blackwing

Agreed. And you make a good point, she could easily have been booked on another cruise afterwards, perhaps Barcelona to Rome. The daughter says her mom saved $20,000 for this trip of a lifetime, I think that she should be taken at face value. But I still think the daughter doesn't have any right to complain about NCL "dumping" her mom in a hospital alone. Somebody should have been travelling with her. The daughter and son-in-law relied on an Apple Air Tag to let them know where Mom was? What a joke. Mom should have been providing regular updates. They said they noticed that the Air Tag stayed in Sao Tome even though the ship had moved on. They said they didn't hear from Mom until Mom used someone's phone to call them. If Mom didn't have a phone or didn't know how to communicate with them back home, she definitely shouldn't have been travelling alone.

I don't think giddy is the right word. I think maybe disgusted is a better word. For me, I am disgusted at the attempt by the lead couple to blame everything on NCL. I am disgusted at the fact that they contacted media immediately to get their name and photo splashed all across international news. I'm disgusted that the woman claims she wasn't sure if she wanted to get back on board because she didn't feel "safe" about how NCL handled this, but then promptly got on board once it became apparent that NCL wasn't going to give her any additional money beyond the Gambia to Senegal money. And I'm disgusted that even though they are back on board, they are still contacting the media and doing interviews.

It was the 80 year old woman's daughter who said she saved $20,000 for this trip. I'm not sure of the actual cost.

Last week on embarkation day on Getaway, the couple next to me at Guest Services was screaming at the employee because they didn't get the onboard credit promised to them by their travel agent. The employee was trying to explain to them that this was something that needed to have been purchased for them on their behalf by their travel agent. The wife wasn't having it at all. She was screaming loudly "this is UNACCEPTABLE! We were told we were going to be given this credit, you are going to give us this credit RIGHT NOW and we are not leaving here until you FIX IT!" The employee had the patience of a saint. He said calmly, "as I've already explained to your husband, since this was credit promised to you by your travel agent and not by us, we cannot do anything about this, you will have to take this up with your travel agent". Then the husband got into it and said "you're going to call the travel agent right now and you will speak to them and fix this". The employee said "you can certainly use our phone and call them, but as it is 4:30 pm on a Sunday, they are probably not open." Husband thrust the travel agent's card to the employee. Employee put his phone on the counter and invited husband to call himself. Of course, no answer. What a great way to start a cruise! That was on Getaway. Nowhere near the price point of these Dawn cruisers. In the article about the 80 year old medical disembarkee, the daughter said she spent $20,000 on this vacation. So the Campbells spent at least $40,000. They seem to think that spending money gives them the right to continue to demonize NCL with their version of their story and I'm sure hope they don't take it out on any employees. I really do hope that people onboard are giving them some grief.

I'm with you. If I were NCL I would ban them for life. Hundreds of people get left behind on the docks each year and yet almost none of these pier runners are contacting the media and blitzing the morning news shows with their stories of how they got left behind. They reek of entitlement and they have possibly committed slander and libel against NCL.

I see people here telling OP to bring water bottles and fill from the buffet, bar or tap. That wasn't his question. His question was whether he should buy the water in advance or wait to buy once onboard, and if it makes a difference. Some people don't like the idea of drinking tap water, they want to have their bottled/boxed water. To each their own. I'm fine with the water from the buffet but even though it's the same water, I can't bring myself to drink from the tap in my cabin. No idea if my cabin steward is cleaning the cabinets/counters/toilet with a cleaning rag and then using the same rag to clean the sink spout.

Correct, because it's not an unlimited water package (which would be subject to abuse like the bar package prior to FAS if only one person in the cabin got it but the other didn't). You are buying a specific number of bottles.

Did the daughter and her husband ever stop and think that maybe it's not such a good idea to send an octogenarian with medical issues onto a 3 week cruise by herself? They are blaming NCL when really they should be blaming themselves. Someone should have been with her on the cruise. Seems like standard practice of the cruise industry. Guest has a medical issue that can't be treated onboard, they have to get disembarked and treated ashore. Daughter claims she never got contacted by NCL. I think it's likely that her mother never filled out the emergency contact information. And boo hoo that they couldn't fly her first class. No doubt they are going to sue NCL for leaving her in port. The proper procedure was followed, she was disembarked because of a medical issue. It's not NCL's fault that she was a solo traveller.

I'm disappointed that these TV people won't push more on that. "Can you describe the issue? Did you spend a lot of time at lunch or shopping? Why wouldn't you have told the tour operator that you needed to get back to port earlier?" Do we even know for sure that this was an actual tour company? Or was it just a guy on the dock with a van that holds eight and asking everyone who walked by if they wanted a "Private Island Tour" until he filled his seats? I could easily see that scenario happening.

I think most people on this thread are experienced cruisers and I don't think there's that much sympathy for the Campbells here. There was one guy that seemed to support them 100% and was responding in favor of them a lot. Not sure if he actually sided with them or if he was just trying to be antagonistic, but he seems to have left the thread. The "Late Eight".... hahaha that's great! Not surprised they are still doing interviews. It would be nice if one of the other 6 does an interview but they seem to have appointed the Campbells as their spokespeople.

They were great. Rafael and Gina (wavy brown hair) appear to be from England. Shannon (red hair) I think is American. I'm not sure if they worked as a trio prior to getting hired on the ship, but they worked well together. It was rare for our show that both pianos would be used at the same time. All three of them can play the drums. So it was usually one person on piano and singing. The other person would be on the drums or just sitting at the other piano and reading through the requests. The third person on break.

Yep, we just did this as well. Wife with one kid in one cabin, me with one kid in another cabin. It's not possible to get them to key your card so it opens two rooms. Guest services will instead issue you duplicate keys for the other cabin. They will be plain cards with no printing of any kind on them. They will only unlock the cabin and won't have any of your electronic info on it. Guest services will write the last three digits of the cabin number on the back so you don't get the extra cards mixed up. The marker will rub off, so my suggestion is to ask them for some tape to tape over it and try and preserve the markings. Alternatively, ask for different colored cards. The kids had orange colored cards so we asked for duplicate orange cards. Wife and I had aqua colored cards and they gave us purple duplicate cards.

I think the point is that somebody upthread said that Norwegian doesn't ask for emergency contacts, so that they wouldn't have known who to contact for the lady who had a stroke. Norwegian does ask for an emergency contact. Whether someone provides one or not is entirely their choice. I've been wondering the same thing. Why isn't the pregnant lady talking about how awful it was to be stranded while pregnant? What about the lady in a wheelchair? What about the lady who was shown in a photo trying to force herself onto some ship? I think the explanation for why all expenses were put on the lead couple's card is that they were the only ones with a Visa. Somewhere it was said that the other people's cards weren't accepted. To that, I say, what?!? You're going on a three week cruise that stops in various African countries that don't see many Western visitors and you don't take the time to call your credit card company to make sure your card will be accepted in those countries? At the very least, you might call them to alert their fraud department that you are going there so your card doesn't get declined. So I agree with you that there's definitely more to the story and that the lead couple the Campbells probably aren't going to share the full details because they know that they are at least partly to blame. I agree. I think her whole "I don't feel safe" whining was a ploy to get the entire costs compensated. It didn't work, so they got on the boat. Their photo has been prominently displayed on worldwide news so people will recognize them, I wonder what kind of reception they are getting. @Ashlynkat have you run into these people? I have some degree of sympathy, it sucks getting left behind and missing the ship. But I lost sympathy for the lead couple whose story seems disingenuous. I'm way curious to hear from the other 6 as to exactly why they were late. I think it was a good decision for NCL to give reimbursement of the costs to get from Gambia to Senegal. Those countries are close to each other, it can't cost that much. The general public can be ignorant, and all they see is "NCL paid the costs" and think "oh that's good" and move on. Most of the general public isn't going to figure out that NCL only paid a small fraction of the costs. But in the court of public opinion, NCL paid, and NCL did the right thing. A win for NCL.

Was on Getaway last week and the trio there was fantastic. One of the girls specifically said that tips are appreciated but not required. It does seem pretty obvious that if someone tipped more ($10 or $20) that the song would get played. My son tipped $5 and still got his song played. I don’t think they were obnoxious about it, but sometimes the girl would say things like “someone has tipped $20 to hear XYZ” Sounds like your trio maybe wasn’t great. I’d suggest giving Howl a second chance (on another ship or on land). Also, I think they take breaks to either 1) rest their voice, 2) use the toilet, or almost certainly 3) learn some of the songs that have been requested.

If there was a M&G, I missed it. We also missed the Latitudes party where some officers get introduced. There was a house band, I think they are called New Generation, but I didn’t see them as much as the others.

Yes, when you are on board, go to the app and click on bars and you can see the bar menu. On the app it still displayed the “old” menu, but the actual regular bars (Atrium, Mixx, Casino, Waves) only had the “new” menu.

And if nothing is available or the only times are the really late times, then make sure you get on the App as soon as you get on board. They seem to release more times onboard because I was able to get better reservation times than what I originally had. For both MDR and specialty. Another tip, if you couldn’t get a reservation for Million Dollar Quartet, go to the box office on Day One, they have more times available and you can probably get one. I’m curious as to what will replace Burn the Floor. I hope you get a decent replacement. I remember when we went on Escape some years ago, one of the shows wasn’t ready so we got an a capella group instead. As one of the two headliner shows. They were awful.

I thought maybe a boat to mainland and then train through multiple countries. When you e-check in, there is a line to list emergency contact.

One article said that these people went through seven countries to get from São Tomé to Gambia. I’m curious as to how. Seven flights or a train ride? I wonder how long it took.

Why? There are hundreds of people who get left behind because of their own stupidity / lateness / selfishness every year. I don’t recall seeing many of these pier runners on international news and morning news shows. The lead couple who are supposedly “experienced cruisers” contacted media in an effort to try and milk NCL to pay for all of their costs. They have brought a lot of negative publicity towards NCL. If I were NCL I would reward these two twits with a lifetime ban. People aren’t fighting. You just read the article wrong and you are continuing to insist you are right. As has been explained, only the costs to get from Gambia to Senegal are being reimbursed because NCL missed Gambia. The costs of everything from São Tomé to Gambia including hotels, food, flights etc are completely the passengers’ responsibility.

I don't think the "stranded" people had to meet up after they got stranded... it sounded to me like they were all on the same private tour. The woman with the medical condition was in the hospital because her condition couldn't be treated on board. Since the ship was only in the port for one day, it seems almost certain that she would have had to depart the ship for good, whether she wanted to or not. I don't know why NCL didn't contact her emergency contact to let them know that she had left the ship. But as I said earlier, it appears to me that she was a solo traveler. So if the family is more than willing to allow this octogenarian woman with health issues to travel solo, they don't now get the right to complain that NCL treated her poorly. Sounds to me that they themselves treated her poorly. Someone should have gone on the cruise with her. Oh please, that lady can just stuff it. She doesn't feel "safe"? Ok then. Please voluntarily depart the ship for good. Can anyone who is currently on board attest as to whether this couple boarded the ship? I have a feeling that once her "we are the victim, we don't feel safe, NCL needs to throw money at us and reimburse for everything and treat us like royalty" ploy didn't work that she decided the ship was perfectly safe and got on.

I fully agree. Why not discuss their bad decision to take a private excursion, why not say anything about the tour operator, why not talk about all the people who helped them from Sao Tome to Gambia to Senegal. My inlaws just did a two week transatlantic repositioning cruise on Viking and they said the average age of passengers was above 80. So mostly retirees who don't work. But this Dawn cruise is three weeks long. There's at least one pregnant lady on this cruise. Must be nice to be able to take three weeks off or not have to work at all in order to be able to go on this cruise. If I went on this cruise, that would exhaust all of my vacation days for the entire year. These people, especially the lead couple, must be very privileged indeed.

I thought it was previously reported that the 80 year old flew home to the United States from Sao Tome. I don't think the family has any right to be upset. If she was left alone, it sounds like she was travelling solo. She was deemed healthy enough to cruise by her own family, so if they really were concerned about her health then someone would have taken the cruise with her. I felt the reporter was sensationalizing it and taking the passengers side. There was the Facetime interview with the passengers. Then she read Norwegian's response. And had this "can you believe it, the cruise line left them" attitude and remarks just as the segment ended.

The difference is that if this was a NCL sponsored excursion, then the ship would do everything in its power to wait. And on the off chance that the ship absolutely couldn't wait, then it is on NCL to make sure they pay for all expenses to get the people to the next port. These passengers who stranded themselves are almost certainly looking for full reimbursement of their costs, and I think they deserve zero.

I disagree. There are some things that are out of control, like weather and car issues. But there are plenty of things that ARE within a passenger's control. Such as gauging whether it is a good idea to take a tour of say, 6 hours roundtrip, when there are only 8 hours on shore. Booking the dolphin swim at the place 15 minutes from the dock on your own instead of doing it through the cruise line? Almost certainly safe. Booking a private tour with a guy who will show you around and there's not a definite itinerary or absolute timeframe? Risky. I think the thing you keep ignoring in your repeated defense of these passengers is that the lead couple are supposedly very experienced cruisers. They should have known all of this. And yet when they made a colossal mistake, they are trying to act like the cruise line did them wrong.