Royal Caribbean transfer from Ravenna to Venice

[F19810]

Where does the shuttle drop you off in Venice? I need to find a hotel that is easy to get to from where we are dropped off.

Thanks

[MeHeartCruising]

Royal sells 2 different shuttles.  One takes you to the Venice Marco Polo Airport, where you could catch a water taxi (fairly expensive) to your hotel or a water bus.  The other takes you to the "city center", which is not really in the center of the city, but rather near the major parking location for Venice on the western side of the city.  This city center stop is at Tronchetto, which is a road-connected island that has a large parking garage/area.  Nearby is the last station of the "People Mover" elevated train that will take you over to Piazzele Roma, the major transportation hub for buses and vaporetto boats.  You could also catch a vaporetto boat at Tronchetto to get to your hotel.

 

You can study route maps for the Alilaguna and vaporetto buses and/or contact hotels for suggested ways to reach them.

Edited February 19, 2023 by MeHeartCruising

[little britain]

⬆️ is exactly correct. 
Options are Tronchetto or VCE airport. 

Neither are “easy” for hotels. From Tronchetto you will need to take luggage on the People Mover or on a Vaporetto to get to a hotel. 
From the airport it would necessitate a cab ride to a soulless hotel in Mestre.

 

Otherwise from the airport you could jump on the alilaguna to get to a nice hotel on Murano? 
 

[little britain]

UPDATE: It seems that RCI are NOT offering the transfer from Venice city centre Tronchetto to Ravenna 

 

The only option I was given is from the airport. There were 2 prices (?). 

One was £36pp and you had to be at Door 3 between 11.30 - 12.30. 

The other was £44 and the latest flight arrival allowed was 1.30p

 

Hope this helps

 

ps: this was for my sailing date of 5/29.  Perhaps they were sold out?  Perhaps they are not offering the city centre option?

Edited February 21, 2023 by little britain

[cruisemom42]

On 2/20/2023 at 6:27 AM, little britain said:

Options are Tronchetto or VCE airport. 

Neither are “easy” for hotels. From Tronchetto you will need to take luggage on the People Mover or on a Vaporetto to get to a hotel. 

 

The Tronchetto option isn't that difficult if you choose a hotel near Piazzale Roma. The bus drops you off next to the People Mover and there is an elevator to the elevated monorail. When you get off the People Mover, you are in Piazzale Roma. There is at least one hotel just across the (large) parking lot/bus depot -- the Santa Chiara. I stayed there last year and did this in reverse for a one night stay prior to my Celebrity cruise out of Ravenna.

 

Re: your other question, I would call and ask again. The customer reps are notoriously incorrect. Better to hope for the best 3 out of 5 if you play the odds...

[little britain]

The Tronchetto option does not exist:

 

Thank you for contacting our Customer Service Department regarding the option to add transfers.

We have reviewed it, but I am afraid we do not offer transfers from Venice Tronchetto to the Cruise Terminal, we only have transfers available from the Airport to the port.

 

 

from RCI UK

[Simon-t]

We got the Royal Caribbean transfer from Ravenna back to Marco Polo airport last year. It is then easy to catch a water taxi into Venice. Tickets for Alilaguna transfer in to Venice can also be bought from the Airport, but I am not sure what luggage limits there are on there.

[joan&jen]

I think this is very poor customer service on Royal’s part. It is advertised on their page about Venice 

[F19810]

According to the rep that I spoke with, I am signed up for a transfer to Venice "city center".  I'm staying at the Hotel Olimpia which is near Piazza Roma.  If I get dropped off at the airport, no big deal.  In Bologna, I was told that there is only one shuttle and that is from the airport.  I'm told that I am signed up for both shuttles but there is nothing showing up in my cruise app.  Also, no email confirmation.  I'll call back to make sure that everything is set up.

Judy

[MeHeartCruising]

Take note that some of the posts above refer to transfer from Ravenna to Venice.  Some of the posts above refer to transfer from Venice to Ravenna. 
 

In my case, when I called Royal Caribbean a couple weeks ago to purchase FROM Ravenna TO Venice, they were offering TO Venice Airport and TO Venice City Center (which would be at Tronchetto).  
 

I did not ask about going the other direction. 

[GenericBob]

On 2/21/2023 at 11:32 AM, Simon-t said:

We got the Royal Caribbean transfer from Ravenna back to Marco Polo airport last year. It is then easy to catch a water taxi into Venice. Tickets for Alilaguna transfer in to Venice can also be bought from the Airport, but I am not sure what luggage limits there are on there.

Hi, can you share: What time did your transfer leave Ravenna? What time did you get to Marco Polo airport? Thank you..

 

[Simon-t]

7 hours ago, GenericBob said:

Hi, can you share: What time did your transfer leave Ravenna? What time did you get to Marco Polo airport? Thank you..

 

I can't remember the exact time, but it was around 8.00am in the morning from memory. RC were running departures every half an hour or so, and we had no trouble moving our allocated time to an earlier one.

 

Transfer time was about 2.5 hours.

[Mick B]

Hi,

I am on the 29/5/23 sailing from Ravenna to Barcelona.

I was hoping to fly from the UK to Venice as I usually would and then travel down to Ravenna on the day.

I have been to Venice many many times and also sailed out from the port too a few time too in the past as will miss that part of the cruise sadly.

However, due to holiday entitlement, my wife and I have to work right up until and including the Friday before the cruise which leaves on the following Monday.

I too had asked both RCI and my travel agent several times about transfers from Venice to Ravenna but neither could commit as to if there were going to be any or not.

I have now had no choice but to travel to London on the Saturday and then fly to Bologna on the Sunday, stay overnight and get the train to Ravenna from there on the Monday morning as it would be too risky to try to get to Ravenna from Venice on the day of the cruise.

I have also asked both my travel agent and RCI if there are transfers from Ravenna to Port Corsini and again so far after many emails, neither have replied.

 

I have found a local bus service from Ravenna to the port which is the number 90 which takes about 30 minutes and costs 2.10 euros one way and which runs at 1035, 1135, 1235 etc. I am always a bit wary about using local buses as you may be limited to what you can take on the bus as space my be limited. I think taxi's cost around 25 euro's but there may be hundreds of people waiting for those.

 

So for anyone wanting to travel from Venice, you can take a train from Santa Lucia station (or Mestre if staying on the mainland) to Bologna, change train for Ravenna and then get the no.90 bus. As I said above, this would be a big ask for doing so on the Monday morning (unless you are not boarding till late, but check-in isn't open until mid April, so you can't even plan that properly yet), which is why we have opted to stay overnight in Bologna.

 

This is our first cruise out of Ravenna, and more importantly, the first time neither RCI or my TA have been able to provide adequate transfer information to the ship in over 25 cruises with them both. It is almost like no-one cares!

I only hope that the info I have posted here can help anyone else in my situation, and if you think about it, with ships leaving this port with 1000s of passengers on board, you would expect the cruise line to provide transfers as surely not everyone is going to fit on the hourly bus service or limited taxi service from Ravenna.

 

If anyone knows anything different about getting from Ravenna train Station to the ship, please let me know.

 

Hope to see some of you aboard the old Enchantment soon!

Mick.

 

Edited March 28, 2023 by Mick B

[little britain]

@Mick B there is no $10 Ravenna station shuttle this year. I have escalated this to Michael Bayley’s office as to why not. 
I know it’s probably wrong to assume that a service they provided last year will run again this year but I think they should have informed people it’s not running! 
There is no Uber but there is a local equivalent- there are the so-called "car rentals with driver" (in Italian NCC), that you can find online by typing 'NCC Ravenna'.

 

Re the transfers from Venice I’m not sure if it’s because we leave on a Monday whereas the Explorer is a Sunday rotation (Explorer has transfers from both airport and Tronchetto whereas we have airport only) 

 

 

Edited March 28, 2023 by little britain

[Mick B]

Hi,

Thank you so much for help in this matter.

It is just a shame the people I pay good money to cannot get back to me to tell me this.

They were quick enough to tell me the ship had changed!

 

thanks

Mick.

 

[Mick B]

Hi all,

By some amazement, RCI came back to me late yesterday to inform me that there is no transfers to the ship from Bolgna Airport and that I should either use a third party or go through my TA.

Bearing in mind that my TA have not responded to any of my requests, I have found 2 taxi firms on the net and now had quotes from Ravenna FS to Port Corsini which is approx 8 miles or 12km.

 

Limoline 60 euros

Rhamaservice 45 euros

 

Hell, some firms were offering taxis from Bologna to the ship for not much more. I would however choose to get the train to Ravenna and try to get to the ship from there on the day though.

 

RCI still did not say in this new email if there were any transfers from Venice Marco Polo or not. Because neither they nor my TA could confirm if there were any when I originally asked back in January is the reason why I chose to fly in Bologna, partly due to time limits on getting to the ship as getting from Venice by myself could prove difficult and also seats on planes selling out and the times of those flights were awkward too, so could not wait any longer and had to book the flights that were best for me. I would be p**sed if RCI now tell me that there are transfers from Venice to the ship afterall, as I love Venice and miss it, but there was just no way to get there from the UK and enjoy it with the flight times and uncertainty of transfers to the ship.

RCI did say, however, that I have until 1730 to board the ship, so plenty time to catch a bus/flag down a taxi or phone for one of the above.

 

I will try to find out more about the local bus service, such as how much luggage you can take on board and where you get the tickets from and if you can pay the driver etc.

For anyone interested in the Bar S. Marino 90 bus from Ravenna FS (Maroncelli FS1) to Porto Corsini (Sirotti) , the times from Ravenna FS are currently listed as 10:35, 11:50, 1:30, 2:10, 2:35 and 3:50 and take approx 30 mins.

If I find anything else out about this I will post it here to hopefully help some (if not hundreds) of other cruisers who may also have the same issue.

Again, given the amount of people travelling to Porto Corsini for this cruise, I am amazed RCI have not put on a shuttle (even at $10 pp and made some money as they normally do). However, business looks good for taxi firms that day!

 

Mick.

 

Edited March 29, 2023 by Mick B
spelling

[Mick B]

OK, so I have now been on the Ravenna START bus website and google translated some of the information.

 

Firstly, you can buy your tickets with cash or card on the bus, but depends on change given. You can buy them also from various outlets, but it looks like the best may be the bus companies own office which is right outside the station exit and just around the corner from the bus stop looking on google maps. Very handy if in a rush.

It says you can take 1 free item of luggage weighing up to 10kg and 50x20x25cm in size.

It also says you can pay extra for an additional piece of luggage (price not mentioned) which can weigh 20kg and can be up to 50x50cm in size, so a medium sized case.

 

It would be nice to see if anyone reading this has used this bus service and also if the rules on case size are monitored by the bus companies drivers.

 

We do have cases that fit closely to that size, but would limit the amount of clothes we could bring. Luckily, it's only a week long cruise!

 

Hope this helps anyone else wondering about this issue.

 

Mick.

 

[little britain]

@Mick B sorry… but there are definitely transfers from VCE as my friend is flying in morning of cruise and she is booked on one £44pp.

 

[Mick B]

Hi, Thanks.

The problem now is because Royal could not confirm if they were or were not going to put on a transfer from Venice to the ship and neither could my TA (and they both said to see each other in emails), we decided to play it safe and fly in to Bologna in order to give us a better chance of getting to the ship on the day.

 

This is the first cruise with RCI (and this is our 25th with them) where no-one from RCI or my TA could give us a simple yes/no answer earlier in the year to this question and with the flights selling out to both Venice and Bologna, we had no choice but to book them as we didn't want to wait and then be caught out getting to the ship.

 

I think I have it sorted now.

For anyone else thinking of doing the same as us, you can fly into Bologna the night before, get a special train from the airport into the city centre, stay overnight in a hotel, get a train to Ravenna on the Monday morning and then catch the bus to the port. There are luggage limits on the bus, but I am led to believe firstly that you can pay a bit extra at the bus station for the luggage and secondly, no-one checks the size anyway as long as it doesn't obstruct anything.

 

One thing I can tell you all is this, this one holiday has really p**ssed my wife off. 1st we cannot re-visit Venice in the time we have, 2nd they have changed the ship and we now have less facilities, 3rd so-far we cannot see any RCI operated trips that include climbing the leaning tower of Pisa. 4th no help whatsoever from anyone (who gets our money) with help getting to the ship. Let's just hope the menu's on the ship are the old ones! haaaaaaaaaa!

 

Thank you again to everyone on here who has helped us with this and I hope to see some of you aboard the ship on the 29th May.

 

Mick.

 

 

Edited March 31, 2023 by Mick B
spelling

[little britain]

See you at the bar @Mick B ! We will need a drink after this.

I have succumbed and bought a private transfer from Venice to ship - I really wanted the thrill and satisfaction of navigating the railways at a quarter of the price! 
Interestingly I’ve had a mail from Bayley’s corporate office saying they are looking into my comments … ( bit late now but…!)

Edited March 31, 2023 by little britain

[cuterlmt]

Any suggestions about getting a transfer to VCE from Port of Ravenna? I have tried through RC and it doesn't sound good. I bought an airline ticket thinking we would be able to make a flight because of a schedule I saw online showing that they offered transfers that would get us to the airport in time for our flight. When I called, they said they only have transfers for flights that leave later than ours, and that we could wait until we board the ship and see what they had. I really don't want to do that and be stranded in a foreign country and have to buy a new flight. We have tried to get a flight out the next day, but that has been pretty impossible, or later that day.

I looked at private transfers and they are 300+ per person on Viator. I may have to bite the bullet. It's much cheaper than changing our flight and/or adding hotel nights. 

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I should have done more research, I know, before I booked the flight I booked. We leave VCE on an 1135am flight. We are on Symphony, back in Ravenna on 5/14.

Thanks for any suggestions. I've already beat myself up enough about the situation and would just appreciate help. 

 

[Mick B]

Hi,

The distance from the port to Venice is roughly over 120km or 80 miles. If your flight is from Marco Polo at 1135am on the day of dis-embarkation, then you will be pushing it! If the ship docks at 6am and you can get off by 7am with a pre-booked taxi, you may make VCE by 9am if you are lucky.

Sadly, trying any other mode such as bus 90 to Ravenna FS then train to Bologna and then another train to Venice/Mestre and then a coach to the airport would not be practical/possible in that time limit.

 

I have not yet sailed out of this port and this May will be my first. I have sailed out of many ports, but this one is the one I am looking forward to the least. The main reason is because no-one at either RCI or may TA can give me any details at all of how to get to/from the ship of offer any transfers. I have had to do all the research myself and my whole holiday depends on mew getting things right.

 

I will post details here when I get back in June detailing how things went. Sadly with the banning of cruise ships of a certain size from Venice, this is the port RCI will be using for now which begs the question of why there seems to be little help for passengers that are sailing from it.

 

I have travelled and sailed so many times now and I can only stress that flying back home the day of dis-embarkation can be a mistake. I find it better to spend at least 1 night at the destination as anything is better than having to either rush to an airport or get stuck at one for the whole day due to later flights.

 

If 300 euros is the price to get to the airport then depending on how many of you there are, that's probably not a bad price. Local taxis wanted 60 euros just to take me and my wife from Ravenna train station to the port.

 

Mick.

 

Edited April 4, 2023 by Mick B
spelling

[euro cruiser]

10 hours ago, cuterlmt said:

We leave VCE on an 1135am flight. We are on Symphony, back in Ravenna on 5/14.

Much depends on whether this is a non-stop international flight or if there is a stop somewhere within the Schengen area first.  If the former, you need to be at the airport by about 8:30, if the later by 9:30.

 

This is not an overly conservative measure, Venice Marco Polo is one of the most disorganized and busy airports in Italy (maybe in the world). 

 

It's about two and a half hours by car from Ravenna to Marco Polo, assuming no traffic tie-ups.  My first question to RCI would be how possible will it be to disembark by 6:00 AM (if a non-stop, international flight, or 7 AM for a connection).

[cuterlmt]

thank you - one of my mistakes was relying on a schedule which showed RCI having a shuttle that would get me to the airport in time for a flight leaving by 11am. AFTER I booked the flight, I contacted RCI and got the run around, but finally after the 4th call they admitted they do not have a shuttle that early now. I got a good deal on the flight. At least I thought so. 

As far as the flight, it goes from VCE to Atlanta, which was part of the great thing about the flight - one stop, and then home. 

I will say that on our last cruise through NCL, I let them do the air, and it was so much less stressful, just letting them take care of all of it. I didn't spend hours trying to figure it out.

Thank you again.

 

[euro cruiser]

I think at this point your tradeoff is between an expensive car service with door-to-door service vs. changing the flight for the next day and paying for a hotel in Venice.  I can't imagine a scenario in which the latter is a better economic deal, but it would be the less stressful experience.

 

If you decide to keep your existing flight, I would start leaning hard on RCI to let you off ASAP.

 

Another option, what is your penultimate port?  Perhaps it would be less stressful to get off there and make your way to Venice.