[Travelandtourism] Traveling with a guide dog out of thecountryand on a cruise ship

Fri Nov 18 16:24:38 UTC 2011

Peter this is not a US destination, so they have different laws in the Bahamas, and I am perusing it as we speak; as well as Norwegian Cruise Lines themselves. They are educating their staff to investigate each and every excursion that they offer, and not assume they are allowed.

Also, when we are in a country not of our own, not all places will allow service animals, yes here in the US it is different. But at the same time I am not it.

The Atlantis Resort and Casino would have allowed it, but I wasn't prepared for it, but I did ask, this is a different location from them.

Also, when traveling a lot of times the excursions are cheaper not going through the cruise lines, and a good travel agent will recommend some for you.

I have done many of these for other people, but since I was getting these from the ship at a discount we took them.

Again, Peter, the Bahamas is not part of the United States.

Leading the Way in Independent Travel!

Cheryl Echevarria
http://www.echevarriatravel.com<http://www.echevarriatravel.com/>
631-456-5394
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  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Peter Donahue<mailto:pdonahue2 at satx.rr.com> 
  To: NFB Travel and Tourism Division List<mailto:travelandtourism at nfbnet.org> 
  Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 11:10 AM
  Subject: Re: [Travelandtourism] Traveling with a guide dog out of thecountryand on a cruise ship

  Hello Cheryl and everyone,

      You should have persued a complaint with the dolphin park as what they 
  did is wrong. The issue of guide dogs in zoos and wild animal parks is a 
  veritable minefield where access is concerned. One establishment will give 
  you unlimited access to their facility while others restrict access for 
  those with guide dogs and still others attempt to ban your dog all together. 
  This is something both NAGDU and our division need to address. I have a real 
  problem with a zoo telling me I cannot take my dog in to their facility yet 
  I can attend the San Antonio Stock Show and go anywhere in the facility 
  accompanied by my guide dog.----- I have visited a number of zoos, livestock 
  shows, fairs and other animal facilities accompanied by my dog and never had 
  a problem. This also includes keeping the dog with me while in a petting 
  zoo. I've also exhibited chickens at several fairs and other events and kept 
  my dog with me at all times. A well-controlled dog whose vaccinations are 
  current and up-to-date should not cause a problem for other animals and is 
  protected from contracting diseases from other animals or transmitting 
  illnesses to them. That dolphin park obviously needs an education about the 
  ADA and other applicable legislation where rights of access for those 
  accompanied by guide dogs is concerned. It's our responsibility as a 
  division and as the NFB to see to it that that happens.

  Peter Donahue

  Original Message -----
  From: "cheryl echevarria" <cherylandmaxx at hotmail.com<mailto:cherylandmaxx at hotmail.com>>
  To: "nagdu" <nagdu at nfbnet.org<mailto:nagdu at nfbnet.org>>; "travelandtourism" 
  <travelandtourism at nfbnet.org<mailto:travelandtourism at nfbnet.org>>
  Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 9:18 AM
  Subject: [Travelandtourism] Traveling with a guide dog out of the countryand 
  on a cruise ship

  Good morning all:

  Now that I have some time, I will be posting my reviews and experience of my 
  recent cruise and excursions.

  This particular post is in reference to cruising with a guide dog from the 
  prep work, to the onboard experience, this is also in reference to leaving 
  the main land of the US.

  Before I start, yesterday, as I had posted, someone asked me about traveling 
  with their guide dog to Puerto Rico.  Well, since I have yet to take Maxx to 
  PR with us, it was an awakening to the fact, that whenever you leave the 
  mainland of the US, which also includes Canada and Mexico (some people may 
  not have had this issue in the past, but these are the rules per the USDA.) 
  that you must have in your possession a Certified USDA Veterinarian Health 
  Certificate, now when you call your  vet and let them know you are going out 
  of the country, you need to ask if he/she is one, if not they will know 
  where your closest one is, if not there is a listing on the United Stated 
  Department of Agriculture website.

    Which I am willing to send to NAGDU/travel and tourism the information so 
  that everyone has the link to the as well.

  The link is: 
  http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/animals/animal_import/animal_imports_states.shtml<http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/animals/animal_import/animal_imports_states.shtml<http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/animals/animal_import/animal_imports_states.shtml%3Chttp://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/animals/animal_import/animal_imports_states.shtml>>

  When traveling especially with a service animal, in this case, a cruise.

  Planning ahead, if you know you want to cruise in April starting planning as 
  early as possible.  For those that have cruised before the staterooms are 
  sometimes smaller than a hotel room, and having the room for the dog might 
  be limited.  In this case, even though I will not be doing this again, I 
  asked for an accessible stateroom, some of this might repeat when speaking 
  of traveling period for someone who is disabled.  Because this was a travel 
  agent graduation cruise with Norwegian Cruise Lines, all us travel agents 
  had balcony accommodations, and every level of the ships have an accessible 
  stateroom and no they are not more or less money then those for everyone 
  else.

  When planning your cruise with a guide dog, you need to call like I said way 
  in advanced if you would like an accessible stateroom, there are many people 
  I am glad to say that are traveling, and these rooms go very fast.

  You need to let your travel agent, know you are bring your guide, they will 
  accommodate you but if you don't tell them, they will not know to make a box 
  for your dog to do his business.  Also, they do not put the box in your 
  room, it is a health issue, and no they will not put the boxes on the 
  balconies if you have one.

  On Norwegian Cruise Lines, what they do is they will ask you what kind of 
  stuffing you want in the box, it is a similar box to what we do at 
  convention only smaller.  The placing of it is in a crew area only area.

  Explanation here:  On a cruise, there is an area every few staterooms in 
  between that the crew move between to take there carts or need to take an 
  elevator to get to the next floor, basically behind the scenes, so near our 
  stateroom there was one of these doors and we were shown the box for the 
  dog.

  Again, depending on the floor you are staying will determine where this is.

  Maxx was confused at first because it was inside and not outside the box, 
  and when Maxx is away anywhere, it takes him at least a day to go do his 
  business, but he finally liked it and all was good.

  You also need to do your homework on where you are going in my case it was 
  Orlando, Great Stirrup Cay (which is Norwegian's own private island in the 
  Bahamas), all the cruise lines have them, and Nassau (Paradise Island) in 
  the Bahamas.

  Orlando is a US State so there is no worry in that of where you want to go 
  on an excursion, we decided not to go anywhere in Orlando, and stay on the 
  ship, and check out the rest of what was available to do.

  We didn't go to Great Stirrup Cay because at the island they bring ship 
  tenders to the ship and that day their was 9 and 10 foot swells and the 
  manager of the island said it was to dangerous to bring the boats out, so we 
  had another day at sea. Also in the same area was Disney and Royal Caribbean 
  and they couldn't get into there islands as well. These private islands are 
  to shallow for the ships to have a pier to port to.

  In the Bahamas, we did have an issue with one of the excursions we wanted to 
  do.  I did call the excursion department with the cruise lines prior to what 
  we wanted to do, and they told me we never had a problem with services 
  animals and our excursions.  Well, I did and the cruise line has been 
  informed, I did give a report back to the Access Department and management 
  upon my return, the good, the bad and the ugly.  They are on it, so that 
  these issues never happen again.

  Anyway the issue we had was, I wanted to go swimming with the dolphins, my 
  sister and brother-in-law, niece and nephew, were cruising with us, and they 
  were going to this.

  So when I registered for this on the ship they had no problem with it, but 
  the following day I was told that I couldn't bring my dog.  This was not 
  from the cruise lines but the people who run the program.  They were going 
  to allow it this once just for me, since I was a travel agent. I said no, 
  and that we were going to do something else.  I have the e-mail from the 
  company themselves of the excuse of why they didn't want to dog there. I 
  mean Maxx was not going to go in the water with the dolphins, the supplier 
  was concerned, since afterwards that in the same area that they have sea 
  lions and that they have a less tolerance for illness and that they were 
  concerned that they would get sick from the dog.

  In either case, I don't do anything that all of you cannot go and do.

  We went to the Atlantis Resort and it was well worth it, had an awesome 
  time:

  To read more go to:

  http://www.echevarriatravel.wordpress.com<http://www.echevarriatravel.wordpress.com/<http://www.echevarriatravel.wordpress.com%3chttp//www.echevarriatravel.wordpress.com/>>

  Leading the Way in Independent Travel!

  Cheryl Echevarria
  http://www.echevarriatravel.com<http://www.echevarriatravel.com/<http://www.echevarriatravel.com%3chttp//www.echevarriatravel.com/>>
  631-456-5394
  reservations at echevarriatravel.com<mailto:reservations at echevarriatravel.com<mailto:reservations at echevarriatravel.com%3Cmailto:reservations at echevarriatravel.com>>

  For daily updates read our blog at
  http://www.echevarriatravel.wordpress.com<http://www.echevarriatravel.wordpress.com/<http://www.echevarriatravel.wordpress.com%3chttp//www.echevarriatravel.wordpress.com/>>
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