US News
One of the American passengers who were left stranded in Africa when their cruise ship left the port without them now says she is unsure whether she even wants to resume the 20-day voyage, after Norwegian Cruise Lines forgot about its “basic duty of care.”
Jill Campbell, her husband, Jay Campbell, and six other passengers raced through seven different countries over the past 48 hours to make it to Senegal, where the ship docked Tuesday morning, she told the “Today” show.
But now that they’re there, she said, they are “considering whether we are going to board 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,” Campbell said.
“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 Campbells, as well as four other Americans and two Australian passengers, had taken a privately-run tour on the island of São Tomé which ran past the time they were due to be back on the ship Friday.
When they finally reached the port, the ship was still anchored, and the island’s Coast Guard took them on a boat to a ship in order to get back onboard, Jay Campbell told WMBF.
The captain then allegedly refused to let them board.
“The captain could have made an easy decision to turn one of the tender boats back, pick us up, safely load us and then go on the way,” Campbell said.
“They had no port to call for the next day, they were simply going to be at sea.”
They and the others — including a married couple from Delaware, a paraplegic person and an elderly man with a heart condition — were left stranded on the island without any of their belongings from the cabin, including money, medicine and necessary travel documents.
The Campbells were the only ones who had a Visa card on them, and had to pay more than $5,000 in food, toiletries and hotels for the group, they told WRAL.
They also met up with an elderly woman who said she was left behind by the ship after she suffered a stroke on another tour and was sent to a local hospital — and the Campbells helped arrange for her to fly back to the United States.
Those who remained tried to meet up with the cruise ship at the port in Gambia in West Africa, traveling 15 hours through six countries to reach the port on Sunday, only to find that the ship could not dock due to low tides, according to WPDE.
In a statement to The Post, a spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Line said it is a “very unfortunate situation,” but noted that guests are responsible for returning to the ship at the published all-aboard time.
“When the guests did not return to the vessel at the all-aboard time, their passports were delivered to the local port as per the regular protocol,” the spokesman said.
“Our team has been working closely with the local authorities to understand the requirements and necessary visas needed for the guests to rejoin the ship at the next available port of call.
“Given that these guests were on a private tour and did not return to the ship at the communicated all-aboard time, they are responsible for any necessary travel arrangements to rejoin the ship at the next available port of call, per our protocol.”
“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,” the spokesperson added.
“We remain in communication with the guests and are providing information as it becomes available.”
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