Editor’s Note: Been There / Done That
By Yaron Steinbuch
The six Americans and two Australian passengers who were stranded on an African island when a Norwegian Cruise Line ship sailed off without them have now returned to the vessel to continue their African voyage, as the cruise line revealed the group caused their travel headaches over the past few days by missing their departure time by over an hour.
The eight passengers re-boarded the ship making a 20-day journey across Africa on Tuesday morning in Dakar, Senegal, a spokesperson for Norwegian confirmed to The Post.
The crew had to race through seven different countries in 48 hours to meet the ship in Senegal on Tuesday.
But by the time South Carolina couple Jill and Jay Campbell arrived in the country, they said they weren’t sure whether they would even want to get back on the ship.
“After what we witnessed, we truly believe there is a set of rules or policies that the ship may have followed — they followed those rules too rigidly,” Jill Campbell told “The Today Show.”
“I really feel that they forgot they are people working in the hospitality industry and that really the safety and wellbeing of their customers should be their first priority,” she added, claiming the crew of the ship had a “basic duty of care that they had forgotten about.”
The eight passengers — including a pregnant woman and an elderly man with a heart condition — claimed they were left behind with no money and without vital medications after the Norwegian Dawn left São Tomé without them.
The Campbells claimed the ship was still anchored off the coast of the Central African island when they showed up on Friday, but the skipper refused to let them board.
A spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Line, however, said the group had missed the all-aboard time by more than an hour after taking a private tour of the island.
“When they missed the all-aboard time of 3 p.m. by more than an hour, their passports were left with the local port agent for retrieval when they returned to the port from their private tour (not organized by us), per the protocol,” the spokesperson said.
The Campbells have acknowledged there was “an issue” on their tour of the island, and that the guide “didn’t get us back” to the ship in time on Friday.
“We were like, our time is getting really short, and they were like ‘No problem, we can get you back within an hour,” Jay said, adding that the tour operator contacted the captain to let them know about the delay.
In its statement, the company said that “once the guests did not make it back to the ship at the previously communicated all aboard time, we worked with them and the local port agent to assist with obtaining the necessary visas for them to rejoin the ship at the next available port.”
Attorney James Diamond from TWC Lawyers said it is a “hard and fast rule” that a ship can leave once a final call has been made.
“They pay a lot of money for docking fees, and renting out the space,” he told ”Seven’s Sunrise.”
“They have times that they have to leave, those times are published and unfortunately, I know it’s morally incorrect, but they do have the right to leave,” he said.