It turned out to be a very costly holiday to forget.
A family of nine was left stranded in Alaska after a misunderstanding with their tour operator saw them missing their scheduled cruise departure.
The Gault family from Tulsa, Oklahoma, comprised of a group of nine for the once-in-a-lifetime holiday, including six young kids and a 78-year-old grandmother.
Joshua Gault, the father of the group, revealed to 2News Oklahoma that the luxurious Norwegian Encore cruise cost the family $30,000 before they had even boarded the ship.
The family had disembarked from the cruise liner on Friday, July 12 at the port of Ketchikan to see a lumberjack show that they booked through the cruise line.
“When you talk about cruise nightmares this is the definition of it,” Gault told Good Morning America.
Joshua said that when they tried to get back to the ship after the show, the local tour operator had told them to wait for the next bus. But that bus never arrived.
He described the situation as ‘out of control’.
“We see the chaos getting onto the buses,” he said. “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.'”
He added that the ticket attendant wasn’t checking which passengers were booked on the bus, only doing a head count, ultimately letting people from another ship take their seats.
In a panic, Joshua called the port authority, and a van came to pick up the family. However, it was too late.
Despite rushing them to the ship, the Encore was already pulling away from the dock with their belongings by the time they arrived, including some of their passports.
“I was in shock, like utterly shocked,” he said, recalling thinking at the time, “Are they really doing this right now?”
The family immediately contacted Norwegian Cruise Line and explained the traumatic situation they had been left in.
Joshua’s wife Cailyn added that they had to cover the cost of their own food and hotel and find their own way back to Oklahoma — a journey that included sleeping on airport floors.
On top of this, they received a $971 fine per person from the cruise line for missing the ship.
“It was completely overwhelming,” she said.
It cost them more than $21,000 just to get home, which included nearly $9,000 in customs fees for missing a stop in Canada. They said Norwegian Cruise Line is now working with them to make it right.
“You know, Norwegian treating this like it was a customer service issue rather than it was an emergency is, I think, the worst part about it,” said Joshua Gault.
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The family eventually made it home to Tulsa several days later, but a couple of them have fallen ill as a result of contracting Covid-19 amidst the chaos of it all.
A spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Line released a statement to ABC News via email, which read: “(We) will be reimbursing the family for all of the out-of-pocket expenses they incurred over these two days, as a result of missing the ship in Ketchikan, including meals, accommodations, etc. Reimbursements will be processed once receipts for these expenses are provided to us.”
They added: “(We) have initiated the process to refund the family for the fee imposed by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, as a result of the guests not visiting a foreign port prior to returning to the U.S., as required when an itinerary originates from the U.S. in accordance with the Passenger Vessel Services Act.”
“These guests will be receiving a pro-rated refund for the two cruise days they missed.”
