Is it worth going to Venice on Viking ship?

[eddieg07410]

With the requirements that ship have to dock far away from Venice, the traveling time, and hotel costs to stay overnight, is going to Venice worthwhile on Viking or would you recommend another Line?

[OneSixtyToOne]

This is not specific to Viking. All cruise lines are dealing with the same issues. If you want to see Venice, regardless of cruise line, you should plan to stay in Venice either before or after your cruise.

[Jim Avery]

Venice deserves much more than a cruise ship excursion.  Venice becomes a different place in the evening when the cruisers and day trippers leave.  Fly in, take a water taxi (not the Vaporetto) and experience the beauty and thrill of arriving.  Pick a nice hotel and stay at least three days.  

[SteelCity Cruiser]

Jim Avery is right.  A one day excursion to Venice is wholly inadequate to see and appreciate the city.  We did exactly what he recommended: flew in, water taxi to our hotel (which was a 5 minute walk to St. Marks Square) and then spent 3 full days in the city, which I admit, I could have extended by another 2-3 days easily.

[Michael219]

SteelCity Cruiser, as we've done the 1.5-day visit via cruise ship, what hotel might you suggest?  We will be departing from Venice on a cruise next year and have been thinking of a pre-cruise stay.  As Jim Avery suggested, we'd love to see the city at night when not so busy with tourists (us!).

[auntieS]

More experienced cruisers, please correct me if my info is wrong for eddieg:  Viking, with "smaller" cruise ships, is docking at Chioggia or Fusina, which are still closer to Venice, compared with Trieste or Ravenna, where some of the large ships are docking!  Agree with posters above, if you really want to explore Venice in depth, you'll want to do an extension (on own more cost savvy; but Viking does offer extension in Venice with hotel and all transfers included!)  Just saying, don't pick your cruise line based only on the included time in Venice (all of them will have travel time for included excursions, and Venice <--> cruise-port logistics to figure out if you do a pre/post extension)...Bon Voyage!

[DrKoob]

14 hours ago, auntieS said:

More experienced cruisers, please correct me if my info is wrong for eddieg:  Viking, with "smaller" cruise ships, is docking at Chioggia or Fusina, which are still closer to Venice, compared with Trieste or Ravenna, where some of the large ships are docking!  

It seems to change depending on the time of year. A very small number of Viking ships have gone to Ravenna but most have gone to Chioggia and I have not heard of anyone actually docking in Fusina although that was the announced port early on. 

When we were on Sky for 21 nights last year, we had a two-night overnight in Venice. So we took the water shuttle provided by Viking from Chioggia into the city with a small overnight bag and got a room for two nights at a B&B. As Jim Avery said above, Venice becomes a whole other city between around 5:00 pm and 9:00 am when the day trippers and other cruisers leave. I was able to get up early every day and go take photos. I would never have seen Venice like this on a cruise without staying in the city. And we would never have stayed overnight without the ship being in port for two nights.

 

BTW: We arranged this in advance with Viking. They had no problem with it as long as we knew, if we missed the ship it was on us and that we were NOT getting any money back for not eating their food for two days. And since they did not offer their shuttle on the last day, we took a taxi back to the ship. 

 

Your only real other option is to start of end your cruise there (some people on ours were doing that as it was actually three one-week cruises they combined.) Then fly in a few days early or stay a few days later. 

If you told me I would be on a ship that would just stop one day in Chioggia, that would be a sea day for us. That's what we did in Rome. We'd been there twice before on land trips so we skipped it and made it a sea day. I would do the same with Venice if I only had one day.

 

You can read more about our Venice experience here: https://jktravelredmond.com/?s=Venice&orderby=relevance&order=DESC&post_type=post The photos will show you what Venice looks like without tourists.

[Squawkman]

1 hour ago, DrKoob said:

….. I have not heard of anyone actually docking in Fusina although that was the announced port early on. 

Nope. We docked in Fusina last October.

[longterm]

2 hours ago, DrKoob said:

...I have not heard of anyone actually docking in Fusina although that was the announced port early on. 

We were on one of the first Viking cruises going back into Italy after the lockdown; we left Rome in late February 2022, docked at Fusina on March 11. 

 

At that time, Italy wouldn't allow cruise passengers to go into towns without tour guides, so we could only tour in our excursions. Because we arrived on our own in Rome 5 days early though, we were able to enjoy the quietness in Rome, with private guides, and the lack of crowds was really excellent.

 

In Venice, we docked at Fusina the 1st night; then the ship was moved to a 2nd commercial dock nearby (whose name I've forgotten) for 1 night, then back to Fusina for the final night.

 

We did get to see Venice, but hardly enough; we have a trip planned for the future that would include at least 3 or 4 nights in Venice, traveling by train between Venice, Rome, and Naples.

[lackcreativity]

1 hour ago, Squawkman said:

Nope. We docked in Fusina last October.

We are scheduled there this October. Were scheduled there in April 2022, but last minute change to Ravenna. 

[oskidunker]

Do a land trip.

[Fieldofdreams]

On 8/29/2023 at 4:30 PM, auntieS said:

More experienced cruisers, please correct me if my info is wrong for eddieg:  Viking, with "smaller" cruise ships, is docking at Chioggia or Fusina, which are still closer to Venice, compared with Trieste or Ravenna, where some of the large ships are docking!  Agree with posters above, if you really want to explore Venice in depth, you'll want to do an extension (on own more cost savvy; but Viking does offer extension in Venice with hotel and all transfers included!)  Just saying, don't pick your cruise line based only on the included time in Venice (all of them will have travel time for included excursions, and Venice <--> cruise-port logistics to figure out if you do a pre/post extension)...Bon Voyage!

On a Viking cruise end of September, ship is docking in Ravenna, good for us because we have been to Venice previously but for others with expectations to spend a lot of time in Venice it is not a great situation... a number of unhappy folks.

[SteelCity Cruiser]

On 8/29/2023 at 3:33 PM, Michael219 said:

SteelCity Cruiser, as we've done the 1.5-day visit via cruise ship, what hotel might you suggest?  We will be departing from Venice on a cruise next year and have been thinking of a pre-cruise stay.  As Jim Avery suggested, we'd love to see the city at night when not so busy with tourists (us!).

It's been 15 years since we were there so I doubt any recommendation I give would be sufficiently timely.  We liked to find the nice boutique type of hotel in a central area where either public transportation or walking to main attractions was possible. I'd check multiple hotel booking web sites and compare and contrast the descriptions and ratings (stay with the 3 to 4 star minimum ratings).  Read reviews, look at where they are on Google maps (use the street view to get an idea of the neighborhood).

[ReturnCruiser]

On 8/30/2023 at 4:21 AM, DrKoob said:

 

 

BTW: We arranged this in advance with Viking. They had no problem with it as long as we knew, if we missed the ship it was on us and that we were NOT getting any money back for not eating their food for two days. And since they did not offer their shuttle on the last day, we took a taxi back to the ship. 

 

I believe we were on the same trip.... We also arranged our overnight stay in Venice with Viking in advance. The excursion staff told us we could join a Viking shuttle in the morning and return to the ship. The excursion lead at the Venice dock was fine with us joining a return shuttle to the ship. Of course, if we missed one of the several return shuttles, it would be on us to deal with it.

 

[DrKoob]

7 minutes ago, ReturnCruiser said:

I believe we were on the same trip.... We also arranged our overnight stay in Venice with Viking in advance. The excursion staff told us we could join a Viking shuttle in the morning and return to the ship. The excursion lead at the Venice dock was fine with us joining a return shuttle to the ship. Of course, if we missed one of the several return shuttles, it would be on us to deal with it.

 

We thought about the return shuttle but we tested positive for COVID our first day in Venice so we decided to mask up and take a cab by ourselves back to the ship. Self quarantined for a few days after that. Never felt bad (fully vaxed). 

 

[leafer]

I think it is if you plan a pre- or post-stay in Venice. I'm with Jim Avery - one of my favorite memories is arriving at the airport and taking a water taxi to our hotel. It felt like something out of a movie. We stay at the Hilton on Giudecca to minimize the time we spend getting to Venice via bus or boat - it can be 60-90 minutes each way. Another favorite memory is leaning out our canal-side room's window and taking in Venice in it's totality. We're booked there again prior to our upcoming October cruise. The sail-away out of the Ventian lagoon into the Adriatic is lovely. 

[Fieldofdreams]

12 hours ago, leafer said:

I think it is if you plan a pre- or post-stay in Venice. I'm with Jim Avery - one of my favorite memories is arriving at the airport and taking a water taxi to our hotel. It felt like something out of a movie. We stay at the Hilton on Giudecca to minimize the time we spend getting to Venice via bus or boat - it can be 60-90 minutes each way. Another favorite memory is leaning out our canal-side room's window and taking in Venice in it's totality. We're booked there again prior to our upcoming October cruise. The sail-away out of the Ventian lagoon into the Adriatic is lovely. 

Agree with Leafer and Jim Avery

[Dandypanda]

One more vote for including Venice on a land itinerary. Some places must be seen from the water - Alaska, Panama Canal, etc. and cruising is the best way to see them. I personally don't think Italy as a whole is a good cruise destination. It needs more time and there are better ways to see Italy.

[lackcreativity]

8 hours ago, Dandypanda said:

One more vote for including Venice on a land itinerary. Some places must be seen from the water - Alaska, Panama Canal, etc. and cruising is the best way to see them. I personally don't think Italy as a whole is a good cruise destination. It needs more time and there are better ways to see Italy.

We have done both land tours of Italy and cruises, and I agree that all things being equal a land tour is better. However, there can be extenuating circumstances. We did the land tours in our early travel years (mid 50's) when we had more energy. That was the stage when we finally had enough discretionary income to take those trips. If that stage (grateful for those college scholarships our kids both received!!) hadn't happened until now (early 70's), then I would settle for the brief exposure that you get during a cruise excursion. 

[Dandypanda]

2 hours ago, lackcreativity said:

We have done both land tours of Italy and cruises, and I agree that all things being equal a land tour is better. However, there can be extenuating circumstances. We did the land tours in our early travel years (mid 50's) when we had more energy. That was the stage when we finally had enough discretionary income to take those trips. If that stage (grateful for those college scholarships our kids both received!!) hadn't happened until now (early 70's), then I would settle for the brief exposure that you get during a cruise excursion. 

Yes indeed! There are always lots of factors to consider and its a personal choice.