Stranded Cruise Passengers Return
About 1,000 passengers on a luxury liner that ran aground in the Delaware Bay crossed a gangplank Monday night to a ferry that brought them back to land, the Coast Guard said.
Nearly two days after the cruise had been scheduled to end, the ferry Delaware pulled alongside the 642-foot Regent Star, and passengers transferred to it, the Coast Guard said.
As the cheering passengers arrived on shore, buses waited to take them back to their cars at airports and bus stations in the Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and New York City areas.
The ship got stuck on a sand bar early Sunday after a small fire knocked out power. It was carrying 1,360 people, about 300 of whom were crew members.
Nobody was in danger during the two days atop the sand bar, the Coast Guard said.
The Regent Star, sitting a mile off Fortescue, N.J., had been in the final leg of a seven-day cruise from Montego Bay, Jamaica, when it ran aground.
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