Marghera for Venice - where do we dock?

[Brissle]

Hello everyone,

We will be on Spirit of Discovery calling in to Venice on 21st April.

We want to arrange to meet some friends in Venice and I'm trying to discover exactly where the ship will dock.

Google maps doesn't show a cruise terminal in Marghera.

I tried calling Saga but all they can suggest is that I enquire when we get on board.  The lady thought there would be a shuttle but didn't know where it took us.

I'd prefer to know sooner if possible so we can plan how we get from the ship into Venice.

 

Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks

[arlowood]

Can be a bit of a lottery since the authorities banned the majority of cruise ships from docking at the cruise terminal close to Santa Chiara.

 

A lot of ships now dock at either Fusina (which is effectively in the Marghera area across from Venice) or at Chioggia about 25km south of Venice. There are divided opinions from what I've read.

 

Fusina is a busy commercial docking area and I gather that you cannot wander off the ship but have to be bussed to the port entrance. I'm guessing that there may be water taxis or vaparettos as well as land based transfer options

 

Chioggia, although much further away is reputedly a pretty port with things to see and do there if you don't want to travel into Venice itself. Transfer times to Venice could be around 1 hour and there are water taxi and vaparetto options if you don't want to take a land transfer. The link below gives some water based transfer suggestions.

 

https://www.invenicetoday.com/en/services/how-to-get-to/Chioggia-Venice.htm#.Y8vxw3bP2Uk

 

I have heard that ships have been switched at short notice between these docking options so it can be difficult to plan ahead if you want to meet friends

Edited January 21, 2023 by arlowood

[cruiserj1965]

Marghera Is an industrial port. It’ll likely be a shuttle bus to Stazione Marittima then boat to near st marks square.

[Tothesunset]

Always strikes me as odd that Venice never describes itself as the Birmingham of Italy. 

[Brissle]

OK, thanks for that info.

It looks like our plans will have to be flexible......

[nosapphire]

Ports can sometimes be a law unto themselves.

The berth/terminal can be changed at quite short notice; I won't say it is a regular occurrence, but it does happen.

Three instances - the time (I think Canada) when a cargo ship was on the cruise terminal so we had to go on the cargo berth. We could see our intended berth behind the fence 100 yards away - but still had to wait for the port shuttle to take us outside the cargo area (by the time we returned from the tour, the cargo ship had moved and we were on the cruise terminal as intended).

One (Spain) and another (Italy) where the ship only found out about the change of terminal at the same time as the pilot arrived.

This is when the duck/swan effect kicks in - to the passenger, all is calm on the surface, a cheerful  announcement about the unexpected change of terminal  and new paperwork with address/contact details supplied at reception for those going ashore independently.

Underneath - paddling at warp speed, not just to update the passengers but to contact all the tour companies (the coaches are all waiting at the original berth) and the supply companies (same situation) and the shuttle bus (same) - and depending where the original berth was compared to the new berth, it may also have a knock on effect to tour timings, which if they included timed entries to anywhere, or lunch breaks, they also have to be changed.

I am always amazed how cruise staff manage to pull things back together when this happens, while still brightly smiling at the passengers.

 

[JoJo1947]

Berths can change without any notice and you may well have a tricky situation. There was a transfer into Venice payable Saga organised  last year so maybe that's your best bet