Norwegian Cruise passengers, who were stranded on an African island, missed the boarding time by more than an hour, which is why they were left behind, according to reports.
Eight passengers, including six Americans and two Australians, were on a private tour of São Tomé and missed the 3 p.m. all-aboard call on Friday, the cruise line said.
A cruise line spokesperson originally told Sky News the group was late by more than an hour, which was confirmed by the New York Post.
“When they missed the all-aboard time of 3 p.m. by more than an hour, their passports were left with the local port agent for retrieval when they returned to the port from their private tour (not organized by us), per the protocol,” a cruise line spokesperson told the Post.
When passengers on excursions or private tours are late, it’s the cruise line’s right to sail away to stay on time.
Two members of the group – Jay and Jill Campbell, a South Carolina couple – said in news interviews that their tour guide ran late and did not get them back to the ship on time Friday.
The boat was still in sight of the island, and the Coast Guard ferried the group to the ship, but the captain denied them entry.
“Guests are responsible for ensuring they return to the ship at the published time, which is communicated broadly over the ship’s intercom, in the daily communication and posted just before exiting the vessel,” a spokesperson for the cruise line said.
Jill said the cruise line “followed the rules too rigidly” during a Tuesday morning interview on The Today Show.
“I really feel that they forgot they are people working in the hospitality industry and that really the safety and well-being of their customers should be their first priority,” Jill said, and the crew had a “basic duty of care that they had forgotten about.”
The Norwegian Cruise Line secured the group’s passports, as part of protocol, according to their statement, but didn’t grab vital medicines, money or other belongings, according to the Campbells.
Among the group is a paraplegic, a man who has a heart condition and a pregnant Delaware woman and her husband.
“When the guests did not return to the vessel at the all-aboard time, their passports were delivered to the local port agents to retrieve when they returned to the port,” the company said.
After chasing the ship through several countries, the eight stranded passengers finally caught up and boarded the ship by Wednesday morning, Norwegian Cruise Line told Fox News Digital.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Campbells, and Norwegian Cruise Line said they’re working on getting answers to followup questions, including an unrelated incident where an elderly woman had to disembark for medical reasons.
Julie Lenkoff, 80, suffered a stroke and potentially a heart attack during the trip, and the cruise line said they thought it was in her best interest to send her to a local clinic on São Tomé.
But her family said the cruise line never called Lenkoff’s emergency contacts, and left her behind.
That’s when the Campbells learned she was on the same island and took care of her.
“They’re heroes,” Lenkoff’s son-in-law, Kurt Gies, told Fox News Digital about the Campbells. “They saved our mother.”
The South Carolina couple helped Lenkoff reach her family in the U.S., and she was eventually flown to the states on a 30-hour flight from São Tomé to Lisbon, Portugal, to Toronto to Stanford Hospital in California “that no one was sure she would even survive.”
She’s since been admitted to Stanford Hospital, where she’s been under constant care, Gies said.
Norwegian Cruise Line said in statements to Fox News Digital on Tuesday that the unrelated incidents were both “very unfortunate situations.”
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