CHammond

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