Eight Cruise Passengers Stranded on Island

Tonight, a dream vacation turned into a nightmare.

[inaudible 00:00:05].

A group of cruise passengers, including some who were elderly and one who was pregnant, stranded on a remote island off the coast of Africa.

The ship was still anchored right off the harbor, and they didn’t come back to get us. So we were stranded here.

The eight passengers, six Americans, and two Australians, were at a port stop on the island nation of Sao Tome, where they went on a private tour not organized by the cruise line. Jill and Jay Campbell were among those stranded. They were supposed to be back on the ship by 3:00 PM, but missed the all aboard call by more than an hour according to Norwegian.

We were on a tour of the island. We had an issue on the tour that they didn’t get us back in time.

They say their tour guide alerted the crew and that the island’s coast guard even tried to get the group to the ship, but the cruise line would not let them on board. Norwegian Cruise line saying in a statement, “While this is a very unfortunate situation, guests are responsible for ensuring they return to the ship at the published time, which is communicated broadly over the ship’s intercom, in the daily print communication and posted just before exiting the vessel.”

After what we’ve witnessed, we truly believe that although there’s a set of rules or policies that the ship may have followed, they follow those rules too rigidly.

The crew delivered their passports to local officials in Sao Tome, but many in the group say they were still left without their money, medicine, and other important documents, as they then set off to rejoin the cruise at another port stop.

Very difficult process. You’re dealing with multiple languages, language barriers. You’re dealing with different currencies, currency exchanges, finding someone that even has dollars.

The couple says they’ve traveled through seven countries in 48 hours. First stopping in Gambia, the next port stop, but the boat could not dock there due to weather. Then they arrived in Senegal. During an appearance on the Today Show, they said they were starting to doubt continuing their journey.

We are considering whether or not we were going to board the ship. We believe there was a basic duty of care that they had forgotten about, so it does concern us.

But Norwegian tells us tonight, “All eight passengers did eventually reboard the ship,” and says, “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.”

Let’s go.

This isn’t the only time cruise passengers have failed to return for their scheduled time.

They better start running.

The strict cruise ship boarding times causing several recent viral moments of passengers rushing to get back on board.

(02:43)
Cruise industry experts say there are real reasons why ships have to keep a tight schedule, including safety staffing requirements, and the timing of other ships coming into dock. They say that’s one reason passengers should bring a credit card and an ID with them into port just in case, for some reason, they miss the ship.