I'm not sure what happened, but here's the happy-place pic that I painted in my head-
Passengers are P.O.'d that the crew is late and act as the typical FL-NY passengers act. The crew simultaneously sprout huge st*nes and collectively say "to heck with this" (or any other more graphic statement that you may imagine) and walk away.
If the reality matches my fantasy, I would love to shake each and every crewmembers' hand and the first round is on me.