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.

so, RCCL sent me a pic, see below, of the relief area and it's honestly not great, looks like a small litter box compared to my 75lb dog and there are lots of rails that I would have a hard time ducking under or around plus it is located under a stairway so after you bend down to pick up the poop you can hit your head when you stand up. They did not make it sound like they were willing to listen to any suggested changes to this though. Of greater concern for me is this: When I went to my vet last week they said they had a "new system" to use to create and store the certificates. My understanding was that would meet Alaaska's requirement for form 7001 to have a traceable number, but today when they called they said they can do an electronic CVI but not a 7001. How do I get a 7001 with a traceable number? seems to be that is what I need but no one (me or vet) knows how to get it, the vet thinks the electronic CVI is enough, my wife just found an article that suggested we have to send something to the Alaska environmental department, I am very confused, and getting terribly stressed over this, any help would be greatly appreciated. RCCL RELIEF AREA PICTURES.pdf

thanks so much for the responses! 😀 I had downloaded the 7001 and so thought I had it covered but thanks to you all I learned I did not. Your timely replies helped so much. I just returned from our vet. They have a woman there, Monica, who is experienced in helping folks travel and ship their animals etc. so she is helping me get everything I need. She knew about Alaska not taking the downloadable version of the form. The vet office uses something called "Global Vet Link" and I guess if they use that to create the form 7001 it will have the traceable numbers AK requires. She is also doing a CVI for me and I contacted the vet who did her rabies for the service dog company and they are sending a newly signed rabies certificate for me so I will have an original with a wet signature if needed. We have always traveled with several copies of it along with her DOT form for flying and her proof of Micro chip. I also carry a micro chip reader I bought though we have never needed it so far. What do any of you carry to help with this stuff? Just curious. Muppet was trained for medical alert, mobility, and neurologic assistance and to help me especially while traveling. We have flown 35 flights together in the last 18 months so we are def an experienced team when it comes to flying, hopefully, we can feel as comfortable with he cruise stuff as we do with the flying, I am definitely not there yet, lol. We are as one person said, most concerned about where and how they expect my dog to use the restroom. We have started training on a pile of bark at home. She is not amused and giving me some serious stink eye about it but she will do it if it's all she has; she just thinks it is silly not to use our big yard when it is right there Dad! Muppet does not like airport pet relief areas, too stinky, or too antiseptic, in all our flights, she has only gone twice on them. Never really been a big deal as long as we can find some landscaping outside when we land but it has be more nervous for the ship area than I might otherwise be. She is not "poop on comand" trained but does know that I want her to go before we enter an airport though and kinda seems to know she needs to go when I tell her so I am pretty sure we will manage with what ever RCCL provides. I was planning on asking them to take me directly to the relief area as soon as we board to see what it is and resolve any issues right away. Someone else with a svc dog had suggested I do that. Any other advice on any of this or about the relief areas? If they would do sod that would be great but I do not think we get to make any requests? When we were first told about this cruise (it's a family reunion so not my idea) RCCL had a thing on the website saying you could request sod for your balcony but after we booked the cruise and called them they said they no longer offer that and that their website was not correct and needed to be updated. 😒

Hi everyone, new here. My Service dog Muppet and I are going on our first cruise, somewhat against our wishes. I have concerns about the bathroom situation for her. I am sure she will handle it though. She was professionally trained and she is an experienced flyer, we have made over 30 flights together so far but this will be the first time on a cruise and dealing with Canada and cruise ports etc... I am also overly concerned about missing some requirements, that is my nature. It looks like this is the best place to get some advice so if you do not mind helping a new guy out. What exactly do I need from the Vet for an Alaskan cruise that starts in the US and that has one stop in Canada? Is it Just Form 7001 or do I need any "state forms" or a vet-written "statements of health" letter as well? I have several copies of her original rabies certificate but I do not possess the original as it was done at a vet in another city where the company that trained her was. She is still on her first 3 yr shot so until my vet gives her her new one next year all I have are these copies of the original. Is that an issue? I was going to track down the old vet who did the shot and see if they have the original or can make me a new one. If anyone has experience dealing with that please advise. We flew, mostly Delta and the DOT form, and all that has been easy but we hope to do more international travel after this Alaska cruise. Thanks so much, Q n Mup