PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. -- There were tense moments Thursday for passengers aboard and boarding the
Disney cruise ship the Wonder. Dogs alerted security to something inside a stack of mattresses.
Dogs, with two different departments, sensed something onboard the cruise ship. Around 11am, the "all clear" was given, but not before emergency crews had evacuated a terminal and told passengers it would be a while before they could get on the ship.
Passengers and crewmembers were getting ready for a vacation to the Bahamas. Some passengers still on the ship got stuck there while the sheriff's office tried to sort through this.
Security examines everything that goes on board Disney's cruise ships and that's what prompted this scare.
A Disney security dog was sniffing around a pallet of mattresses getting ready to be put on the ship and detected the scent of explosives. A sheriff's bomb squad dog also alerted to something.
That caused security to shut down the terminal and keep passengers away. But after careful examination, the bomb squad determined there was nothing there.
"All of these are serious. With the way things are today, you can't take anything for granted," says Cmdr. George McGee, Brevard County Sheriff's Office.
Passengers said they were surprised to see the roadblock when they arrived for their cruise, but they say they are not going to let it get in the way of having a good time.
"You have to put so much trust in security that they are going to take care of things like this," comments passenger Catherine Youngblood.
A Disney spokesperson says it should not delay their departure Thursday afternoon.
The sheriff's office says security dogs alert to something once a month, but usually it's a suitcase or something easier for them to go through.
