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

[FOPMan]

Cruise ship elevators can often be quite crowded, and people are not expecting there to be a dog on the 'vattor. Is Chief small or large If he has been tiding on ylur scooter, I am guessing he is leas than 20 pounds (small). I'd be temptted to pit a LED collar on him to help him stand out while aboard ship.

[emtben]

Chief is golden retriever 

[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 is a golden retriever. 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, I'm very experienced cruiser 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.

[QnMuppet]

 Hi everyone. I want to apologize for taking so long to come back to this. I came here for some help before our cruise last summer and some of you here were super generous and helpful and it made a difference in our trip, so thanks. I wanted to post a bit about our experience, the challenges we had, and what I think now, so it might help others. I am not great on chats or social media stuff, and my health took a turn after the cruise so again sorry for the delay.

 

We cruised Alaska on RCL Ovation of the Seas last July. We had great weather and overall I was happier than I expected I would be after going. I was very reticent to agree to go, but now I would consider another cruise in my future. 

 

Before the cruise:

Dealing with the cruise line ahead of time was not a great experience. In our case there were several poor moments. One was we had an excursion we wanted to do, we had even contacted them and they said good with the dog but they said we needed to book through the access desk, by the time the access desk got back to us it was sold out. We had to go with other options, which were very limited by this point. 

We did an otter boat tour in Sitka, the train ride in Skagway, and did some stuff on our own in Juneau and Victoria. If I had to do it over again I would book the tours I want, then call the cruise. I learned that you should never wait for them, they may never call back.

 

Getting on board:

This was one of the least good moments, though a bit self-inflicted, I left some paperwork in the luggage on the pier. That created a crisis. We had a long sit while my wife ran around trying to solve the issue. Security and crowds are always a lot for me, we made a mistake by picking a later boarding time. If I had to do over I would try to go early and beat the crowds as much as I could. 

 

Finding the Box:

Cue another long sit. We asked people who wanted to help, but they had no idea what they were doing. We were sitting in the center of the ship where everyone gets on board and some steward told us to stay there while he went to find out. This was a long time of not getting anywhere, finally, an officer from the engineering department asked if he could help. He made some radio calls and we were finally able to go to the potty box. He took us himself. I added a pic so you can see it. It was on one end of the ship, in a corner.

 

Using the box itself:

The box was 3x3, small for my dog, and its location in the corner made it hard for her to walk in a circle to get herself in position. There were a lot of starts and stops with that. It was also right by an automatic door so every time it opened she jumped out of the box to see what it was. Her first # 2 was on the deck 20 feet from the box, we had two misses like that on the first two days.

 

We practiced for a month before, but she did not like it initially. Our cruise had a couple of full days at sea right at the start. After the first misfire, I was worried and embarrassed, but no one said anything and after day two she was a champ. We took advantage of any time we had off of the ship for her to have somewhere else to go. Honestly, she figured the box out quickly and it was a lot less stressful by the end. 

 

Because the box was outside, they locked the doors when the wind was up. We had to go find someone to let us out of the locked door so we could use the potty, but then we were locked outside on the deck. Luckily my wife figured out where the emergency door open button was. I think although the location had a challenge with the corner, I still would have preferred it to others I have read about here.

 

All this stuff was stressful and frustrating, but my dog did amazing. Most of the cruise staff was super helpful and, as the only dog on the boat, we had plenty of attention. Alaska was beautiful. Now that we have had one semi-successful cruise. I can see how this might be a way someday to go to some places I want to get to like New Zealand or Australia but having a dog makes it hard to fly there. The potty situation was not A++, but she can handle it and that means even it if takes me 12 days to get there, I could cross an ocean on a crusie ship, if we really wanted to. 

 

We are hoping to fly to Ireland with Muppet this summer, I just have to figure out what to do about the fact her trainers are not part of the right international trade group. There has to be a way for us to go, but reading what some of you had to do here does scare me. There are still a lot of things I am not a fan of about the whole experience but my illness and having a service dog has changed everything about travel for us and in the end we had a really decent time overall.

 

Our next cruise I think will be a fall Canada/New England one, that looks like something my wife and I could enjoy. If any of you had a great experience on one of those, please let us know. Thanks again for all your help, you guys are awesome. 

[Mlkjunk11]

Hello:

Has anyone taken their SD on a river cruise?  I can't seem to find any posts specific to river cruising.  I am just at the researching stage, but am becoming nervous about the apparent absence of others that have done this type of cruising with their service dog.  Any suggestions are appreciated.

[emtben]

Just got off Odyssey of the seas. There was another service dog and ironically, he was in room next to me. The ship gave us extra relief box to share on our balcony. The dogs barely used it and prefer to make us take them to other end of ship. Lol. 

[Caribbean Chris]

I'm passing on information that was new to me last week about Turks & Caicos, which is often on cruise itineraries these days. 

 

I've been told in the past from info on this message board that Bahamas insists on a permit - even for a cruiseline's private island and even when the dog is not going ashore. Since it has been difficult at times to get directly from the government there, I now arrange it by paying $90 to Wellington Saunders at Bahamas Pet Permit.com. 

 

We were preparing to cruise during the Easter season this year for 9 days. The line wanted copies of my permits for Bahamas and Turks & Caicos. I emailed Bahamas and told them the dog would not be getting off the ship when it was in Turks & Caicos.

 

The cruiseline's accessibility people quickly replied that I would be denied boarding the ship without an "in-transit" permit for Turks & Caicos even if the dog was staying on board. Apparently this is something new, in addition to? the USDA APHIS requirements shown online. Has anyone else dealt with this?

 

I found the application form on a T&C Tourism site (with a box to check for in-transit, and a mention that the $50 fee is waived for service dogs.

 https://www.visittci.com/downloads/animal-import-application-for-dogs-and-cats.pdf.

I emailed it to the address shown on the form. I have never heard another word about my application. 

 

In the end, we were not willing to risk driving to the port and being denied boarding. We cancelled the night before the cruise. The cruiseline was very cooperative and I don't blame them for policies of foreign governments over which they have no control. 

 

I should add that my original itinerary did not even go to Turks & Caicos. It was substituted for another island. I have avoided T&Cs for years since it requires a blood titer test, and it was not worth it to me to spend approx $200 starting months in advance for that titer paperwork just to go ashore in the morning briefly - this itinerary had a  2 p.m.departure! And their own tourist web site mentions the feral dogs roaming around the island that kill pet cats.

 

To end with a smile, since this transpired, I discovered that the island's only veterinarian offers a concierge service for "only" $250 to help people get pet permits. (Maybe because no one responds when you apply for your permit according to instructions?

https://www.visittci.com/providenciales/bark-and-bliss.

No, I'm not planning to use them. Or to ever set foot or paw onTurks & Caicos. 

[DUTRAVEL]

Thanks for the update Chris. Sounds like a real catch-22 situation!

[Caribbean Chris]

1 hour ago, DUTRAVEL said:

Thanks for the update Chris. Sounds like a real catch-22 situation!

 

It was, Diane, I still think it makes sense to TRY to get the necessary paperwork for all the known port calls, just in case there was a medical or other reason to leave the cruise early and fly home. But trying doesn’t always mean succeeding.

 

“Cancel for any reason” insurance is expensive but a good idea. 

 

 

[Mlkjunk11]

Thanks for sharing 

[Rudi-Cruiser]

22 hours ago, Caribbean Chris said:

I'm passing on information that was new to me last week about Turks & Caicos, which is often on cruise itineraries these days. 

 

I've been told in the past from info on this message board that Bahamas insists on a permit - even for a cruiseline's private island and even when the dog is not going ashore. Since it has been difficult at times to get directly from the government there, I now arrange it by paying $90 to Wellington Saunders at Bahamas Pet Permit.com. 

 

We were preparing to cruise during the Easter season this year for 9 days. The line wanted copies of my permits for Bahamas and Turks & Caicos. I emailed Bahamas and told them the dog would not be getting off the ship when it was in Turks & Caicos.

 

The cruiseline's accessibility people quickly replied that I would be denied boarding the ship without an "in-transit" permit for Turks & Caicos even if the dog was staying on board. Apparently this is something new, in addition to? the USDA APHIS requirements shown online. Has anyone else dealt with this?

 

I found the application form on a T&C Tourism site (with a box to check for in-transit, and a mention that the $50 fee is waived for service dogs.

 https://www.visittci.com/downloads/animal-import-application-for-dogs-and-cats.pdf.

I emailed it to the address shown on the form. I have never heard another word about my application. 

 

In the end, we were not willing to risk driving to the port and being denied boarding. We cancelled the night before the cruise. The cruiseline was very cooperative and I don't blame them for policies of foreign governments over which they have no control. 

 

I should add that my original itinerary did not even go to Turks & Caicos. It was substituted for another island. I have avoided T&Cs for years since it requires a blood titer test, and it was not worth it to me to spend approx $200 starting months in advance for that titer paperwork just to go ashore in the morning briefly - this itinerary had a  2 p.m.departure! And their own tourist web site mentions the feral dogs roaming around the island that kill pet cats.

 

To end with a smile, since this transpired, I discovered that the island's only veterinarian offers a concierge service for "only" $250 to help people get pet permits. (Maybe because no one responds when you apply for your permit according to instructions?

https://www.visittci.com/providenciales/bark-and-bliss.

No, I'm not planning to use them. Or to ever set foot or paw onTurks & Caicos. 

I also sent out an email to both the address on the form and the Vet in T&C. I have not gotten a response yet.

[Caribbean Chris]

33 minutes ago, Rudi-Cruiser said:

I also sent out an email to both the address on the form and the Vet in T&C. I have not gotten a response yet.

I appreciate your sharing this. It does make things difficult for service dog handlers, doesn't it!?

[Rudi-Cruiser]

1 hour ago, Caribbean Chris said:

I appreciate your sharing this. It does make things difficult for service dog handlers, doesn't it!?

Just got one back form the Vet. They have their $250.00 charge but didn't give me any information regarding Service Dog and those fees if any.