Fillmore Graduates Hoping for Smoother Sailing on 2nd Cruise

Just when memories of a graduation-night boat cruise were fading like a bad dream, the Fillmore High School Class of 1991 is getting the chance to do it all again.

Organizers of the June 13 cruise, which left most of the senior class disappointed, have arranged with West Coast Cruises to take them on another boat ride--with hopes for a better trip this time.

Plans for a fun, alcohol-free cruise went off course the first time around. Students complained about the lack of food, a cramped dance floor and the condition of the historic 1924 paddle-wheeler, the M. V. Princess.

After the town’s cruise committee outlined the complaints to officials of West Coast Cruises, the company apologized and offered to make amends.

The second trip, scheduled for July 21, will be on a bigger boat and will feature the same Mexican fare, but a lot more of it, said organizer Raelene Chaney.

The Fillmore group won’t have to pay for its second cruise, West Coast Cruises employee Laurie Ustruck said.

Like the original voyage, the cruise will include a “fantasy casino” with three blackjack dealers. On the first cruise, however, the dealers disembarked before the boat left the dock because there were too many people on board.

But unlike the first cruise, when more than 80 prizes, including a new car, were given away, Chaney said this trip will be “just a three-hour party to eat and dance and kick back. We’re going to do it again and let them have a good time, and if it works, it works.”

Some of the graduates were game for another try on what’s being called the Senior Makeup Boat Trip.

“If they’re going to give it to us again, that will be nice,” said Janie Mittan.

Graduate Eloy Florez, who is in charge of contacting students for the second cruise, called the disappointment of the first cruise “kind of heartbreaking.”

So far, Florez said he has compiled a list of about 70 names, “and of all the people I’ve talked to, I haven’t had one person who said they didn’t want to go. The only hesitation is over getting frisked again.”

Students had their jackets and purses searched for drugs and alcohol before leaving for the first trip.

The cruise, organized in the wake of a fatal car accident last year after a graduation night party, was intended to keep students from drinking and driving after graduation ceremonies.

Fillmore residents’ fund-raising efforts raised about $9,500, more than enough to cover the cost of the initial trip, which was free to graduating seniors.

The cruise committee had only paid about $3,800 toward the cruise, Chaney said. The balance of the money owed the company, about $1,400, will go toward bus transportation to and from Long Beach for the second trip, organizers and company officials said.

Before they go anywhere, however, Chaney said she and other committee members will go to Long Beach next week to make sure that the bigger boat, the Spirit, is up to standard.

Like the M. V. Princess, the Spirit has a 150-person capacity, but it has a roomier design, company officials said.

The problems with the Fillmore group were unusual, Ustruck said. “It was a nightmare in this office because that’s not the way our cruises go. They usually all go like a dream.”

The hard part now for the cruise committee is rounding up about 140 senior class members to have another go at it. Some of the graduates are away on vacation, and a few have already left for college or to begin serving in the armed forces.

“We’re wanting to get this over with,” Chaney said. “It’s hanging on and hanging on. It’s cutting into our vacation.”