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(CNN) — One month after eight Norwegian Cruise Line passengers They will be stranded in Africa When their ship sailed without them because they were slow to return, an American couple—aged 84 and 81—was also abandoned by the cruise company in Spain.
Richard and Claudene Gordon, of Salt Lake City, Utah, were on a Mediterranean cruise aboard Norwegian Viva with family and friends and were looking forward to celebrating Richard’s 85th birthday later this week.
This Monday, while the ship was docked in Motril, Spain, the couple took an independent excursion to the historic city of Granada, which was not organized by the cruise company. Upon its return, the bus was delayed for an hour due to a storm, Richard Gordon told CNN by phone.
“I’m a very experienced traveler and I’ve probably been on about 30 cruises in my life,” Gordon said. “We’ve never failed to catch a ship on time at a port before. So we’re not ones to abuse the system.”
The couple did not arrive in time at 5:30 p.m. local time to set sail at 6:00 p.m. Gordon said that around 5:45 p.m. he spoke to a relative on board who raised the alarm that they were nearby and late, but Norwegian Cruise Line staff told him that since the ship had to leave on time, nothing could be done.
According to the Gordons, they arrived at the dock by taxi at 6:10 p.m., as the ship set sail with Claudene’s medications, Richard’s glasses, and spare batteries for his hearing aids and phone chargers on board.
“Our cruise began in Lisbon and we set sail approximately an hour and a half after scheduled departure, at 4:00 p.m.,” Gordon told CNN. “Then the next night or two, at least half an hour late from the dock, so clearly they don’t always leave at the exact time scheduled.”
“They looked around and looked around and there was no one,” Marilee Barker, the couple’s Utah-based daughter, told CNN by phone. They took a taxi to the police station, where “the police officer helped them call back to the dock. And they told me: ‘we can’t do anything.'”
The couple says they received no further assistance from Norwegian Cruise Line at that time, either from the ship or ashore.
No medication, no batteries for the hearing aid
“Luckily, my father has traveled, but he is still 85 years old,” says Barker. Since the Norwegian Viva would not dock again until Tuesday on the island of Ibiza, “they took a bus to Granada and found a nice, cheap B&B.”
Meanwhile, Barker says she and her husband spent until 3 a.m. looking for flights and a hotel, and finally managed to catch a plane to Palma de Mallorca, where their boat would dock at 8 a.m. local time on Wednesday. May 1.
Claudene Gordon texted her daughter late Tuesday afternoon Spanish time to tell her that Norwegian Cruise Line had contacted them for the first time since the incident and offered them a taxi from their hotel. from Palma in the morning to reunite them with their boat.
“We really got the royal treatment today,” Gordon told CNN after meeting the ship Wednesday morning, two days after they disembarked in Montril.
“We were picked up at the hotel in a beautiful black BMW limousine to take us to the ship. There we were met by the ship’s head of services, who accompanied us inside the ship to meet with the general manager of the ship, then they accompanied us to breakfast and then to our cabin.
“We just told them that we were marooned on the dock with no one to meet us or tell us where to go, and they told us that they had already complained to the harbor master, who was supposed to take care of them. But of course, the ship “They hadn’t contacted us directly for two days, so that doesn’t speak highly of them.”
Norwegian Cruise Line said it was discussing the couple’s arrival time at the dock. “The two guests who disembarked independently arrived at the dock approximately one hour late and missed the boarding time of 5:30 p.m. local time, departing at approximately 6:00 p.m.,” a spokesperson said via email. electronic.
“A cruise follows a fixed itinerary with designated arrival and departure times. Itineraries are carefully coordinated and planned well in advance of each voyage to ensure that all of our guests have the experience they expect,” they added. Although there is a small window of time to accommodate late guests, the Gordons arrived outside of that window.
“After several attempts to contact these guests via the phone numbers provided, as well as calling their emergency contact, we were unable to speak to them directly. However, we worked closely with local port agents to make arrangements. necessary arrangements for the guests to rejoin the ship.”
The spokesperson said that, prior to the hotel pickup this Wednesday morning, the cruise company had arranged an airport pickup for the Gordons in Palma de Mallorca the night before, but they were still unable to contact the couple on the phone.
In a similar incident last month, eight passengers were delayed returning to their Norwegian Cruise Line ship on the African island of Sao Tome on March 27. They had to fight for days to reach the ship on its journey along the west coast of Africa.
In that case, Norwegian emphasized that the late guests were participating in a private excursion not organized by the cruise company.
— CNN’s Sarah Dewberry contributed to this report.
