Cruising With A Service Dog....everything You Ever Wanted To Know!

[Mlkjunk11]

Hello:

 

I was doing research about bringing my SD on a cruise for the first time, and I came across this wealth of information.  Thanks to everyone for sharing their experiences and giving of their time to inform.

[Mabbiez]

6 hours ago, Mlkjunk11 said:

Hello:

 

I was doing research about bringing my SD on a cruise for the first time, and I came across this wealth of information.  Thanks to everyone for sharing their experiences and giving of their time to inform.

Everyone here is so helpful! Always feel free to ask questions. Most likely someone in this group has experience and can help answer. Also, Welcome!!!

[Demikmj]

Hi there. Great info here. I’m not sure how to search, so sorry if my questions have been answered somewhere in the past.

 

A little background: My husband’s SD has cruised with us 1x on Disney wish (wish has a dedicated fake grass potty spot called Pluto's corner BTW). We had such a great time we decided to book an Alaska cruise with HAL which isn’t until 2025. Guest services at HAL was able to give me detailed info about the potty spot  (4x4 box placed forward promenade deck)  so we felt comfortable.  Really the potty spot onboard is the only thing I’m worried about with cruising with the SO’s SD.

 

Since our next cruise is not until 2025, I started looking at 2024 cruises and found a deal out of LA on Carnival. Before booking I called disability services and asked about potty spot locations. The agent was only able to say it could not be placed on a cabin balcony, and it would be placed in an out of the way location. I asked what deck, and was it an open air location or an inside location (SD hasn’t ever used an inside potty location like crew passage) and she said it is up to someone on the ship.  

Having said all that, Without those specifics I feel nervous booking a carnival cruise with the SD. Can anyone share how their experience with their service dog has gone on Carnival? Particularly what the potty spot accommodations were?

 

Also, is this the best place to just ask for this info, or is there any reviews/summaries of people’s experiences with how different cruise lines accommodate service dogs?

 

Thanks for any feedback!

[DUTRAVEL]

On 11/23/2023 at 8:31 AM, Demikmj said:

Since our next cruise is not until 2025, I started looking at 2024 cruises and found a deal out of LA on Carnival. Before booking I called disability services and asked about potty spot locations. The agent was only able to say it could not be placed on a cabin balcony, and it would be placed in an out of the way location. I asked what deck, and was it an open air location or an inside location (SD hasn’t ever used an inside potty location like crew passage) and she said it is up to someone on the ship.  

Having said all that, Without those specifics I feel nervous booking a carnival cruise with the SD. Can anyone share how their experience with their service dog has gone on Carnival? Particularly what the potty spot accommodations were?

 

Also, is this the best place to just ask for this info, or is there any reviews/summaries of people’s experiences with how different cruise lines accommodate service dogs?

 

I have not sailed on Carnival with my Service Dog. I sailed on Carnival's sister line Princess in January and Princess was very welcoming (I feel as though Celebrity basically tolerates my Service Dog's presence). Princess places the relief box in a crew stairwell near your cabin. That may be what Carnival means by "an out of the way location." My Service Dog doesn't have any issue with the indoor area - she recognizes that the box is where she is supposed to go. If your Service Dog won't use an indoor relief box, I would think they would be able to accommodate you by moving it outside somewhere. I have found that it is basically useless to talk to the Access Department ahead of time as issues with the relief box have been decided on a case-by-case basis by ship management (and policies vary even on ships within the same cruise line).

 

This is definitely the best place to get information on cruising with a service dog.

Edited November 24, 2023 by DUTRAVEL

[momof3cruisers]

I am also sailing on Carnival. Next week in fact. One thing that I have realized, Carnival is using drug dogs during embarkation. Once at the airport, we had to go to an alternate security line because the TSA was using dogs. Any ideas what cruise lines do about this?

[Caribbean Chris]

1 minute ago, momof3cruisers said:

I am also sailing on Carnival. Next week in fact. One thing that I have realized, Carnival is using drug dogs during embarkation. Once at the airport, we had to go to an alternate security line because the TSA was using dogs. Any ideas what cruise lines do about this?

I’ve seen working dogs at the pier during disembarkation & customs in Ft. Lauderdale and occasionally at an airport, as well as potentially more troublesome non-working dogs, of course. I just keep an eye out and if I spot another dog, I grasp her leash closer and avoid crossing paths… and if they get close, I give my dog a “watch” command + a treat to get her focus back on me. (We’ve practiced this numerous times on neighborhood walks when other dogs may be around.) It won’t be on the radar of any busy cruise line or airline personnel, so it’s up to us to be alert and proactive so our dog doesn’t suddenly get surprised and react.

[momof3cruisers]

2 hours ago, Caribbean Chris said:

I’ve seen working dogs at the pier during disembarkation & customs in Ft. Lauderdale and occasionally at an airport, as well as potentially more troublesome non-working dogs, of course. I just keep an eye out and if I spot another dog, I grasp her leash closer and avoid crossing paths… and if they get close, I give my dog a “watch” command + a treat to get her focus back on me. (We’ve practiced this numerous times on neighborhood walks when other dogs may be around.) It won’t be on the radar of any busy cruise line or airline personnel, so it’s up to us to be alert and proactive so our dog doesn’t suddenly get surprised and react.

Oh yeah, plenty of experience with working and so called working dogs but the TSA required us to go to a different security line. I’m sure because they don’t trust the people who claim they have service dogs that we all know aren’t. I was hoping for an experience with the dogs Carnival is using. 

[momof3cruisers]

On 11/23/2023 at 10:31 AM, Demikmj said:

Hi there. Great info here. I’m not sure how to search, so sorry if my questions have been answered somewhere in the past.

 

A little background: My husband’s SD has cruised with us 1x on Disney wish (wish has a dedicated fake grass potty spot called Pluto's corner BTW). We had such a great time we decided to book an Alaska cruise with HAL which isn’t until 2025. Guest services at HAL was able to give me detailed info about the potty spot  (4x4 box placed forward promenade deck)  so we felt comfortable.  Really the potty spot onboard is the only thing I’m worried about with cruising with the SO’s SD.

 

Since our next cruise is not until 2025, I started looking at 2024 cruises and found a deal out of LA on Carnival. Before booking I called disability services and asked about potty spot locations. The agent was only able to say it could not be placed on a cabin balcony, and it would be placed in an out of the way location. I asked what deck, and was it an open air location or an inside location (SD hasn’t ever used an inside potty location like crew passage) and she said it is up to someone on the ship.  

Having said all that, Without those specifics I feel nervous booking a carnival cruise with the SD. Can anyone share how their experience with their service dog has gone on Carnival? Particularly what the potty spot accommodations were?

 

Also, is this the best place to just ask for this info, or is there any reviews/summaries of people’s experiences with how different cruise lines accommodate service dogs?

 

Thanks for any feedback!

Our Carnival cruise departs next Monday. I will let you know about the relief area when we get back.

[Rudi-Cruiser]

9 hours ago, momof3cruisers said:

Our Carnival cruise departs next Monday. I will let you know about the relief area when we get back.

I was on the MS Rotterdam in October - Amsterdam - Fort Lauderdale. This was the relief boxes they set up on Deck 4 forward. It was in a project part of the Promenade Deck but it was near some equipment rooms that did have some noise at this location.

[Mlkjunk11]

19 hours ago, Caribbean Chris said:

I’ve seen working dogs at the pier during disembarkation & customs in Ft. Lauderdale and occasionally at an airport, as well as potentially more troublesome non-working dogs, of course. I just keep an eye out and if I spot another dog, I grasp her leash closer and avoid crossing paths… and if they get close, I give my dog a “watch” command + a treat to get her focus back on me. (We’ve practiced this numerous times on neighborhood walks when other dogs may be around.) It won’t be on the radar of any busy cruise line or airline personnel, so it’s up to us to be alert and proactive so our dog doesn’t suddenly get surprised and react.

Hello:

May I ask what the "watch" command implies?  I have not used that one but it sounds like a good thing to learn.  I use many different things to decrease my SD's reactions to other dogs when we are working, so any other tool would help.   Thank you!

[Caribbean Chris]

One of her trainers taught me that simple command. On routine walks, you have a treat ready in your hand and suddenly tell the dog “watch.” If he turns and looks at you, he gets the treat instantly with praise. Repeat at random times daily, and the dog soon learns that focusing on you saying that word = instant treat. After he’s got it down, you can also tell him to sit before popping the treat in his mouth. 
 

It seemed to work with my dog at times when she decided to ignore my using her name to get her attention. For example, when she wanted to make eye contact with a strange dog or pull in its direction, “watch” would divert her attention back to me.

[momof3cruisers]

10 hours ago, Caribbean Chris said:

One of her trainers taught me that simple command. On routine walks, you have a treat ready in your hand and suddenly tell the dog “watch.” If he turns and looks at you, he gets the treat instantly with praise. Repeat at random times daily, and the dog soon learns that focusing on you saying that word = instant treat. After he’s got it down, you can also tell him to sit before popping the treat in his mouth. 
 

It seemed to work with my dog at times when she decided to ignore my using her name to get her attention. For example, when she wanted to make eye contact with a strange dog or pull in its direction, “watch” would divert her attention back to me.

My son uses “Watch me.” For the exact same scenarios. He started by tapping the hand with the treat on his chest to get Max to follow the treat and incorporate the action with the command. 
 

They also played a game where my son would say the dog’s name and as soon as he made eye contact, he’d get his treat. That’s also really helpful. And then the clever part of the training came in teaching him NOT to look at anyone else who says his name while he is in his vest. (Our trainer had worked in Iraq and Afghanistan training military dogs and his dog would only listen to him if he was within eyesight. He had some good tricks.) My son would hold the treat and have his dog watch him and then we would have various people say his name or greet him. If he’d start to turn his head, my son would give the “watch me” command. This is helpful because if people ask his name, and then try to say “Hi Max.” He ignores them. At first, my son lied to people and would give a fake name but now his dog is so good at ignoring people, it doesn’t matter. Out of his vest, he will respond to his name from others though.  

[Caribbean Chris]

On 11/28/2023 at 12:12 AM, momof3cruisers said:

Oh yeah, plenty of experience with working and so called working dogs but the TSA required us to go to a different security line. I’m sure because they don’t trust the people who claim they have service dogs that we all know aren’t. I was hoping for an experience with the dogs Carnival is using. 

Hopefully someone who has sailed on Carnival will chime in. I’ve only seen dogs at the end of the cruises (HAL & Celebrity) during Customs & Border Patrol disembarkation. But not at embarkation (yet), so I’m no help.

[Demikmj]

On 11/27/2023 at 9:13 PM, momof3cruisers said:

Our Carnival cruise departs next Monday. I will let you know about the relief area when we get back.

Have a great time! And looking forward to the feedback!

[Demikmj]

Thanks for the 

On 11/24/2023 at 3:42 PM, DUTRAVEL said:

 

I have not sailed on Carnival with my Service Dog. I sailed on Carnival's sister line Princess in January and Princess was very welcoming (I feel as though Celebrity basically tolerates my Service Dog's presence). Princess places the relief box in a crew stairwell near your cabin. That may be what Carnival means by "an out of the way location." My Service Dog doesn't have any issue with the indoor area - she recognizes that the box is where she is supposed to go. If your Service Dog won't use an indoor relief box, I would think they would be able to accommodate you by moving it outside somewhere. I have found that it is basically useless to talk to the Access Department ahead of time as issues with the relief box have been decided on a case-by-case basis by ship management (and policies vary even on ships within the same cruise line).

 

This is definitely the best place to get information on cruising with a service dog.

Your response and the other replies made me realize that I don’t think we’re ready for a case by case scenario. I am a planner and my husband was most stressed about the potty accommodations when booking our upcoming HAL cruise.
 

I think I’ll stick with the cruise lines that can give me definitive answers for now. Maybe after we get a few more cruises with the SD in we’ll be open to a cruise that is less set in stone in their SD procedures. For now, I’m subscribed to this thread and I’ll be checking out everyone’s posts.  If everyone wants to continue posting potty spot experiences that would be great!

 

Here is the potty spot from the Disney Wish. 
 

[DUTRAVEL]

15 minutes ago, Demikmj said:

Thanks for the 

Your response and the other replies made me realize that I don’t think we’re ready for a case by case scenario. I am a planner and my husband was most stressed about the potty accommodations when booking our upcoming HAL cruise.
 

I think I’ll stick with the cruise lines that can give me definitive answers for now. Maybe after we get a few more cruises with the SD in we’ll be open to a cruise that is less set in stone in their SD procedures. For now, I’m subscribed to this thread and I’ll be checking out everyone’s posts.  If everyone wants to continue posting potty spot experiences that would be great!

My post was not at all intended to dissuade you. It has taken some persistence working with guest services, but I have always been able to get the relief box moved to an acceptable location and have no hesitation to cruise with my Service Dog.

[Rudi-Cruiser]

1 hour ago, Demikmj said:

Thanks for the 

Your response and the other replies made me realize that I don’t think we’re ready for a case by case scenario. I am a planner and my husband was most stressed about the potty accommodations when booking our upcoming HAL cruise.
 

I think I’ll stick with the cruise lines that can give me definitive answers for now. Maybe after we get a few more cruises with the SD in we’ll be open to a cruise that is less set in stone in their SD procedures. For now, I’m subscribed to this thread and I’ll be checking out everyone’s posts.  If everyone wants to continue posting potty spot experiences that would be great!

 

Here is the potty spot from the Disney Wish. 
 

I was just on a 15 day HAL MS Rotterdam Transatlantic cruise. They have great relief are for the service dogs that were on the sailing. The safe was great. I a short time the safe was call my service dog by her name and would great both of us. We even had the captain and his wife seat down next to us a lunch and ask who things were going. The cruise line still need to learn more. I think its up to use to teach them.

[Rudi-Cruiser]

2 minutes ago, Rudi-Cruiser said:

I was just on a 15 day HAL MS Rotterdam Transatlantic cruise. They have great relief are for the service dogs that were on the sailing. The safe was great. I a short time the safe was call my service dog by her name and would great both of us. We even had the captain and his wife seat down next to us a lunch and ask who things were going. The cruise line still need to learn more. I think its up to use to teach them.

I love what Disney had done on the wish. It the set up on any of their other ships? I would like to see a gate at the entrance and maybe a bit more screening. I would like to let my SD off her lead so she can go on her own and have a bit a privacy. I found female dog like a bit more privacy when they go.

[Demikmj]

1 hour ago, DUTRAVEL said:

My post was not at all intended to dissuade you. It has taken some persistence working with guest services, but I have always been able to get the relief box moved to an acceptable location and have no hesitation to cruise with my Service Dog.

I didn’t read it like that either, but it was still good info. I don’t mind advocating to fix SD access issues, but my husband gets stressed easily so it’s probably best for us to cruise on more accommodating ships that we’ll need to do less bargaining with.
 

Thanks again for sharing!

[emtben]

On royal Caribbean at coco key/private island in Bahamas. Was there any additional paperwork required to get off ship. It's too late for me to get paperwork sent in to Bahamas department of agriculture. I have all the vet and u.s. paperwork. But I hear conflicting reports from rccl and other cruisers on fb. Has anyone recently gone to coco key? I'm extremely pissed at rccl cause I called and asked for information about this over a month ago. Were you able to get off ship or stuck on board? 

Edited December 6, 2023 by emtben

[Demikmj]

16 minutes ago, emtben said:

On royal Caribbean at coco key/private island in Bahamas. Was there any additional paperwork required to get off ship. It's too late for me to get paperwork sent in to Bahamas department of agriculture. I have all the vet and u.s. paperwork. But I hear conflicting reports from rccl and other cruisers on fb. Has anyone recently gone to coco key? I'm extremely pissed at rccl cause I called and asked for information about this over a month ago. Were you able to get off ship or stuck on board? 

I can’t comment on if it’s required, but I used Bahamas pet permit (https://www.bahamaspetpermit.com)

and got my permit in 4 days.  Sorry you’re in this situation. 

[Caribbean Chris]

3 hours ago, Demikmj said:

I can’t comment on if it’s required, but I used Bahamas pet permit (https://www.bahamaspetpermit.com)

and got my permit in 4 days.  Sorry you’re in this situation. 

I can vouch for this service - I’ve used him several times.

 

[Rudi-Cruiser]

18 hours ago, emtben said:

On royal Caribbean at coco key/private island in Bahamas. Was there any additional paperwork required to get off ship. It's too late for me to get paperwork sent in to Bahamas department of agriculture. I have all the vet and u.s. paperwork. But I hear conflicting reports from rccl and other cruisers on fb. Has anyone recently gone to coco key? I'm extremely pissed at rccl cause I called and asked for information about this over a month ago. Were you able to get off ship or stuck on board? 

You may try using one of the two agencies that expedite paperwork. You can Google them. It’s gonna be $90 to get this done. The one I used him short period of time. Emailed it to him on a Friday and we had the paperwork back on Tuesday. It was all done by email.

[emtben]

If your wanting quicker responses...there is also a Facebook page called "cruising with service dogs" that has been very helpful and more active. 

[emtben]

Anyone sail with service dog and use a mobility scooter at the same time? I have limited mobility for walking distance but chief is for my low cortisol.  He has experience with being around scooter cause I have 1 but only use it for sporting events. This will be chief's 1st cruise and I'm not sure how me personally to handle everything with small elevator, dog, scooter and lots of people. Chief is great...I'm not worried but now Scootaround will only give me a 3 wheel scooter and not 4. He likes riding on it but I'm more paranoid about running over his paw or things that happen quickly on the elevator that now i have 2 things to deal with dog and scooter vs. Before was just scooter and just being a concerned dad. Lol.  Part of me says just no scooter and carry backpack to hold things and rest/plan routes so I take up less space but on other hand.....I'm just torn on decision. Cruise leaves on superbowl.  Need any and all advice.