RADIO SILENCE: Couple of octogenarians still abandoned by Norwegian cruise line

An American couple in their 80s, who missed reboarding a Norwegian Cruise Line cruise ship, were once again left to their own devices by the company and were forced to fend for themselves to return to the ship after two days of radio silence.

“We were left at the dock without anyone telling us where to go. They said they had already filed a complaint with the port captain, who was supposed to take care of everything for them. But of course the ship did not contact us for two days, which was not in their favour.”

The man and his wife, Claudine Gordon, 81, had booked themselves places on the Norwegian Cruise Line's Viva Norwegian cruise, which departed from Lisbon, Portugal, to celebrate the American's 85th birthday this week.

Except that on Monday, cruise enthusiasts, with about thirty cruises to go, could have taken part in an independent trip from Motril to the city of Granada, in southern Spain, when their return bus was delayed by floods. Rain, they told the American media.

They then allegedly informed relatives on board at 5:45pm that they were nearby, well aware that the Norwegian cruise ship was due to dock at 6pm. But they did not arrive at the dock until 6:10 p.m.

The problem, according to them, is that their cruise started more than an hour and a half late on the first day, and the anchor was weighed a half-hour after departure during the next two stops, they told CNN.

“So obviously they don't always need to leave exactly on time,” the octogenarian noted. We have never failed to catch a ship on time in port. “We are not people who abuse the system.”

But what he regrets above all is the silence of the company, which allegedly provided no assistance to the couple, leaving them without medication or a battery for their headphones for two days.

It was the couple's daughter, Marilee Parker, who went out of her way to find them a flight from Granada to Palma de Mallorca, where the boat was scheduled to stop on Wednesday, as well as hotels and AirBnBs to accommodate them. in the meantime.

However, by the time of the re-boarding on Wednesday, the company had rolled out the red carpet by sending a BMW limousine to pick up the couple at the hotel, before escorting them to the boat's general manager, and then to lunch: a “royal treatment” according to the octogenarian.

For its part, the company insisted that the couple arrived an hour late at the port, exceeding the deadline to accommodate latecomers, and that it tried to contact them “several times” on their mobile phones, as well as on the emergency number it provided to it. The couple is in vain.

“We were unable to speak to them directly. However, we worked closely with local port officials to make arrangements for guests to join the ship.

The incident comes just one month after eight passengers from another cruise ship were left to fend for themselves on an African island on March 27.