The nine passengers on board the ocean liner had the adventure of a lifetime.
On March 20, the Norwegian Cruise Line sailed to the Equator with its passengers, including the Campbells from South Carolina, who were not the first to participate in such a cruise.
A week later, the ship's passengers, including the Campbell family and six others, disembarked on the island of Sao Tome and Principe in the Gulf of Guinea to have a look around – WPDE writes. They were a little late for the tour, so the tour organizer informed the ship's captain that the eight passengers would be late, but they were on their way. When they arrived at the port, the ship was still anchored, however
The captain no longer lets them on board.
The port captain tried to contact the ship, but the captain refused to contact him, and they could only communicate with him by email. Eventually, the Coast Guard took all eight passengers to the docked ship. However, the captain did not pick them up, but asked the Coast Guard to return the passengers to the island. Of the seven Americans and Australians, four are elderly, one has a heart condition, and one passenger is disabled. One of the passengers is pregnant.
There were nine passengers stranded on the island instead of eight.
They were joined by an eighty-year-old woman who was hospitalized on the island after suffering a concussion.
According to the Campbell family, the aunt was left in the hospital without money or belongings, and her emergency contact was not notified by the cruise line.
The Campbell family was the only one in the group who had a Visa card, so they paid more than $5,000 to feed the group ten thousand kilometers from their home. They were finally able to travel to Gambia at Easter, but even there they could only return to the ship if the shipping company approved their request.
According to a Norwegian Cruise Line spokesperson
On March 27, eight of their guests staying on the island alone or on a private tour missed the last transfer to the outbound boat, at 3 p.m. local time.
It is the responsibility of the guests to return on time or will be responsible for the cost of re-boarding at the nearest port. Guests' passports were delivered to the local port headquarters for retrieval upon their return to port. The company helps stranded passengers obtain the necessary visas to join the ship at the next available port.
