Cruise Line Left Family of 9 Behind When Late From Cruise-Sponsored Excursion

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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. Norwegian Cruise Line somehow didn’t live up to their end of the bargain last summer.

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

Last July, the Gault family traveled to Alaska from their home in Oklahoma 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 Caityn, their 9 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 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 $30K on the trip. To add insult to injury, the next morning they were hit with a charge of $971 per person – so nearly $9,000 – because they didn’t get on the ship before it left (that fee was because of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Passenger Vessel Services Act (PVSA). They violated by not visiting a foreign port – which would have been Victoria BC – before they returned to the US, as what was on their originally planned itinerary). 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,” Caitlin 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.

“Then 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.”

The cruise line also said it, “…”initiated the process to refund the family for the fee imposed by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, as a result of the guests not visiting a foreign port prior to returning to the U.S., as required when an itinerary originates from the U.S. in accordance with the Passenger Vessel Services Act.”

A cruise line representative also told the news station that they would reimburse the Gaults a pro-rated refund for the 2 cruise days they missed. And, finally, “”As a gesture of goodwill, the company will also be providing each of the nine guests with a Future Cruise Credit in the form of a 20% discount of their cruise fare that can be used towards their next voyage,” according to a spokesperson.

There was never word if the Gaults were finally reimbursed for everything they lost by the Norwegian Encore leaving them behind, but one would assume they did.

How to avoid this

The Gaults did everything they should in terms of contacting the port authority (here’s more info about that). But frankly, I don’t know how to avoid a cruise ship from going back on its word/responsibilities. I’ve got nuthin’. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I have questions

It still doesn’t make any sense how or why the ship didn’t wait longer for the Gaults when they were late for final boarding time. Especially when they were on a cruise-sponsored excursion that was supposed to guarantee the ship would wait for them.

To be fair, the Norwegian Encore did try to contact the Gaults and couldn’t. Was everyone’s phone turned off? But frankly, even if they were, they paid a premium to the cruise company to ensure they wouldn’t be left behind…and they were left behind. That…stinks. And frankly, even though the family was reimbursed for all those unexpected expenses, they still had 2 days of turmoil….so to make it up to them, the cruise line is offering them 20% off a cruise? Their prices start at a little more than $1000 (inside) to $1300 (sea view) for a 7-day Alaskan cruise; so they’re offering them $200 or $260 off? That’s…disappointing. And kind of embarrassing, NCL.

*** Many thanks to our reader, Tennen, for bringing this story to our attention!

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