SD and DCL

[Stellapedia]

We have a friend sailing in less than two months and wanted us to come with her. We've got a land Disney vaca planned around the same time, but could cancel and go to sea instead. We're veteran cruisers (though never on DCL) but we've never cruised with the dog.
I've, so far, gotten 5 different answers from DCL about what we need to sail. I finally had a sup email me the information from their literature, so I've won half that battle. But I'm not sure we can accomplish it in time so we're not even going to attempt it.
My friend, however, has already booked and paid and informed them that she had a dog. She was told she needed a rabies certificate and a medical form declaring the reason for the dog. That's it. So I told her what the form said, she called again. She booked through DVC so called them and they assured her that she needs no paperwork and nothing to sail with the dog. Just rabies. I've called DCL and been told that as well. I've also been told I only need paperwork if we plan to disembark (we don't), and that we need it entirely. I've gotten so many different answers on it already.

This is not like "oops, you booked balcony, all that's left is porthole." This is a major deal. If she shows up to the ship with a stoked out 7 year old and is told she can't board the ship, that's not exactly a friendly situation. Yet she's not really sure she can get all the info in time, and beyond that she's been assured by DVC that she doesn't need it. Then I am assured by some DCL staff that I don't need it, and told by some that I do.

Anyone know definitively what she needs to get on the ship? We're not going to even try at this point, but she's already booked and paid, so she's more stuck than we are.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Hi and to disabilities!

Keep checking back. One of the regulars here, Kathy (dclfun) works as a reservationist for DCL, sails often, and uses a power chair and has a service dog who thinks she is a Princess. She will be able to assist.

You may want to find any post by her, click on her name, and then where it says "Find more posts by dclfun". You will be able to look for her posts that relate to cruising and service dogs.

 

[videogal1]

Hi and to disabilities!

Keep checking back. One of the regulars here, Kathy (dclfun) works as a reservationist for DCL, sails often, and uses a power chair and has a service dog who thinks she is a Princess. She will be able to assist.

You may want to find any post by her, click on her name, and then where it says "Find more posts by dclfun". You will be able to look for her posts that relate to cruising and service dogs.

You could also check posts by videogal1, who frequently travels on cruise ships, including DCL with her Service dog, Cash.
Videogal's experience is that the ports of call often determine the requirements for a Service Dog. Contact the animal quarantine department of the relevant country as to their requirements and for the forms that must be filled out and stamped before you sail.. (DCL does not keep up with these requirements and the knowledge of them often departs with exiting employees) Any last minute hitches are your responsibility to prevent, which makes cruising with a Service Dog very exciting, as well as expensive. I had a lot of good luck preventing problems by contacting a lady named Carol at Disney and I found her through Christee at the travel business that supports this website.. Some ports of call require this paperwork regardless of whether you plan to disembark and will expect to have you met by their own vet aboard the ship early in the morning when the ship docks, or before you disembark if you're touring...
I have the address for the Bahamian one but there are time constraints that must be met.
As far as DCL is concerned the dog has to be a Service Dog, as defined by the ADA and the handler must be disabled, as defined by the ADA. If those are true, all you need is to notify DCL that you will be traveling with a Service Dog and they will make shipboard provisions. It would be helpful for the cruise if the dog handler familiarizes the dog with going potty on command and in a sod-filled plastic swimming pool or box.
DCL may NOT require the dog to potty in the stateroom, be separated from the handler in order to be taken to the backstage area by a crew member, require you to call a crew member to take the dog potty, or to pay extra for stateroom with a verandah on which to locate the potty box.
The medical information itself is required of all passengers but you don't have to write a detailed medical justification for using a service dog. Remember, a business can only ask 3 questions legally:
1. Are you disabled? yes/no
2. Is this a Service Dog? yes/no
3. What has the dog been trained to do to mitigate your disability?

Don't forget the dog food (it flies free as medical equipment) and bottled water, if the dog is sensitive to changes in water quality. DCL sells bottled water, too but it is expensive. I have had some success obtaining water for Cash by, as soon as you can upon boarding, seeing if your stateroom attendant can save for you as many of the unopened bottles left behind by the disembarking passengers as he can round up. Boarding is a crazy time, though and this is only practical in an emergency.
If you're really into it, you might get a personal flotation device for the dog, just in case...The ones used for human passengers are useless for canine anatomy.
As far as ports of call go I offer this advice in general:
Remember that not all countries bother to have leash laws, spay/neuter programs, or rabies vaccination for their canine (or otherwise) wildlife and that in the countryside, as well as the cities, there are many many stray and semi-wild dogs that would love to take a chunk out of a tasty Service Dog. I have had several experiences with that. Also, you can expect to pay a taxi for an additional person if you are accompanied by a service dog, and that is if the taxi will accept the dog in the first place. The ADA does not apply in foreign countries, as I'm sure you know.
One last thing...If you are accompanied by a service dog you can expect to spend 25% of your cruise time talking to other passengers about dogs...your dog, their dog, their aunt's dog's favorite toy, a dog story they once read, and can they pet your dog...The dog will get really tired of this and you will lose your voice if the cruise is long enough. Have fun.

 

[Stellapedia]

Thanks VideoGal!

We're not going, I'm not willing to attempt all of that last minute. I knew it would be paperwork and hassle, and I know it's my responsibility to know the rules, but googling "cruising with service dog" didn't get me very far. We had no intention of going until she kept mentioning it, and decided to give it a whirl. Promptly nixed that idea and will give it a shot next year, when we have many months to get everything in order.

This cruise was to the bahamas and I had no intention of disembarking (frankly, I don't care for bahamas, and have no desire to waste my day there when I could do 10 million other things). The likelihood of her disembarking was fairly low. She does have a vest for her dog and we have one for ours (we're regular boaters and would never dream of taking the dog on the boat without a life vest, just like we don't let him in the car without a buckle). She booked inside with intent to upgrade if verandah available. Wheelchair, child, and standard poodle in a cruise ship stateroom... that's gonna be an event.

And yes, we spend half our time everywhere trying to ignore people about the dog. As you know, it gets soooo old. My oldest son has become militant about him. If he even notices someone looking at the dog, he starts yelling at them not to touch. He dove in front of some very unsuspecting woman at MK last week yelling "Don't pet my dog! He's working!" Well, his intention is good, we just need to work on his execution. Now if only Disney could send out an email to everyone sailing- "There will be a dog on the ship. Knowing his breed, his name, his age, his service, his favorite toy, or anything else about him will in no way impact your life. Believe it or not, you WILL live without asking where his handler got him. And, no, it's not the public's right to know what is "wrong" with the child. Thank you and move on. If you require a photo with a dog, Goofy and Pluto will be making the rounds."

 

[dclfun]

I will chime in. You will need a rabies certificate and a health certificate from the vet. The vet basically needs to say that the dog is free of parasites and in good health. If the dog will be disembarking on Castaway Cay or Nassau, you will need a Bahamas Permit form. There is an application to be submitted and fees are waived for SD's. Other ports of call require additional permits, and some require a rabies titre, which is costly and must be done w/in a certain timeframe. This requirement makes it very difficult for a "last-minute" cruise. If you have a verandah stateroom, there will be a kiddy pool with sod for the dog to relieve itself, and if you have an oceanview or inside stateroom, the kiddy pool will be placed on Deck 7 or 8 aft. Beware that doors to those areas are locked in the evening so you'll have to contact GS to have someone come up to open the door. They will wait for you ( and for the dog to finish his/her business )and then lock the door again. The dog MUST remain on leash or in harness at all times and of course exhibit exemplary behavior. You will need to provide your own food and dishes. Food and treats need to be in an unopened bag. I always bring meds such as Benadryl in case of allergic reactions and Immodium in case of diarrhea- neither of which I've ever needed to use. Better to be safe than sorry!---Kathy ( and Skye)

 

[vafarmmom]

Food and treats need to be in an unopened bag---Kathy ( and Skye)

Why? We will be staying at wdw for a few days before I cruise, so his food will be opened already and I pack ziplock bags with his food anyway. Will this be a problem?

This will be my first cruise as well as my ds and dog. So far the dog has been superb. He handled disney and seaworld for 14 days and is trained to potty on command. He won't ne thrilled about pooping in a kiddie pool, but he will. I am disabled (meet ADA), the dog is trained and has a vest, and my ds is also considered disabled (per ADA). The dog is current on vacs, parasite free, and will have a health cert before the trip. We do not plan to go to Nassua, but would like to spend some time at the beach.

I wish disney could/would send a not to passangers. I don't lije to ignore folks or be negative, but I get so sick of how others behave around service dogs. One of my favs so far - grown women, "I know it is illegial to pet a service dog, but can I ?" At epcot f&w this year I had lots of people growling and barking at my dog and I had a man go off with lots of profanity about how bleeping stupid I was to have a dog at epcot. In front of my 6 yr old no less. Heaven forbid I get out of my chair for a few minutes.

 

[SueM in MN]

Besides videogal and dclfun, I think there are 2 other fairly frequent posters to this board who have posted about cruising with a SD.
Lots of good information here already, so when I get a chance, I am going to post a link to this in the disABILITIES FAQs thread in the post about cruising.

For the 'no unopened bags of food' that was mentioned, because of my Public Health background, my educated guess is thst the rule is to prevent bring insects or other vermin ( like mice, other than Mickey) onto the boat. Requiring sealed packages means low risk of bringing live vermin on board.

My suggestion would be to bring dog food in ziplock bags for your whole WDW portion of the trip and save the unopened bag of dog food large enough for the ship portion of of the trip. Since there is no way of knowing how insistent the staff will be to the bag being unopened, you don't want to take any chances. Bringing an opened partial bag home with you should not be a problem as far as I can think.

 

[videogal1]

For the 'no unopened bags of food' that was mentioned, because of my Public Health background, my educated guess is thst the rule is to prevent bring insects or other vermin ( like mice, other than Mickey) onto the boat. Requiring sealed packages means low risk of bringing live vermin on board.

My suggestion would be to bring dog food in ziplock bags for your whole WDW portion of the trip and save the unopened bag of dog food large enough for the ship portion of of the trip. Since there is no way of knowing how insistent the staff will be to the bag being unopened, you don't want to take any chances. Bringing an opened partial bag home with you should not be a problem as far as I can think.

You will not be able to return from the cruise with opened bags of food. As your luggage and everything but what you plan to wear the next day is fumigated the night before you leave the ship I doubt you would want to feed your dog from the fumigated bag, anyway. I have packaged Cash's food in zip-lock bags for my DCL vacations and, as for the repositioning cruise, I sometimes prevailed upon a fellow cruiser who lived in the port area to pick up a bag of food for me so I wouldn't have to lug a 20 pound bag of dog food all the way from Texas. The zip-lock bags of food were not rejected at boarding time but the leftovers were confiscated, along with "souvenier" food and snacks before leaving the ship.
Of course, if you are taking the cruise first, then vacationing at WDW, you'll have to make other arrangements for food...I took along a few cans of dog food so there wouldn't be a problem feeding Cash at Disneyland after the cruise and before I had a chance to pick up dry food. (I was glad I did when the bathroom floor aboard the ship flooded and got the bottom of the dry food bag wet and ruined the lower layer of food). The note from the Tag Fairy was a reminder to take some way of opening the canned food if it didn't have a pop-top lid.

 

[clkelley]

As your luggage and everything but what you plan to wear the next day is fumigated the night before you leave the ship

I didn't know that, so if I take a cruise, then do a land portion after, I would need to wash everything in our bags when we arrive at WDW??

 

[robynchic]

I would think that if you can get the food in a smaller than 20-lb bag, you may be in better shape. I know that some brands from pet stores sells dry food in smaller packages (for example, Blue Buffalo sells them in 7-lb bags, Beneful sells 6-lb bags, Eukanuba in 4-lb bags). So if you feed your dog 1 cup of food twice a day, then you're feeding it 1 lb of food a day. Purchasing a Blue Buffalo small bag would be enough for your entire trip.

Just a thought...

 

[SueM in MN]

You will not be able to return from the cruise with opened bags of food. As your luggage and everything but what you plan to wear the next day is fumigated the night before you leave the ship I doubt you would want to feed your dog from the fumigated bag, anyway. I have packaged Cash's food in zip-lock bags for my DCL vacations and, as for the repositioning cruise, I sometimes prevailed upon a fellow cruiser who lived in the port area to pick up a bag of food for me so I wouldn't have to lug a 20 pound bag of dog food all the way from Texas. The zip-lock bags of food were not rejected at boarding time but the leftovers were confiscated, along with "souvenier" food and snacks before leaving the ship.
Of course, if you are taking the cruise first, then vacationing at WDW, you'll have to make other arrangements for food...I took along a few cans of dog food so there wouldn't be a problem feeding Cash at Disneyland after the cruise and before I had a chance to pick up dry food. (I was glad I did when the bathroom floor aboard the ship flooded and got the bottom of the dry food bag wet and ruined the lower layer of food). The note from the Tag Fairy was a reminder to take some way of opening the canned food if it didn't have a pop-top lid.

Thanks for the clarification.
That makes sense that they would not let you bring Amy food back. I had forgotten about that - it's probably US Department of Agriculture rules. Thinking about the last time I crossed the US border, they were very concerned about any food or plant/insect life being brought in.

 

[dclfun]

Just to add- it can take a longggg time to get the Bahamas Permit returned and it's much quicker by fax. If you don't have the permit, you won't be able to get off the ship on Castaway Cay. Also, there are rules about when the rabies shot was given...so read the permit form carefully.---Kathy and Skye

 

[videogal1]

I didn't know that, so if I take a cruise, then do a land portion after, I would need to wash everything in our bags when we arrive at WDW??

I never had any reaction to whatever the chemicals are that they use and have taken every combination of land/cruise possible, with multiple days of vacation after the cruise, including a week at Disneyland after the 3 weeks of the repositioning cruise (lots of luggage to fumigate on THAT one!). Come to think of it, nobody mentioned that I smelled like a toxic waste dump after the cruises, either. Hey, Kathy, you took that cruise...did you notice anything?

 

[dclfun]

I never had any reaction to whatever the chemicals are that they use and have taken every combination of land/cruise possible, with multiple days of vacation after the cruise, including a week at Disneyland after the 3 weeks of the repositioning cruise (lots of luggage to fumigate on THAT one!). Come to think of it, nobody mentioned that I smelled like a toxic waste dump after the cruises, either. Hey, Kathy, you took that cruise...did you notice anything?

I never noticed anything and I do have a sensitive "nose" to odors. I actually have never heard of baggage being fumigated before debarkation. We just sailed a few weeks ago and also in August when it was good and hot- my daughter was with me who is pregnant and can smell anything in trace amounts, lol- we stayed a few nights at WDW after and she never noticed any odors either. I buy the smallest size bag of Innova that I can find but there's still waste which is a shame as it's expensive. I often wondered about the dogs at the port who are there to detect explosives and chemicals- wonder if they also smell that delicious dog food and treats in our luggage!---Kathy ( and Skye)

 

[videogal1]

I never noticed anything and I do have a sensitive "nose" to odors. I actually have never heard of baggage being fumigated before debarkation. Kathy ( and Skye)

Well, that's a relief! Aside from just getting the baggage collected for unloading the next day (what a mess the passageways are that night!) I was told years ago that the fumigation was required by the U.S.Ag. dept. I'm not sure they advertise the fact, though...Now THAT would be a good question for DCL... Premier Cruise lines did also, as well as HAL....

 

[robynchic]

I never noticed anything and I do have a sensitive "nose" to odors. I actually have never heard of baggage being fumigated before debarkation. We just sailed a few weeks ago and also in August when it was good and hot- my daughter was with me who is pregnant and can smell anything in trace amounts, lol- we stayed a few nights at WDW after and she never noticed any odors either. I buy the smallest size bag of Innova that I can find but there's still waste which is a shame as it's expensive. I often wondered about the dogs at the port who are there to detect explosives and chemicals- wonder if they also smell that delicious dog food and treats in our luggage!---Kathy ( and Skye)

I don't know about ATF or drug sniffers, but I know that our dogs were trained to not go after anything. One of the tests during the quarterly evaluations was tossing a Big Mac in front of or near the dog and seeing whether it would go after it. I would also assume that ATF/DS's are trained so they know that when they're working (and you know they know work vs. play!) they only get to play with their toys if they alert to specific scents.

 

[dclfun]

I don't know about ATF or drug sniffers, but I know that our dogs were trained to not go after anything. One of the tests during the quarterly evaluations was tossing a Big Mac in front of or near the dog and seeing whether it would go after it. I would also assume that ATF/DS's are trained so they know that when they're working (and you know they know work vs. play!) they only get to play with their toys if they alert to specific scents.

I'm sure they wouldn't go after the food, but I still wonder if they noticed that someone's luggage smelled yummy! SD's can't/don't go after food either no matter how tempting it may seem to them.---Kathy

 

[SueM in MN]

I'm sure they wouldn't go after the food, but I still wonder if they noticed that someone's luggage smelled yummy! SD's can't/don't go after food either no matter how tempting it may seem to them.---Kathy

That reminds me of one of the first times we took our SD in training out to a store. The trainer wanted to meet us at a large local pet store. She told DH to have the dog sit and stay in an aisle and then DH was to leave the dog there.

The dog sat there obediently, but kept looking toward the shelves. He never moved, barked or anything though. When we released him, we saw what he had been looking at - DH had 'parked' the dog in front of a shelf full of dog food and one of the bags had a hole in it. There was dog food literally inches from his face and her never tried for it.

 

[dclfun]

That reminds me of one of the first times we took our SD in training out to a store. The trainer wanted to meet us at a large local pet store. She told DH to have the dog sit and stay in an aisle and then DH was to leave the dog there.

The dog sat there obediently, but kept looking toward the shelves. He never moved, barked or anything though. When we released him, we saw what he had been looking at - DH had 'parked' the dog in front of a shelf full of dog food and one of the bags had a hole in it. There was dog food literally inches from his face and her never tried for it.

Sue- I'm surprised he wasn't drooling! Talk about temptation! I've taken Skye into Petco several times and they have that treat bar there which is dog nirvana. I was talking to a family who had a very tall Great Dane and the dog was surfing the bar and sampling. Neither of us noticed until he craned his neck a bit to reach the center section, lol.---Kathy

 

[robynchic]

All this talk of service dogs and service dogs in training make me want to do it again. Unfortunately, DH isn't fond of large breeds and shedding, and is allergic to most breeds, so no training for us!