Italy temporarily bans cruise ships from Venice city center

[KirkNC]

Hopefully it temporary but I would not bet on it.  Since HAL has lost so many smaller ships they may be caught up in this.  I am hoping they will let smaller ships continue to dock there.

 

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/24655-italian-government-bans-cruise-ships-from-venice-city-center.html
 

 

Edited March 29, 2021 by KirkNC

[Mary229]

I didn't get to Venice by boat until 2018.  It was a horrible experience  If that had been my only experience in Venice I would never go back.  It was on my top 10 worst ports ever because of the crowding.  They definitely needed to do something.   I think all of Italy may have to find a way to limit tourism.  

[AncientWanderer]

Well, I'm glad.  I do believe it's for the best.  Small ships 👍  Big ships  👎

[Gracie115]

It appears there are many who not happy with this solution, no matter how temporary:

 

It’s official: Cruise ships to Venice will temporarily dock at Marghera – Campaign For A Living Venice

[VMax1700]

I bet the hotel owners in Marghera & Mestre are very happy.

[VMax1700]

9 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

I didn't get to Venice by boat until 2018.  It was a horrible experience  If that had been my only experience in Venice I would never go back.

Best time to explore Venice is in the evening, when all the day trippers have gone back to their cruise ships or hotels on the mainland.

[Mary229]

2 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

Best time to explore Venice is in the evening, when all the day trippers have gone back to their cruise ships or hotels on the mainland.

I have been there on land based travel, fortunately, so my opinion of the city was not formed by that one cruise experience.  

Edited March 29, 2021 by Mary229

[KirkNC]

We spent a week in Venice once and the evenings are the best.  I agree on over crowding but would have no interest in a port an hour or more away.  My hope is they limit to ships <1,500 passengers with maybe only two or three at a time.  Kind of like Key West.

 

ok, I checked and it less then an hour away but still.....

Edited March 29, 2021 by KirkNC

[terrydtx]

39 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

I bet the hotel owners in Marghera & Mestre are very happy.

Are there any decent hotels in the Industrial dock area?

 

[kazu]

I am not really surprised by this news.  Venice has been talking about this  for years.  It’s structure is quite fragile and cruise ships have had a negative impact.

 

Our first visit to Venice was pre-cruise before we boarded our ship.  So glad we stayed for four days and yes, the evenings offer great opportunities.  We often did exploring in the daytime outside of the main tourist spots (but still historical and wonderful) when cruise ships were in port and then visited St Mark’s, etc when there were no cruise ships in port.

 

Definitely visit Venice pre or post cruise or on land travel.  It’s a much different experience 😄 

[terrydtx]

No big surprise the Italian Government has been threatening to do this for several years. We have a Athens to Venice cruise booked in September with an overnight in Venice which this move significantly changes for our group. I hope the cruise companies like HAL will offer free shuttles to Venice. We are planning to also spend 2 extra nights in Venice on our own. We also have a RT Greek cruise booked for Aug 2022 from Venice if our Sept cruise this year is canceled.

 

I see a larger problem for cruise companies as I suspect currently there are no cruise terminals and re-provisioning warehouses in the Industrial Dock area.  Even if the Italian Government decides to build a new cruise terminal outside of the lagoon, this will take years to plan and build, so this temporary solution may not be so temporary.

Edited March 29, 2021 by terrydtx

[VMax1700]

47 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Are there any decent hotels in the Industrial dock area?

 

I have no idea!  Even if there was I don't think I would stay in a dock area.  Even Mestre is kinda utilitarian and not exciting.

[rkacruiser]

I thought that I had read months and months ago that Venice was prohibiting large cruise ships from docking at the cruise terminal that has been used for quite some time.  Not sure that this "news" is really new "news".

 

Venice is a great city and a very desirable port in my opinion.  The ability to easily get to the islands of Murano and Burano add to its attraction.  So much to experience.  So many bridges to cross (with their darned steps--that was a major surprise to me--steps to navigate to cross a bridge with my injured knee).  I would re-visit Venice without hesitation if the opportunity presented itself.  

[cruisemom42]

31 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

I thought that I had read months and months ago that Venice was prohibiting large cruise ships from docking at the cruise terminal that has been used for quite some time.  Not sure that this "news" is really new "news".

 

The situation in Venice is complex with moves and counter-moves over more than a decade. Several times local government have tried to enact bans only to have them overturned by national authorities. 

 

One measure that has "stuck" was banning ships of more than 100,000 tons from docking; that happened at least 5-6 years ago. It may be what you recall hearing.

 

But now national ministers have united to call for this change. So far -- and I have read both English language and Italian language news articles -- it is unclear to me how "small" a ship will have to be in order to still get clearance, but from the language used it seems to me that the bar will be set pretty high (or low, if you want to use a limbo metaphor).  They seem to be talking about allowing ships only around the size of small ferries or river boats...

 

 

[rkacruiser]

5 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

it is unclear to me how "small" a ship will have to be in order to still get clearance,

 

Thanks for your reply.  Kind of like this virus, maybe?  We don't know what we don't know. 

[ski ww]

We were due to dock here with the  Westerdam in July 2022, wonder how that changes things?

[cruisemom42]

56 minutes ago, ski ww said:

We were due to dock here with the  Westerdam in July 2022, wonder how that changes things?

 

I understand some lines are changing the port altogether -- to Ravenna or Trieste -- on the strength that there were changes afoot. I expect that since this information is very new, it may be awhile before you get clarity on where Westerdam will dock in 2022.

[AtlantaCruiser72]

I was looking at aerial images of the Marghera dockyards. I fail to see a single berth that appears to have sufficient infrastructure to support large ship cruise operations. The area is VERY industrial and lacks parking for busses, taxis, facilities for passenger handling, etc. 

[drowelf]

Not surprised by this at all. The writing for this has been on the walls for many years.

 

We visited Venice at the end of a Med cruise back in 1999. We had an overnight on the ship and then stayed an additional 2 nights post. While it was a bit crowded at times, it was not overwhelming as I've read about in the past decade.  The evenings were the best time for exploring, but days were not too bad. And it did not flood like it does today. You could even still feed the pigeons in St. Marks Square. We have a picture of me, just covered in the little dirty flying rats as I'm attempting to feed them some bird feed. 

[KirkNC]

Flying rats, that’s good.  We find if you avoid the main attractions it’s not too bad.  Venice has tons of back streets to explore.

[cruisemom42]

5 hours ago, drowelf said:

You could even still feed the pigeons in St. Marks Square. We have a picture of me, just covered in the little dirty flying rats as I'm attempting to feed them some bird feed. 

 

If you went today you'd find that the poor pigeons have been superseded by the gulls. They are bigger and meaner and taking no prisoners. My son and I were walking alongside St. Mark's in November a couple years ago and watched one swoop down out of nowhere and grab a sandwich out of the hand of an unsuspecting girl. We were all a bit startled by this dive-bomb, but once it happened we kept our eyes peeled and noticed similar (perhaps less dramatic) food muggings by gulls over the next couple of days. 

 

The pigeons were far less in evidence.

[Sir PMP]

Hopefully more ports will follow, like Dubrovnik, only ships under 1000 pax should be allowed..

[ger_77]

On 3/29/2021 at 2:04 PM, VMax1700 said:

I have no idea!  Even if there was I don't think I would stay in a dock area.  Even Mestre is kinda utilitarian and not exciting.

When we visited Venice pre-cruise, we stayed at a great little hotel (The Al-Vivit) in Mestre and loved it.  It was a short train ride to the vaporetto station, and at the end of the day, we returned to the hotel situated in a lively square where there was evening entertainment, shops, restaurants, and bars.  If we go back, we'd certainly stay there again.

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

[drowelf]

12 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

watched one swoop down out of nowhere and grab a sandwich out of the hand of an unsuspecting girl. We were all a bit startled by this dive-bomb, but once it happened we kept our eyes peeled and noticed similar (perhaps less dramatic) food muggings by gulls over the next couple of days. 

We had a similar experience in Halifax once. We got some Beaver Tails and Fries on the docks and were sitting at a table enjoying them when a sea gull swooped down, landed on our table and proceeded to ravish our basket of fries. It grabbed a bunch, kicked the basket to the ground at which point a feeding frenzy occurred as every gull in the area converged on the fallen booty. In seconds there was not a fry to be seen, we then retrieved the now empty basket and disposed of it in the bin and proceeded on our way. No more food on the docks, at least outside, for us after that. 

Edited March 31, 2021 by drowelf

[Essiesmom]

There is at least one festival in Venice that closes the Guidecca Canal to cruise ships.  Redentore.  At this time, ships have docked in Marghera and cruise lines or the city have provided ferry service into Venice.  It's been several  years since the fast ferries have been banished to Marghera.  EM