Venice Logistics

[RexMesiter]

Greetings everyone.  Rookie cruiser here scheduled for the Italy, the Adriatic and Greece tour this October with on-our-own extensions in Rome (3 days) and Athens (2 days).  I've read through some of the threads on this board but am still confused about the touring options for the 3 days we are docked in the Venice area.

* How long does it take to get from Fusina to the Cornoldi Pier?

* When Viking lists times for their tours, do they include travel time from ship to pier and back again?

* Can I still use the Viking shuttle to get to/from the city if I'm not on a Viking tour? If so, how often does the shuttle operate and how do I go about hitching a ride?

* Has anyone done the "Gondola Ride in Venice" tour with Viking?  It seems way overpriced to me ($149) - other than the gondola ride, what does it include? Several local vendors offer a 30 minute gondola ride for less than $40.  We're thinking of going with the local gondola option immediately following the Included tour to St. Mark's Square - if we don't return to the ship immediately following the Included tour, will we have trouble hitching a ride back to the ship?

 

Thanks in advance for all the savvy cruisers on this board - looking forward to your comments/ advice.

[OneSixtyToOne]

41 minutes ago, RexMesiter said:

When Viking lists times for their tours, do they include travel time from ship to pier and back again?

In our experience, tour times are from departure from ship to back on board 

[kctwinmommy]

We also had 3 days in Venice, but docked in Chioggia. I'm guessing it's similar to docking in Fusina though.

 

The tour length includes the water shuttle time. The boat ride was about 90 minutes, and I believe from Fusina it's about the same.

 

However, there was no water shuttle to just go back & forth. Because Venice is now charging a tourist fee, you must buy a ticket to get onto the island. The Viking tours include this. If you want to go on your own, you'd need to schedule you're own transportation and get your own ticket for that day.

 

I had also been looking at on our own options for our cruise in April, and it's not super clear before you get onboard what the options are. People who have gone on their own (and a few who have spent a night there since you're docked for 2 nights), had to take care of things on their own.

 

They don't make it very easy to do things on your own there, unless you are staying before or after.

 

If you can, you could pick a tour that is an "on your own" type of one, so then you could book a gondola ride through a different vendor. Otherwise, you won't be able to just catch a ride back. They have to account for the number of people they take and the number they bring back.

[Redtravel]

Venice?  The first time that I sailed into Venice, it was spectacular.  Get up close and it’s not that great. They like the tourist dollar.   They won’t let you in unless you pay. They won’t let big ships in.  You cannot carry your luggage. They force you to hire a porter. Workers often go on strike. Aqua Alta can be a big problem.  Taxi drivers are rude.  I only go to Venice if I have a very good reason to go.  

[rizello]

35 minutes ago, Redtravel said:

Venice?  The first time that I sailed into Venice, it was spectacular.  Get up close and it’s not that great. They like the tourist dollar.   They won’t let you in unless you pay. They won’t let big ships in.  You cannot carry your luggage. They force you to hire a porter. Workers often go on strike. Aqua Alta can be a big problem.  Taxi drivers are rude.  I only go to Venice if I have a very good reason to go.  

I have only been to Venice traveling on my own.  Maybe things have changed, but I lugged my own luggage from the train station to the vaporetto, and then from the vaporetto over some bridges and to my apartment.  It may have been nice to have a porter!  What I love about the city is getting lost traversing the streets.  It was one of the few places where I got around by remembering landmarks (turn right at the grocery store, then straight until you reach the shop with the green pants on display, etc).  It is a fun city to just explore.

[duquephart]

10 minutes ago, rizello said:

I have only been to Venice traveling on my own.  Maybe things have changed, but I lugged my own luggage from the train station to the vaporetto, and then from the vaporetto over some bridges and to my apartment.  It may have been nice to have a porter!  What I love about the city is getting lost traversing the streets.  It was one of the few places where I got around by remembering landmarks (turn right at the grocery store, then straight until you reach the shop with the green pants on display, etc).  It is a fun city to just explore.

 

Depends on how many rats you encounter.

[RexMesiter]

1 hour ago, kctwinmommy said:

The tour length includes the water shuttle time. The boat ride was about 90 minutes, and I believe from Fusina it's about the same.

So the 3-1/2 hour Viking Gondola tour consists of 3 hours on the shuttle (90 minutes each way) and a 30 minute gondola ride? (not much of a bargain if so)

[RexMesiter]

1 hour ago, kctwinmommy said:

If you can, you could pick a tour that is an "on your own" type of one, so then you could book a gondola ride through a different vendor. Otherwise, you won't be able to just catch a ride back. They have to account for the number of people they take and the number they bring back.

My original thought was to take Viking's included tour (St. Mark's Square) and then go for a gondola ride through a local vendor immediately after.  Are you saying I couldn't catch a ride back to the ship under this scenario?

[duquephart]

7 minutes ago, RexMesiter said:

So the 3-1/2 hour Viking Gondola tour consists of 3 hours on the shuttle (90 minutes each way) and a 30 minute gondola ride? (not much of a bargain if so)

 

Viking tour and bargain do not belong in the same sentence.

[duquephart]

5 minutes ago, RexMesiter said:

My original thought was to take Viking's included tour (St. Mark's Square) and then go for a gondola ride through a local vendor immediately after.  Are you saying I couldn't catch a ride back to the ship under this scenario?

 

Shuttle?

[kctwinmommy]

10 minutes ago, RexMesiter said:

So the 3-1/2 hour Viking Gondola tour consists of 3 hours on the shuttle (90 minutes each way) and a 30 minute gondola ride? (not much of a bargain if so)

So looking at a map, Fusina is much closer than Chioggia. I can't tell you how long it will take to get to Venice. I'm guessing maybe only about 30 minutes. Although, I've also read that others say they were told one city, then Viking changed to the other. It's always subject to change.

 

I just looked at the Viking Dailies, I kept them all. And yes, our tour was 7 hours, and 3 hours of that was the shuttle boat ride. So our tour was 4 hours.

[kctwinmommy]

9 minutes ago, RexMesiter said:

My original thought was to take Viking's included tour (St. Mark's Square) and then go for a gondola ride through a local vendor immediately after.  Are you saying I couldn't catch a ride back to the ship under this scenario?

That's correct. As far as what they said, and from what others said, it's not a shuttle boat. It's a boat to take people on an excursion and back. Any changes you would have to talk to Viking about. Venice makes it much more difficult these days to actually get there.

[RexMesiter]

4 minutes ago, kctwinmommy said:

That's correct. As far as what they said, and from what others said, it's not a shuttle boat. It's a boat to take people on an excursion and back. Any changes you would have to talk to Viking about. Venice makes it much more difficult these days to actually get there.

Thanks.  There are other Viking excursions on the same day that return to the ship later than the included excursion.  So, if I stay in the city after the included excursion, I can't take the boat back with folks returning from their optional Viking excursion?  Not a very customer-friendly policy on Viking's part.

[kctwinmommy]

5 minutes ago, RexMesiter said:

Thanks.  There are other Viking excursions on the same day that return to the ship later than the included excursion.  So, if I stay in the city after the included excursion, I can't take the boat back with folks returning from their optional Viking excursion?  Not a very customer-friendly policy on Viking's part.

This has nothing to do with Viking, this is a Venice issue. They're controlling the number of people in and out each day. They had to count us off, we had to have a ticket with our name and such. Again, if you want to check, then ask Viking. I just know on ours, nobody was able to just jump onto our shuttle back.

[mera84]

Hi RexMesiter - We are on the 7th October Adriatic cruise out of Rome.  We got an email from Viking to say they will be docking in Fusina instead of Chioggia. I asked a similar question to yourself some time ago on this forum regarding shuttles to Fusina and didnt get a response.  I guess most are still docking in Chioggia. I had a look at Google Maps and there is a water taxi departing Fusina direct to Venice but its a bit of a walk from the docking location.  We booked the offered free Venice tour into Piazza St Marco and Saint Marks Basillica on one morning , the other days we will do our own wandering.  We will have to wait to see if anyone has any times of the offered shuttle from the boat to Venice and its return times.  The email said they will advise once we are on board which doesn't assist with planning. 

[kctwinmommy]

@mera84 - that's the same as us, we couldn't plan anything until we were onboard. We couldn't even pick any excursions. Just be prepared to adapt, as I've also heard that some ships can change late in the game to go to Chioggia.

[formernuke]

Unless it has changed(we were one of the first Viking ships to dock in Fusina during the pandemic), Fusina is an industrial port that you can’t just walk out of. You must go in an escorted bus until off port grounds. If more recent cruisers have a different experience I’d like to know as well. 

[RexMesiter]

13 hours ago, mera84 said:

We booked the offered free Venice tour into Piazza St Marco and Saint Marks Basillica on one morning , the other days we will do our own wandering.  We will have to wait to see if anyone has any times of the offered shuttle from the boat to Venice and its return times.  The email said they will advise once we are on board which doesn't assist with planning. 

mera84, a poster on another thread indicated that Viking offers one on your own transfer each day.  I just responded to the thread to see if anyone can clarify the "rules". The thread should now be on the first page so you may want to check it out.

[kctwinmommy]

Just make sure you get info from someone who ported in Fusina. It's obviously different coming from Chioggia. And I feel that it could always change too. The "rules" for Venice seem to be in a state of flux these days.

[CHammond]

We docked in Fusina for 3 days last October. An included "Venice on your own" was offered each of the 3 days, since it is an included tour, I am guessing you can just use it once (one included tour per port). Our boat left straight from the ship around 8:30, transit time was around 40 minutes. We docked at a pier just down from St Marks. If I am remembering correctly, I think we had to be back at the pier at 2 if we wanted to catch a ride back to the ship. We wanted to stay longer, so we took the other option, which was to ride the vaporetto up the grand canal to the stop where the old cruise port is, get on the people mover train to the old cruise port, find the viking reps there and catch the viking shuttle bus over the causeway back to the ship. Fusina is a secure port so you can't just wander on and off. The whole return process took about 2 hours. We did the gondola ride through viking and I would not recommend it, our group was huge and so we had to stand in line for an hour to wait for our turn, since we were the last group they cut our time short, 20min instead of 30, all in all very unhappy with the excursion, complained to customer service  when we got back and got a credit for it. Loved everything else about Venice though, have fun!

[mera84]

Thanks CHammond, appreciate your response.  We have been to Venice, independently, a couple of times and are familiar with the vaporetto. The Viking shuttle bus sounds like the answer for our wanderings. 

[RexMesiter]

14 hours ago, CHammond said:

We docked in Fusina for 3 days last October. An included "Venice on your own" was offered each of the 3 days, since it is an included tour, I am guessing you can just use it once (one included tour per port). Our boat left straight from the ship around 8:30, transit time was around 40 minutes. We docked at a pier just down from St Marks. If I am remembering correctly, I think we had to be back at the pier at 2 if we wanted to catch a ride back to the ship.

Thanks for the clarification.  When you mentioned on another thread that Viking allows a Venice on your own transfer once (or more) per trip, I took that to mean that Viking would provide a shuttle boat to and from the ship to the city even if the transfer wasn't part of a Viking tour. I was hoping I could use that opportunity to book a tour with a local vendor. Now that you put Venice on your own in quotes it finally dawned on me that Venice on Your Own must be the title of your included tour (for this October our included tour is titled "At a Glance: St. Mark's Square")..

[CHammond]

2 hours ago, RexMesiter said:

Thanks for the clarification.  When you mentioned on another thread that Viking allows a Venice on your own transfer once (or more) per trip, I took that to mean that Viking would provide a shuttle boat to and from the ship to the city even if the transfer wasn't part of a Viking tour. I was hoping I could use that opportunity to book a tour with a local vendor. Now that you put Venice on your own in quotes it finally dawned on me that Venice on Your Own must be the title of your included tour (for this October our included tour is titled "At a Glance: St. Mark's Square")..

Last October when we were docked in Fusina, they had several included tours to choose from, one was "At a Glance, St Marks Square", which was a transfer back and forth and also a short guided tour, another one offered was "Venice On Your Own", which was nothing more than a transfer back and forth with no guide but just free time. You will have to wait until about 120 days before your trip when the excursions show up on My Viking Journey to find out if that is an option for you or not, they don't show Venice on your own as an option on the general viking website but it should show up under My VikingJourney if they are offering it for your trip.

[CHammond]

15 hours ago, mera84 said:

Thanks CHammond, appreciate your response.  We have been to Venice, independently, a couple of times and are familiar with the vaporetto. The Viking shuttle bus sounds like the answer for our wanderings. 

We took the shuttle bus on the middle day, that's when people were flying in to join the cruise, they were taking them to the old cruise port from the airport and shuttling them to the ship from there, you will have to check with viking whether they are going to run the shuttle bus on the first and third day also. 

[RexMesiter]

40 minutes ago, CHammond said:

Last October when we were docked in Fusina, they had several included tours to choose from, one was "At a Glance, St Marks Square", which was a transfer back and forth and also a short guided tour, another one offered was "Venice On Your Own", which was nothing more than a transfer back and forth with no guide but just free time. You will have to wait until about 120 days before your trip when the excursions show up on My Viking Journey to find out if that is an option for you or not, they don't show Venice on your own as an option on the general viking website but it should show up under My VikingJourney if they are offering it for your trip.

Thanks.  I'm already within the 120 day window and have selected my shore excursions.  The "At a Glance: St. Mark's Square" was the only included tour offered.  I would have much preferred the "Venice On Your Own" if available. I wonder why they did away with that one.  Could you go on the included tour, abandon it once on shore, then go out and explore on your own (including booking a tour from a local vendor) and catch up with the tour when it's time to return to the ship?