Earl Rosebery

google Tom’s port guides.    They have tons and tons of useful advice. Better than any guide book.

My concern would be that your ship may possibly dock at Nynashamn rather than Stockholm proper.  This would make the taxi ride at least 90 minutes rather than 45.

Add 30€ per couple per day for the shuttle service. You are indeed taking one for the team.

You really don’t want to stay in Mestre.  The beauty of Venice is the ability to spend 3 days wandering on foot or by boat. Its a unique experience.

Ca Angeli is 225 ( +taxes I imagine.). Well worth anything extra over Mestre.  It is on the Grand Canal, minutes walk to Rialto, St. Mark’s Friari and more.  Steps from water taxi stop and 2 minutes from San Silvestro vaporetto stop.   I’m sure you could find other 3*** hotels within a reasonable budget.  We picked Ca Angeli from Trip Advisor.  It was listed at the time as one of the top 5 B&B hotels. We were delighted 

There seems to be the usual confusion about Visas in SPB.

For the record, if you want to go off on your own, you need a real Visa which is time consuming and expensive.

If you choose either a ship's tour or an independent tour, the tour co. will arrange a visa waiver. They do this routinely. The visa waiver is included in the price of the tour.  You are supposed to stay with the guide.

I recommend a private tour with no more than 6.  That way there is no need for headphones and you will go to the front of every line.  I believe Viatour uses Ulko tours.  We booked directly with Ulko for 2 days ( 6 of us) and were very satisfied.  There are at least a dozen well recognized and recommended tourcos on Trip Advisor.

A lot depends on what kind of phone or tablet you have,   If an Iphone or Ipad, you can text or facetime free.   I'm not sure about Android. Most cruisers sign up for some form of Wifi access.

I highly recommend a water taxi to the airport in spite of the cost. It will take less half the time.  Ask your hotel concierge if anyone else is going at the same time. That would cut your cost in half

https://aupieddecochon.ca/en/info/information/summer-season

Au Pied du Cochon serves Québécois food. Their Sugar Shack is about an hour out of town 

We preferred eaing in the Terrace cafe over the GDR.   More choice,  more casual.  

Toms Port guides will give you ALL the information you can possibly absorb.

http://www.tomsportguides.com/uploads/5/8/5/4/58547429/venice-05-06-2011.pdf

It’s very short.   Your flight from Philly might well be a few minutes late.  Your luggage will probably be checked right through but might not make it.  Immigration in TO has a separate line for connecting passengers but the time is problematic.  I would book a later flight.  Why Expedia?  

All I meant to say was the big hotels are way behind the curve.   Our chip  and pin cards work fine.  The big hotels wanted us to swipe and sign a chit. 

The USA is catching up to the rest of the world.   We are in Hawaii and 2/3 of establishments take chip and pin cards. Most of those accept a ‘tap’ where neither pin nor signature is required.  Most glaring exception were big hotel chains.(Hyatt, Fairmont, Prince)

Another year and everyone will.

The drive is spectacular. Allow 2 days if you can and want to enjoy it.

We loved Ca’Angeli.    Great location.  Nice ,clean rooms. Elevator. Steps from the Grand Canal. Highly rated.   About $ 250 / night with breakfast.

Ca Angeli is best accessed by water taxi.   Water taxi, although pricey is the best way by far to arrive in Venice and well worth the cost after a tiring flight. Most people find 2-4 others to share with at the water taxi desk in arrivals.

Another vote for Donna Leon's novellas.  All set in Venice. each dealing with a different aspect of official corruption or incompetence.  Excellent characters. Read a few and you will feel that you know the city. it's actually very small. 

Paying in cash allows the vendor to cheat the local tax man.  There doesn’t seem anything that can be done about it in many countries.  

On 11/12/2018 at 6:14 AM, TSUmom said:

 

We arrive in port at noon.  We will head to the people mover and then buy vaporetto tickets (48 hour)  Hop on a vaporetto and head to the Rialto bridge and wander around some back roads along with taking in the sights around the canal.  We will then walk to the Jewish Ghetto for our food tour and take the vaporetto back toward the port.

Day two again we will use the vaporetto and head to St Marks Square and once again just wandering - since we have vaporetto tickets if we run short on time we can take one back to port.  How does this sound?  Will it work?

 

Not the best plan.  If you want to use the vaporetto, best to take it from St. Mark’s to the Ghetto stop.   Rick Steves does a vaporetto tour in his Venice book.

The vaporetto doesn’t go to the port.  The ghetto is a brief walk to P. Roma where you get the tram back to the port 

MisElaineous;  The easier way is to get as much as you need , if any, from a bank ATM.

If you visit google maps or google earth, you can see every aspect of your routes. Venice has been mapped on foot and on the water.  Venice is probably safer than anywhere you can imagine. major crime consists of items being stolen by baggage handlers at the airport

Go https://europeforvisitors.com/venice/ You will find all you need to know.   

For example, the public Vaporetto system has no direct connection betwen Marittima and St. Marks.   The private Alilaguna water buses do have that connection. If you are on a mega ship there is likely to be a line.

I would find 4 others and take a water taxi to St. Marks.

From St Marks to the Ghetto, take the number 1 and disembark at  S. Marcuola .

From the Ghetto to your ship, walk 15 minutes to Piazzal Roma and then take the people mover tram (5minutes) back to the port. 

It’s 3/4 of a mile rom the end of the people mover tram to the Ghetto museum.  Quicker to walk.  OTOH, taking thenumber 1 is always fun.

Earl Rosenbery wrote: “Tubs are inherently less safe than showers.”

 

 

That’s obvious. So what? We should ban bath tubs? If you are careful, bath tubs are just fine. If you don’t want one, get a cabin with a shower.

 

 

Commercial cruises are far less safe than commercial flying. Driving a car is far less safe than about any form of long-distance transportation. Life is inherently unsafe. No one comes out alive. Many of us are tired of the Nanny State mentality.

Excuse me. I simply stated a fact which you agreed was obvious. I didn't say tubs should be banned. Given a choice between the two......

Tubs are inherently less safe than showers.

This was our thinking as well when we toured in St. Petersburg. And we tipped a similar amount.

10$ might be enough for a tour with 30 or so members but it’s pretty chintzy for a private group of 10 or fewer.