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Passengers say they were stuck on the Monte Carlo when the boat's midday shuttle service was canceled.
By MATTHEW WAITE
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 18, 2001
PORT RICHEY -- All the gamblers had a reason to get back to shore.
One had a roast in the oven Another had scheduled a visit by a repairman. There were children to be picked up at school. One woman, Beverly Sutherland, expected to hear about her husband's cancer tests.
Just before 2:30 Tuesday afternoon aboard the gambling boat Monte Carlo, all were waiting for the shuttle boat that would ferry them back to the Paradise of Port Richey docks. And Sutherland, despite her worries about her husband, was feeling lucky.
"I felt like a winner because I only lost 30 dollars," she said Wednesday.
She and the other returning passengers were joking with one another about how they had done at the slot machines and blackjack tables.
A few moments later, they all felt like losers.
They were told that the 2:30 shuttle boat had been canceled. They would have to wait for a 4:30 shuttle. Crew members gave no explanation.
Paradise of Port Richey officials said Wednesday that apparently there was some confusion about a shuttle boat schedule change that took effect Monday. Because of the tourist season the 2:30 p.m. shuttle has been scrubbed until spring.
During the tourist season, the boat -- which is permanently anchored in international waters off Port Richey -- fills up early in the day. Because the Coast Guard limits how many people can be on the gambling boat at one time, the company stops running the midafternoon shuttles so that it won't exceed the number of passengers allowed on the boat.
But on Tuesday, passengers who had been told that there was a midday shuttle -- and who were holding old tickets, which employees shouldn't have used, that said there was one -- had to scramble.
Ray Zwicker of Hudson was supposed to pick up his son at school.
"I've got a 7-year-old, and I'm a single father," Zwicker told the Times. "I've got to be back by 3:30."
Instead, he called his 80-year-old mother, got her a cab and sent her to his son's school to pick him up. The woman with the roast called home to get her husband to take it out of the oven.
Bob Stufflet, the assistant operations manager at Paradise of Port Richey, said the company just changed its shuttle schedule Monday. He said there were signs posted, and employees knew about it.
But people used to the midday shuttle were surprised by the cancellation.
"I'm sure that's what happened," he said. "If they were inconvenienced by that, I'm sorry."
Stufflet said that with the change, the company also changed the boarding tickets used to get onto the gambling boat. The old tickets have a return time on it. The new ones don't. Stufflet said employees were told not to use the old tickets.
"They shouldn't have been if they were" using them, he said.
On the gambling boat Tuesday, Sutherland started circulating a petition. She gathered 37 signatures -- which she gave to the Times on Wednesday -- before a casino employee told her to stop.
Sutherland said the employee first said he'd take her off the boat. Sutherland, who later admitted that she was being sarcastic, replied, "What are you going to do, put me in a dingy?"
The man then told her he would take her in handcuffs to the captain, Sutherland said. Having had surgery on her left hand recently, and with it in a splint covered in bandages, Sutherland took that as a threat.
Sutherland said the man then led her by the other hand and made her sit on a stool, near the gangway, until the next shuttle boat came.
"When he took me by the hand and made me sit on a stool, I felt like a bad little girl," said Sutherland, 56. "And at my age, I don't need to feel like a bad little girl."
Stufflet said they've had incidents in which patrons have gotten out of line. He said employees are supposed to fill out an incident report, and both the employee and the passenger are supposed to sign it. He said no report was filed, and he didn't know about the incident.
"I would have gladly filled out a complaint form," Sutherland said.
Sutherland, a Canadian who has spent the past 11 winters in Port Richey, said not being able to get back to the docks when she expected, and then not getting an explanation, angered her.
"It wasn't right," she said. "It wasn't right at all."
While Sutherland sat on the stool, Zwicker got bored and went back into the casino.
"It drove me to the ATM machine to take more out because what are you going to do for two hours?" he said.
Stufflet said he understood why people would be upset.
"If they get stuck out there, they are going to be T'd off, and I understand that," he said. "I'm sorry they were inconvenienced for two hours."
Zwicker, who says he has been on the boat enough times to be a VIP, said he won't be back -- maybe.
"I've said no once before, but I'm going to try not to" return, he said.
- Matthew Waite can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6247 or (800) 333-7505, ext. 6247. His e-mail address is href=mailto:waite@sptimes.com>waite@sptimes.com.