O.J.: The Cruise : It was a fantasy come true for Simpson case junkies. There were analyses, seminars, a mock trial, even the chauffeur. For most, the only drawback was that it had to end.

Wearing a frayed, over sized sailor’s hat, her round face flushed with anticipation, Betty Lee Silverstein of Roanoke, Va., settles into her cabin and resumes watching The Trial.

She had to leave off long enough to travel from her home to the dock in San Pedro and to pass through customs. But now that she’s tuned in again, nothing--nothing!--is going to interrupt her.

Not Kathie Lee Gifford singing, “If They Could See You Now.” Not the ship setting sail. Not even the mandatory passenger safety briefing and life jacket fitting at her designated muster station.

It may be the “Fun Ship” for some, but for Betty Lee Silverstein and about a hundred other tortured souls, this voyage is not about rum swizzle parties or topless sunbathing or shopping for silver in Ensenada.

It is about bloody gloves and slit throats, mysterious disguises and thumps in the night, missing cutlery and melting ice cream.

Welcome to O.J.: The Cruise.

On a 46,000-ton luxury liner bound for Baja, Mexico, the faithful, who paid from $500 to $800 each, are spending three days thinking, debating, breathing the trial.

Here is Allan Park, the chauffeur of Simpson’s limousine the night of the murders. “A lot of people confuse me with Kato ‘cause I’ve got the blond hair. But, as you see, my hair is cut shorter and I speak more clearly.”

And here is Stan Goldman, the broad-shouldered Loyola Law School professor known for his colorful trial analyses on “Geraldo!” ABC Radio and in the New York Daily News.

Not here are the promised ex-jurors. Or maybe they are on board, sequestered in their cabins.

Kato was hoped for, but turned out to be too expensive. Marcia, Chris, Bob and Johnnie couldn’t get away. And O.J., of course, remains indisposed.

But comic Jeff Marder is here to emcee, and civil rights activist and former police commissioner Melanie Lomax is here to keep things serious.

All are officially welcomed--but not until the trial is over for the day--at the ship’s piano bar where an uncomfortable-looking man in a tuxedo sits down to belt out a few songs especially written for the occasion.

To the tune of “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Your Face,” he croons: “I’ve grown addicted to the case / A case of blood and gloves and race. . . .”

Robert Morse likes that one best. Morse, a self-confessed Simpson trial addict from Daly City, is the only legally blind man on board.

“To me, listening to the trial is as natural and important as going to sleep at night and getting up in the morning,” he says. “Somebody said anybody who would spend all day following this trial must lead a very boring life. Well, yeah, I do.”

Morse, who uses a white cane to get around, finds life on the high seas anything but boring. Halfway through the three-day cruise, he trips and cracks his nose on a marble table.

With bloodstains on his shirt and a bandage on his nose, he goes on to give interviews to three TV crews, including one from Germany.

Maureen McCarthy, the woman in the “Remember Nicole” T-shirt, has come on this cruise for a very personal reason.

A registered nurse from Sausalito, McCarthy bought her ticket with money a court ordered her ex-boyfriend to pay her after he beat her up.

She says she is pleased with the symmetry of it all.

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Promoted (hyperbolically, some say) as “The Trial of the Century” study-tour and cruise, the trip is the brainchild of Jane Doctor, owner of the Ultimate Event in Encino, and Stevie Friedman of Around the World Travel in Tarzana.

Both say they worried at first about the seemliness of such an event. The notion of a cruise based on--and, even profiting from--the deaths of two innocent people certainly shocks.

But, as Doctor explains, “It was clear that there were many people out there who desperately wanted--needed--to get together with others who were being affected in the same strong way by the trial. This seemed like a good way to make that possible.”

When the cruise was announced early this summer and Doctor began scouting for experts to conduct seminars on board, Los Angeles’ legal community quickly split over the ethics of participating.

On one side were those like former public defenders George and Karen Bird, who decided to take the cruise and use it as a forum to discuss the roles that gender and ethics have played in the trial.

On the other side were those stunned by the apparent tastelessness.

One lawyer recalls the immediate reaction: “I thought, ‘Wait a minute. This is a murder case. How can it get the solemnity it deserves on a ‘Fun Ship’ cruise?’ ”

Another said that if he were to take time off for a vacation, it would not be this one. “All I do now is analyze this case. I want to spend my vacation with people who’ve never heard of O.J.”

But trial analyst and Loyola Law School Professor Laurie Levenson, who had no interest in taking the cruise, says she nevertheless understands why some did.

“So many people have made O.J. their life,” she says. “It is an addiction. And this cruise is the ultimate fix.”

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One evening, the group gathers in the ship’s library and as islands float by outside, members take turns standing to confess how the trial has affected their lives.

One young woman was recently mugged at knifepoint and has found the trial to be a therapeutic distraction.

Another describes how it helps her communicate with “that part in each of us that is really happy when some perfect icon like O.J. suffers an awful tragedy.”

One homemaker admits she hired household help for the first time in her life so she could devote herself full time to the trial. Another says she fired her housekeeper because she was too embarrassed to be seen “doing nothing but O.J.”

Betty Ann Stedman of Houston shares her secret fascination with trials that began years ago when she wrote a dissertation on the famed Loeb and Leopold murders.

“I’ve served on 13 juries,” Stedman says. “My goal is to be on a federal grand jury someday. I always watch the trial, I must watch the trial. Sometimes it breaks my heart, sometimes it makes me so sad I cry, but I have to stay with it.”

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When it comes to the Simpson case, all are die-hards--so to speak.

Few have missed more than a few hours of the proceedings since the afternoon of the chase.

In their hearts, they say, they know Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.

The fervor among the “O.J. passengers” is apparent to many of the 700 others on board.

“Whoa,” says a man in a black “Have Fun--Get Drunk” T-shirt. “Why aren’t you folks outside dancin’ and drinkin’ and enjoyin’ yourselves?”

“This,” sniffs an O.J. participant, “is very much more fun, thank you.”

Despite the often somber tone of the panels and seminars, there is lots to make it fun.

There is Bill Zucker and his trivia board game, for example. Land on a star on the 405 freeway and win a low-speed chase to Simpson’s Rockingham mansion.

“I can’t believe it!” Zucker says. “ ‘A Current Affair’ took my 800 number.”

There is the O.J. Trial Memorabilia Boutique, where for $49.95 you can buy the O.J. Juror software package. It’s IBM-compatible, and so realistic the box carries a parental discretion advisory.

“It’s very graphic,” explains a boutique attendant. “It even has pictures of the . . .” and the attendant pulls her finger like a knife across her throat.

Most of the T-shirts cost $20, except for the Kato shirt and the “Hung Jury” shirt, which go for $15. Although it costs more ($25), the “Judge Ito*Honest*Fair*Gentleman” is probably the most popular.

As is Ito himself, it seems. “What a wonderful man. He’s trying so hard, but he’s suffered so much,” notes a petite woman from Los Angeles.

“Too much, too much,” says another woman, shaking her head.

Next to Ito, Marcia Clark--before and after her make-over--is most popular.

The mere mention of her name brings outbursts of applause.

But with neither of them on board, it is limousine driver Park who gets the most affection.

“He’s the closest we’ve got to the actual event,” explains one admirer. “Besides, he’s sooooo adorable.”

The audience of mostly women listens intently as he describes the night he waited and waited to take Simpson to the airport. And they giggle sympathetically as he describes how he found out the next morning about the murders and how “bummed” he was because he had planned to have Simpson autograph his football when he picked him up again later in the week.

When Park is unavailable, the more cerebrally hunky Stan Goldman gets the girls. “Oh, Stan, I just wanted to say, ‘I love you and I love your mind,’ ” confesses Carolyn Schannon of Flint, Mich.

She is a firm believer in Simpson’s innocence and, in her role as a juror in the cruise’s mock trial, had much to do with bringing about a “hopelessly hung” jury. Participants prepared opening and closing arguments, and Jan Brightman of Escondido donned an Ito Halloween mask to preside.

For many, this cruise, which ended Monday, is just a part of the pilgrimage. Joyce Moelich of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., plans to visit Nicole Brown Simpson’s grave site as soon as she gets off the ship.

The others aren’t sure what they’ll do.

“I don’t know if there’s life after O.J.” one passenger confides. “I may need a detox cruise.”

“Wait, wait,” suggests one of the attorneys. “How about a Menendez cruise?”