8 cruise ship passengers stranded in Africa after missing all-aboard

First up in this half hour there a dream vacation for a group of cruise passengers including American tourists turned out to be anything but yeah it all started when they missed the all time during a stop on an island off the coast of Africa they were left behind and they've been racing ever since to catch back up with the ship we're going.

To talk to one of those couples in just a second but first NBC's Kelly cooba has that story for us hey Kelly good morning well guys this was a small group of passengers just six Americans and two Australians they were on a privately run Excursion last Wednesday they were supposed to be back at the ship by 300 p.m. didn't make it and the ship sailed.

Without them Jill and Jay Campbell were on a Dream Cruise sailing the coast of Africa for 21 days with Norwegian Cruise Lines visiting the small island of saome off the coast of Nigeria on day 8 when they missed the boat we were on a a tour of the island we had an issue on the tour that they didn't get us in time.

According to the couple the tour operator notified the captain that they were going to be late rejoining the group they say the Island's Coast Guard tried to get them along with several others to the ship but they say they weren't allowed to board they're now part of a number of foreigners stranded including a husband and his pregnant.

Wife from Delaware 80-year-old Julia lenov was on a different day tour she's a world traveler she travels all the time and um so this was going to be one of her bucket list trips because she's been been to 120 countries so far and she wanted to like get to 130 lenov collapsed apparently suffering a stroke the cruise line says she was medically.

Disembarked to receive treatment locally adding they tried to contact her but couldn't reach her the Campbell helped her connect with her family back in California who flew her home they really did save her life Norwegian Cru lines told NBC news that the Campbell situation was very unfortunate saying guests are responsible for ensuring they.

Return to the ship at the published time but added the guests were on a private tour cruise ships are strict about their boarding times with passengers often rushing to get back on board lov's family flew her back to California where she's now getting treatment the Campbell and other stranded passengers are still trying to catch up with the ship and.

Norwegian has also said that the campell's passports were delivered to local agents in sa the ship is now in Sagal this morning and the company says the passengers have been given the authorization to rejoin the ship today the company says they remain in contact with the passengers and are providing information as it becomes available guys.

Kelly thank you we actually have Jay and Jill Campbell with us they are there in Sagal Jill I was wondering what it has been like since you were left behind how have you been navigating you and these other passengers in a foreign country some of you without the credit cards that you need without key medication what has this ordeal been like and and.

Jay you jump in here too as well absolutely yeah so first and foremost the the lovely people of song T were very gracious very hospitable uh they they had reached out as much as they could to help facilitate you know helping us find um hotels we were able to get to a a tour agency there to arrange uh flights to the next a call um.

And also that's where we met Julia that's when we we were able to run into her and and then try to accommodate getting her out of the country um and put her in contact with her daughter so you know it's a very very difficult process you're dealing with multiple languages language barriers you're dealing with different um currencies.

Currency exchanges finding someone that even has dollars taking dollars the minimum amount that we had trying try to convert them to Local currency um trying to get a an agent to understand where we need to get to and you it's one of those you can't get there from here I think we flew through six countries just to get to The Gambia.

Yesterday right so that's where it's been for the last uh couple days we've flown it's actually seven countries we've been in in 48 hours uh to get from s and now to senagal to to meet the ship J and Jill when like when do you expect to be on the ship and home well we are um considering whether or not we are going to board the ship it is in dock.

Here in Sagal we arrived late last night the ship arrived this morning at 700 a.m. is it because you don't feel comfortable getting on that ship or or why exactly after what we've witnessed um I mean we we truly believe that you know although there's a set of rules uh policies that the ship may may have followed they follow those rules too.

Rigidly I I believe that they really forgot that they are people working in the hospitality industry and um that really the safety is and the well-being of their customers should be their first priority wow and and that should be placed first um we we believe there was a basic duty of care that they had forgotten about uh so it does concern us.

All right thank you very much for sharing your time and so sorry that you've had to go through all of this but keep us posted we do thank you thank you thank you take care a lot to go through there hey thanks for watching don't miss the Today show every weekday at 11:00 a.m. eastern 8 Pacific on our streaming.

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