Taking a Service dog Cruising- overall experience

January 2024- I took my service dog @mozzytheservicedoodle to New Orleans Louisiana and we took a week long cruise with Norwegian Cruise Lines. We sailed on the NCL Breakaway to Mexico, Honduras, and Belize.

Overall the experience was amazing. The crew were super excited to see us but were very respectful about asking to pet and not interrupting during tasks. The accessibility officer was great and helped us with some missing paperwork for Belize (more on paperwork and prep in another post). They had a potty box (a plastic box with aspen shavings) near our room which Moz had a hard time figuring out how to use. This was my 3rd cruise but first time with a service dog and medical supplies. We way overpacked 😂.

Getting on the ship was the same as getting on an airplane with a metal detector to walk through and a really long line. Moz got a pat down because he was in gear and is super fluffy. The guy doing it was super great and let Moz sniff him and talked the whole time. Once we got on the ship we met with the accessibility team and found out where his potty spot was and any extra paperwork we needed to do. After that it was just getting used to the ship.

I thought Moz might get sea sick (tho he’s a rockstar in the car) so we brought meds. He didn’t seem bothered by the ship at all even though we had really rough seas the first 2 days. He only threw up once but it was his normal indigestion not the ship. He was a bit confused by the potty box because it was in an internal stairwell. He held it 30 hrs before finally giving in and using the box. After that he was fine.

There were a lot of fellow cruisers that tried to talk to him, pet him, bark at him, but after a while most people got used to him and would only talk and say hi instead of bothering him.

I will be adding more posts on specifics of using a dog on board and the paperwork needed as well as New Orleans and food allergies on board.