Garden City couple claims cruise line abandoned them on African island

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WMBF) – A local couple’s dream vacation turned into a nightmare at sea this week.
Jill and Jay Campbell live in Garden City, but are stranded on a small island off the coast of Africa after their cruise ship left without them.
“We were waiting for the tender boats to come back and get us because our boat was anchored off the harbor, but they didn’t come back to get us so we’re stranded here,” said Jay Campbell.
The Campbells were 8 days into a 21-day cruise, which started in South Africa and stopped on the island of São Tomé.
“We were on a tour of the island but we had an issue on the tour and they didn’t get us back in time,” said Jay.
Despite help from the the island’s coast guard the cruise ship refused to let them and several others back on board, leaving some without their money, medicine, vaccination certificates required by immigration, and all other belongings left in their cabins.
We’re told, the Norwegian Dawn has abandoned seven American and two Australian passengers.
The Campbells say several passengers are elderly, one with a heart condition, one a paraplegic, as well as a pregnant woman.
They say one of the elderly passengers is 80 years old and suffered a concussion, multiple injuries and amnesia while on a Norwegian Cruise Lines-sponsored tour of the island.
The Campbell family is now trying to reunite with the ship at another African port, but admit the process has been more complicated than they would have liked.
“We’re trying to get written permission from the cruise line to re-board if we do make it to Gambia,” said Jill Campbell.
Despite the issues, the forgotten passengers are hopeful they can finish their trip.
“We paid a lot for this trip to Africa so we hope to make it through the rest of this trip and end in Spain,” said Jay.
All the passengers have tried reaching out to Norwegian Cruise Line, but have yet to get any help with re-embarking the ship.
“We’ve got our flights booked to Gambia however we don’t know if we’ll be able to get into the country and get back on the ship,” said Jill.
WMBF News has reached out to Norwegian Cruise Lines for comment on the incident, but we have yet to hear back either.
Stay with WMBF News for updates.
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