A family of nine was stranded in a remote Alaskan town late last week when they were abandoned by their cruise ship.
The Gaults from Oklahoma decided to have a reunion with their extended family aboard the Norwegian Encore, costing the group of 16 about $30,000.
But their trip ended abruptly after Joshua Gault’s family of nine disembarked for a Norwegian Cruise Line excursion to a LumberJack show in Ketchikan, Alaska. said KJRH.
As the event drew to a close, he and his wife found themselves in a frenzy of activity trying to get back on the bus that would take them to the ship.
“We want to get on the bus and one of the people present says: ‘The bus is full, so you have to wait for the next bus,’” Joshua says.
However, the next bus never showed up.
A family of nine was stranded in Ketchikan, Alaska, after being told the bus back to their cruise ship was full
The Gaults now claim that the ticket clerk did not actually check the tickets, but allowed people from another ship to take their seats.
When they realized that no other bus would come to rescue them, they told Joshua that they called the port authorities and a van came to pick up the family, but it was too late.
They arrived at the port just in time to see their clothes, medicine, passports and the rest of their belongings carted away without them. They were stuck in Ketchikan, a city 1,500 miles from Anchorage and 300 miles from Juneau.
“You know, it was a nightmare,” Joshua said, describing how he was left with six young children and his 78-year-old mother-in-law, all of whom were taking daily medications.
‘We all had to stop taking our medication abruptly over the last few days because we had to do it all on the cruise ship.’
Ketchikan is a city located over 1,500 miles from Anchorage and nearly 300 miles from Juneau
Although most of the ship’s passports were taken, one was left behind, meaning the family was unable to meet the Norwegian Encore at its next destination in Canada.
While they were trying to consider their options, Joshua said the cruise line imposed a $971 fine per person for missing the ship.
He described discovering that nearly $9,000 had been charged to his credit card when he booked flights and hotels to get home.
Ultimately, the Gault family traveled for several days through numerous cities, dealing with canceled flights and overnight stays at the airport.
They also had to pay for all the small costs themselves: “all the flights for nine people, all the food for nine people, all the hotel stays,” Joshua said.
The Gault family ended up spending several days traveling through numerous cities, dealing with canceled flights and overnight stays at the airport.
The Gaults are now back in Oklahoma and several family members have tested positive for COVID.
“So yeah, we’re defeated right now,” Joshua told KJRH. “We’re unhealthy and defeated.”
Still, Joshua and his wife Cailyn continue to press Norwegian Cruise Line for answers.
But when they called, the cruise staff would tell them, “We’re still working on this, we haven’t forgotten about you.”
“And I thought, ‘No, we feel like you forgot about us when you left us at the port and told us to figure it out for ourselves,’” she said.
Norwegian Cruise Line officials said they asked a local port agent to help the family book a hotel for the night
Norwegian Cruise Line officials have since acknowledged that the family of nine “missed the ship’s all-aboard time in Ketchikan, Alaska, due to an error by a local tour operator.”
‘When the guests were not back on the ship at the published time, we tried to contact them but were unable to do so.
‘So we alerted the local port agent in Ketchikan and asked them to help the family book a hotel for the night.
‘Since the guests were unable to dock at the next port of call, Victoria, British Columbia, the port agent also assisted the guests with booking flights to Seattle the next day, July 13.’
The cruise line indicated that they would reimburse the family for expenses incurred, fees they incurred with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, and a prorated refund for the two cruise days they missed.
‘As a gesture of goodwill, the company will also give each of the nine guests a Future Cruise Credit, which will discount their cruise fare by 20 percent. This discount can be used toward their next voyage.’
The fiasco comes just months after a group of eight Norwegian Cruise Line passengers became stranded on a remote African island
The fiasco came just months after a group of eight Norwegian Cruise Line passengers became stranded on a remote African island.
The passengers had “missed the mandatory 3pm boarding time by more than an hour” after returning from a private tour on March 27, a spokesperson for the cruise line told DailyMail.com
Their passports were then handed over to local port agents and the group of six Americans and two Australians were left behind on the island of São Tomé and Príncipe.
They spent the next few days desperately trying to get back on board the ship, flying through six countries to reach Banjul in Gambia, where the ship was scheduled to dock on April 1. However, bad weather conditions meant the ship never reached shore.
On April 2, the group completed their nearly 2,000-mile journey to Dakar, Senegal, where the cruise line confirmed they were reboarding.