Notification of Chioggia but Cruisemapper shows Marghera for Venice Embarkation

[miami mama]

Like others with a Venice port, we were informed at the end of November, 2022, that our port for embarkation was to be Chioggia.

 

 

        “Going forward, to support Venice in their goal of preserving the lagoon’s environment, all affected 2023 Viking voyages on your itinerary will now dock in                       Chioggia (Venice) instead of central Venice. Chioggia is approximately a 1½ hour drive south of the Venetian Lagoon, depending on traffic.”

 

However, in checking Cruisemapper.com, I see that Viking ships for the next six months are to dock at Marghera, and not Chioggia.

 

For all of you veteran sailors/cruisers can you tell me if Cruisemapper.com is an accurate source (excluding last minute changes due to current situations such as weather, strikes, etc.) or are these two ports practically interchangeable, with numerous last minute changes? 

 

We have some rather expensive private transportation arranged to get us to Chioggia. And of course, the port in Marghera is much closer to Venice, and would probably open up more actual Venice excursion options instead of just the two that are now offered. There are three rather unattractive excursions in Chioggia and really no private touring to do.

 

If Cruisemapper.com is reliable, it looks like Viking has been assigned the closer port. Why would they be trying for Chioggia? Or are they just preparing us for "worst case" scenario? When queried, the person on the chat said Chioggia was the port and we would receive final information 2 weeks before the actual cruise. 

[OneSixtyToOne]

Interesting. We are on the Sky on April 2nd. Have heard nothing about a port change since November. Cruisemapper is listing Marghera as one of the Sky’s home ports. Can anyone who recently has sailed in/out of Venice on Viking tell us where you docked?

[jasardeax]

Viking cruise ships will embark and disembark from the Chioggia cruise terminal at 

Isola del Saloni. 

[millybess]

1 hour ago, jasardeax said:

Viking cruise ships will embark and disembark from the Chioggia cruise terminal at 

Isola del Saloni. 

I'm looking for that information.  Do you have a link to the schedule for Isola del Saloni?

[Alwaysontime]

Just looked at my Viking page on line for our Viking Sky arrival and it still list Chioggia for our arrival on March 16 and disembark on March 17.  Sure wish it was closer to Venice.

[millybess]

3 minutes ago, Alwaysontime said:

Just looked at my Viking page on line for our Viking Sky arrival and it still list Chioggia for our arrival on March 16 and disembark on March 17.  Sure wish it was closer to Venice.

Same for us in May.  Sometimes it's difficult to find the actual schedule for each port.  Often I find that cruise mapper is inaccurate.

[miami mama]

Is there a more reliable place than cruisemapper to find out the cruise schedules for each port?

[millybess]

1 minute ago, miami mama said:

Is there a more reliable place than cruisemapper to find out the cruise schedules for each port?

Yes, on the schedule of the actual port, but sometimes these are difficult to find and when you can find them they haven't been updated for some time.

[millybess]

BTW, I still think the port will be Chioggia.  We book our excursions next week for May and there are many in Chioggia, or from Chioggia to Murano, Burano, etc.

[jasardeax]

2 hours ago, millybess said:

I'm looking for that information.  Do you have a link to the schedule for Isola del Saloni?

No, but why do you need a schedule. Viking will

embark/disembark at the Chioggia cruise terminal 

[jasardeax]

[millybess]

Just now, jasardeax said:

No, but why do you need a schedule. Viking will

embark/disembark at the Chioggia cruise terminal 

I think so too. Just wondering why you were so sure given @miami mamainfo. I thought you might have a link to the port schedule. 

[millybess]

2 minutes ago, jasardeax said:

LOL. Lovely. Thanks. 

[miami mama]

I have tried to find the schedule for the Isola Saloni port also and a link would be helpful. I usually check all of the ports on my itinerary in order to see what other ships will also be in port the same day. 

[jasardeax]

15 minutes ago, miami mama said:

I have tried to find the schedule for the Isola Saloni port also and a link would be helpful. I usually check all of the ports on my itinerary in order to see what other ships will also be in port the same day. 

Not sure where the schedule for the Port of Chioggia could be found online, if at all. 
Viking and Azamara are the only ocean cruise lines, that I am aware of, that are using Chioggia for their Venice alternative port. 
So if Azamara doesn’t have a ship in port the day the day you are embarking/disembarking, you will be the only ocean cruise ship there. 
There are also some river cruise ships that visit Chioggia. 

[Pushka]

CruiseMapper has several of our ports wrong which occurred when Viking changed the itinerary. 

[DrKoob]

You will be in Chioggia. In September our Viking Sky itinerary said  Marghera for about three months. Then it switched. As far as knowing who else will be in port, the answer is no other ships. Chioggia is not that big and Viking seems to have cornered the market on docking there. The big ships are going to two other ports (All the Carnival Brands seem to use Trieste and the Royal, NCL and MSC folks go to Ravenna). 

[BlairsvilleCruiseGirl]

14 hours ago, jasardeax said:

Not sure where the schedule for the Port of Chioggia could be found online, if at all. 
Viking and Azamara are the only ocean cruise lines, that I am aware of, that are using Chioggia for their Venice alternative port. 
So if Azamara doesn’t have a ship in port the day the day you are embarking/disembarking, you will be the only ocean cruise ship there. 
There are also some river cruise ships that visit Chioggia. 

I found their website but they only have up to February posted: 

https://venezia.ilogis.it/riepiloghi/pages/riepilogoNavi/layout_riepilogoNavi.zul;jsessionid=FCB3E3FF00197775D05D6AA3DD1B74CB

 

[miami mama]

BlairsvilleCruiseGirl thank you for link. Will be sure to check back with it later in the month to see if March is listed. 

It looks like at some point in time Viking was comfortably scheduled at Marghera. For whatever reasons, Chioggia came into play. Perhaps, they wanted a port that was a guarantee for them for now and into the future. The Chioggia port as shown above looks very nice, however, there really isn't much to do in the area currently. The excursions as shown on Viking.com website are numerous and varied. However, once our excursion sign-up opened on MyVikingJourney, only 5 different ones were available. If you choose one of the two for Venice, you must endure 1 to 1.5 hours on some kind of transportation each way, ends up being almost half the time allotted for the excursion. Out of the 3 remaining excursions for Chioggia, 2 involve a walk with breakfast or a walk with lunch bites. The other is a one hour guided walk around Chioggia. Because of Chioggia's location, there are no direct transportation options outside private transfers, so Padua is out if one only has a partial day (our ship leaves at 2:00 pm). And looking on Tripadvisor, really nothing much in Chioggia, hence 2 out of the 3 excursions with Viking involve eating. 

Right now we do have the optional Venice excursion reserved but since we must take a private transfer from Venice to Chioggia the day before, we are thinking we really don't want to be on a bus or a boat for up to 3 hours that day. Reading, walking on our own, getting a good start on our Silver Spirits package sounds a lot more inviting. Fortunately we are really looking forward to the remainder of the cruise. 

Viking and the city of Chioggia really need to work on options for this city if Viking has made a committment to only use this  port. Direct transportation to other areas also need to be established. 

[jasardeax]

1 hour ago, BlairsvilleCruiseGirl said:

I found their website but they only have up to February posted: 

https://venezia.ilogis.it/riepiloghi/pages/riepilogoNavi/layout_riepilogoNavi.zul;jsessionid=FCB3E3FF00197775D05D6AA3DD1B74CB

 

Why would anyone need their website schedule?

Viking will embark/disembark from the Cruise port in Chioggia. 
The only other ocean cruise ship that could possibly be there the same day would be Azamara.

 

[Alwaysontime]

4 minutes ago, miami mama said:

BlairsvilleCruiseGirl thank you for link. Will be sure to check back with it later in the month to see if March is listed. 

It looks like at some point in time Viking was comfortably scheduled at Marghera. For whatever reasons, Chioggia came into play. Perhaps, they wanted a port that was a guarantee for them for now and into the future. The Chioggia port as shown above looks very nice, however, there really isn't much to do in the area currently. The excursions as shown on Viking.com website are numerous and varied. However, once our excursion sign-up opened on MyVikingJourney, only 5 different ones were available. If you choose one of the two for Venice, you must endure 1 to 1.5 hours on some kind of transportation each way, ends up being almost half the time allotted for the excursion. Out of the 3 remaining excursions for Chioggia, 2 involve a walk with breakfast or a walk with lunch bites. The other is a one hour guided walk around Chioggia. Because of Chioggia's location, there are no direct transportation options outside private transfers, so Padua is out if one only has a partial day (our ship leaves at 2:00 pm). And looking on Tripadvisor, really nothing much in Chioggia, hence 2 out of the 3 excursions with Viking involve eating. 

Right now we do have the optional Venice excursion reserved but since we must take a private transfer from Venice to Chioggia the day before, we are thinking we really don't want to be on a bus or a boat for up to 3 hours that day. Reading, walking on our own, getting a good start on our Silver Spirits package sounds a lot more inviting. Fortunately we are really looking forward to the remainder of the cruise. 

Viking and the city of Chioggia really need to work on options for this city if Viking has made a committment to only use this  port. Direct transportation to other areas also need to be established. 

Yes, I think the problem with Chioggia is the lack of transportation options back and forth to Venice as well as excursions. We disembark in Chioggia and staying on in Venice on our own after the cruise.  We were hoping that Viking would offer transportation back to Venice, (Piazzale Roma or train station not just the airport) after the cruise as it was the final destination of the original itinerary and one of the reasons we booked the cruise. 

[jasardeax]

20 minutes ago, miami mama said:

BlairsvilleCruiseGirl thank you for link. Will be sure to check back with it later in the month to see if March is listed. 

It looks like at some point in time Viking was comfortably scheduled at Marghera. For whatever reasons, Chioggia came into play. Perhaps, they wanted a port that was a guarantee for them for now and into the future. The Chioggia port as shown above looks very nice, however, there really isn't much to do in the area currently. The excursions as shown on Viking.com website are numerous and varied. However, once our excursion sign-up opened on MyVikingJourney, only 5 different ones were available. If you choose one of the two for Venice, you must endure 1 to 1.5 hours on some kind of transportation each way, ends up being almost half the time allotted for the excursion. Out of the 3 remaining excursions for Chioggia, 2 involve a walk with breakfast or a walk with lunch bites. The other is a one hour guided walk around Chioggia. Because of Chioggia's location, there are no direct transportation options outside private transfers, so Padua is out if one only has a partial day (our ship leaves at 2:00 pm). And looking on Tripadvisor, really nothing much in Chioggia, hence 2 out of the 3 excursions with Viking involve eating. 

Right now we do have the optional Venice excursion reserved but since we must take a private transfer from Venice to Chioggia the day before, we are thinking we really don't want to be on a bus or a boat for up to 3 hours that day. Reading, walking on our own, getting a good start on our Silver Spirits package sounds a lot more inviting. Fortunately we are really looking forward to the remainder of the cruise. 

Viking and the city of Chioggia really need to work on options for this city if Viking has made a committment to only use this  port. Direct transportation to other areas also need to be established. 

There is inexpensive and frequent public bus service to/from

Chioggia to Piazzale Roma in Venice and also Padua. 
Chioggia itself is rated a NY Times travel destination to see. 

 

[millybess]

30 minutes ago, jasardeax said:

There is inexpensive and frequent public bus service to/from

Chioggia to Piazzale Roma in Venice and also Padua. 
Chioggia itself is rated a NY Times travel destination to see. 

 

I think Chioggia does have a lot to off from what I’ve read, including the article above. We’ve spent a lot of time in Venice is the past so we are happy to give it a miss on our B2B in May when we’ll be docked for an overnight. 
 

There are also trains from/to Chioggia-Venice. It takes a couple of hours with a change, and it’s very inexpensive. I’m sure it’s a scenic journey. 
 

 

[jasardeax]

The train from Chioggia to Venice St Lucia would take about 3 hours. (If it’s still operating)
You need to take the local train from Chioggia to Rovigo then transfer to the regional train, which goes through Padua and Mestre to Venice. 

The bus only takes a little over an hour with no changes. 
The train would go through lots of industrial areas, but maybe a few scenic ones too. 
Happy to hear, you are considering seeing what 

Chioggia has to offer. 

Slow Travel

Slow Food

Make memories that

are slow to fade. 

[miami mama]

All forms of transportation you need to connect from either the bus to a train, a bus to a bus, or a ferry to a bus to a vaperetto to a vaperetto. Not so easy and takes a long time. Can't even think about doing it with luggage at our age, therefore, the need to hire private transport.