Transatlantic Cruise With Pets: Taking a Dog or Cat Across the Atlantic by Ship

You can take a dog or cat on a transatlantic cruise, but only on one ship. Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 has 24 kennels and carries pets on selected crossings between New York, Southampton and Hamburg, and no other ocean liner or cruise ship offers a regular pet service on the Atlantic. Your pet travels in the kennels, not in your cabin, and you visit it at set times each day.

Every other major line says no to pets. Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Celebrity, Princess and Carnival carry trained service dogs for guests with disabilities, and nothing else. So the realistic choice is Queen Mary 2 or a flight, and on either one the paperwork for the country you arrive in is what decides whether your pet gets in.

How the Queen Mary 2 kennels work

The kennels are on Deck 12, with an adjoining outdoor deck where pets can stretch their legs. Cunard has fitted it with a New York fire hydrant and a lamppost from Liverpool, so dogs on either side of the ocean find something familiar. A kennel master runs the area, and owners have a dedicated lounge.

• Who can travel: dogs and cats only. Cunard does not accept other animals.
• Kennel sizes: 12 upper kennels, each 27 inches high, for pets of 25 lbs or less, and 12 lower kennels, each 36 inches high, for pets of 25.1 lbs or more. All are about 35 inches deep and 30 inches wide.
• Big dogs: Cunard says it cannot take every larger breed and asks owners to confirm maximum height and length before booking. A pet that needs two kennels opened together pays for both.
• Banned breeds: dogs prohibited under the UK Pet Travel Scheme are refused. Cunard lists the XL Bully, Pit Bull Terrier, Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino, Fila Brasileiro and crosses of any of them.
• Visiting: Cunard says the kennels usually open from 8 to 10 a.m., 11 a.m. to noon, 3 to 6 p.m. and 8 to 8:30 p.m., with exact times confirmed on board. Only guests traveling with a pet get in.
• Inside the ship: never. Apart from assistance dogs, pets stay in the kennels and on their deck for the whole voyage.
• Feeding: Cunard supplies food from a list of UK pet food brands as part of the kennel fee, and you can bring your own. Cooked chicken, rice, vegetables and broth can be ordered on board.
• Health care: there is no vet on Queen Mary 2. A pet that falls ill at sea is in the kennel master’s hands until the ship docks.
• Emergencies: every pet gets its own lifejacket, and if the alarm sounds you collect your pet and take it to your muster station.

Cunard adds a fleece blanket, a fitted coat to keep and a photo session with the ship’s photographer. The crossing itself takes seven nights with no port, which for a pet means a week in a kennel with company several times a day. Our guide to Cunard crossings explains what that week is like for the people on board.

What the kennels cost and when to book

Cunard does not publish a kennel price on its website. Its kennel FAQ asks you to contact the kennel team to confirm the size requirements “along with applicable charges”, so the price is quoted when you book. Press reports in 2026 put it at roughly $1,300 for an upper kennel and $1,500 for a lower kennel per crossing. That is on top of your own fare, and you must hold a cruise booking before Cunard will reserve a kennel.

With only 24 kennels on the ship, space is the real constraint. Book the kennel as soon as you book the cruise, by email to kennels@cunard.com or through Cunard’s reservations line. Cunard says it will send the paperwork and requirements for your route at least five months before sailing, which tells you how far ahead the process starts.

Timing matters in 2027. Cunard is refitting Queen Mary 2 in spring 2027 and says the work includes increased kennel capacity, a new owners’ lounge and expanded outdoor areas, with the ship back in service in May 2027. Our finder’s Cunard sailings show 23 Queen Mary 2 crossings between late October 2026 and December 2027, with none between early January and May 12, 2027. Most are seven nights, New York to Southampton or the reverse. Not every crossing offers kennels, so check the specific date with Cunard.

Why other cruise lines say no

The mainstream lines that sell transatlantic repositioning cruises have no kennels, and their policies are explicit:

The definition these lines use is the one in US disability law: a dog individually trained to do work or perform tasks for a person with a disability. Royal Caribbean’s service animal policy is typical: service dogs may go in public areas on a leash or harness, they are kept out of pools and spas, and the owner pays for any damage. A dog that does not meet the definition can be refused at the pier.

A service dog on a crossing also faces the ports. Every country the dog steps ashore in applies its own entry rules, and some will not let it off the ship at all. Norwegian warns, for example, that guests with service animals cannot go ashore in Jamaica, and Celebrity says assistance dogs entering the UK must meet the Pet Travel Scheme rules or they will not be allowed to sail. On a 14-night crossing with four or five ports, that can mean a lot of documents, or a lot of days spent on board. Our guide to where transatlantic cruises stop shows which islands and countries each routing visits.

Paperwork for a pet sailing from New York to Southampton

The UK’s rules are strict, and getting them wrong can mean refused entry or up to four months of quarantine at your expense. According to USDA APHIS guidance for pets going to Great Britain, a dog or cat from the US needs:

1. An ISO microchip (15 digits), implanted on or before the date of the rabies vaccination.
2. A rabies vaccination given at least 21 days before travel, with the day of vaccination counted as day 0. The pet must be at least 15 weeks old.
3. A health certificate completed by a USDA-accredited veterinarian and endorsed by APHIS. For a non-commercial move, the pet must arrive within 10 days of the endorsement, and APHIS says that for travel to the UK by sea, the 10 days is extended by the length of the voyage.
4. Tapeworm treatment for dogs, given by a vet with a praziquantel product between 24 hours and 5 days (120 hours) before the dog enters Great Britain, and recorded on the certificate. Cats do not need it.

That last rule needs care on Queen Mary 2. The crossing lasts seven nights, longer than the five-day window, and the ship has no vet. Cunard’s kennel team sends the route-specific instructions with its paperwork; follow those and confirm them with your vet, because the UK government’s pet travel rules say a dog treated outside the window can be refused entry or quarantined. The UK also lists New York to Southampton on Queen Mary 2 as an approved sea route for pets, which matters because pets can only enter England or Scotland on an approved route.

For a crossing that ends in Hamburg, the EU’s rules apply instead: microchip, rabies vaccination at least 21 days old and an EU animal health certificate issued by an accredited vet and endorsed by APHIS within 10 days of arrival in the EU. Ask APHIS how the days at sea count before you book the vet.

Paperwork for a pet sailing to the US

Westbound is simpler. The UK counts as a dog-rabies-free or low-risk country for the CDC, and a dog that has only been in such countries for the six months before arrival needs three things:

• A receipt for the free CDC Dog Import Form, completed online up to six months before arrival.
• A microchip that a universal scanner can read.
• An age of at least six months on arrival.

The CDC’s rules for dogs from low-risk countries allow entry at any seaport, so arriving by ship in New York is fine. The dog must also look healthy when it arrives. Cats need no federal rabies certificate to enter the US, but the CDC notes that many states require cats to be vaccinated, and a cat that shows signs of disease can be examined at your expense or refused. Hawaii applies its own quarantine rules even to pets from the mainland.

Planning the rest of the trip around the kennel

A pet changes how you plan a one-way crossing. A few points owners often overlook:

• Getting to the ship. If you fly to New York or Southampton to board, your pet has to fly too, under the airline’s own pet rules. Cunard simply tells owners to check the airline’s pet policy.
• The trip home. A one-way crossing with a pet usually means a move, not a vacation. If you are coming back, plan the return paperwork before you leave, because the rules for the other direction are different. Our guide to flights home after a repositioning cruise covers the open-jaw tickets most people use.
• Weather. The North Atlantic in winter is rough, and while the kennels are indoors and air-conditioned, the outdoor deck is not. Our guide to whether transatlantic cruises are rough explains which months are calmest.
• Boarding in New York. Queen Mary 2 uses the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal; our guide to repositioning cruises from New York and Boston covers getting there and the other ships that leave the city.
• Your own days. The kennel opening times shape your day on board, four visits that fit around meals and talks. The guide to what to do on sea days covers the rest of the time.

The order of operations is what matters most: book the cruise, book the kennel the same day, then book the vet appointments for the microchip check, rabies vaccination and health certificate, counting backward from your arrival date. Cunard’s five-month paperwork lead time is a minimum, not a target.