A deadly boat crash caused Port of Miami to be shut down for several hours early Sunday morning, resulting in long delays for hundreds of passengers.
Barnabas Johnson and his pregnant wife had been on their feet, waiting to get on their MSC cruise since 2 p.m. Sunday.
“We’re stuck,” Johnson said. “There’s nothing we can do. We can’t go home. We can't leave. We can’t cancel our trip. We can’t get money back.”
Johnson was one of hundreds of passengers stuck in a sea of people at Port of Miami. He told NBC6 he was supposed to board his cruise ship at 2 p.m., but it kept getting pushed back hour after hour.
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The delay came after a boat crashed into the Fisher Island Ferry, killing one man and sending another to the hospital just before 4 a.m.
Port of Miami was shut down for several hours, but reopened around 6 p.m. Passengers said they were left stuck outside in the heat.
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“People are hungry,” Johnson said. “People are thirsty and they’re telling us that it’s gonna be a long wait.”
“The line is like all over the place,” said another passenger. “You see people cutting other people off, no explanation why.”
Other passengers who returned from their cruises had long waits as well, but to get off their ships.
Thomas Sindoni and his family were supposed to get off their cruise ship at 7 a.m., but didn’t disembark until 8:45 Sunday night.
“They closed the food down, no food, no beverages,” Sindoni said. “They closed down everything.”
Jen and Rick Swartz waited nine hours to get off their Carnival cruise ship.
“We don’t have a flight home,” Rick said. “We missed our flight. We would have been home by now if we would have made our flight.”
“We’re going to a hotel and hope things get better tomorrow.”
Carnival Cruises said they continued to keep their guests updated throughout the day.
NBC6 reached out to MSC Cruises for a statement, but haven’t received a response yet.
