Families cheered late Wednesday afternoon as buses began rolling into the parking lot at Tradewinds Casino Cruises at the old Williams Seafood docks off U.S. 80, carrying passengers who had left nearly 24 hours earlier for what they expected to be a five-hour gambling cruise.

The fun ended shortly before midnight Tuesday when the casino cruise ship became grounded on a sandbar between Tybee and Hilton Head islands.

It would be another 16 hours before the 96 passengers set foot on dry land, leaving most of them hot, hungry and exhausted - but mostly glad to be home.

"It was a very scary, harrowing experience," said 66-year-old Veronica Snowden Heyward, whose sister, daughters and granddaughter had been waiting for most of Wednesday in the Tradewinds parking lot, concerned for her wellbeing.

When Heyward finally emerged from one of the last buses, she was enveloped in her family's embrace.

"It's good to be loved," she said, a huge smile on her face. "But I think my casino cruise days are done."

Joe and Sandi Simmons are taking a "wait and see" attitude. The couple was helicoptered off the ship when they said they wouldn't be comfortable climbing the rope ladder needed to evacuate.

Watch video of the Coast Guard transferring the stranded passengers.

"I'm still trying to get my equilibrium back after spending hours on a boat that was tilted to one side," Sandi Simmons said. "It was so uncomfortable. We had to wear life jackets the entire time."

While they will wait for results of the Coast Guard's investigation, both agreed they would probably go back out.

Mark Eaton, whose wife Tommy also waited in the hot Tradewinds parking lot most of the day, said he has sworn off casino boats "at least for a while."

A self-professed regular on the now defunct casino cruise boat that operated out of the same eastside islands location several years ago, Eaton said he couldn't wait for the Escapade's maiden cruise.

"It definitely wasn't a good experience," he said. "They gave us no information - we were left in the dark wondering what was going on."

Both Eaton and Joe Simmons said that, when they were finally informed, the captain said the accident occurred because the sandbar that grounded the ship was not yet on the nautical charts.

But Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Lauren Jorgensen said the 174-foot gambling ship reported its grounding to the Coast Guard shortly before midnight Tuesday, with the ship's captain saying its chart plotter had malfunctioned, causing the vessel to veer off course.

After determining that the vessel was stable and no injuries or medical conditions had been reported, the Coast Guard continued to monitor the situation as a salvage company hired by the casino boat owners attempted get the ship off the sandbar during a midday high tide Wednesday, said Lt. Warren Fair with the Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Savannah.

When those efforts failed to budge the ship, the Coast Guard began evacuating passengers, moving them eight at a time from the casino boat onto motorized rubber Zodiac boats, then transferring them to the Coast Guard buoy tender Maria Bray. Once all passengers were onboard, the Maria Bray took them to Coast Guard Air Station Tybee on Cockspur Island, where buses were waiting to take them back to their cars.

By 6 p.m. Wednesday, the Coast Guard had reported all passengers and most of the crew had been escorted from the stranded casino boat, which remains stuck on the bar.

Heyward had high praise for her rescuers.

"We had to jump from the boat to a raft and then climb up a ladder onto the Coast Guard ship," she said. "It was terrifying.

"But thank the Lord for the Coast Guard - I love them," she said. "There was not one step that they weren't there, with a hand, an arm, a soothing voice.

"They weren't going to let anything happen to us."

The Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Savannah is investigating the grounding and expects to be back on the ship today.

The ship remains stranded on the sandbar as the Coast Guard reviews plans by SMS Towing to salvage the vessel.

"We require a salvage plan in order to assure that the proper safety precautions are taken to avoid injury or pollution,' said Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Lauren Jorgensen.

"We received that plan this morning and it's under review.

If approved, another effort will be made to remove the ship at high tide around 1:30 p.m.