A group of passengers left stranded on a small African island after missing a boarding deadline finally managed to rejoin their cruise ship on Tuesday after chasing it for almost a week.
On March 27 a private tour overran, causing eight passengers to miss the Norwegian Dawn’s 3 p.m. all-aboard time by over an hour, a spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Line confirmed via email to Business Insider.
The passengers found themselves stuck on São Tomé and Príncipe, an island nation of some 220,000 people off West Africa, in what the cruise line called a “very unfortunate situation.”
Despite the efforts of São Tomé and Príncipe Coast Guard to ferry the passengers to the ship in tender boats, the group was unable to reboard and had to turn back to land, according to the ABC affiliate WPDE.
The first attempt to get the guests back on the ship occurred on Monday, when they hoped to re-embark at a port in Banjul, Gambia, some 1,800 miles from São Tomé and Príncipe.
However, “adverse weather conditions, as well as tidal restrictions” meant that the ship could not dock safely, a spokesperson for the cruise line said.
As a result, the guests had to chase the ship to Dakar, Senegal — a distance of some 100 miles further — for another attempt to re-embark on Tuesday.
Norwegian said it helped the passengers by facilitating their visas, and would pay them back for the trip from Gambia to Senegal.
Jill Campbell, one of the passengers, told NBC News that she and her husband traveled through seven countries in 48 hours to catch up with the ship.
It wasn’t clear exactly what route they took.
The couple had considered not rejoining the ship, believing that Norwegian Cruise Line had fallen short in a ‘”basic duty of care,” Campbell told NBC News.
But, six days after being left behind in São Tomé and Príncipe, the cruise line confirmed the eight passengers, including the Campbells, finally re-embarked in Senegal on Tuesday.
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