Travellers stranded after cruise ship captain refuses reboarding

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It was a trip from hell for eight cruise ship passengers.

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Six American and two Australian travellers were left behind on the African island nation of Sao Tome and Principe recently after their private tour took too long and they were late returning to the ship.

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“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,” a spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Lines told the New York Post.

However, the spokesperson added all eight reboarded the Norwegian Dawn on Tuesday morning in Dakar, Senegal, after they travelled through multiple countries over two days to get back on the ship, part of a 20-day journey across Africa’s Atlantic coast.

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Two passengers blamed cruise officials for not allowing the tardy individuals to reboard the ship while it was still moored at the island nation.

Jay and Jill Campbell said they told the tour guide they needed to get back to the ship soon.

“We were like, ‘Our time is getting really short,’ and they were like, ‘No problem, we can get you back within an hour,’” Jay Campbell told ABC affiliate WPDE in Florence, S.C.

The tour operator contacted the cruise line and advised the captain that the group was going to be late. When they arrived back at the ship, the captain refused to let them board while still anchored.

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The Sao Tome and Principe Coast Guard brought the eight to the anchored ship, but was told by the captain to turn back to the island.

Compounding the travel nightmare was that the stranded passengers didn’t have their medications or any form of payment that was accepted on Sao Tome.

The eight then raced through seven different countries over a 48-hour period just to catch up to the ship.

The two Australian passengers, Doug and Violeta Sanders, spoke out about their experience.

“It’s been the worst experience of our lives to be abandoned like that in a strange country, can’t speak the language — Portuguese or an African (language),” Violeta told Australia’s 7 News.

“We have no money, our credit cards aren’t accepted.”

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Jill Campbell said the crew had a “basic duty of care that they had forgotten about.”

“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,” she told NBC’s Today show.

“I really feel that they forgot they are people working in the hospitality industry and that really the safety and well-being of their customers should be their first priority.”

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