I write this in the hopes that you can share this information with co-workers, supervisors and the cruise line itself so that no one ever need experience the disaster that was our cruise again.

We sailed on the Norwegian Star from Honolulu on Sunday March 9th. Our cruise began well, the ship was lovely, our room was large, and the staff was excellent. Personally I could have done without the cruise’s continuous persistence on spending money such as offering Evian water at dinner at $3.00 a bottle, charging for soft drinks at the restaurant, cover charges at some of the restaurants and the constant urging to buy “Krak-It’s” during Bingo. There was also the constant reminder of art auctions going on aboard the ship, of specials on jewelry for sale, and the reminder notices to sign up early for the next cruise. The Freestyle Daily which would gave us our itinerary would average 6 to 8 pages in length, two of which were actual itinerary, the rest being advertisements.

This of course pales in comparison to what I am going to now narrate, but I thought it best that we dispense with the minor inconveniences first. Our first 2 days on the cruise went as expected. We arrived at Hilo, took a nice excursion and spent the next day at sea.

Our troubles began on Wednesday March 12th when we arrived to Fanning Island. My wife and I were one of the first aboard the tenders (i.e. motorized shuttles) going to shore. We were only preceded by some of the crew who were setting up for the island luau and a prearranged shore excursion. We stayed on the island for about 45 minutes and my wife wanted to leave after it began to rain. We then got in line at the dock to board one of the tenders. Two other tenders were waiting to unload incoming travelers.

On the tender behind the craft we were boarding was a crewman who we would later come to know as Percival. He was standing, his back to us, on the outside of the railings. I did not see the first part of the accident but was alerted to the situation when I heard the sounds of screaming coming from the water. At the same time people were yelling: “cut the motor! Cut the motor!” The sounds of screaming women could not muffle Percival’s screams, which were inhuman.

Apparently the vessel’s pilot had quickly gunned the motor to keep stable. This knocked Percival into the water and under the ship where the rotors shredded his legs. He popped back up out of the water because of his life jacket. I saw him bobbing in the water and soon he stopped moving. He had gone into shock. An islander swam to his aid, and later a passenger. He floated in the water for what seemed like 5 minutes before the first Norwegian crewman came to his aid. The crewman was on an inflatable launch and he tried to fish Percival out of the water with a hook the way one scoops leaves out of pool. We were then ushered into our tender and were whisked away, mercifully not having to see the condition of his lower body before he was pulled to safety.

I should add that I am a vocational counselor. My job is to assist those that have been injured to seek employment within their capabilities. I therefore am well aware of the safety procedures of various businesses. I don’t know if Percival should have been standing outside the ship as he was at the time of injury, but if that was his post, I don’t understand why he was not tethered to the vessel. This would have prevented him from going overboard. Also, the water was fairly calm and his vessel could not go forward until ours had left, so I don’t know why the tender captain gunned his motor. Lastly, I could not believe that Percival was not attended to by a Norwegian crewman until a full 5 minutes after the accident. Clearly there were other crewman in each of the three tenders near the dock, and yet his rescuers were an island native and a passenger.

Upon getting back to the ship, an announcement was made that we were leaving as soon as all the other vessels had returned. A few minutes after that, another announcement came requesting anyone with medical experience, specifically surgeons, to report to the medical bay; a few minutes after that, an announcement requesting blood donors with O negative blood. I do not know my blood type, but I offered to donate. Amazingly the ship does not have a way to test blood. They were asking for O negative because that is the universal donor type. The Norwegian Star was administering blood to a crewman on the faith that the donors were certain of their blood type and that the blood was not tainted.

The ship took off so quickly, that it left a passenger behind on Fanning Island, necessitating the ship to stop and send a tender to pick up the stranded passenger. Also there was the rumor, which I cannot substantiate in person that a boy nearly drowned on the beach that same day, again only to be saved by the island natives.

Once the ship was fully loaded, the Captain, Tommy Stensur announced that he would be going at top speed back toward the Hawaiian Islands. He estimated that in about 8 hours he would be close enough for a helicopter to pick up the wounded crewman and take him to safety. It was under this assumption that we went to sleep that night.

The next morning, I awoke and went to breakfast. I met a passenger named Pam who said that the ship had turned around last night after 8 hours of travel and was heading back towards The Fanning Islands. She explained that a helicopter had reached The Norwegian Star, but that the waters were too choppy, and therefore a rescue too risky. The rescue was aborted and now the ship was headed to Christmas Island, which had a landing strip. A plane would be waiting on the island to fly Percival to a hospital. By this point, he had been under the ships medical care for 24 hours. I didn’t believe Pam at first, but sure enough, a full hour later, Captain Stensur confirmed everything Pam said; with the exception of one crucial detail: Pam explained that Christmas Island is 4 hours away from Fanning Island. I was flabbergasted. Why hadn’t Captain Stensur headed for Christmas Island in the first place? That decision could have cost Percival his life, and cost us ever seeing Kauai.

What should have been a total of 2 days at sea turned out to be almost four. We were at sea on Tuesday, most of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. On Friday came the announcement that Percival had survived the ordeal and his legs did not need to be amputated. The ship’s Cruise Director proudly announced that the right thing had been done and had it been any of us, they would have done the same thing; that life is simply “just too precious.” How Norwegian has the audacity to make such sanctimonious self-congratulatory remark is beyond me. Percival is alive despite the numerous errors by the crew and its staff. It was the passengers that he owes his life to. I can’t fathom that a multi-million dollar vessel whose passengers average over the age of 50 do not have adequate medical provisions for blood donation, a large enough medical staff, safety procedures for their crew or adequate contingency plans for emergencies. To add insult to injury they offered to take off $200 from our ship’s tab for our “inconvenience.” This was not requested and quite frankly insulting.

It’s now Saturday. We arrive at Maui a day late. Our excursion is moved from 2:15 pm to 3:15. Coincidentally, I ran into Pam again that morning and she tells me with no hesitation that the shore excursions will be canceled in Maui that afternoon. That there is no way the ship will dock on time. Stupidly, I don’t believe her. That afternoon we convene at the meeting area to go on our excursion. We are kept waiting for 45 minutes before the announcement comes, canceling all but 2 shore excursions. Pam had told me this a full 8 hours before it happened, and if she knew it, Norwegian knew it. They herded us like cattle with the false hope that we would have our excursion and then stole that away as well. In total we spent from around 4:30 pm to 8 pm on shore. Although the ship did not sail until midnight it was ludicrous to stay out any later. It got dark at six, shops were closing at eight, and the last shuttle from Lahaina to the boat left at nine.

On the last day of our cruise arriving back at Oahu, we left for our second excursion. We were led to the buses and informed that our luggage would be placed in the bus and would accompany us on the tour until we got to the airport. Fortunately, we asked around first and were then informed that we had to get our own luggage, load it on the bus and then take the tour. Had we not asked, our luggage would still be in Hawaii.

There’s not much more to tell, other than we spent a total of around 12 hours on land. Norwegian cost us ever seeing Kauai, prevented us from hardly spending any time in Maui, insulted us with a pathetic “reimbursement” for our inconvenience and then patted themselves on the back for a job well done. I strongly urge you in the future to advise your customers against ever setting sail with Norwegian. Speaking personally, this was the first vacation we had taken in nearly 8 years and I don’t know when we will have the opportunity to take another. I can regale you with the sad stories I heard from others who traveled 10, 15 hours or more, who saved for years for “the vacation of a lifetime,” but I think you get the picture. It’s certainly a vacation I won’t forget in my lifetime.

Mario Mendez