One of the biggest selling points of cruise-line-sponsored excursions is peace of mind.
Pay a little extra, and if something goes wrong getting back to the ship, you’re supposedly protected.
A family from Oklahoma learned that things don’t always work out that way.
When you’re cruising and book an excursion, the general rule of thumb is that if you buy the excursion through the cruise company, the ship is guaranteed to wait for you if you’re late getting back. That’s what made an incident involving Norwegian Cruise Line in July 2024 so frustrating.
And the thing is, these cruise-line-sponsored excursions tend to cost more. Sometimes quite a bit more. But for people who want to ensure a “quality” experience (cruise lines tout how they curate only the best excursions), or, yes, to ensure the ship will still be there if you’re late, some people consider the extra cost something on an “insurance policy,” if you will. But again, Norwegian Cruise Line somehow reneged on what they promised.
The Incident
In July 2024, the Gault family traveled from their home in Oklahoma to Alaska to attend a family reunion. Part of the vacation for 16 members of the extended family included a weeklong Alaskan cruise through Glacier Bay. They were on the Norwegian Encore, but if you’ve ever been on an Alaskan cruise, you probably know the drill – Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay and Ketchikan.
On July 12, the day before the end of the cruise, the ship was docked in Ketchikan. Nine members of the family – Joshua Gault, his wife Cailyn, their 6 kids, and the kids’ 78-year-old grandmother, disembarked the ship to see a lumberjack show that they booked through the cruise line.
The Chaotic Shuttle
They were driven by bus to see the show. But Joshua Gault said that when the show was over and cruisers started to load back into the buses that would take them back to the cruise terminal, it was a chaotic mess.
According to the Gaults, the local bus operators weren’t confirming which passengers had tickets for the shuttle back to their ship and which didn’t – they were just taking everyone who needed to go back to the port, regardless of which ship they were originally on. Instead, passengers had taken it upon themselves to do a basic head count. When the shuttle filled up, passengers told the Gaults, even though the bus was marked for the Norwegian Encore and that’s what their tickets were marked for, they had to wait for the next shuttle. So they were left behind.
“We see the chaos getting onto the buses. We go to get on the bus and one of the attendees is like, ‘The bus is full, and you know you got to wait for the next bus,’” Gault told Oklahoma’s 2 News.
The problem? Another shuttle bus never came. So, of course, the Gaults panicked.
Missing the Ship
Joshua Gault called the port authority to arrange transportation back to the dock – they sent a van for the party of 9. As the family arrived in the van, they saw that the Norwegian Encore – which, remember, was supposed to wait for them, since they were on a cruise-sponsored excursion – was leaving.
The ship had done what they were supposed to and left the family’s passports for them with the Ketchikan port authority. Except they forgot one. That meant the family couldn’t meet up with the ship at its next port of call in Victoria, British Columbia. They also didn’t give any of the family their medications that some of them very much needed.
Nice.
The Consequences
The family had already paid about $30,000 for the trip. To add insult to injury, the next morning, they were hit with a charge of $971 per person — nearly $9,000 altogether — because they could no longer continue to Victoria, British Columbia.
The charge was tied to the Passenger Vessel Services Act, which generally requires passengers on this type of U.S.-originating cruise itinerary to visit a foreign port before returning to the United States. Norwegian Cruise Line also sent them a letter explaining the charge. It included:
Any passenger who unexpectedly disembarks the ship at a U.S. port of call, i.e. Alaska, due to any reason, which results in the violation of the PVSA, may be charged by the cruise company supplying the transportation.
Meanwhile, they still had to get home. The family said they had to cover the cost of their own food, hotel and flights to get there – between that and the nearly $9,000 PVSA fee, they were out about $21,000.
Norwegian kept telling the family they were looking into the incident and “hadn’t forgotten about them.” But the Gaults disagreed and felt abandoned by the cruise line. “And I was like…no, we feel like you pretty much forgot about us when you left us in port and told us to go figure it out,” Cailyn Gault told 2-News.
The Gaults eventually made it back to Oklahoma the next day, after traveling to Seattle and then flying home from there. At the time, Joshua Gault told 2 News, “So yeah, we’re beat down right now. We’re unhealthy and beaten down.”
Norwegian Cruise Line’s Response
Norwegian’s official statement was:
“On the afternoon of Friday, July 12, a family of nine guests missed the ship’s all aboard time in Ketchikan, Alaska due to a misstep by a local tour operator.
“When the guests did not return to the ship at the published time, we attempted to contact them but were unable to reach them.
“As such, we alerted the local port agent in Ketchikan and requested that they assist the family with booking a hotel for the night.
“As the guests would be unable to downline in the next port of call, Victoria, British Columbia, the port agent also helped the guests with securing flights to Seattle the following day, July 13.”
The Aftermath
At the time, a spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Line told ABC News in an email that the company planned to reimburse “…the family for all of the out-of-pocket expenses they incurred over these two days, as a result of missing the ship in Ketchikan, including meals, accommodations, etc. Reimbursements will be processed once receipts for these expenses are provided to us.”
Norwegian later said it would reimburse the family for its out-of-pocket expenses, refund the nearly $9,000 charge, provide a prorated refund for the two missed cruise days and offer each guest a 20% future cruise credit. I couldn’t find any later public update confirming when or whether all of those reimbursements were ultimately completed.
What Could They Have Done Differently
Honestly? Not much. The family booked the excursion through Norwegian, followed the excursion transportation process and called for help (here’s more info about that) once it became clear the promised return bus was not coming.
The usual advice — book through the cruise line instead of arranging your own tour — is exactly what they had already done. Their experience is a reminder that cruise-line-sponsored excursions may offer more assistance if something goes wrong, but they are not an absolute guarantee that the ship will still be waiting when you reach the pier.
I have questions
At the end of the day, this story is frustrating because the Gaults did what cruise passengers are constantly told to do.
They booked the excursion through the cruise line. They followed the instructions. They didn’t wander off on their own adventure and lose track of time. By their account, they were caught in a transportation mess that was directly tied to the excursion itself.
And while Norwegian eventually agreed to reimburse the family’s expenses and refund the nearly $9,000 PVSA charge, that doesn’t change what happened in the moment.
For nearly two days, nine people—including six children and a 78-year-old grandmother—were stranded in Alaska without all of their passports, without needed medications, and without any clear idea of how they were getting home.
The financial losses were eventually fixable.
The stress, confusion, and disruption to what was supposed to be a family reunion vacation? Not so much.
This is why this story continues to resonate with cruisers years later. If booking a cruise-sponsored excursion still isn’t enough to keep a family from being stranded at the port, it naturally leaves passengers wondering exactly what extra protection they are paying for in the first place.
*** Many thanks to our reader, Tennen, for bringing this story to our attention!
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