Carnival Cruise Ship Crashes While Docking In Baltimore, Damaging Three Cars

Parallel parking can be tough on anyone — remember that time it took you three goes just to get it right, a line of cars honking behind? Now imagine attempting to maneuver a 963-foot cruise ship into the dock.

The task proved difficult Sunday when a Carnival cruise ship crashed into a gangway as the vessel docked in Baltimore, reported the Baltimore Sun. The gangway fell onto three parked vehicles, damaging the cars. The vehicles were unoccupied and nobody was injured in the accident. Some passengers on the cruise ship, which was returning from an eight-day jaunt in the Bahamas, told the Sun they heard a thud as the ship ran into the gangway.

Carnival Cruise Lines representative Jennifer De La Cruz told WBAL-TV that the "damage to the ship was minor and limited to a small mooring deck platform on the ship's starboard side."

The ship's schedule was not expected to be modified. "It was not, again, a situation where they feel the operation of their ship is compromised at all," said Port of Baltimore spokesman Richard Scher, according to local CBS affiliate WJZ. The cause of the crash has not yet been determined.

“We’re eager as much as Carnival and the Coast Guard to find out exactly what happened and to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Scher said.

Passengers on the ship seemed unruffled by the situation, mostly expressing thanks that nobody was hurt. "They were very kind and they had a plan B and it all worked out very good," passenger Debbie Squires told WJZ.

Esther Smith, who was celebrating an anniversary on the cruise, told the Sun, simply, "accidents happen."