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American Morning

Passengers Head Home After Canceled Cruise

Aired May 29, 2001 - 11:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Remember those cruise ship passengers stuck in Miami? The cruise line had hoped to fix a sprinkler problem and still set sail for the Caribbean. Well, there's been a change of plans.

CNN's Miami bureau chief John Zarrella joins us now from the port of Miami, with the latest.

John, I understand they got free drinks. They probably feel like they're sailing anyway?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: You're right, a lot of them were still feeling pretty happy when they were getting off the cruise ship this morning. But I have to tell you today they were supposed to be in Grand Cayman, snorkling off Seven Mile Beach, and instead, they're boarding these buses behind us, the 2,000 passengers on board Norwegian Cruise Lines, and they're heading back to Miami International Airport. For most of them, it's the end to a cruise to nowhere.

Late last night, NCL decided to cancel the cruise, rather than reduce its length of time any further, simply because they could not get the repairs mandated by the United States Coast Guard finished in time. So they said that they would go ahead and just refund the people their money.

Lots of passengers are disembarking today. As you might expect, there were many people who were not very happy with the cruise lines, and then there were others who said they'd give NCL another chance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We still had our hopes up we were going to cruise, but we didn't make it that far.

[laughter]

ZARRELLA: You're going to take them up then on the free cruise? Are you happy with the way they handled the situation for you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes we are, yes we are. They did it very nice and smooth and treated us as well, so we're going to give them another shot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Disgusted, yes. They're going to give us a free cruise. I won't go on this line again for free.

ZARRELLA: You're not happy, then?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I'm not happy.

ZARRELLA: A lot of the passengers said they took care of them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well they did do that. They gave us free beverages and all that stuff. I feel sorry mostly for the crew because those poor guys didn't get their usual tips. The complimentary bar was nice for the passengers, but of course, staff didn't get their automatic 15 percent on the bill, because there was no bill. And those pour guys are working their tails off, trying to feed all these thirsty freeloaders like me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: You can see passengers there behind us getting on the taxis and loading up their luggage, obviously disappointed. The cruise line is paying their transportation to and from wherever they came from, and also paying any incidentals and giving them a free future cruise. But as you heard from that one gentlemen, he's not sure he'd take even the freebie, although he said his wife would probably talk him into it.

Norway is scheduled to leave again on Sunday, and NCL officials say that they are fully confident that they will be able to have the repairs completed in the very near future. There should not be any problem with that cruise that leaves on Sunday. They say they expect the Coast Guard to sign off on the repairs at any time now, but it would have shortened the cruise too much to have tried to go and to leave later today.

So again, the cruise is canceled, and the people are going home.

This is John Zarrella, reporting live from the port of Miami.

PHILLIPS: John, thanks so much.

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