Venice Debark Question

[Love Cruis'n]

We debark in Venice on July 4th. My question is: does Princess provide any sort of (no charge) transfer to Piazza Roma, or other location?

 

We booked a post cruise hotel very close to P. Roma so we could walk there (with luggage) and grab the (D2) bus to the airport the next day. I always assumed that Princess would provide transportation to P. Roma, but would sure appreciate some confirmation of that.

 

Thanks,

Terry

[agabbymama]

Princess charged $24 pp for the transfer from the pier to Piazzale Roma. We were the only ship in port at the time.

 

And there were no taxi's at the taxi queue at the pier at all, and Princess knew this ahead of time. When I filled out the debarkation card on the ship, I marked we had our own transportation, but left the name off, as I had just planned to use a taxi. The purser's desk actually called to ask the name of the transport. When I said just a taxi, she responded, there would be no taxis if I hadn't pre-arranged a pick-up, we would have to walk or take the Princess transfer. We arrived on Tuesday night, and debarked Wednesday morning. There were all kinds of taxis at Piazzale Roma, but absolutely none at the pier.

 

If a Costa ship is in port at the same time, others have posted there is a free shuttle.

 

I can't say this enough, have a Plan "A", but then also a Plan "B" for when Plan A falls apart. I have cruised a few times, but this was my first Princess experience. And we found Plan "A" falling apart many times. Princess communication was lacking. We were misinformed, or not informed all the time. We didn't have a Plan "B", so found ourselves at the last minute spending a lot more money to be able to get to the various venues. We still enjoyed our cruise, but things could have gone a lot smoother than they did.

 

Have a great trip!

[Kansasgirl]

We said from Venice about 3 years ago on Royal Caribbean, and found transportation at the port to be pretty disorganized - the day we boarded our ship we couldn't find a taxi in Piazza Roma and ended up walking to the pier to check in (there was a race being run through the Piazza that day, and we assumed that was why we couldn't find a taxi-traffic was restricted and there were a lot of people there to view the race). It was a bit stressful (!) but there are many people who wouldn't have been able to do so. Same when we returned to port, but we expected to walk back to the Piazza. I would recommend contacting Princess or your TA and asking them specifically. Also, research message boards extensively - Cruise Critic, Trip Advisor, Frommers - and read any of the travel guides for Venice that you can find (Frommers, Lonely Planet, Fodors, etc).

 

Before we traveled to Venice, I did a LOT of reading and researching from many sources and we were SO glad, as it made our trip much easier and less stressful. My advice to you would be to find out everything you can, from the location of your hotel and how easy it is to find and to get to, how to use the vaporetto system, language & culture information, how to get from the airport to Venice, and so on. And I wish you a WONDERFUL trip - it was far & away our favorite trip, EVER!

[scubababy]

I would suggest contacting your hotel and see what they say. We booked our own transportation to our hotel from the pier. We stayed at the Hilton (Stuckey), and had to get there via water taxi. There were 5 of us with alot of luggage and carryons. There are not taxis lined up at the pier when you get off the ship.

We also had to arrange transportation from the hotel to the airport on the day we flew home. Again, this was via water, and soooo expensive. We had to pay to have our bags moved from the loading pier to the airport too. It's a hike from the pier to the actual airport.

[Love Cruis'n]

I posted a similar inquiry on the Italy board, and discovered that they are about to open a newly constructed “people mover.” Check this out…

 

http://www.myvenice.org/spip.php?page=recherche&lang=en&recherche=people+mover

 

If anyone can report back if this is actually open to the public and working, it would be most appreciated,