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

[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.

[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.