Moving Our Dogs to the UK on the Queen Mary II: Part 2
We have officially made it to the United Kingdom! We left Oklahoma almost a month ago and the past few weeks have been filled with so many changes and experiences. I recently wrote about starting this journey with the dogs, so here’s a recap of how our actual experience went getting them to the UK on the Queen Mary 2.
Our Road to NYC
My last day of work was June 16, we hosted a huge farewell party on June 17 and then took a few days to load everything into storage before hitting the road on June 22. Our first stop was Tennessee where we spent a few peaceful days with my mom and grandma before moving on to Virginia to spend a week with my sister.
In Virginia, we completed all of our vet appointments to get the dogs ready for travel. Ten days before disembarking they had a wellness visit where the vet scanned their microchips and completed some paperwork. This paperwork was then submitted to the USDA via an online portal. Fortunately, the USDA reviewed and approved it within just a few hours. They then overnighted the paperwork back to us, which we took back to the vet at an appointment five days before leaving for deworming treatments. After this, we were cleared to leave!
The day before our departure we made our way to New York City. I rented an Airbnb in the Red Hook District just a few blocks away from the cruise terminal. In theory, this was a great choice because we could just walk over in the morning to board. In reality, carrying one heavy golf bag, one heavy suitcase, and two dogs turned out to be tricky. Blake took the brunt of the burden but we were both dripping sweat by the time we arrived.
The morning we left we scouted out if it was possible to walk over and snagged this picture. The butterflies we felt turning a corner and see the QM2 waiting for us!
Boarding the QM2
We were both anxious about the boarding process because I couldn't find a lot of great details online, but it turns out there's not much online because it's actually very simple!
The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal has a loop where we were able to walk up to the luggage area and drop off our luggage for loading. You do have to print off your luggage tags and boarding passes in advance to make this process seamless.
Our boarding pass time was 15:00 but we had checked in advance that we could load early since we have the dogs and we were told yes, we could arrive at 12:30. Nobody batted an eye at our arrival time, I assume because of the dogs, I've heard they can be more strict for normal passengers.
There were crew members directing us to a line where we showed our boarding passes and walked straight through security. Then we were directed off to the side to an area to wait with other dog passengers. There were already eight other dogs and their owners there, including two lovely Cavaliers I'd connected with on Instagram (@blenheimcavs) a few days before our crossing. We handed over our paperwork and a crew member took it, reviewed it to ensure there were no issues, then sealed it and they took the paperwork. We got it back the day before we disembarked.
While in this waiting area we met the kennel masters, Oliver and Aldrin. They were wonderful and we truly trusted them to take great care of the animals. They took our group up to the kennels, which was a surreal experience to walk through this luxury liner with a bunch of dogs. Someone joked it was the VID (very important dog) experience.
We walked through the Britannia restaurant, up an elevator, and out onto the 12th deck where the kennels are located. From there, we had a brief orientation in the owner's lounge before loading the dogs into their kennels until 6 pm. Loading day has unusual visiting hours since there are so many people coming and going throughout the whole afternoon. There are 24 kennels and we had a completely full crossing.
The QM2 Kennel Experience
Finn & Atticus had lower kennels because of their size and they took the partition down between them so they actually had a really large area. Thankfully, they seemed to love their kennel, I think there was enough chaos around them that they liked retreating to it every day. Beds and bowls are provided, so we didn't bring any of their old beds with us on this trip, choosing instead to buy new ones once we arrived.
Visiting hours were 8 am-noon, 3-6 pm, and 7:30-8:30 pm. During visiting hours, you can take them out on lead and try to get some exercise in. You have to stay in the kennel area, a semi-circle deck about 4 -5 feet in width, and from gate to gate, we guess it was about 150ish feet. I won't lie, for the high-energy dogs, it's tough to wear them out. All the owners would be out just walking laps during visiting hours trying to tire the dogs out.
We had great owners on our crossing and enjoyed getting to know everyone. There were several other young couples moving to the UK, and while circumstances were different, it was fun to meet other people doing something similar.
There were a few other things that I didn't know before we embarked. The first one is that you don't actually clean up after your dog. Once they do their business, you yell "Code Yellow" or "007" and the kennel masters come through and clean the deck. For that alone I loved them. They also do this to help monitor your dog's health because the stress can cause stomach issues. Atticus had a little bit of an upset tummy one day, but otherwise, they were okay.
The other fun thing is that the dogs are SO spoiled with their food. We told the kennels what dry food they use and this was provided, then we got to request extra toppings for each meal. For our pups, it was salmon. Other dogs would have chicken, eggs, or steak added to their meals. I've also heard that if you do a raw diet with your dog they can accommodate it. Truly white glove dog service.
The Puppy Promenade
For one day on the voyage there is a scheduled puppy promenade. This is where everyone gets to take their dog out onto the bigger deck and take a group photo. Guests can come by and meet the dogs and owners get to run their dogs more than they do any other day. Quite a few of us expressed that we wished we could access that deck every day because it was so nice to have the pups stretch their legs.
For the promenade, the dogs got these wonderful little Queen Mary 2 fleece jackets. They’re goofy and posh and I love them.
Disembarking the QM2
Disembarking was fairly easy, we landed in Southampton early Friday morning and everyone was instructed to be at the kennels at 7:30. At promptly 8 am we received the all clear to disembark and we retraced our steps off the ship with Oliver and Aldrin guiding us.
You actually go through immigration while on board several days prior, which was the easiest immigration process I've ever experienced. Because we're staying for five months the immigration officer asked to see our return tickets but that was it. So when it came time to disembark, we scanned our ship cards on the way out and then were herded through the luggage pickup area.
The next part of our journey was terrible, but no fault of the QM2. Essentially I was waiting outside the terminal as Blake went to get the rental car, which was about a mile away. However, the rental car wasn't ready so I ended up standing in the terminal for about four hours guarding the dogs and our luggage. We were the first ones off the boat and the last ones to leave the terminal. Lesson learned: I recommend having someone pick you up if possible to avoid this.
Takeaways on the Experience
Overall, the Queen Mary 2 was a very lovely way to travel over with the dogs. The kennel masters do everything they can to keep all the animals happy and healthy, I always felt like the dogs were safe and I didn't have to worry about them getting lost in cargo on a plane. While some stress of the voyage is unavoidable, I do feel like it was manageable for the dogs.
Right now we're staying at a lovely Airbnb in Oxford and they are so happy to be back on land and have a field for frolicking. We have a return voyage booked in December, so we’ll see how they fair in cold and rainy weather! For now, we’re going to soak up the sun and let them get their land legs back before moving on into Scotland.
