Norwegian Forced to Cancel Mid-Cruise Due to Grounding

Table Of Content

• Watch: Stowaways survive 14 days at sea clinging to a ship rudder
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• Norwegian cruise ship with 206 people onboard runs aground in Greenland
• I Spent 7 Days on My First Adults-Only Virgin Voyages Cruise
• Damage to Norwegian Escape is Being Assessed
• The unexpected link between imperiled whales and Greenland's melting ice
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Madsen said the passengers were “a mix” of tourists from Australia, New Zealand, Britain, the United States and South Korea. The Norwegian Escape, operated by Norwegian Cruise Line runs aground in the Dominican Republic while departing. Local media said The Norwegian Escape was on its way to the US Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands. Wild for the Cruise Lines International Association, there were 13 minor incidents involving stranding or grounding between 2009 and 2019. The incident was a reminder of the cruise woes — fires, rough weather, overboard cases and norovirus outbreaks — that dominated headlines before the pandemic moored the global fleet in March 2020. Cruise lines have been sailing again from the United States since last summer with coronavirus precautions in place.

Watch: Stowaways survive 14 days at sea clinging to a ship rudder

Alpefjord is about 240 kilometers (150 miles) from the closest settlement, Ittoqqortoormiit, which is nearly 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) from the country’s capital, Nuuk. It said the cruise ship and its passengers will now travel to a port where the damage to the vessel’s bottom can be assessed, and the passengers will be taken to a location from where they can be flown home. Other passengers may face the stress of becoming stranded in remote locations through no fault of their own. Last September, more than 200 people got stuck in a remote part of Greenland after their cruise ship ran aground.

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The line did not say what damage, if any, the vessel may have sustained after striking the bottom of the harbor on Monday afternoon. The vessel is now operated by Australia-based Aurora Expeditions, which had no immediate comment on Thursday's developments. Officials hope Norwegian Escape, stranded off the north coast of the Dominican Republic, can be refloated at high tide. Passengers were escorted off for "tourist activities" while officials inspected the ship for damage. Multiple agencies worked through the night to refloat the ship using tugboats and the ship’s own propulsion, according to the Dominican Republic’s Navy. Often, a local harbor pilot with experience in a particular port will guide a ship as it enters or leaves a port; it was not clear whether one was aboard the Escape when it struck the bottom.

Norwegian cruise ship with 206 people onboard runs aground in Greenland

Cmdr. Brian Jensen of the Joint Arctic Command told Greenland broadcaster KNR that the ship is likely to go to Iceland, the closest place with large ports. A TikTok video showed the couple waving and begging the crew to wait for them, even though the gangway appeared to have already been removed. According to WPDE, the group flew to Gambia on Sunday, hoping to rejoin the ship at another port. It added that the deadline to return was "communicated broadly" over the ship's intercom, in printed communications, and on posts shown at the exits of the ship. They were refused entry to the ship upon their return, according to WPDE, even though they could still see the ship from the shore. The Campbells said they were frequent cruisers, embarking on Norwegian Dawn on March 20 for their third voyage with the cruise line in a year.

The ships’ tasks include fisheries inspections, environment protection, search and rescue, sovereignty enforcement, icebreaking, towage and salvage operations and carry out police tasks. Cruise Radio prioritizes well-balanced cruise news coverage and accurate reporting, paired with ship reviews and tips. Damage is being assessed to Norwegian Escape while docked in Taino Bay, Puerto Plata after the ship ran aground on Monday. According to local media, the ship is the Norwegian Escape, with some 3,000 tourists and 1,600 crew on board. Norwegian Escape is a large cruise ship with 164,600 gross tons and a guest capacity of over 4,200 at double occupancy, along with 1,730 international crew members.

Investigators probably would review logs and interview everyone involved to see what they were doing at the time, and check that information was entered correctly in an electronic chart display system. “We’ll get a hotel room, on our dime,” said Wills, a public relations strategist from Washington, D.C., who has a flight home scheduled Saturday. He said neither his insurance provider nor a cruise line representative reached by phone had answers; he was awaiting a call back from a manager Friday afternoon. Then, for days after the Norwegian Escape was refloated early Tuesday morning, passengers waited on board as it sat in port and wondered when they would be able to leave.

Cruise Ship Runs Aground In Greenland Fjord, No Injured - Barron's

Cruise Ship Runs Aground In Greenland Fjord, No Injured.

Posted: Tue, 12 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Damage to Norwegian Escape is Being Assessed

Passenger Laura Smith said her family cruise on the Norwegian Escape turned into a nightmare of a trip. One, who goes by the Twitter handle, The Disney Dude, gave an update that suggested the ship will be waiting for high tide in the morning to move. The primary mission of the Joint Arctic Command is to ensure Danish sovereignty by monitoring the area around the Faeroe Islands and Greenland.

Norwegian did not respond to questions about what caused the ship to run aground.

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Jay and Jill Campbell, from Garden City, South Carolina, described their ordeal with a Norwegian Cruise Line ship in an interview with WPDE, their local ABC affiliate. "As Viking Sky did not comply with the applicable safety standards, it should not have departed Tromsoe under the prevailing circumstances,” the report said. Dutch authorities said they want to control a city that is overrun with tourism, in their eyes. Norwegian officials said they have promised a full refund for all the passengers. Smith and her family made it back to the U.S., but then their flight home to Kansas City was canceled, leaving them stranded.

An officer has been on board the ship to carry out "initial investigative steps, which, among other things, involve questioning the crew and other relevant persons on board," it said. Late Friday, the situation got worse for some passengers who remained in the Dominican Republic, according to social media posts and messages to The Washington Post. An officer has been on board the ship to carry out “initial investigative steps, which, among other things, involve questioning the crew and other relevant persons on board,” it said.

A large cruise ship with thousands of passengers on board has been refloated after running aground off the Dominican Republic. The ship was freed by a fisheries research vessel at high tide, said the cruise ship's owner, Copenhagen-based SunStone Ships, and the Joint Arctic Command, which coordinated the operation. COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The luxury cruise ship MV Ocean Explorer was successfully pulled free on Thursday, three days after running aground in Greenland with 206 people on board, authorities and the ship's owner said. A letter from the captain posted Tuesday on Twitter by VanDyke says passengers would get a full refund as well as a credit for a future cruise.

There was no immediate comment from the tour company that organized the trip, Australia-based Aurora Expeditions. The cruise ship ran aground Monday above the Arctic Circle in Alpefjord in Northeast Greenland National Park, the world’s northernmost national park. The park is nearly the size of France and Spain combined, and approximately 80% is covered by an ice sheet.