Finally Venice bans cruise ships

[Merion_Mom]

Update:

 

Cruise ships head back to Venice despite ban | CNN Travel

[compman9]

Ravenna is a much better departure/arrival port than Venice, especially for long haul travellers wanting to see a chunk of Europe.

 

Bologna is a lovely city, San Marino is a unique country experience, and if you want a jet-set era style beach experience Rimini is a short hop.

 

Venice is an over-priced tourist trap, but with, it has to be said, the best departure trip cruising has to offer.

[ReneeFLL]

We might get our Venice cruise after all if they are going to still have cruise ships there. I can definitely understand why the people want to get rid of them.

[Norwich Cruiser]

3 hours ago, compman9 said:

Ravenna is a much better departure/arrival port than Venice, especially for long haul travellers wanting to see a chunk of Europe.

 

Bologna is a lovely city, San Marino is a unique country experience, and if you want a jet-set era style beach experience Rimini is a short hop.

 

Venice is an over-priced tourist trap, but with, it has to be said, the best departure trip cruising has to offer.

Each to there own but I’d much prefer Venice over Ravenna every day. 
 

The Venice port is easy to get to from Marco Polo airport and Piazza Roma is only a couple of minutes on the people mover for about two euros and the ground staff excellent.

 

 

 

Most major cities are overpriced tourist traps but you can find excellent sensibly priced cafes bars and restaurants in the side streets.

[zap99]

8 minutes ago, Norwich Cruiser said:

Each to there own but I’d much prefer Venice over Ravenna every day. 
 

The Venice port is easy to get to from Marco Polo airport and Piazza Roma is only a couple of minutes on the people mover for about two euros and the ground staff excellent.

 

 

 

Most major cities are overpriced tourist traps but you can find excellent sensibly priced cafes bars and restaurants in the side streets.

We like cruising from Venice. A couple of days pre cruise and post cruise. It's a wonderful city and easy to avoid the tourist rip offs.

[compman9]

19 hours ago, Norwich Cruiser said:

Each to there own but I’d much prefer Venice over Ravenna every day. 
 

The Venice port is easy to get to from Marco Polo airport and Piazza Roma is only a couple of minutes on the people mover for about two euros and the ground staff excellent.

 

 

 

Most major cities are overpriced tourist traps but you can find excellent sensibly priced cafes bars and restaurants in the side streets.

 

Indeed, but have you been to San Marino, Rimini and Bologna? I look at it as a three for the price of one stop. Venice is wonderful, but having been there upwards of a dozen times, I like the change to a place with far more options.

 

 

[rum & monkey]

On 4/11/2021 at 7:22 PM, CatLadyFemme said:

Our Brilliance cruise next summer is out of Venice but really Ravenna (which is 2.5 hours south of Venice). We can apparently buy transfers but am not sure I want to be on 5 hours round trip of a shuttle. Depending on whether to change the cruise to a different itinerary, figure out a different place to fly in (like Bologna and take a train?), or such it up and do the shuttles. Anyone have thoughts on this?

We did a 9 day out of Rome and then took the train to Venice afterwards. From Civitavecchia (Rome) it was super easy. We walked from the ship to the train station and  when we got off the train, we went straight onto a water taxi for our hotel. We stayed 2 nights in Venice and then took a boat straight to the airport. It was way better than a port stop, especially if the majority of your day is going to be riding a shuttle. I would definitely suggest doing Venice either before or after your cruise. Both the airport and the train station a really easy going into or leaving Venice.

[Kbonner]

RCI no, MSC yes

 

MSC has no started to cruise from Venice itself ( not Marghera) with MSC Orchestra.  

So cruising from to Venice is not finally terminated. Only Royal has cancelled Venice and move to Ravenna.......

[Biker19]

First post-COVID cruise ship leaves Venice amid protest | Reuters

 

Biker, who wonders what caused the last post to be deleted.

[Kbonner]

interregional eco-socialist ideologists: ....ban cruise ships from berthing in Venice

local workers and business people: ........But port authorities, workers and the city government welcomed the departure of the Orchestra, operated by MSC Cruises, seeing it as a symbol of business kicking off after the health crisis that hit hard at the cruise industry and the wider travel sector.

[George C]

Glad we cruised there 5 years ago 

[forgotmyCCname]

On 3/27/2021 at 11:08 PM, Coralc said:

I am so sad that we missed the opportunity to sail in or out of Venice. I understand the reasoning. Oh Well.  Just like a lot of life's disappointments. 

Ditto. We had scheduled and rescheduled 3 times due to Covid and have now missed the boat, so to speak. 

[nelblu]

2 hours ago, George C said:

Glad we cruised there 5 years ago 

Same here.  Did 4 12 nights from Barcelona.  Now they are just fond memories that will not be experienced again.😟

[Norwich Cruiser]

1 hour ago, forgotmyCCname said:

Ditto. We had scheduled and rescheduled 3 times due to Covid and have now missed the boat, so to speak. 

You have only “ missed the boat “ if you are stuck on cruising with RCG.

 

Most other major cruise lines including Celebrity Holland America Azamara Norwegian Oceania Regent Seven Sea Viking Norwegian Crystal and MSC to name but a few are still home porting in Venice. 

[crazyank]

On 3/28/2021 at 4:59 AM, Norwich Cruiser said:

All cruise ships must now dock outside the city at the industrial port of Marghera. 

Nope,  Marghera infrastructure isn't ready.  

[taznremmy]

On 6/7/2021 at 11:02 AM, forgotmyCCname said:

Ditto. We had scheduled and rescheduled 3 times due to Covid and have now missed the boat, so to speak. 

Same here...only twice for me.  Rhapsody was moved to Ravenna for this year, but my B4B was cancelled last week.  ☹️

[Kbonner]

This is an excerpt from an article interviewing a local Venetian tourist guide on the recent protests.

(Text automatically translated) :

 

SPIEGEL: On Saturday, the "MSC Orchestra" was the first cruise ship to depart from Venice in 17 months. Not only locals have protested against the resumption of cruise shipping, but also Mick Jagger, Tilda Swinton and other celebrities in an open letter. What do you think about it?

Kunz-Saponaro: I think reducing the debate about ecological tourism to cruise ships is too limited. The issue is very complex. One example: the foundations of historic buildings are also damaged by small boats that travel much too fast, but this is too rarely checked. On Sunday, the first cruise ship left Venice after the pandemic - there were protests against this. Protesters advocating for the preservation of cruise shipping to Venice are almost never reported.

SPIEGEL: So you're arguing for a differentiated view.

Kunz-Saponaro: Six percent of the Venetian population took part in the "No Grandi Navi" ("No Big Ships") referendum in 2017, which shows how few of the city's residents are behind it. This is unlikely to change, even if Mick Jagger - who, by the way, does not live in Venice - thinks otherwise. Many families live off the money earned from the cruise ships: who supports them? Mick Jagger? It would be important to find an environmentally friendly solution that would also benefit the Venetians. It would already be good if the port of Venice would provide a "clean" electric supply.

 

Source: Der Spiegel Reise

[Tess2326]

Oh I am very lucky and my family and I did cruise from Venice as it was so beautiful.

 

But I heard it was go ban cruise ship.  Shame but it is their right.

 

 

[reney313]

We are booked next year on Brilliance out of Ravenna.  I have been trying to plan a cruise out of Venice for the past 5 years for this reason.  It looks like we won't be able to sail out of Venice proper, but we do still plan to arrive for 2-3 days pre-cruise. Options are still being weighed, but we're thinking of flying into Venice then train to Bologna for a night.  And then train to Ravenna the next day to board the ship.  It is definitely not as convenient as sailing out of Venice.  But it does provide the opportunity to go to other areas in Italy that I would normally overlook.

 

I don't blame the Venetians for not wanting large ships in that waterway.  Nor do I blame RCI for moving to another port earlier than other lines.  It seems responsible.  I do have a sliver of hope that they might decide to change it back to Venice, but I also understand if they do not.