April 19: Good Friday turned miserable for more than 800 people whose cruise to Key West and the Bahamas was abruptly canceled.
Most of the 831 people who had booked the four-day trip were already on board the Regal Empress when they heard the news.
Albert Lalonde said he suspected something was awry when crew members told him the special charge card he had bought to buy drinks and other items on the ship was no longer good - only cash would do.
Then, a little after 3 p.m., an announcement over the speaker system said that U.S. Marshals had seized the ship and the cruise was canceled.
"I didn't believe it at first. I thought it was a joke,'' Lalonde said. "Some joke.''
The ship was docked over a dispute between Regal Cruises and Motor-Services Hugo Stamp, a Fort Lauderdale company that repairs and maintains large ship engines.
David Sockol, an attorney for Motor-Services, said the company had filed a lawsuit in federal court Thursday against Regal Cruises. The cruise company owes Motor-Services $750,000 for work performed this year, Sockol said.
Motor-Services gave Regal an opportunity to cover the debt with a bond, but Regal couldn't do it, he said. Motor- Services placed a lien on the Regal cruise ship Friday and federal officials "arrested'' the ship, preventing it from leaving, Sockol said.
"It was not our intention to inconvenience or disappoint the passengers,'' he said. "But we risked not getting paid at all if we didn't take drastic measures. There was just no other way to do it.''
Sockol said concerns about the financial health of Regal Cruises also prompted the seizure.
A Regal Cruise spokesman denied the company was having money problems and said he and others were caught completely off guard.
"We had no advance warning. It was a total surprise,'' said Larry Cross, vice president of operations for Regal Cruise.
The Palmetto-based company owns one ship, the 54-year-old Regal Empress, said Ron Ardis, vice president of marketing.
In January, four engines broke down after the ship was filled with bad fuel. The ship was docked for two weeks while Motor-Services got the engines running. The dispute is over those repairs.
A 10-day cruise scheduled to leave Monday was also canceled, Cross said.
"This will affect us, but we'll get over it,'' he said.
People who booked Friday's cruise will be offered the choice of taking another, longer cruise, or getting their money back, Cross said.
That promise didn't engender a lot of confidence in the disheartened passengers leaving the cruise ship Friday. A number immediately called their credit-card companies to cancel payment on the cruise.
Tyrone and Barbara Taylor said they drove down Thursday from Largo and stayed in a local hotel overnight. That money's gone - now they're worried about the $540 they paid, by check, for the cruise.
"This is very disappointing. We were really looking forward to this trip,'' Tyrone Taylor said. "It's not right.''
Crystal River resident Sue LaPorte took the canceled trip in stride.
"When you put this in perspective, with everything that's going on in the world, this is not that bad,'' she said.
Things got tense when dozens of passengers began banging on the glass doors separating them from their baggage. The group began chanting "We want our bags! We want our bags!''
A couple of Manatee County sheriff's deputies were called to calm the crowd, which included many who were served drinks during the two hours they stayed on the ship while officials unloaded baggage. The passengers were then allowed to retrieve their bags.
Regal officials called in tour buses to take people back to Tampa International Airport and other places in the area from where they had come.
