An Oklahoma family\u2019s dream vacation turned into a nightmare last week after their cruise ship set sail without them following a tour-bus mixup.<\/p>\n
The nine family members, including six young children and a senior citizen, were left to make their way home to Tulsa<\/a> from a remote Alaskan island without their passports, luggage and prescription medication.<\/p>\n Cailyn Gault called<\/a> the experience a \u201chorrible ordeal.\u201d<\/p>\n Her husband, Joshua Gault, told KJRH-TV<\/a> that he and his family disembarked from the Norwegian Cruise Lines<\/a> Encore on Friday in Ketchikan to attend a lumberjack show.<\/p>\n When they tried to board the bus to return to the ship, they were turned away.<\/p>\n Cailyn Gault said non-ticketed passengers from another ship had taken their seats on the dedicated excursion bus. The driver, rather than collecting everyone\u2019s tickets, had simply done a head-count.<\/p>\n \u201cWe go to get on the bus and one of the attendees is like, \u2018The bus is full, and, you know, you got to wait for the next bus,’\u201d Joshua Gault said.<\/p>\n\n Unfortunately, they learned too late that there was no \u201cnext bus.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe reached out to the Port Authority to let them know we were left behind by the excursion operator, and they sent a van to retrieve all 9 of us at the designated pick up location,\u201d Cailyn wrote in her post.<\/p>\n However, \u201cjust minutes from port, our driver got a call that the ship refused to wait and pulled the gangway. \u201d<\/p>\n Her husband called the predicament \u201ca nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSix kids on board, minor children, and a 78-year-old mother-in-law, all on medication. We all had to quit cold turkey medication<\/a> these last few days because it was all on the cruise ship,\u201d Gault told KJRH.<\/p>\n The ship\u2019s next stop was in Canada, but because they didn\u2019t all have their passports, they were unable to intercept it at that port.<\/p>\n Since the next stop after that was the final destination on the cruise<\/a>, the Gaults had little choice but to make their way home.<\/p>\n It was another huge financial and logistical challenge to make last-minute travel arrangements for nine people.<\/p>\n \u201cTo add insult to injury, NCL charged our credit cards $8,500 in port fines,\u201d Cailyn Gault added.<\/p>\n That turned out to be a charge of $971 per passenger for missing the ship, she said.<\/p>\n This was on top of the $30,000 the family had paid for the cruise, they said.<\/p>\n While the Gaults made it home, Joshua Gault told KJRH that some members of the family now have COVID. \u201cWe\u2019re unhealthy and beaten down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Norwegian Cruise Lines provided a statement to KJRH, saying they had asked a port agent to help arrange a hotel for the family in Ketchikan and flights to Seattle.<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n The cruise line also said, they have \u201cinitiated the process to refund the family\u201d for the fines they were charged, which they said were \u201cimposed by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol<\/a>, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n The cruise line said it will give the family a pro-rated refund for the two cruise days missed.<\/p>\n \u201cAs 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.\u201d<\/p>\n This article appeared originally on The Western Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post Nightmare: Family of 9 Left Abandoned in Alaska, Forced to Pay $9K to Cruise that Ditched Them<\/a> appeared first on The Gateway Pundit<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An Oklahoma family\u2019s dream vacation turned into a nightmare last week after their cruise ship set sail without<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n