Live from Italy, the Adriatic, and Venice 3/10/2023

[Jim Avery]

I agree Phil.  We visited Venice by ship when still allowed in and also by air staying at hotels.  Venice is much better experienced by staying there 3 or more days.  Magic at night when all the day trippers leave.

[-Lew-]

1 hour ago, jc522 said:

it takes a 2:40 round trip from Chioggia on an uncomfortable water taxi

 

Where is the drop off point in Venice?

[SJD117]

22 minutes ago, philw1776 said:

I think that Viking et. al. need to realize that Venice as a mid-cruise port, especially for multiple days, is no longer a viable idea due to access problems. Cruises could start or end there (Chioggia) with pre and post cruise extensions offered but the prospect of long hauls to/from docks to/from Venice multiple days does not excite this customer

The travel time on the No. 80 Venice/Chioggia bus is about an hour. So I don’t see how Venice/Chioggia is terribly different from mid-cruise stops on other Viking itineraries. To take two examples: On our 2019 SE Asia cruise, the ship docked near Haiphong, Vietnam, a very long distance from the main attraction to me (Hanoi). And similarly, the Bangkok port was a full hour away from the city itself.

 
Perhaps folks are used to shorter transfer times in Europe compared to Asia. Or perhaps the memory of sailing into the Venice lagoon is still fresh in peoples’ minds. If the latter, it may take some time for Viking and its guests to get used to the new normal. But that ship has sailed. Chioggia will continue to be Viking’s port of call for environmental reasons.

[Mrs Miggins]

1 hour ago, SJD117 said:

1 hour ago, SJD117 said:

Agreed. We’re spending three days in Venice before our Chioggia-Athens cruise begins next month. Our stay will overlap Good Friday and Easter Sunday, so it should be a busy and exciting time!

 

The embarkation in Chioggia is an inconvenience, but a minor one. We’ve known about it for a long time due to multiple CC threads and an advisory that Viking sent us. For the transfer from our B&B to the ship, we debated taking the No. 80 local bus to Chioggia, but decided instead to spring for a land taxi.

 

Our arrival in Venice will be another interesting experience. We’ve been to the city just once before, in 1995, and that was by train. This trip, we fly in and take a water taxi from the Venice airport direct to our B&B. Over the last 50+ years, I’ve flown into and out of hundreds of cities, foreign and domestic; to my best recollection, the only city that required water transport from the airport was Ketchikan, Alaska. Who knew that Ketchikan and Venice had something in common?

 

 

The water taxi from the airport to Venice is the most spectacular way to arrive.  Worth every penny.

[Cintrog]

1 hour ago, SJD117 said:

Agreed. We’re spending three days in Venice before our Chioggia-Athens cruise begins next month. Our stay will overlap Good Friday and Easter Sunday, so it should be a busy and exciting time!

 

The embarkation in Chioggia is an inconvenience, but a minor one. We’ve known about it for a long time due to multiple CC threads and an advisory that Viking sent us. For the transfer from our B&B to the ship, we debated taking the No. 80 local bus to Chioggia, but decided instead to spring for a land taxi.

 

Our arrival in Venice will be another interesting experience. We’ve been to the city just once before, in 1995, and that was by train. This trip, we fly in and take a water taxi from the Venice airport direct to our B&B. Over the last 50+ years, I’ve flown into and out of hundreds of cities, foreign and domestic; to my best recollection, the only city that required water transport from the airport was Ketchikan, Alaska. Who knew that Ketchikan and Venice had something in common?

 

[Cintrog]

We will be in Venice next May. Suggestions on hotel or B&B appreciated.

[DGHOC]

35 minutes ago, Mrs Miggins said:

The water taxi from the airport to Venice is the most spectacular way to arrive.  Worth every penny.

I'll second that, wouldn't do it any other way!

[-Lew-]

5 minutes ago, Cintrog said:

We will be in Venice next May. Suggestions on hotel or B&B appreciated.

 

Suggest you visit the Italy Ports Board for a wealth of information...

[jc522]

1 hour ago, -Lew- said:

 

Where is the drop off point in Venice?

Palazzo Cornoldi. Four bridges east of St. Marks Square.

[LibertyBella]

1 hour ago, Cintrog said:

We will be in Venice next May. Suggestions on hotel or B&B appreciated.

 

What is your budget?  Where do you want to be?  We prefer the heart of the action, near San Marco. We splurged a few years ago before and after a cruise, and went all out to stay at the well- located and famous Hotel Danieli.  It is a gorgeous historic palace, and was worth every penny, but it is rather expensive.  We did eat both breakfast and dinner on the terrace, quite memorable.

 

Right next to it is the lovely Savoia & Jolanda, which includes breakfast, and is much more reasonably priced.   Londra Palace nearby also rates quite highly.  All three of these are very convenient to canal transportation, and one can walk everywhere.  There are hundreds of places to choose!

 

Husband said he was happy that we were not in a hotel that was far down from the canals, or we would be dragging our suitcases too much.  We also do not like places that are so small they really have no lobby to speak of.

 

There was nothing better than having all the historic areas to ourselves later in the evening or early in the morning, before the hordes of day-trippers descended upon the city.  There are tons of shops, restaurants, and historic sites, so you will have a lot to see and do.  Make sure to stop in the famous Caffe Florian for a snack, as you will be following in the footsteps of Casanova, and hundreds of other famous visitors!.

[FetaCheese]

1 hour ago, Cintrog said:

We will be in Venice next May. Suggestions on hotel or B&B appreciated.

Sorry, didn't see similar post...

 

Suggest you look at CC: Ports of Call Category: find category for Med that includes Venice.  Most likely will have a hotels thread.

 

I used similar approach for Barcelona hotel recommendations.  You can then look up hotels, to see which will meet your needs.

Edited March 16, 2023 by FetaCheese
Addl info

[Vineyard View]

3 hours ago, philw1776 said:

I think that Viking et. al. need to realize that Venice as a mid-cruise port, especially for multiple days, is no longer a viable idea due to access problems. Cruises could start or end there (Chioggia) with pre and post cruise extensions offered but the prospect of long hauls to/from docks to/from Venice multiple days does not excite this customer

I agree with you. This has been an itinerary for Viking for a number of years. It worked well prior to the docking changes in providing a three day experience in Venice from your ship. We were going to book this one, then Covid hit. We were going to book post Covid, then the required docking changes occurred. In our opinion, one of the major draws to this particular itinerary was the 3 day turn time in Venice. In reading this, It really no longer functions in this capacity as a main draw for this specific itinerary. JMHO. It is the reason we went another direction, with a RT out of Venice and 4 night pre.  
 I hope that as time moves forward this season, it generates a better avenue to access Venice than this current sailing is occurring. Viking has always tried hard to make their customers happy with their experiences, so maybe they will develop some tweaks that improve the experience. 
 

[jc522]

We just got back from a thoroughly enjoyable day in Chioggia. Nothing that I've read adequately describes this city. It is a very old, clean, vibrant town. It's much larger than I expected based on descriptions I've read here and elsewhere. It takes about 15 minutes to walk to the main street, Calle Del Popolo, which is about a mile long. The buildings date back to the 1400's and contain dozens of family run shops and sea food restaurants. All of the narrow cross streets (alleys) are filled with excellent restaurants, too. Most of the restaurants close just after noon time and re-open for dinner around 7pm. This is authentic old-world Italy, and it lacks the commercialism and tourist trap vibe that you get in Venice. We are going to walk back into town again this evening and probably tomorrow, too. I hope the cruise ships don't ruin this wonderful little town.

Edited March 17, 2023 by jc522

[springtravel]

19 hours ago, -Lew- said:

We will be in Venice next May. Suggestions on hotel or B&B appreciated

If you want a very nice, clean hotel without spending too much, we love Palazzo Del Giglio.  The staff is friendly and welcoming, and the included breakfast  has a vast assortment of items.  It is very convenient to a vaporetto stop, and only one stop from St. Marks Square.  It is a very quiet location, with only a 5 minute walk into busy center of St. Marks. We stayed there 5 years ago, and will be staying there again in 2 weeks

[springtravel]

1 minute ago, jc522 said:

We are going to walk back into town again this evening and probably tomorrow, too.

We will be in Chioggia for just 1 day, and will be looking for a lunch spot.  Please let me know if there are any you try and recommend.

[jc522]

13 minutes ago, springtravel said:

We will be in Chioggia for just 1 day, and will be looking for a lunch spot.  Please let me know if there are any you try and recommend.

Osteria Numero 2, 255 Calle Fattorini

Edited March 17, 2023 by jc522

[islandchick]

We really loved the Al Ponte Antico hotel in Venice. Near the Rialto bridge and has a lovely terrace overlooking the canal. It has its own dock so you can get a water taxi to or from the airport or anywhere else for that matter. No lugging baggage as the small water taxis will load and unload for you. We thought it was in a great location. 

[jc522]

5 hours ago, springtravel said:

We will be in Chioggia for just 1 day, and will be looking for a lunch spot.  Please let me know if there are any you try and recommend.

I asked our tour guide and she recommended Osteria #2, but she said all of the restaurants on the side streets are very good. I asked one of the water taxi drivers and got the same answer. My guess is that the restaurants on Popolo are more tourist oriented than the other places that are off the main street. If you don't want a big pasta meal you can get Cicchetti at all the restaurants. It's a specialty of this region of Italy. Google it.

[jc522]

The repairmen started working with impact chisels today. One side of deck 2 is sealed off from the atrium to the aft elevators while they jack out the floor tile and replace it. We could hear it from our stateroom on deck 8. This is supposed to last thru the entire second week of our cruise. Aside from the noise and inconvenience, the best evening music venue, Torshavn, has been shut down for the duration.

[Jim Avery]

I would want a refund and a trip home early 

[SJD117]

12 minutes ago, jc522 said:

The repairmen started working with impact chisels today. One side of deck 2 is sealed off from the atrium to the aft elevators while they jack out the floor tile and replace it. We could hear it from our stateroom on deck 8. This is supposed to last thru the entire second week of our cruise. Aside from the noise and inconvenience, the best evening music venue, Torshavn, has been shut down for the duration.

You wrote in #22 that talking to Viking's managers "does not fit into my vacation plans." But certainly this development wasn't in your vacation plans, either. So why not make pointed inquiries with the General Manager? You might learn something and you might get something. Just a thought.

[jc522]

Since I started this, I thought I should close it out. Despite the problems that I've mentioned, we had a very nice cruise.

 

The ship and crew are excellent.

Music onboard appears to have gone a little less classical and a bit more pop. That is an improvement, but the house band and singers are not very good.

Wifi has been greatly improved. I was able to stream Amazon Prime on my PC.

Naples being reduced to 1/2 day goes unexplained.

Venice sorted itself out because Gioggia is so nice.

The Cap'n assured me that there was 35 knots of wind in the harbor at Messina which caused the Pilot to advise against trying to dock there (despite what all the reporting stations said).

The urgency behind replacing floor tiles on deck 2 is a mystery.

The food didn't improve.

[Mitina]

1 hour ago, jc522 said:

stream Amazon Prime on my PC

That tends to suck up a lot of bandwidth ship wide.

[Fieldofdreams]

On 3/15/2023 at 8:13 PM, jc522 said:

I have had much better food on Azamara and others, including some pretty decent lobster. The problem isn’t limited to some bad lobster. At the price Viking charges for a cruise, there is no excuse for what they are serving in The Restaurant or the World Cafe. 

jc522 - Agree with everything you have said so far. Just back from our first Viking Ocean cruise Australia/NewZealand and found the same for all that you have expressed. Going on our 2nd Viking Ocean cruise Italy/Adriatic/Med late September on Jupiter have a feeling it will be pretty much the same. Having said that very much looking forward to the itinerary and the ports.

[Fieldofdreams]

On 3/23/2023 at 10:40 AM, jc522 said:

Since I started this, I thought I should close it out. Despite the problems that I've mentioned, we had a very nice cruise.

 

The ship and crew are excellent.

Music onboard appears to have gone a little less classical and a bit more pop. That is an improvement, but the house band and singers are not very good.

Wifi has been greatly improved. I was able to stream Amazon Prime on my PC.

Naples being reduced to 1/2 day goes unexplained.

Venice sorted itself out because Gioggia is so nice.

The Cap'n assured me that there was 35 knots of wind in the harbor at Messina which caused the Pilot to advise against trying to dock there (despite what all the reporting stations said).

The urgency behind replacing floor tiles on deck 2 is a mystery.

The food didn't improve.

jc522 - Viking is stating that there is a free water taxi running 24 hours from Chioggia port to St. Marks Square. Have you found that to be true?, if that is not correct are you able to provide some information on what Viking is offering to get to Venice/St. Marks square area? Thanks so much