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What Are The 6 Cruises You Can Take Your Pets On?
Jan 28, 2025
Pet-Friendly cruising travel, is it possible? Want to go cruising with a pet? Are there pet-friendly cruises for your dog or cat? This is a question I have been asked frequently. I have explored, checked and found the 6 options available to set sail with your furry friends. Discover the ways to go on a pet-friendly cruise vacation. Time to think ahead about taking your pets a vacation with you too?
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Gary Bembridge's Tips For Travellers aims to help you make more of your precious travel time and money on land and when cruising the oceans or rivers of the world. To help you, in every video I draw on my first-hand tips and advice from travelling every month for over 20 years and 77 cruises at time of making this video.
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0:00
can you cruise with your pet what are
0:02
your options
0:03
I'm Gary Barnidge this is another of my
0:05
cruising tips for travelers I asked a
0:07
surprisingly large amount of times how
0:09
you can or if you can cruise with your
0:11
pet so I'm going to tell you six options
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that you have if that's something that
0:16
you want to do
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the first and easiest way to go cruising
0:22
with your pet is to go on a Cunard Queen
0:25
Mary to transatlantic crossing it's the
0:27
only ship in the world today that
0:30
actually has kennels onboard they have
0:32
22 kennels they can take dogs and they
0:34
can take cats no birds or any other type
0:37
of animals however there is quite a lot
0:41
of cost associated with that
0:42
if you want to hire a lower kennel that
0:44
costs $1000 for a crossing and a
0:47
crossing takes around about 7 days if
0:49
you want an upper kennel it costs $800
0:52
dogs are not allowed to share a kennel
0:54
so you'd have to buy one for each dog
0:56
cats can check can also ever if you take
0:59
a cat you actually have to buy two
1:01
kennels anyway - Kenneth next to each
1:04
other's so that's gonna cost you at
1:05
least $1,600 anyway but you because one
1:09
has to have the litter tray one has the
1:10
cap but you can have two cats in there
1:14
there is a kennel master they will also
1:16
make sure that animals are walked there
1:19
do their business and then at set times
1:21
the day you can actually go up and then
1:22
interact with your dog or your cats
1:24
there is quite a lot of restrictions
1:26
though on just the area that you can
1:28
take them out and about it's extremely
1:30
popular and you have to book at least 12
1:33
months to 18 months in advance
1:37
also it's very important is the kennels
1:39
only operate on the transatlantic sir
1:41
between Hamburg Southampton New York New
1:44
York Southampton and Hamburg you can't
1:47
go with pets any other time on Queen
1:51
Mary to your second key option is really
1:55
in Europe where there are a number of
1:57
themed or certain cruise types where
2:00
you're allowed to take pets you can
2:03
pretty much take pets on canal cruises
2:05
particularly in the UK and in France so
2:09
if you hire for example in the UK you're
2:11
how one of those canal long boats you
2:13
can normally take dogs and even a couple
2:15
of dogs on those and the same is true in
2:17
France if you're chartering or hiring
2:19
your own canal bird so that's the key
2:21
option particularly if you're in Europe
2:22
or perhaps you brought your dog over on
2:24
the Queen Mary - so that's one of the
2:26
easiest ways of cruising with pets the
2:28
other thing that you can do is there is
2:31
on a river cruise boat called the MS
2:33
Normandy they do at certain times of the
2:35
year cruises where they're Lao pets so
2:37
they do some Ryan cruises they do some
2:39
one the most cell so you can cruise see
2:40
some of the beautiful sights on the
2:41
Rhine the cars etc you can also
2:43
experience some parts of Amsterdam so
2:48
that is your two key options in Europe
2:50
the MSC normally where they're uncertain
2:52
cruises from four to eight days or go on
2:55
a canal barge where you're charging it
2:57
and you can take up to four dogs on some
3:00
of them
3:01
the third easiest way to take a dog with
3:04
you is if it's a service animal so I
3:07
guess in many cases that's not really a
3:08
pet now very important there are some
3:11
very key restrictions the service animal
3:12
has to be one that has been specifically
3:15
trained to perform some kind of task so
3:17
for example if it's a guide dog for
3:19
people who are visually impaired his
3:21
example so it normally has to be a
3:22
physical disability emotional support
3:24
animals are no longer allowed
3:27
Royal Caribbean was one of the very last
3:28
but last year they scrapped that and
3:31
banned emotional support animals because
3:34
it felt like he would just use an excuse
3:35
during pets on board
3:38
there are slightly different rules and
3:40
regulations for service animals by
3:42
cruise lines so once you've chosen your
3:44
cruise you need to just double check
3:46
some of them have varying degrees on how
3:48
much notice you have to give but
3:50
normally you're gonna have to provide
3:51
some sort of documentation to show that
3:53
they're a service animal but not always
3:55
either register service animal you're
3:57
gonna have to show they've got all the
3:58
inoculations you're gonna have to get
4:00
all of the various port clearances to
4:02
enable them to come on board also very
4:05
importantly many of the cruise lines
4:06
will only allow service animals that
4:09
will embark on disembark at the same
4:11
port so for example out of the United
4:12
States and in Europe there are capacity
4:15
to bring on service animals but there
4:17
it's slightly more complicated but you
4:18
can get things like what's known as a
4:20
pet Passport
4:21
you need to be able to move pets around
4:23
what the Cruise Lines also provide for
4:25
service dogs does vary in what they will
4:28
provide so for example the hoor America
4:29
Royal Caribbean they'll create specific
4:31
areas we can go and walk your dog and
4:33
also the dog can do their business
4:35
except as I'll set that up
4:36
many of them have regulations around
4:38
they have to stay on the leash for
4:39
example when they're allowed out not
4:42
allowed out which parts of the ship
4:43
they're allowed out on and all those
4:45
kind of complications very very
4:47
importantly though emotional support
4:48
animals are not allowed and generally
4:50
speaking most cruise lines are only
4:52
looking at dogs if you do have a service
4:56
dog so perhaps you have epilepsy or some
5:00
kind of medication needs blood sugar
5:02
levels where dogs have been trained very
5:05
important you also check whether the
5:06
cruise lines will allow them many of
5:08
them will allow them if there are
5:09
registered as service dogs and they're
5:11
very specifically trained for that I
5:14
mentioned earlier that many of the
5:16
cruise lines require some sort of
5:17
documentation to prove that they are a
5:19
registered service animal that's not
5:21
true of all cruise lines so you do find
5:24
certainly on some cruises that people
5:26
are basically either they've acquired a
5:29
service license or they just set planes
5:31
the dog is a service dog but it's not
5:34
always true so I've been on cruises
5:36
where it's questionable whether a dog
5:38
really is a service dog or not but
5:40
certainly a service dog is one way that
5:42
you can cruise with your pet
5:46
another way that you can cruise with
5:48
pets perhaps that are not dogs and cats
5:50
is to be the captain of a cruise ship
5:52
there's two probably best known examples
5:55
one of the best documented of all is
5:57
Captain Kate who works for celebrity she
6:00
has a very unusual King cat which is
6:03
called a bug naked this care has become
6:05
really famous in the cruising industry
6:07
in fact she even runs for buck-naked
6:09
their own Instagram account and
6:11
certainly people get very excited about
6:14
if captain Kate is on board and if bug
6:16
naked is on board as well
6:18
bug stuff like put on the bridge the
6:23
celebrity edge
6:35
the other pet example that I've seen is
6:38
on saga creases now captain Kim Tanner
6:40
actually has a parrot called Perla who
6:43
normally says up in the bridge but it
6:45
will occasionally come out until the
6:46
public areas to meet and greet so you do
6:50
find that some captains do bring pets on
6:53
board
6:55
it's not very common and you do need a
6:57
very forgiving and open-minded I guess
7:00
head office but certainly it definitely
7:02
proves that if you are the captain of a
7:04
cruise ship you probably gonna find a
7:05
way of bringing your pet onboard another
7:09
pretty easy way of going cruising
7:11
although as you're centimeter it's not
7:13
really true cruising is to look at
7:15
regional ferry services so this really
7:17
applies much more in Europe but many of
7:19
the big regional ferry lines are pet
7:22
friendly and they do actually have
7:24
particularly the overnight services pet
7:26
friendly cabins and you could actually
7:28
go on a mini cruise where you could
7:30
actually cruise somewhere spend the day
7:32
in a place reboard the ferry and head
7:34
back so you could do two or three nights
7:36
or adjoining nights so a couple of
7:38
examples of those is you in the Baltics
7:41
you've got the italic Celia line and
7:44
they cruise like from Stockholm to
7:46
Helsinki they go to Tallinn they go to
7:49
Riga and I've seen many examples online
7:52
of people that have put back-to-back
7:54
ferry trips in what's a rather nice part
7:57
of the world and create a little cruise
7:59
where they can take their pets onboard
8:00
they do have a certain amount of pet
8:02
friendly cabins and they do various
8:04
restrictions so booking those in advance
8:05
is important couple of other examples is
8:08
the Viking line not to be confused with
8:10
Viking cruises viking river cruises but
8:12
Viking line is another regional ferry
8:15
service and the Viking line that they
8:17
operate between Finland and Sweden and
8:20
Finland and Estonia
8:21
so again Viking line have a number of
8:23
pet friendly cabins and so again you can
8:25
create little cruises by bouncing around
8:27
those different places
8:30
if you want to go sort of between the UK
8:32
and the continent there is many many
8:34
examples so Brittany Ferries for example
8:37
you could go from Portsmouth in the UK
8:39
to Babar in Spain you could go from
8:41
Portsmouth to La Habra in France you
8:44
could go from Portsmouth to other parts
8:46
of Spain as well like Santander so there
8:50
are ways that you can go cruising with
8:53
the pets it's more of a ferry service
8:55
but that many of these overnight ferries
8:57
operate like a cruise they have
8:58
restaurants they have shows they have
9:00
entertainment and lots going on so you
9:02
could create a little cruise around your
9:04
pet if that's what you want to do of
9:06
course you could then combine that with
9:07
a land-based tour where of course you
9:08
could take your pet with you
9:12
another way that you could find of
9:14
breaking all those rules is to be a
9:16
celebrity or suddenly to have a
9:18
celebrity pet so for example one of the
9:21
winners of Britain's Got Talent
9:23
was a dog called pansy buzzy was
9:25
renowned for heading off on a tour in
9:27
the United States of America on Kanade
9:29
Queen Mary - and certainly the dog was
9:32
seen all around the ship did various
9:33
shows on the ship so clearly if you are
9:36
a celebrity and you have a pet you're
9:38
probably going to find a way of getting
9:39
your pet on board
9:41
so can you cruise with a pet it's very
9:44
very very difficult
9:45
the only easiest traditional cruising
9:48
way of doing it is on the Queen Mary -
9:50
on a transatlantic or of course if you
9:52
have some kind of service dog if you
9:54
found this helpful and interesting why
9:56
don't you watch another one of my many
9:57
cruising videos full of tips and advice
10:00
right now
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