Venice and boarding

[Reaniel]

47 minutes ago, millybess said:

@Reaniel I think most posters here who have been to Venice will say that it is much better to visit Venice independently rather than by cruise ship.  It really doesn't matter if the ship docks in Chioggia, Fusina or Ravenna, the transportation to and from the ship eats up a lot of time.  It's so much better to go to Venice and stay in Venice for however many days it takes for you to see all you want to see.

 

We spent a lot of time in Venice several years ago.  We visited again this year with Viking and docked in Chioggia.  We had no desire to see Venice again, but wanted to visit Murano and Burano.  We did that excursion with Viking because the transportation was from the ship via boat.  It was a really great excursion and we're glad we did that. 

 

On the way back to the ship, a couple wanted to get off at St. Mark's.  Trying to park the little boat we were on was crazy -- horns beeping everywhere, boats cutting off other boats to take their parking space, crowds of people lined up as far as you could see waiting to take a boat to somewhere. 

 

Really, these days, it's best to do Venice on your own.  Plus, we enjoyed just walking around Chioggia.  It was quite pleasant.  

 

This is the exact same advice my friend told me, and which is why we've done a deviation for our flights for our own visit in Venice.  We'll be taking the train from Rome to Venice and staying in Murano for 3 nights before our flight back to the US.  I was told Venice is very nice in the winter, but with a lot less tourists (lol)

 

We originally wanted to do a cruise with port days in Venice, but the same friend talked us out of it, and we ended up booking the upcoming Cities of Antiquities &The Holy Land (Athens to Rome).

[Reaniel]

28 minutes ago, JB61 said:

Thanks to all with wonderful information on the alternate to Venice ports. We're booked on Viking from Venice (?) To Rome in October 2024. We'll fly RT to Rome and do several days there, take train to Florence do a couple days there, train again and end in Venice for a few days. We'll just tour near which ever port city we end up leaving from (Ravenna, Chioggia, Funisia). We use the Rick Steve's guide book for our independent travel information. 

 

Very nice!  I gather you've booked your own air for this?

For our upcoming sailing (Athens to Rome) in a few weeks, we booked with Viking Air and paid for flight deviation.  We'll be flying in to Istanbul (instead of Athens) and stay there for 3 nights.  Take a bus to Thessaloniki and stay there for another 3 nights, take the train to Athens, stay at a hotel for 3 nights before embarkment.

 

And after getting off in Rome, it's 3 more nights in a hotel before taking the train to Venice, for 3 more nights there.  We haven't done this much independent traveling for a long time, and hopefully it'll all go smoothly (fingers crossed).

 

I hope your trip next year will be an enjoyable one!

[JB61]

15 hours ago, Reaniel said:

 

Very nice!  I gather you've booked your own air for this?

For our upcoming sailing (Athens to Rome) in a few weeks, we booked with Viking Air and paid for flight deviation.  We'll be flying in to Istanbul (instead of Athens) and stay there for 3 nights.  Take a bus to Thessaloniki and stay there for another 3 nights, take the train to Athens, stay at a hotel for 3 nights before embarkment.

 

And after getting off in Rome, it's 3 more nights in a hotel before taking the train to Venice, for 3 more nights there.  We haven't done this much independent traveling for a long time, and hopefully it'll all go smoothly (fingers crossed).

 

I hope your trip next year will be an enjoyable one!

Yes we book our own flights. Happy Travels! 

[CHammond]

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