A Galveston cruise terminal was evacuated yesterday due to a suspicious package. A police dog found the package on Carnival's Ecstasy ship around 8:30 yesterday morning. The port was closed from Pelican Island to Galveston Yacht Basin.
The package turned out to be nothing but a computer printer. We're sure that the passengers on board the ship, who were returning from a five-day Caribbean cruise, were not terribly excited about hanging out in their rooms on the ship while the package was investigated. The package was cleared around 11:30, three hours after it was found, and the port re-opened and passengers were allowed to leave the ship.
Investigators destroyed the printer and its packaging as a precaution. The discovery was made during a routine sweep of the port prior to the ship's arrival. When the dogs alerted officials about the package, they believed it may contain a bomb. Port Director Steve Cernak said, though, he was not sure whether the dogs were trained to detect explosives or some other substance.
The ship in question will embark on another voyage this afternoon.
