A cruise vacation through Alaska turned into a travel nightmare for one Oklahoma family who got stranded without their belongings after a mishap with a local excursion caused them to miss their ship's boarding window.
The Gault family, including six young kids and a 78-year-old grandmother, are now safely back home from Ketchikan. They had disembarked from the Norwegian Encore on Friday, July 12 to see a lumberjack show that they booked through the cruise line.
"When you talk about cruise nightmares this is the definition of it," Joshua Gault told "Good Morning America" of the incident.
He said when they tried to get back to the ship, the local tour operator had told them to wait for the next bus. But that bus never arrived. The family said they called the local port agent who rushed them to the ship, only to see it already pulling away from the dock with their belongings, including some of their passports.
"I was in shock, like utterly shocked," he said, recalling thinking at the time, "Are they really doing this right now?"
The Gaults said they quickly reached out to Norwegian. His wife, Cailyn Gault, told "GMA" that "the people that I was speaking with were so empathetic, they were apologetic -- they're like, what do you need?"
The family said they had to cover the cost of their own food and hotel and find their own way back to Oklahoma -- a journey that included sleeping on airport floors.
"It was completely overwhelming," Cailyn Gault said.
The family said they estimate the unplanned change cost them more than $21,000 just to get home, which included nearly $9,000 in customs fees for missing a stop in Canada. They said Norwegian is working with them to make it right.
"I think we are on a right path as far as both agreeing that something bad really happened here," Joshua Gault said.
A spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Line told ABC News in an emailed statement that the company "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."
NCL said it has "initiated the process to refund the family for the fee imposed by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, 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."
Additionally, the cruise line representative told ABC News that "these guests will be receiving a pro-rated refund for the two cruise days they missed."
"As 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% discount of their cruise fare that can be used towards their next voyage," the spokesperson said.
Experts say if you leave your cruise ship for an excursion, always bring a government-issued photo ID and the name and number of the port agent, who is the best person to help travelers who may run into trouble.
"The port agent is the cruise line's representative in that port," Stewart Chiron, founder of The Cruise Guy, said. "In this case, contacting the port agent was the best move because they would be able to contact the ship."
