really didn't. The fact that they were on a random island in West Africa makes their choice of excursion, and being late, even more inexcusable.

 

[TRLD]

14 hours ago, beastlet said:

 

It is not "up to a point." If you book the tour through NCL, the ship will wait for you period. 

Not exactly, sometimes the ship cannot wait. In those cases the cruise line will be responsible for getting you back to the ship, including all expenses involved.