Dawn passengers left “stranded” on African island

[beastlet]

16 minutes ago, Sacruiser62 said:

That is for harbor pilot and quick trip to bridge.  How high above water is door we use at ports?  Some ships a low as 10 feet.above water line.   Think how high the harbor pilot ship usually is snd then how high rope ladder is and realize how far above the door we come and go from at ports!

Assuming this story is true, which I have my suspicions about, do you really think NCL is going to take the liability of people crossing from a vessel not designed to merge with the ship, onto the ship? Or should the unseal everything and re-lower a tender for people who couldn't follow clear directions about when to be back?

[giustot]

My opinion on this.

 

The passengers who missed the ship were completely in the wrong. But they realized they were late and communicated with the authorities.

 

The ship's captain knowingly chose to leave behind sick, elderly and pregnant passengers on a small island off the coast of Africa.

 

There is a difference between what's legally right and what's morally right. The captain should be ashamed of himself.

[julig22]

7 minutes ago, giustot said:

My opinion on this.

 

The passengers who missed the ship were completely in the wrong. But they realized they were late and communicated with the authorities.

 

The ship's captain knowingly chose to leave behind sick, elderly and pregnant passengers on a small island off the coast of Africa.

 

There is a difference between what's legally right and what's morally right. The captain should be ashamed of himself.

That's a maybe they communicated with the authorities. Was this before or after the final tender returned to shore to drop off the passports of the missing passengers? And the passenger manifest completed, ship cleared for departure. So much missing information. Like when did this conversation take place.  Note, the press says they called the captain - yea, I'm sure they have his cell phone # on speed dial. As has been pointed out numerous times in this thread, it's not a simple task to just take on passengers while out at sea. Especially sick, elderly and pregnant passengers.

 

By your logic, no airline, bus, train or ship should be allowed to ever move forward until everyone who wants to board, even if they are late. Wouldn't that be morally right, after all they bought a ticket and have somewhere they need to be, forget about the other hundred - or few thousand - others who will be kept waiting. Or the costs and risks involved in waiting.

 

Why isn't the tour guide getting raked over the coals on this? Nowhere does it say that they were unavoidably detained - just apparently irresponsible.

 

My opinion. Speaking as someone who had to spend the night in the airport not that long ago because the last plane of the day left without me - and it was the airline who delayed my flight, then messed up my ticket so even tho I made it to the gate in time, I couldn't board.  Neither could a couple of other families with small children who arrived after me.  And I'm 70 years old, sleeping in the airport isn't exactly a piece of cake.

[ChiefMateJRK]

37 minutes ago, giustot said:

The ship's captain knowingly chose to leave behind sick, elderly and pregnant passengers on a small island off the coast of Africa.

 

There is a difference between what's legally right and what's morally right. The captain should be ashamed of himself.

The Captain has a job to do.  It is a responsibility to his employer and its shareholders.  He hasn't the luxury of overriding that with some internet poster's sense of what's morally right.  You should be ashamed of yourself for spewing such nonsense.

[TRLD]

57 minutes ago, giustot said:

My opinion on this.

 

The passengers who missed the ship were completely in the wrong. But they realized they were late and communicated with the authorities.

 

The ship's captain knowingly chose to leave behind sick, elderly and pregnant passengers on a small island off the coast of Africa.

 

There is a difference between what's legally right and what's morally right. The captain should be ashamed of himself.

The passengers that he left behind were healthy enough to sail and capable of managing their own affairs. They were certainly able enough to take a tender to shore and book a lengthy independent excursion with other people that were not in their booking party.

 

The only person that was not healthy was the person medically evacuated from the ship and while they were included in the story was in a totally different  situation and now on their way back to the US.

 

Being pregnant, elderly are not considered to be disabilities under most circumstances. And if the condition was sufficient for them to be disabled then they would not have been considered to be healthy enough to cruise.

 

They are certainly healthy enough to book transportation to try and catch up to the ship.

[Mike B Landlubber]

They aren’t great photos, but here is a photo of a transfer as being discussed, including a crop to show a little more detail. Of course theses are pretty calm seas. And the ships aren’t solidly docked together as I understand it.

Edited April 2 by Mike B Landlubber

[ChiefMateJRK]

12 minutes ago, Mike B Landlubber said:

They aren’t great photos, but here is a photo of a transfer as being discussed, including a crop to show a little more detail. Of course theses are pretty calm seas. And the ships aren’t solidly docked together as I understand it.

Yeah.  That looks "safe."  What could go wrong?  (with pregnant, elderly, disabled....)

[Sacruiser62]

3 hours ago, Panhandle Couple said:

ALL of the news reports are simply the internet echo chamber.

The local coast guard portion was CLAIMED during the couples original face time with a TV station.  There has been no second report of this being true.  In fact, one poster here who was on the ship watching the tenders saw nothing like a coast guard type boat approach the ship.

It's called embellishing the story. 

The more I read the less sorry I get. And they insinuate that ncl has abandoned them.  That said, there is video of them on a boat that is not regularly for passengers, no guard rails, heading somewhere.   

 

They sure are getting plenty of video! 

[julig22]

11 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Yeah.  That looks "safe."  What could go wrong?  (with pregnant, elderly, disabled....)

And 1 picture I saw shows a scooter in the mix, although I suppose it could be something they rented. But if it belongs to a passenger, that would be lots of fun trying to get it up a ladder.

[Hamwen3839]

Can any Australian passengers help me ? We have paid a deposit for a similar cruise later in the year and now find we have to get Visas for Cape Verde, Ivory Coast ,Senegal,Ghana, São Tomé and Toga. Just wondering if any Aussies on this cruise found they had to do the same and if so was the process easy or did the ship do the Visas for you at your cost ?

Can I also ask if you had a Yellow Fever Exemption Certificate and has that worked ok ?
Thanks so much in advance.

[cruisermsoon]

Whatever the rights and wrongs of all this, the story has hit the headlines in a big way, and a lot of readers are going to perceive NCL in a very poor light, as the resulting publicity has some very negative connotations. I also wonder how other cruise lines would respond to a similar situation. 

[www3traveler]

12 hours ago, graphicguy said:

Legal suits filed where?  São Tomé?  Suing whom?  The tour operator for promising to get the guests back on time, and failing?

 

NCL?  For what?  What contract did they breach?

I think if they sued NCL, it would probably have to be in the Bahamas.  You might be able to sue in the Federal District Court in Miami but they probably have a large backlog of cases, might take two or three years before you could get a court date.

[Sacruiser62]

11 minutes ago, cruisermsoon said:

Whatever the rights and wrongs of all this, the story has hit the headlines in a big way, and a lot of readers are going to perceive NCL in a very poor light, as the resulting publicity has some very negative connotations. I also wonder how other cruise lines would respond to a similar situation. 

I would hope the same way!  They can't wait for those with no respect for the time of others.  The fear of being left has to be real!

[www3traveler]

The Dawn is currently docked in Dakar, Senegal.  Hoping that those who want to continue the journey to Barcelona, Spain will be able to re-board.

[ljrfrm]

20 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

The Dawn is currently docked in Dakar, Senegal.  Hoping that those who want to continue the journey to Barcelona, Spain will be able to re-board.

They will be interviewed on the Today Show this morning so maybe we'll find out where they are and what the plan is.

[dmwnc1959]

NCL is taking a huge black eye for this. Huge. It’s all over the news. Regardless of how you feel about the media's reporting of this, NCL looks like the bad guy. Bad. 
 

Despite of what we know, despite how informed we may be, and despite of what we may think as morally or ethically right, or right based on the shareholders (really, really, the shareholders?), in the court of public opinion they are guilty of absolute abandonment. Guilty of possibly putting their passengers in grave danger. And guilty of absolutely failing on their job to keep passengers out of harm’s way.

 

Guilty. Guilty. GUILTY.

 

NCL is looking like a bunch of corporate goons. 
 

😎

[MommaBear55]

Two of the passengers were just on Today Show and they basically said NCL abandoned them, they took no responsibility for missing the ship. They've flown through 7 countries over the last 48 hours to get to Gambia where the ship is, but now they aren't sure they'll board the ship today due to lack of trust. Sadly, the interviewers were playing into this and making NCL look like they were at fault.

[tony s]

38 minutes ago, ljrfrm said:

They will be interviewed on the Today Show this morning so maybe we'll find out where they are and what the plan is.

They are also on Good Morning America on ABC

[gjr]

So these folks are special and NCL followed the rules too rigidly???   They are that special that the cruise ship should have waited for them?  Really?   Now after flying to catch up to the ship they are unsure they want to re-board?  Seriously?

 

And the Today hosts sure tried to play that NCL was the bad guy.  

[sammee]

3 minutes ago, MommaBear55 said:

Two of the passengers were just on Today Show and they basically said NCL abandoned them, they took no responsibility for missing the ship. They've flown through 7 countries over the last 48 hours to get to Gambia where the ship is, but now they aren't sure they'll board the ship today due to lack of trust. Sadly, the interviewers were playing into this and making NCL look like they were at fault.

Wow, unbelievable. Just saw this too. They created their own situation but yet they insist on finger pointing and blaming NCL.

[dmwnc1959]

1 minute ago, sammee said:

Wow, unbelievable. Just saw this too. They created their own situation but yet they insist on finger pointing and blaming NCL.

 

6 minutes ago, gjr said:

And the Today hosts sure tried to play that NCL was the bad guy.  

And that’s all it takes in the court of public opinion. 
 

NCL has utterly failed. 

[david_sobe]

I went back several pages and looked at several news reports but cant find information on how late the passengers were.   The stranded passengers allegedly said the ship was still in port but the captain refused to let them board.  Did the captain delay the ship at all?  Most times its usually reported a ship will wait about 20-30 minutes before final board time to make the decision to pull away.  Does anyone know if that happened?
Without knowing these details I cant give an opinion.  If the captain operated with "typical" late passengers and waited 30 minutes or less then I think its reasonable for the ship to pull away and deny boarding.  But if the plank went up immediately at the all board time while knowing passengers were coming late then maybe I think I could change my opinion.  I think it comes down to what is reasonable for a ship to wait.  I think 15-20 minutes is reasonable.  On those Mega Ship documentaries this is what other captains have done.  But I am not a captain and there could be reasons why he/she cannot do that.

[BirdTravels]

6 hours ago, giustot said:

My opinion on this.

 

The passengers who missed the ship were completely in the wrong. But they realized they were late and communicated with the authorities.

 

The ship's captain knowingly chose to leave behind sick, elderly and pregnant passengers on a small island off the coast of Africa.

 

There is a difference between what's legally right and what's morally right. The captain should be ashamed of himself.

You are basing you numerous assumptions on a click-bait news article which is probably only 25% factual. 

[tony s]

If they do board I feel for the crew as they will be walking on egg shells. These folks will be angry and with all eyes looking for any sign of poor further treatment by NCl. Can guarantee they will not be paying the DSC

[dmwnc1959]

Just now, BirdTravels said:

You are basing you numerous assumptions on a click-bait news article which is probably only 25% factual. 

Doesn’t matter. That’s what the vast majority of the public will see. That NCL has failed.