Thread: Couple Left in Colombia During Panama Canal Cruise - What would you do?

Recently, an older couple took an NCL cruise via the Panama Canal. The gentle came down with what appeared to be symptoms of norovirus. When on board treatment didn't seem to be helping the passenger, they were dropped off in Cartegena and admitted to a local clinic.

Apparently, NCL made no attempt to contact the son of the couple who was listed as an emergency contact. It was days until a frantic call from his mother until he learned of his parents whereabouts.

But in an NCL statement, the cruise line says the Colemans had a chance to call their son: "Prior to disembarking the vessel, the ship's Guest Service personnel assisted Mr. and Mrs. Coleman with packing their belongings and making arrangements for their transfer to the hospital. At that time, the couple were given the option to contact their family via phone before disembarking, but chose not to."

You can go here for some more video news segments and information: Norwegian Cruise Lines responds after sick, elderly couple is left in Colombia | wtsp.com

But do come back and tell us - DO you think NCL could have handled this situation differently? What would you have done were you in these passengers' place?

Let us know!

That is scary!!

Yes -- NCL could have handled this way differently!!

And to be stuck in Cartegena of all places.

I don't like that port!!

I'm sure NCL are looking back to see if things could be handled differentlyand it's a really difficult situation because as a Purser my experience is that you always are trying to ensure that for medical debark guests they are taken care the best you can. You pack luggage, you make phone calls, you escort the guests of the ship. I would be surprised if an option to call was not offered.

There are a whole lot of factors here, the main one being whether or not the phone call was actually offered on board to what level of contact the emergency team and the ship's agent had with the guests after their disembarkation From my experience with Carnival I can say that the Chief Purser has to fill out a about a five or six page report to go to head office for any medical debark and that then goes to a 24 hour emergency reponse team who monitor the situation. I'm sure NCL would have a similar team in place.

As to whether NCL should have contacted the son, well I have to say that I totally understand them not doing so if there was one healthy member of the partnership. An emergency contact would only be called in that situation, if both people were incapacitated unless one person had made a request that they be contacted. Also knowing my lovely grandparents if they were in a similar situation they of course would say not to call us so as not to upset us,they are also fiercely independent at 90 years and would figure it out themselves. It may be that things escalated to a point the lady did not know how to handle things on land and then this is whilst she called her son after a period of time.

I think that there is a definitely something to perhaps look at to how the situation was handled on land so that the lady of the couple was not confident in the way things were going and why were they still thereafter a period of time, but also the question is why the call was placed so late by herself and perhaps was she not 100% capable in making that decision due to her age - which then places the ship in a difficult decision - do they now need to assess the mental health of people travelling with them? One couple aged 80 can be very different in their mental and physical health compared to another couple aged 80 - how do you differentiate? In older couples there can be one member of the couple who is in better health and makes the majority of decisions - what happens if that person is the person incapacitated?

How do you think the ships should manage such a judgement call?

A true can of worms for the cruiseline. I sympathize with the pax and the cruiseline.

It might be interesting to see how this plays out. Evidently they had purchased trip insurance from the cruise line but it was not used at the time. The report says that the NCL port agent saw the couple in Columbia each day they were there. There maybe could have been better communication between the agent and NCL in Miami if they could not tell the son where his parents were.

This does raise an interesting question in regards to leaving older passengers in foreign countries. This appears to be a case where the cruise line should have notified the emergency contact of the situation.

We'll probably never know the real story, but it sure sounds like there was miscommunication between the wife & the cruise line. Maybe she thought it was the cruise line's responsibility to call and they thought it was her responsibility since they asked and she declined they didn't want to go against her wishes?

I can't imagine not calling someone back home to let them know I was no longer going to be on board the ship though? Whether Guest Services offered the option or not. We had an emergency situation while on a land vacation before and once the people involved were taken care of and it was a reasonable hour, both DH and I called our parents to let them know what happened and that our plans were changing.

Originally Posted by Blizzard

It might be interesting to see how this plays out. Evidently they had purchased trip insurance from the cruise line but it was not used at the time. The report says that the NCL port agent saw the couple in Columbia each day they were there. There maybe could have been better communication between the agent and NCL in Miami if they could not tell the son where his parents were.

This does raise an interesting question in regards to leaving older passengers in foreign countries. This appears to be a case where the cruise line should have notified the emergency contact of the situation.

Yes, it does raise an interesting question.

I tend to feel the cruise line should have notified the emergency contact.

It sounds like NCL and their port agent did everything they could for them. Not sure why they are complaining now? If they declined the phone call, then what more could the cruise line do?

I am never sure of NCL and their true attitude towards passengers. There have been too many stories of badly handled situations as far as they are concerned.

I haven't been with them for years and don't intend to as there are certainly better cruise lines out there with whom to travel.

Having had the experience of being admitted to hospital whilst on a cruise and later being able to reboard the ship five days later in a different country I know how much a cruise line can do to facilitate your wellbeing and I would consider that NCL did little in their case. Lucy

Having worked for Southwest Airlines, I know what the airline would have done. First, they would have monitored the couple UNTIL they got back home. Second, they would make sure every possible thing was taken care of until the couple made it back home.

Too many people do not know what to do in unusual cases like this and it should have been the responsibility of the cruise line to go the extra mile to make sure everything was in order.