8 passengers missed the ship in Sao Tome and Principe

[ceeceeDee]

Weary cynic that I am, I smell the groundwork being put in place for a lawsuit and the ambulance chasers will be gathering at the dock when our 'heroes' disembark!🙄😉

[ceeceeDee]

2 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

It actually got to the 32nd page but the last 24 comments were deleted.one bright spark was insisting the Captain had refused orders from the Coast Guard and that it was motivated by racism.

Oh, for love of....................😒😠 Gotta love ill informed arm chair 'experts'. Get out the tin foil hats!

[buchhalm]

41 minutes ago, Blackduck59 said:

This subject went on for 30 pages on the NCL boards. The thread was still there a while ago but locked for further comment. There were a few comments from members who are on that ship. They don't have a lot of information either. The general tone of that thread was that there is very little sympathy for the "Late eight"

Apparently to further muddy the waters, there was a separate "medical evacuation" that happened at the same time and that person's situation has been lumped in to the wider story.

All I can say is the group seemed woefully unprepared to leave the ship, and when things went south there was one couple who took it upon themselves speak for the "Group" and paint themselves as saints while they were at it. Hopefully someone will be able to find some semblance of the truth, because right now everything I've seen paints the folks without a watch or a clue as the victims and NCL as the cruel corporate villain who left them behind.

I was looking for some juicy gossip on the NCL pages, but couldn't find the appropriate thread...

 

[Blackduck59]

10 minutes ago, buchhalm said:

I was looking for some juicy gossip on the NCL pages, but couldn't find the appropriate thread...

 

It's about half way down the first page. You will see it's locked, but you can still read it.

[Aus Traveller]

8 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Agreed, for the first part.

However, for the second, their luggage and passports would already have been off loaded as well, we don't know all the facts and or rules with either the port or ship. As for coast guard boat to reload them, I am sure there are protocols that needed to be breached for that to happen.

I do feel sad for their situation but not sorry for them.

I have heard that they access the passenger's safe and give the passports to the Port Agent, but I haven't heard that they pack their belongings as well. I have never seen that happen. Keep in mind it would take at least an extra hour to pack up everything.

[Aus Traveller]

5 hours ago, ceeceeDee said:

Of COURSE they are still complaining and still doing interviews with the media!! Unfortunately there is a section of society who refuse to accept that they are responsible for their own actions and will blame anyone but themselves. Whatever happened to shouldering responsibility and admitting 'Mia Culpa'? The situation as a whole was extremely unfortunate but it is not entirely the ship's fault as the passengers involved appear to be alleging.

👍

[cruisermsoon]

Whatever the rights or wrongs of this affair, it has hit the headlines and airwaves world wide in a big way, and there is no doubt the the resulting publicity is not a good one for NCL, which already enjoyed the poorest image of the three big cruise companies. 

[icat2000]

I've done a mixture of ship tours and private tours but in Africa where infrastructure, road conditions, plus it was a tender port I would have stuck with a ship tour. I guess you need to weigh up the risks. Some of those passengers need to be thanking the American couple as they were the only ones to have any sort of card with them to pay for stuff. Could have been a very uncomfortable time if noone had a credit card.

 

I was on the Ruby Princess in 2012 in Casablanca when there were several hundred passengers that missed the deadline for the ship departure. They were all Princess ship tours so hence we waited several hours for them. 

 

Also Philip Island on Grand Princess last year again we waited for for the ship tours and they were late back too.

[colourbird]

This is such big news, it must be quite rare for passengers to miss their ship.

[valantine80]

We were on Radiance of the Seas in 2015 when four passengers missed mid day departure from Reykjavik, Iceland. Next stop Harwich, England.

[arxcards]

13 hours ago, colourbird said:

 

Actually, if the ship has to leave they will, even if their tours haven't returned. Weather or tides may require a ship to leave before all the passengers return.

 

If you are on a ship tour, they will assist you to get back to the ship. If you are on a private tour, you are on your own.

You aren't on your own on a private tour either. The cruise lines shipping agent will normally assist you to make your way to the meet the ship at the next available port, but at your own expense.

 

It is possible that for such an obscure port that there was no shipping agent present on Bom Bom Island.

[MicCanberra]

You need to weigh up all the risks for what you may do in each port, but at the very least whatever you do, you need to make the ship's all aboard time. We give it an hour minimum.

[Aus Traveller]

55 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

You need to weigh up all the risks for what you may do in each port, but at the very least whatever you do, you need to make the ship's all aboard time. We give it an hour minimum.

Agreed. If the port is in an undeveloped country AND a tender is required to get back to the ship, I would have only taken a private tour if it was a morning tour with planned return time of 1pm at the latest.

 

I am not familiar with this port, but maybe being an island, the tour would not have taken the people terribly far from the port. Surely, if it get to (say) 1pm and it doesn't appear that you were heading back to the port, you would tell the tour operator to cancel the rest of the tour and head back - NOW. I read that the woman organiser said she told the tour operator they had to be back by 3pm. Crazy. That does not allow for any problems. She should have said they had to be back by 1pm, or at the latest 2pm.

Edited April 4 by Aus Traveller

[Kristelle]

this topic has hit my Facebook feed.

 

almost entirely the response of comments is that it is the passengers fault - and that is from general public not cruise specific people, like on here.

 

I dont think the public are buying the "we are the victims, woe is us" cry of the passengers

[MicCanberra]

Yes, little sympathy for the 8 pax. Such a shame NCL has had such a blow back and are being made into the wrongdoers.

[Kristelle]

but are they?

 

do you think the media beat up really thought that or just click-baited with that knowing people would react against the passengers?

[MicCanberra]

Their stock has dropped nearly 12% since the story broke.

[mr walker]

1 hour ago, MicCanberra said:

Their stock has dropped nearly 12% since the story broke.

Might be the time for savvy investors to buy in - in the 21st century the (bad) news cycle is very short. And no, I'm not going to invest 🙂

[MicCanberra]

I have some, bought at $7.

[arxcards]

8 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

I have some, bought at $7.

They will also leave shareholders behind when they are late back to the ship 😉

 

[RosieCanberra]

14 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

I have some, bought at $7.

 

NCL was mid teens, Carnival was $7

[MicCanberra]

8 hours ago, arxcards said:

They will also leave shareholders behind when they are late back to the ship 😉

 

Yes, they certainly will.

[buchhalm]

On 4/4/2024 at 5:38 PM, Aus Traveller said:

I have heard that they access the passenger's safe and give the passports to the Port Agent, but I haven't heard that they pack their belongings as well. I have never seen that happen. Keep in mind it would take at least an extra hour to pack up everything.

They'd pack everything in 15 minutes.

Chucked into your bags. Unless you travel with Sikverseas.

They won't be neatly folding your undies. 

 

[Ondine]

On 4/4/2024 at 5:38 PM, Aus Traveller said:

I have heard that they access the passenger's safe and give the passports to the Port Agent, but I haven't heard that they pack their belongings as well. I have never seen that happen. Keep in mind it would take at least an extra hour to pack up everything.

 

We watched the suitcases being taken ashore.  Because of their thoughtlessness we were nearly 3 hours late leaving port by the time we got the pilot and tugs back and found another slot in the queue.  No idea if they intended to skip ship or couldn't care less about consequences.

[MicCanberra]

Yes, the longest time would be the tender ride to drop off the bags and passports