<HR SIZE=1>HERE IS AN ARTICLE FROM ALOCAL NEWSPAPER HERE IN TAMPA:
They put their cash on the table and pleaded. "Hard eight." "C'mon, ace." And then the cheers and high fives erupted from across the room so loudly that no matter where you were on the casino floor you felt that drop in your chest -- you'd missed your chance. Men in Bermuda shorts waited two and three deep behind the $5 blackjack tables, quietly hoping for someone to lose the $40 they had put down just minutes before. The slots rang with a dull hum. The Ocean Jewel was finally alive.The floating gambling oasis had waited for its maiden voyage since June. It took months to get the ship, besieged by security concerns and a battery of hurricanes, actually out of the port. It took two and a half hours to get the estimated 1,100 passengers out past the imaginary line in the waters to that blessed place where the ocean is nobody's and anything goes.
All that waiting, it would turn out, was only a dry run.
Door-to-door the trip should have taken eight hours. Two to reach international waters from the Port of St. Petersburg, four to gamble, two to get back. Piling onto the ship before the 5 p.m. departure, most passengers were excited. Some had dressed up for the occasion -- long dangling earrings, freshly pressed tuxedoes.
An elderly man with light purple aviators sat smoking in the corner of the Black Pearl, the sports lounge on the sixth deck. "I'm a gambler," said Irving Noutch of St. Petersburg. "I've been excited for it. They've been advertising for months and months."
With the actual gambling still two hours away, the Pearl -- which still sports the reflecting gold poles and pink circular booths from its days as a shipboard disco -- was something of a hot spot.
Nicola Taylor Brown and her sister, Norma, were in town from London, spending the last night of their vacation on the Ocean Jewel. Sitting in the back of the bar, Nicola already had the new John Grisham book out on the table in front of her. She was dubious of the eight-hour cruise.
"Once you're on, you can't get off," said Norma.
The investors of Titan Cruise Lines had waited longer than anyone for this first night. Their venture started more than two years ago and after all of the setbacks this summer, they were excited just to be moving.
John Manner, a major investor in the operation and a member of the company's board of directors, could hardly contain himself as he sat perched on the edge of his chair telling reporters all that he and his partners had planned.
Gambling on the Jewel wouldn't always require an eight-hour commitment. Within the next 10 days, high-speed shuttle boats would take customers out to the ship, which would be parked in international waters. The emblem would be painted on the smokestacks. The deck would be redone.
"We won't see anything for a year [or] a year and a half," Manner said of the return on his investment. "We have to continue to improve our product."
Paul Barbour, the company's chief financial officer, agreed. Dressed in a tuxedo, Barbour said he was eager for the ship to get the "wow effect."
Four-plus hours of gambling later, the croupiers packed the chips away and the ship headed back to shore. A massive line formed in front of the cashier. Those who didn't have any chips to cash in roamed around the ship, looking for somewhere to sit down.
Back in the Black Pearl, Nicola Taylor Brown was in the same spot, her glasses on and her book in hand. Her sister, Norma, slept next to her, using a coat for a blanket. People had found places to sleep throughout the boat, lying mouth agape on slot machines and curled up in corners next to ATMs.
Speaking softly, Brown said she expected better. The food was bad, she said, and the trip was just too long.
Herb Lande, another member of the Titan board of directors, sat alone in the restaurant.
"It's been a great night," he said.
But Lande's hopes for the ship's maiden voyage were about to sink.
At first it seemed like another opening-night glitch, nothing worse than the burst pipe in the bathroom or the crash that downed some ATMs earlier in the evening. But after a half an hour attempting to dock, it was clear that the boat was going nowhere fast.
The ship had taken a bad angle into the dock and now, even though just a few feet from the dock, it couldn't land. High winds prevented the ship from maneuvering. A tugboat was needed. The closest one was in Tampa -- almost two hours away.
A group of people clustered by the exit started to complain. They had been gathered there for nearly two and a half hours, and the air conditioning had faded long ago. It was hot. They were tired. And they wanted off.
"This thing sucks. It really sucks," said Pat Militello, a retired nurse from St. Petersburg.
Other passengers echoed Militello. Some tried to find the humor in the situation.
"The only good thing about the Seminole casino is you know you're getting fucked and you can leave when it's done," one man said.
"If you always wanted to live in a boat," said W.C. Henderson, "now you got the chance."
Near the roulette table, Matt Seward rubbed a wet cloth over the back of Eugene Finch's steaming neck. Finch, Seward's uncle, had recently had surgery and was struggling to outlast the heat -- and the wait. Mocking the company's gift of $10 for use on the ship's slots, Seward asked, "What is 10 bucks gonna do for someone who has a stroke and dies?"
Others, like Deborah Wells, a diabetic, complained that they were going to miss their medication.
Passengers lay around the ship like fallen soldiers in a Civil War re-enactment, ravaged by a 13-hour stint of drinking and gambling. Some employees, having been on their feet for most of the day, continued to hand out water and snacks. Others joined the sleeping soldiers on the battlefield.
Even Howard Steffes Jr., Titan's CEO, seemed exhausted. "It was an inconvenience," he said, clearly relieved after hearing that the tugboat was just minutes away. "It is what it is, and it was a great night."
As people exited, passenger Mike Gaskins looked on and said he didn't blame Steffes, or the boat's pilot. "Things happen every day," he said. "And this is one of those things."
At least one passenger wasn't nearly as forgiving. Due to get on a plane to go back to London in just a few hours, Nicola Taylor Brown had only one word for her last night in America.
"Bollocks."
LOL!bigbet1234 said:
On some of these other boats in Florida I most certainly have been trashed a few times.
However, they are starting a shuttle service to this particular boat that will depart and leave at different times to the main boat.
Good idea and I am not going on this one till this service arrives, which should be very soon.
I understand they do have a sportsbook on this vessel.
