Support dogs not allowed?????……….

An article caught my eye this week that Royal Caribbean have taken the decision to no longer allow support dogs on board their ships.

At first I thought probably the same as you are thinking right now ‘so partially sighted passengers can no longer bring a dog on board????’ However this is not the case.

Royal Caribean are still allowing ‘Service animals’ on board which would include supporting disabilities including blindness, deafness, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, however they are saying they have found that ‘Support animals’ are not always fully trained, so this has resulted with them taking the decision to no longer allow ‘Emotional support’ animals on board.

The ideas I have conjured up in my mind as to what happened for them to make this decision are endless. I can just imagine a passenger taking their pet hamster on board with bogus paperwork passing him off as their support aid, hamster getting loose, hundreds of staff and passengers searching throughout the ship on their hands and knees to locate the little devil.

However it does also make me think that with this procedure set in place, will other Cruise Lines follow suit and if so will this then result in ‘Emotional support animals’ being trained to a required level where they are allowed back on board. I have a friend who relies on their emotional support dog, she would love to do a cruise, however she won’t be going with Royal Caribbean now.

I’d love to take my chocolate lab Fred on a cruise with me, it would be absolutely hilarious, he’s got a nervous disposition as it is, he jumps a mile if he spots a cat, and hides upstairs when the ‘rag and bone man’ comes round, fat lot of support he would be as a service animal. The closest he gets to one is helping himself to the socks out of the washing machine and chewing holes in them.