A family trip turned into a harrowing ordeal for an Oklahoma family who say they were left stranded in Alaska during a cruise.
Cailyn Gault was traveling with her husband, Josh, from Tulsa, along with 16 family members from three states, to Alaska for a family reunion aboard Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) when a stop in Ketchikan turned sour.
Nine of the family members ventured off the ship for an excursion to a lumberjack show, but they were unable to get back on their bus back to port in time to make the ship’s departure.
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After the show was finished, buses were waiting outside to ferry passengers back to the ship, but Cailyn Gault said her group was left behind when non-ticketed passengers from another cruise ship were given their seats on the dedicated excursion bus back to the port. The short trip was sponsored by NCL, she said.
"We reached out to the Port Authority to let them know we were left behind by the excursion operator, and they sent a van to retrieve all nine of us at the designated pickup location, where we had been waiting since the last full bus left," Gault said. "Just minutes from port, our driver got a call that the ship refused to wait and pulled the gangway."
When they got back to the docks, they watched helplessly as the 1,100-foot-long Norwegian Encore sailed away. Their passports, medication and clothes were all aboard the vessel that can carry about 4,000 passengers. One of the children in their party, Gault said, had special needs and needed medication.
Gault said the cruise line also issued a $971 fine per person for missing the ship, amounting to nearly $9,000. The fee stems from a federal law that states they must visit a foreign port before returning to the U.S. But Gault said they were unable to follow the law and catch up with the vessel at its next port of call in Canada as their passports were on the ship.
The family instead had to make their way home to Tulsa from Alaska, which took them days with stops in different cities on top of stress and worry, all on their own dime.
They had to find last-minute lodgings and even had to stay overnight in an airport.
Gault says the family racked up an additional $12,000 in expenses – including for flights and accommodations – bringing the total cost of being left behind to around $21,000. This is on top of the initial $30,000 they family spent on the trip, Gault said.
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"We want to make sure policies and procedures are put in place by Norwegian and their sponsored excursion operators, so this never happens to another family," Gault said. "We are beat up and down right now but home and safe now. How many times are they going to do this to people before someone is seriously injured or dies?"
Gaut added that the NCL representatives on the phone to the family were all very nice and told them to keep the receipts.
"We could tell everyone really wanted to help, they just didn’t know what to do," Gaut said.
Gault said that while they are thankful to be home, though they are all battling COVID-19, her mother is taking what happened during the trip even harder.
"My mother is still in complete distress, can’t eat, sleep, having night terrors, etc. Her doctor saw her first thing this morning, and she is under medical care now," Gault said.
NCL tells FOX Business that the mishap was due to a mistake by a local tour operator.
"When the guests did not return to the ship at the published time, we attempted to contact them but were unable to reach them," an NCL statement reads, in part.
"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."
NCL says it will reimburse the family for all the out-of-pocket expenses they incurred over the two days as a result of missing the ship, including meals and accommodations. Reimbursements will be processed once receipts for these expenses are provided, the company said.
The cruise line is also in the process of refunding the family for the $9,000 fee imposed by Border Patrol and said the nine will be receiving a prorated refund for the two cruise days they missed.
NCL will provide each of the nine guests with a 20% discount on a cruise fare on their next voyage.
Gault’s 78-year-old mother had allegedly encountered issues with NCL in the past.
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"In a crazy twist of fate, my sweet mother was also a passenger on the Norwegian Dawn when it left eight people in [the central African island nation] São Tomé [and Príncipe] back in March. We are experienced travelers, and this was beyond overwhelming and distressing," Gault said.
"With everyone’s work schedules, we likely won’t ever be able to do it again. We have been planning this trip for over a year, dropped a ton of money, and this is how we were treated, through no fault of our own."
