Once your booking has been made and your paperwork has been checked, all DEFRA conditions have been met, and you have completed and signed Cunard’s terms and conditions, we will send you a confirmation letter. This letter confirms that your service and assistance dog has been given permission to travel and the letter must be produced at check-in. Failure to produce this letter may result in your service and assistance dog being denied boarding.
For sailings departing from Southampton, once you have presented your confirmation letter to our check-in staff, a member of the ship's crew will check your service and assistance dog’s paperwork and scan their microchip.
For embarkation in New York, the ship's crew will also check the documentation to ensure the tapeworm treatment has been administered within the required timescale. Providing these checks are satisfactory, you will then be escorted through security to board the ship.
Tapeworm and other treatments
To return to the UK, your service and assistance dog is required to undertake tapeworm treatment 24 – 120 hours (1-5 days) prior to arrival in Southampton. This treatment will need to be carried out by an authorised veterinarian in the necessary port of call which meets the above timescales. We ask owners to select their itinerary carefully as on occasion ports of call may be missed and replaced or cancelled for reasons beyond Cunard’s control.
It is the responsibility of the owner to research their itinerary in full and to ensure a local veterinarian can administer the required tapeworm treatment at the appropriate time. We would therefore advise you to check your itinerary carefully to ensure the tapeworm treatment can be offered in more than one port of call and within DEFRA's timing guidelines to re-enter the UK. Please note that it can be difficult to locate vets on weekends and bank holidays, therefore we would suggest that if your last port of call falls on a weekend, arrange treatment to be undertaken at your penultimate port of call (as long as this falls within the DEFRA’s timing guidelines highlighted above).
Owners are responsible for locating a vet and ensuring the correct treatment has been carried out as well as the pet's passport being updated correctly. Please note that Cunard do not offer the service of a vet on board.
Should the tapeworm treatment not be carried out or the documentation is incorrect, your dog may be placed into quarantine on your return to Southampton.
Should your chosen itinerary be of 2, 3 or 4 nights in duration, the tapeworm treatment can be carried out on the morning of embarkation by an authorised veterinarian and your dog is able to disembark at EU ports of call. For Transatlantic Crossings on Queen Mary 2 from New York to Southampton, tapeworm treatment must be administered no more than 5 days prior to embarkation.
Treatment during the voyage is not needed if the ship calls only at ports in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Finland, the Republic of Ireland, Norway, or Malta.
If travelling to Mexico, dogs must have had an ecto-parasite and endo-parasite treatment applied no more than 15 days prior to arrival to port. This information should be included in the dog’s health certificate.
We currently do not offer the service of a vet on board any of our ships, and the ships’ doctors are unable to assist should your dog be taken ill on board. Therefore, it is imperative that you consult your vet for advice prior to your cruise to ensure your dog is fit to travel. It may be a good idea to talk to your vet regarding motion sickness.
Pet passport
It is your responsibility to check your service and assistance dog's passport, or official veterinary health certificate, following a tapeworm treatment. Should the passport be incorrectly completed or missing information, Animal Health may place your dog into quarantine upon your return to Southampton. Any costs involved in quarantine placement will be the owners' responsibility.
Alternatively, if you are travelling on a Transatlantic Crossing on board Queen Mary 2 from New York to Southampton and your pet's passport, or Official Veterinary Health Certificate, is incorrectly completed or missing information, your dog will be denied embarkation in New York.
Requirements for the United States
From 1st August 2024, the CDC has issued regulations to control the entry of dogs into the United States from other countries. These rules apply to all dogs, including puppies, service animals, and dogs that left the United States and are returning. They also apply whether you are a U.S. citizen, legal U.S. resident, or foreign national.
Please use the link below to determine what rules apply to your dog based on the dates of travel and where your dog is traveling from.
Bringing a Dog into the United States | Bringing an Animal into U.S. | Importation | CDC
