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

[wizard-of-roz]

NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO QUESTION YOU UNDER THE ADA ACT!!!! There are severe penalties to those that do.

 

You do not have to explain yourself. My husband has MD and we have a wonderful service dog named Goldee that we bring with us everywhere. (not on a cruise yet!!!) but soon....l.

 

When we are questioned we politely inform them that we need not explain and show them our identification and leave it at that!!! It never goes further...............

 

Thank you for all your info.

 

Welcome "toppgnlady": What kind of "ID" are you showing?

Canine Companions for Independence has a wonderful "ID" card with a picture of us and our dog on it. On the back it explains the ADA laws in brief form.

There has been a lot of discussion on this forum about having an ID card, not all training org's give one and the law does not mandate that you carry one.

I think they save a myriad of questions at hotels, cruise terminals [not so much restaurants until after the insult has been thrown] but, I do like mine.

Some folks think that those of us who have them are making it more difficult for those who don't!

I hope you get to cruise with Goldee soon, you'll love it!!!!

Edited March 8, 2013 by wizard-of-roz

[wizard-of-roz]

Hi. I only posted this info on the Cruisers from California forum because I'm subscribed to several threads and I didn't want to miss any comments: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=37444092&postcount=2283

 

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and prayers.

 

Marcia, as I wrote on the other thread, I wish you strength through the days ahead.

I love you, you're one of my most dearest travel and thread buddies. To have this happen so quickly is so difficult. Please keep the memories of when your Dad was well, and you shared special moments with him in the front of your every thought of him.

I will say a special prayer for you tonight.

With Love and My Warmest Wishes,

Roz

[Valentine's Mom]

Dobiemom

 

I am so sorry.

[rangeley]

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Friday we had another 12" of snow, but its been so warm that most of it is melted already. Hopefully that was the last snow of the season. :confused:

 

This weekend we did some recruiting for puppy raisers. About 10 families showed up, five of which are really interested. Some have already filled out an application and the rest are working on it. It was a great success!! John and Wex did their thing and they were both great! We now have about 5 young puppies of various ages in our puppy raiser class. It seems they all got new pups at the same time. Soooooo cute!!! From what I understand we actually have a waiting list of 2 months for puppy raisers to get a pup. In CCI land that is awesome!!

[wizard-of-roz]

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Friday we had another 12" of snow, but its been so warm that most of it is melted already. Hopefully that was the last snow of the season. :confused:

 

This weekend we did some recruiting for puppy raisers. About 10 families showed up, five of which are really interested. Some have already filled out an application and the rest are working on it. It was a great success!! John and Wex did their thing and they were both great! We now have about 5 young puppies of various ages in our puppy raiser class. It seems they all got new pups at the same time. Soooooo cute!!! From what I understand we actually have a waiting list of 2 months for puppy raisers to get a pup. In CCI land that is awesome!!

 

You will be so glad when that darn snow is gone for a very long time!!!!!

We're having 85 degrees this week. It feels like summer without the humidity! My favorite kind of summer!!! :p

You really are doing well in the puppy department! I love those little faces. And, I could use some puppy time!

[wizard-of-roz]

Marcia [Dobiemom] This is a "shout-out" to you. I hope that your doing okay. I wish I could say that the days will get easier but sometimes they get more difficult and even worse before they get even a little bit better.

Please know that I'm thinking about you and am sending you all our love,

Your Friends, Roz, Morey, Brenda & Horton

[trudle]

Hi. I only posted this info on the Cruisers from California forum because I'm subscribed to several threads and I didn't want to miss any comments: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showp...postcount=2283

 

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and prayers.

Sorry to hear the loss of your dad. Hope that you are doing ok---sending hugs your way.

[trudle]

See that you booked your cruise for 2014-----I love your count down clock.

 

We booked a cruise for October----going with my son and daughter in law. It is their 10 Anniversary----so we wanted to celebrate with them.

 

I like the puppy raiser thing, but I don't think I could give the puppy back. :eek:

 

Hope you have a great time on your cruise Roz.

 

Hope all of you have a great week. Rainy here today and we need it.

[wizard-of-roz]

See that you booked your cruise for 2014-----I love your count down clock.

 

We booked a cruise for October----going with my son and daughter in law. It is their 10 Anniversary----so we wanted to celebrate with them.

 

I like the puppy raiser thing, but I don't think I could give the puppy back. :eek:

 

Hope you have a great time on your cruise Roz.

 

Hope all of you have a great week. Rainy here today and we need it.

 

Trudy, thank you for your good wishes.

I have some important "stuff" at work and home to get through then I'm going to focus on my upcoming cruise.

I always say this...."I'm going to just find a lounge chair on the Promenade Deck and not move for a week!" And, then I find a trivia game or a bingo game or a wonderful new friend to talk to or on and on and on and I'm doing more on the cruise than I ever do at home or work!!!

I guess that's what makes cruising so much fun.....there's so much to do!!!!

[S.S. Cruisers]

Mornin' all:

Cari (Denver sees for me) has reported on facebook that she got her new guide dog. He is another yellow lab! Yay, named Dodger. Big brother Denver couldn't be more proud of his little brother. Cari has started a blog, I haven't had a chance to go read it yet, but here it is. bigyellowlab . blogspot . com remove the spaces. He looks like, well a big yellow lab. Makes me miss my boy.

 

Everyone have a great hump day.

 

[wizard-of-roz]

Mornin' all:

Cari (Denver sees for me) has reported on facebook that she got her new guide dog. He is another yellow lab! Yay, named Dodger. Big brother Denver couldn't be more proud of his little brother. Cari has started a blog, I haven't had a chance to go read it yet, but here it is. bigyellowlab . blogspot . com remove the spaces. He looks like, well a big yellow lab. Makes me miss my boy.

 

Everyone have a great hump day.

 

 

I'm very excited for Cari. I've had the pleasure to meet Denver and watch Cari work with him. She's an amazing dog handler and the bond between her and Denver was so beautiful to watch. She never had to say much.....he knew exactly what she wanted. It was pure magic to observe. It takes time to get to that point.

It actually took Brenny and me two years before I didn't have to say much to her....she knew precisely what I meant by just a simple hand gesture!

I know that Denver's at home being just like Brenda; taking a well deserved break from the work they've done.

I'm going to her graduation on April 21st. I can't wait to watch her formally take Dodger's leash. It's always so thrilling to see.

[rangeley]

See that you booked your cruise for 2014-----I love your count down clock.

 

We booked a cruise for October----going with my son and daughter in law. It is their 10 Anniversary----so we wanted to celebrate with them.

 

I like the puppy raiser thing, but I don't think I could give the puppy back. :eek:

 

Hope you have a great time on your cruise Roz.

 

Hope all of you have a great week. Rainy here today and we need it.

 

We just booked it the other day. We were waiting for the price to come down but decided to book now and hope it comes down so we can get the cheaper price. Since they only have this cruise a few times a year, we wanted to make sure we got the cabin we wanted.

 

What cruiseline you going on? Where you going?

[wizard-of-roz]

We just booked it the other day. We were waiting for the price to come down but decided to book now and hope it comes down so we can get the cheaper price. Since they only have this cruise a few times a year, we wanted to make sure we got the cabin we wanted.

 

What cruiseline you going on? Where you going?

 

Cindy's booked......Yay! Where you going....as if it matters. Just get me on a ship...I don't care anymore where it goes. It's all about the ship and the big, blue ocean and sky!!!! :)

[wizard-of-roz]

I read Cari's blog. Dodger is a very handsome dog. I wish she had written more about Denver's interaction with him.

What these dogs can do is a miracle. Bringing people out of the dark and into the light and into life and the world puts me in awe!

That's it, I'm in "awe" of these dogs and all that they can do!

[rangeley]

Cindy's booked......Yay! Where you going....as if it matters. Just get me on a ship...I don't care anymore where it goes. It's all about the ship and the big, blue ocean and sky!!!! :)

 

:D It's a 10 dayer Roz!! Going to private island, Grand Turk, Dominican, Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire. I've wanted to do this cruise for a long time. It only goes a few times a year so it's been hard to find a good time to go. Mainly because John likes to extend his school vacations. This one won't be until February, so John can extend his school vacation.

 

You are leaving in 2 weeks!!! :eek: How exciting!! And like you said, it's all about the ship for me too. Although it's nice to go somewhere we haven't been before.

[trudle]

Cindy----nice cruise, just looked it up. What date? I see early or late,Feb.

 

The new cruise we booked is on Carnival----going with the son and daughter in law, in October, for their Anniversary. After these next two cruises, we hope to do Hal again sometime.

[Owen's Mom]

Hi everybody,

 

I posted a "hello" a while back (before I was teamed up with my service dog), but now my family is starting the initial planning stages for our first cruise with a SD. Owen and I have been teamed up since December, so we will have been together about 8 months by the time we cruise.

 

I wanted to get input from experienced cruisers on (1) best cruise line options and (2) best ports to travel to with a SD.

 

Personally, I would be happy with staying on the ship the entire time, but I know with some countries you still have to worry about customs clearing your SD even if you won't be getting off the ship. I am also very nervous about the possibility of taking Owen off the ship with me in an unsafe country, and would not be doing so, even if my family did get off the ship.

 

However, my parents will be moving overseas this summer and it will be our last family vacation for a while (and the last time I see them until the holidays), so if it were safe to get off the ship with Owen and be with my family, I would like to do so.

 

That being said, what would your recommendations be for a relatively hassle-free cruise?

 

My family is very open to where we go; they want to leave out of Seattle, a California port, or Galveston but as to the cruise we do, they seem to be very open to different options right now. We are looking at traveling in July of this year.

 

Any ideas/suggestions?

 

I'm sure I'll have loads of questions about the actual cruise once we get closer, but for right now we just want to get something booked!

[Quampapetet]

So, Carnival has had another incident, thankfully not in the middle of the ocean this time. All the passengers had to fly back to Florida from St. Maarten, the port of call where the ship was docked when the ship's problem began. Thankfully, that's a country that doesn't have many dog import requirements, so anybody with a service dog shouldn't have had a problem getting off the ship to get into a hotel or onto a plane. But, what if such a problem had happened at a port where the dog was not qualified to get off the ship, such as Jamaica (doesn't allow dogs), Barbados (doesn't allow dogs not coming directly from the UK), or if the owner didn't do rabies titres for countries such as Cayman Islands, St. Lucia, and St. Kitts? I wonder what would happen?

 

P.S. I decided not to go on the cruise, but my friends also decided not to go, at least the week we had cabins on hold for. (Too bad, as I had a hard-to-get one on hold!) If they choose to go on the same itinerary/ship later, I won't go, but might go if they choose a different one.

[rangeley]

Hi everybody' date='

 

I posted a "hello" a while back (before I was teamed up with my service dog), but now my family is starting the initial planning stages for our first cruise with a SD. Owen and I have been teamed up since December, so we will have been together about 8 months by the time we cruise.

 

I wanted to get input from experienced cruisers on (1) best cruise line options and (2) best ports to travel to with a SD.

 

Personally, I would be happy with staying on the ship the entire time, but I know with some countries you still have to worry about customs clearing your SD even if you won't be getting off the ship. I am also very nervous about the possibility of taking Owen off the ship with me in an unsafe country, and would not be doing so, even if my family did get off the ship.

 

However, my parents will be moving overseas this summer and it will be our last family vacation for a while (and the last time I see them until the holidays), so if it were safe to get off the ship with Owen and be with my family, I would like to do so.

 

That being said, what would your recommendations be for a relatively hassle-free cruise?

 

My family is very open to where we go; they want to leave out of Seattle, a California port, or Galveston but as to the cruise we do, they seem to be very open to different options right now. We are looking at traveling in July of this year.

 

Any ideas/suggestions?

 

I'm sure I'll have loads of questions about the actual cruise once we get closer, but for right now we just want to get something booked![/quote']

 

Katherine Congrats!!! Owen is beautiful.

 

As for cruising we are on the east coast, but you could do an Alaskan cruise and that would be US and Canada, very easy for the dog. Or a California coastal. If you go out of Galveston, you could do Carribean but thats alittle more tricky unless you pick one with St Thomas and Puerto Rico. Some of the islands just require the same form as US ports. We have alot of seasoned cruisers here so I'm sure you will get all the information you need. Please feel free to ask us anything. Usually between all of us we can give you an answer.

 

Cindy

[rangeley]

Cindy----nice cruise, just looked it up. What date? I see early or late,Feb.

 

The new cruise we booked is on Carnival----going with the son and daughter in law, in October, for their Anniversary. After these next two cruises, we hope to do Hal again sometime.

 

It's the February 7th one. As we know John likes to extend the school vacation so when we get back he has the week off. ;)

 

Boy Carnival is sure having it's problems.

[rangeley]

So, Carnival has had another incident, thankfully not in the middle of the ocean this time. All the passengers had to fly back to Florida from St. Maarten, the port of call where the ship was docked when the ship's problem began. Thankfully, that's a country that doesn't have many dog import requirements, so anybody with a service dog shouldn't have had a problem getting off the ship to get into a hotel or onto a plane. But, what if such a problem had happened at a port where the dog was not qualified to get off the ship, such as Jamaica (doesn't allow dogs), Barbados (doesn't allow dogs not coming directly from the UK), or if the owner didn't do rabies titres for countries such as Cayman Islands, St. Lucia, and St. Kitts? I wonder what would happen?

 

P.S. I decided not to go on the cruise, but my friends also decided not to go, at least the week we had cabins on hold for. (Too bad, as I had a hard-to-get one on hold!) If they choose to go on the same itinerary/ship later, I won't go, but might go if they choose a different one.

 

You think you are prepared and then all these incidents happen and you realize you're not prepared at all. :eek:

[trudle]

Hi everybody,

 

I posted a "hello" a while back (before I was teamed up with my service dog), but now my family is starting the initial planning stages for our first cruise with a SD. Owen and I have been teamed up since December, so we will have been together about 8 months by the time we cruise.

 

Owen is beautiful and many happy and helpful years and enjoy your cruise.

[trudle]

It's the February 7th one. As we know John likes to extend the school vacation so when we get back he has the week off. ;)

 

Boy Carnival is sure having it's problems.

 

Yes, Carnival sure is having the problems these past few months. It can happen to any of the ships. I know it is bad for some and probably worse for those that have service dogs. But sometimes you have to take the lemons along with the good things. We were on that ship twice and just keep our fingers crossed that it doesn't happen on the Freedom in October. This will be our third time on Freedom. After October, I hope to do another HA cruise but not sure when that will be.

 

Having our end of the yr. picnic for the Art Club today and tomorrow, I am in a Craft Show. So have a good weekend everyone and talk to you on Monday.

 

It was 48 degrees here this morning and that is not Florida weater.:eek:

 

Hi Wex---Pat=Pat

[rangeley]

Yes, Carnival sure is having the problems these past few months. It can happen to any of the ships. I know it is bad for some and probably worse for those that have service dogs. But sometimes you have to take the lemons along with the good things. We were on that ship twice and just keep our fingers crossed that it doesn't happen on the Freedom in October. This will be our third time on Freedom. After October, I hope to do another HA cruise but not sure when that will be.

 

Having our end of the yr. picnic for the Art Club today and tomorrow, I am in a Craft Show. So have a good weekend everyone and talk to you on Monday.

 

It was 48 degrees here this morning and that is not Florida weater.:eek:

 

Hi Wex---Pat=Pat

 

We hope things go good for you on Carnival. Hopefully they will have things straightened out by then.

 

Sell more paintings so you can keep crusin!

 

Pretty cold in Florida. It's cold here too. Wind chill was 7 when I got up this morning. Noon time and it's only 28.

 

We were talking about you last night. Wex had your toy out and was squeaking away! I kept saying to him "is that the toy Trudy gave you" and he would squeak even more. Such a goof!

Edited March 15, 2013 by rangeley

[rangeley]

Some not so good news from our little world. John has been having some stomach spasms for the past 2 weeks. He finally went to the doctors on Wednesday. Since everything around here takes weeks and/or months to get an appointment, the doc thought it would be a good idea for us to go to the emergency room and he would call there and have them do a few tests. Well 7 hours later :mad: we finally made it home. They think (and I stress think) he has a viral intestinal infection, even though he is not having any problems in that area. But they also think he might have a bladder stone. Of course I had never heard of a stone in the bladder but I have been reading about it and it can be. It can either be a stone from the bladder or a stone that traveled from the kidneys. Anyway of course it will take weeks for him to get an appointment with the urologist. He is trying to get the doctor to get him in sooner. So now he has been home for the last 2 days. :mad: I'm going to need calgon to take me away!! :eek: