CHammond

There is a possibility they might add it on closer to your trip, keep checking back on My Viking Journey until you leave, have fun whatever you do!

Yes of course you just need to tell your guide and find out from her where and when to meet at the end

We took the shuttle bus on the middle day, that's when people were flying in to join the cruise, they were taking them to the old cruise port from the airport and shuttling them to the ship from there, you will have to check with viking whether they are going to run the shuttle bus on the first and third day also.

Last October when we were docked in Fusina, they had several included tours to choose from, one was "At a Glance, St Marks Square", which was a transfer back and forth and also a short guided tour, another one offered was "Venice On Your Own", which was nothing more than a transfer back and forth with no guide but just free time. You will have to wait until about 120 days before your trip when the excursions show up on My Viking Journey to find out if that is an option for you or not, they don't show Venice on your own as an option on the general viking website but it should show up under My VikingJourney if they are offering it for your trip.

We docked in Fusina for 3 days last October. An included "Venice on your own" was offered each of the 3 days, since it is an included tour, I am guessing you can just use it once (one included tour per port). Our boat left straight from the ship around 8:30, transit time was around 40 minutes. We docked at a pier just down from St Marks. If I am remembering correctly, I think we had to be back at the pier at 2 if we wanted to catch a ride back to the ship. We wanted to stay longer, so we took the other option, which was to ride the vaporetto up the grand canal to the stop where the old cruise port is, get on the people mover train to the old cruise port, find the viking reps there and catch the viking shuttle bus over the causeway back to the ship. Fusina is a secure port so you can't just wander on and off. The whole return process took about 2 hours. We did the gondola ride through viking and I would not recommend it, our group was huge and so we had to stand in line for an hour to wait for our turn, since we were the last group they cut our time short, 20min instead of 30, all in all very unhappy with the excursion, complained to customer service when we got back and got a credit for it. Loved everything else about Venice though, have fun!

St Marks is usually closed for tours on Sundays since it is a church and has services, I would try to get into St Marks another day instead, one poster, I can't remember who, said he booked St Marks through viking for a Sunday and when he got to Venice discovered to his dismay that it is nearly always closed for tours on Sunday and couldn't figure out why it was offered then...

I think they also had a shuttle bus running from the boat to the old cruise terminal, but it take ALOT longer to get to st marks square that way!

I should clarify that the once a day Venice on your own is a boat transfer going from the boat straight to St Marks

The advantage to being at Fusina is that it is much closer to Venice

We were on that cruise last October and had three days in Venice. Viking offered one Venice on your own transfer each day, it left I believe around 8:30 and went straight from the boat to a dock by St Marks square. I am not sure if you can use the transfer only once or on all three days, we used it on our middle day. It only gives you a certain number of hours ( I think around 5) before it returns, you can stay longer and make your own way back, which is what we did, first you take the water bus up the grand canal and get off at the stop where the old cruise port is, then hop on the people mover train to the old cruise port and catch the shuttle bus sent by Viking to take you over the causeway and back to the ship

We went with Viking in October to Venice, on our turn around day there was only one free shuttle to Venice which left at 8:30, it gave you about 4 hours in Venice, however, if you want to stay longer you can get back to the ship on your own, you need to ride the water bus up the grand canal to the old cruise port where viking is taking all the passengers getting off their flights, meet up with them and get on the viking bus to the cruise ship. We stayed in Venice until 5 and were glad we did, we were there at a slow time so were able to walk right in to the Doge's palace and do a tour. We were able to buy tickets on the spot, we also waited 45 minutes in line to see St Marks

RD24 is another one that might work for you, it offers free airfare on alot of European river cruises..

The option we chose that day was to ride the free shuttle in to St Marks ( we were docked at Fusina), and since we weren’t ready to leave when the shuttle left we got ourselves back to the ship- first you ride the water bus up the grand canal back to the old cruise port stop where they won’t let ships go anymore, then ride the people mover train over to the cruise port terminal where viking is waiting, join the other passengers just getting off their flights and ride the bus over the causeway back to the ship, the whole process took us 2 hours and we were docked in Fusina

We did this cruise last fall, if memory serves me correctly, we had 2 options that day in Venice, one was a free shuttle that took us and dropped us off near st Marks, we could ride back a few hours later on the shuttle again or make our own way back which involved making our way to the cruise terminal on the edge of town where the arriving passengers were taken and then taking the bus to where the ship is, which was quite a long process but worth it if you want to stay longer, the other option was a paid excursion out to the islands, Burano and Murano

For some reason the link I posted earlier today stopped showing the discount code, but if you input RD24 it still works for free air on a lot of river cruises

Bad for them but good for us!

Free airfare on alot of river cruises RD24

this popped up today on the viking website: https://www.vikingrivercruises.com/search-cruises/index.html?adobe_mc=TS%3D1710427784|MCMID%3D25313275717510341080442966464692486935|MCORGID%3D8FC267C25245B36B0A490D4C%40AdobeOrg&_gl=1*qrsyvm*_ga*NTMzMjQ0NjAwLjE3MTA0Mjc3Njk.*_ga_24KNYDH1S6*MTcxMDQyNzc2OC4xLjAuMTcxMDQyNzc2OC42MC4wLjA.

Also AVS24 has been extended to the end of February

RS24 has been extended to February 29- free air on certain European river cruises, full ad on previous page 48

ECU23 has been extended to the end of December, free air on expedition Great Lakes and South America sailings

I totally agree with everyone that the best way to see Venice is to stay there first, however, we just got off the Viking Sky with 3 days in Venice, we were at Fusina and viking was running shuttle boats directly from the ship to st marks square for excursions and Venice on your own, it only took 40 minutes so it really wasn’t too bad, Fusina seems to be the best of bad options if you want to see Venice from a cruise ship

Just to clarify what we did to get back to the ship on our own in Venice, first we took the vaporetto from St Marks to the stop where the terminal was, then jump on the people mover train one stop to the old cruise port, then go to the terminal where the viking bus comes, board the bus, ride over the causeway to Fusina and our ship, the whole process took about 2 hours.

We just got back from the Sky spending 2 and 1/2 days in Venice at Fusina, it actually turned out well, Viking was running a once daily Venice on your own shuttle boat directly from our ship to San Marco square, it only took 40 minutes. For those who wanted to stay longer (about 4 hours at St Marks) they would need to go to the old cruise terminal and catch the shuttle bus there, which we did one day and it took alot longer (about 2 hours from St Marks to the ship). For those who had paid excursions, they were also running a boat from Fusina to where the excursion started, so it actually was quite convenient to be at Fusina.

We stayed at Arc La Rambla, a budget hotel for 120 a night with a great free breakfast buffet, all sorts of meats, cheeses, pastries, etc, right on the bottom portion of La Rambla around the corner from a Gaudi house. Taxi to the port was 10 euros.