An Oklahoma family of nine was left stranded in remote Alaska after their Norwegian Cruise Lines ship left them behind — and then charged the desperate family $9,000 in customs fees.
The Gault family was traveling with six young kids and a 78-year-old grandmother on July 12 when they disembarked from the Norwegian Encore in Katchikan, a small town in a string of south Alaskan islands, so they could watch a lumberjack show together.
But on their way back the local tour operator transporting passengers to and from the vessel failed to properly check who had tickets and who didn’t — merely conducting a head count instead — and told the Gaults there was no room and to wait for another shuttle.
“We see the chaos getting onto the buses. We go to get on the bus and one of the attendees is like ‘The bus is full, and you know you got to wait for the next bus,’” Joshua Gault told 2 News.
That bus never came, however, and after frantically calling the port authority to arrange transportation they finally arrived back at the docks to see the Norwegian Encore sailing away — taking with it their passports, medication, and clothes.
“Six kids on board, minor children, and a 78-year-old mother-in-law, all on medication. We all had to quit cold turkey medication these last few days because it was all on the cruise ship,” Joshua said.
From there the chaos only deepened.
The family, which had already spent about $30,000 on the trip, was immediately hit with nearly a $9,000 charge from the cruise line — $971 per passenger — for missing the boat.
That fee stemmed from the US Customs and Border Protection’s Passenger Vessel Services Act, which they violated by not visiting a foreign port before they returned to the US, as their itinerary planned.
But they were unable to catch up with the vessel at its next port of call in Canada because nearly all their passports had sailed away from them.
With no choice but to find their way home, the Gaults had to arrange new lodging within hours, book flights home, and feed their many hungry mouths — with the costs piling up the longer it took them to get home.
“All the flights for nine people, all the food for nine people, all the hotel stays,” Gault told 2 News, counting off the accommodations they had to arrange — and pay for — on the fly.
After days of travel — which included stops in numerous cities, canceled flights, and more than one overnight airport stay — the family finally arrived home in Tulsa, strung out, tired, and having picked up exhausting cases of COVID along the way.
“So yeah, we’re beat down right now. We’re unhealthy and beaten down,” Joshua said.
The family is now working with Norwegian to rectify the situation, but after their ordeal they feel the cruise line has a lot of slack to pick up to make things right.
“‘We’re still looking into it, we haven’t forgotten about you,’” Cailyn Gault said Norwegian kept telling them as they battled their way home.
“And I was like, ‘No, we feel like you pretty much forgot about us when you left us in port and told us to go figure it out,’” she added.
Norwegian Cruise Lines told The Post they have begun the process of refunding the Gaults the nearly $9,000 in fees they were charged, and will reimburse them for all their travel expenses once receipts have been received.
The cruise line also said they tried to contact the Gaults after they missed their bus due to “a misstep by a local tour operator,” and when they were unable to reach them worked with the local port authority to help the family arrange lodging for the night before they were able to make a flight to Seattle the next day.
“In addition, these guests will be receiving a pro-rated refund for the two cruise days they missed,” a Norwegian Cruise Line representative said.
“As a gesture of goodwill, the company will also be providing each of the nine guests with a Future Cruse Credit in the form of a 20 percent discount of their cruise fare that can be used towards their next voyage,” Norwegian added.
The incident was just the latest to put Norwegian Cruise Lines under the spotlight for leaving passengers behind.
Back in April, eight passengers were left behind in Africa after an independent tour they took was late to arrive at the boat — leaving them cobbling together an itinerary across the continent to catch up with the boat.
It is well-known policy on most cruise lines that passengers who fail to return to the ship within a strict deadline will be left behind so the vessel can maintain its schedule — but exceptions are generally made if tardiness is the fault of the cruise line or an operator provided or recommended by the cruise line.
Though the passengers in April had been using an independent tour when they missed the boat, the age and handicaps sparked controversy over the rigidity of the cruise line’s policy. Norwegian ultimately agreed to partially refund those passengers for their expenses incurred catching up with the boat.
