FILE – The cruise liner Crystal Symphony leaves the harbor in Charleston, S.C. on Could, 21, 2013. Scheduled to land in Miami on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022, the ship, with a whole bunch of passengers aboard, was diverted to the Bahamas after a U.S. choose granted an order to grab the vessel as a part of a lawsuit over unpaid gas. (AP Photograph/Bruce Smith, File)
By Adriana Gomez Licon | The Related Press
MIAMI — A cruise ship that was alleged to dock in Miami sailed to the Bahamas as a substitute after a U.S. choose granted an order to grab the vessel as a part of a lawsuit over unpaid gas.
Cruise trackers present Crystal Symphony presently docked within the Bahamian island of Bimini.
Passengers have been taken by ferry to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday.
“All of us really feel we have been kidnapped by luxurious pirates!” passenger Stephen Heard Fales posted on Fb.
It was unclear what number of passengers have been aboard, with one information outlet reporting 300 and one other, 700. In response to the corporate web site, the vessel can carry as much as 848 passengers.
The ship was scheduled to land in Miami on Saturday. However a federal choose in Miami issued an arrest warrant for the ship on Thursday, a maritime follow the place a U.S. Marshal goes aboard the vessel and takes cost of it as soon as it enters U.S. waters.
Passengers and entertainers mentioned on social media they have been shocked to search out out concerning the authorized case. One visitor posted a letter on Fb from Crystal Cruises Administration that mentioned the change in itinerary was as a result of “non-technical operational points.”
The lawsuit was filed in a Miami federal court docket by Peninsula Petroleum Far East towards the ship beneath a maritime process that enables actions towards vessels for unpaid money owed. The criticism says Crystal Symphony was chartered or managed by Crystal Cruises and Star Cruises, that are each sued for breach of contract for owing $4.6 million in gas.
Crystal Cruises introduced earlier this week that it was suspending operations via late April. Moreover Crystal Symphony, it has two different ships presently cruising, which finish their voyages on Jan. 30 in Aruba and on Feb. 4 in Argentina.
“Suspending operations will present Crystal’s administration crew with a possibility to guage the present state of enterprise and look at numerous choices shifting ahead,” mentioned the corporate in a press release earlier this week.