Aftermath of Norwegian Escape Grounding — ‘a Freaking Madhouse’

Posted on by March 20, 2022

A cruise on the Norwegian Escape that sailed from Port Canaveral, Florida last Monday didn’t go well, and for a change, had little to do with Covid 19. On the second day of the cruise, the ship ran aground in high winds at Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, its first port-of-call. 

The good news is that the ship was refloated on Tuesday and there were no reported injuries among the more than 2,000 passengers or the 1,700 member crew. The bad news is that the passengers were stuck aboard the ship for the two days it took to arrange a damage survey and to determine that the hull damage was severe enough to cancel both the current cruise and the next cruise scheduled to begin March 19th.

The Washington Post reported that on Thursday evening passengers were notified that everyone still on the 1,069-foot-long ship would disembark the next day, starting at 4:30 a.m. Long lines for coronavirus tests followed. By Friday morning, social media posts showed hundreds of people standing in line at the Puerto Plata airport after being shuttled from the vessel waiting for charter flights throughout the day. 

In emails and on social media, passengers said there were no representatives from the cruise company at the airport to help travelers who were being flown to Orlando.
 
“They literally dumped us off the ship with no further assistance after that,” one woman wrote on Twitter. “It is a freaking madhouse at the airport.” 

Late Friday, the situation got worse for some passengers who remained in the Dominican Republic, according to social media posts and messages to The Washington Post.

Norwegian Cruise Lines announced that all passengers will receive full refunds and credit for the same amount to apply towards a future cruise with Norwegian Escape.

Thanks to Larry Witmer for contributing to this post.

Comments

Aftermath of Norwegian Escape Grounding — ‘a Freaking Madhouse’ — 4 Comments

  2. “Yes sir we have ten planes ready for you to charter at short notice”
    Aside to colleague: “Don’t tell them they are in Russia – well, where else are they going to find ’em at such short notice. 🙂

  3. Once again now that cruises have resumed something goes wrong on occasions. This results from poor or even bad planning.

    Firstly the vessel is far too big to have Puerto Plata, DR as a port call. Secondly when something does go wrong the Company concerned, in this case Norwegian, does not respond well.

    For those not familiar with maritime management vessel Operating Companies have Agents who specialise in dealing with vessels in all ports of call to handle their affairs locally. So these Agents are the people who should be looking after the passengers from ship to airport or wherever. Of course there should be a “first responder team” from Norwegian to supervise and see that this is done as best as possible particularly when you are dealing with people disappointed, tired, confused by language differences and many no doubt hung over !!

    Thirdly it must have been quite difficult to arrange for planes to transport the 2090 passengers. This where Jean-Pierre comes in with an astute observation; that could well be where the planes had to come from !!

    Good Watch