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All Clear Given After Security Scare At PortMiami

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- The all clear has been given after a security scare on board the Norwegian Sky at PortMiami, which was being blamed on a passenger who boarded the ship without scanning their keycard.

An early report from Miami police said officers were working a report of "suspicious activity" on the ship Norwegian Sky.

In a statement provided by Norwegian Cruise Lines, "At approximately 12:30 pm this afternoon, a guest who had previously cleared a pier-side security checkpoint boarded Norwegian Sky without scanning their keycard.

In an abundance of caution, the ship is undergoing a secondary security sweep in cooperation with MDPD and CBP officers and guests have been asked to disembark during this process.  Once the vessel has been cleared, all remaining guests will embark the ship. At this time, we expect the ship to arrive in Nassau as scheduled tomorrow morning.   

We apologize for any inconvenience this delay may have caused and thank our guests for their understanding and cooperation. 

Almost 700 passengers were already on board and the other 1500 or so still arriving were held inside a terminal for up to seven hours.

"They're not telling anybody anything," said passenger Debbie Sullivan. "Yeah, there is a lot of uproar."

Some passengers were frustrated, others downright irate.

Those jammed inside the terminal they were fed sandwiches and given water. Many were concerned about their dying cell phones.

Officers in protective gear and their K9's swept the ship repeatedly looking for a possible violator.

Meanwhile, some passengers chose not to wait, no longer feeling safe.

"It's supposed to be freestyle cruising and no one is really at peace at this point," a passenger told CBS4's Donna Rapado.

Sullivan and her daughter agreed.

And still others felt, these days, better safe than sorry.

"It's an inconvenience to everybody. But again, it's gotta be done. They gotta make sure nothing's bad," said passenger David Roth.

Investigators from Miami-Dade Police, FBI, Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection finally ended their sweeps at 8 p.m.

They tried to shed some light on why passengers got so few details as they waited.

"The information moves at hyper speed. And unfortunately the information that we broadcast in there to passengers that information will immediately get tweeted out on their phones. That information will go worldwide. And that works against us," said Miami-Dade Police Det. Alvaro Zabaleta.

Investigators finally determined everyone on the ship's manifest was accounted for. No breach after all.

Norwegian Cruise Line representatives told CBS4 each stateroom would get a $50 credit to use on the ship. But, they did not say if passengers who left because they didn't feel safe would get refunds.

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