Joshua Gault of Oklahoma was, along with his family-of-nine, had joined members of their extended family on an Alaskan cruise above the Norwegian Encore. Despite the entire sixteen -person group spending around thirty thousand dollars for the privilege of voyaging on the ship, Gault and his family were abandoned in a remote corner of Alaska.
According statements made by Gault to KJRH News, the marooning happened after Joshua Gault, his wife, his wife’s mother, and their six-member brood had disembarked for an entertainment event facilitated by Norwegian Cruise Lines: a Lumberjack show in the small Alaskan city of Ketchikan.
As the event was wrapping up, Gault and Mrs. Gault noticed that other cruise members were making a mad dash for the bus, and they followed the crowd. But when they reached the bus, they were told that the vehicle was full and that the family would have to wait for the next shuttle run.
However, the next bus never materialized.
The Gaults believe that the attendant on the bus was not checking ticket stubs, allowing passengers from another cruise ship to board the shuttle and fill it beyond its capacity. After waiting around for a while, the Gaults came to the conclusion that there was no second bus coming, so they called the Port Authority, who sent a van to pick them up. Unfortunately, by the time they reached the docks, their ship had sailed. On board were all their clothes, one of their passports, their prescription medications, and the rest of their belongings. The family was stuck in Ketchikan, three hundred miles from the state capitol of Juneau and over fifteen hundred miles from Anchorage, its biggest city.
Gault described the situation as a “nightmare.” All of his six children and his mother-in-law take daily medication, and there was nothing he could do but watch as it all retreated over the horizon. The lack of a passport meant that they couldn’t drive to Canada and meet the ship at its next port.
