Venice

[Susan1]

We go to Venice on Azura in July, on the P&O community there were excellent ideas of what to see and how to get about.
So in the continued absence of that site ~ help please and thanks in advance Sue

[oldbluefox]

There's loads to see and do in Venice and many ways of doing it.
There's usually a water taxi organised by P&O which will take you to St Mark's Square for about £15pp. Use it as many times as you like through the day. Alternatively there is a light railway near the port where the ship docks which will take you to Piazzale Roma. From there you can either walk to St Mark's Square or take a ride down the Grand Canal by vaporetti or water taxi.
The last time we were there we did the P&O visit to the Doge's Palace and Bridge of Sighs which was well worth it if only to skip the queues.
A word of caution - be prepared to pay a King's ransom if you sit down for a coffee in St Mark's Square whilst you listen to the piano.

There's loads more info on Google. You will love Venice. Don't miss the sail in.

[Manoverboard]

I suggest that you buy a Thomas Cook's Traveller's Guide of Venice on e-Bay for a few £££s, read it from cover to cover to decide which of the ten walking itineraries is best suited to you and then to cut out a couple of the little maps to have them blown up to A4 size and laminated.

Depends where you Dock but for €1 pp I would suggest using the ' people mover ' rail link into the City and then to locate your chosen walk, getting hopelessly lost is half of the fun of course. We purchased a one way P&O Shuttle Boat ticket ( for the return journey to the ship ) from reception the previous day. The ' boat stop ', facing the lagoon, is 100 yds-ish to the left of St Marks and there are by the way signs everywhere in the City to St Marks.

Make the most of this beautiful and unusual City.

[kruzgal]

We spent 3 nights in Venice last year before joining the Celebrity Silhouette and absolutely loved it. We bought Rick Steves book on Venice from Amazon and found it a brilliant resource. There is detailed information on getting around, restaurants etc and he even does free podcasts which the whole family downloaded to our phones/ipods etc. - brilliant with teens and he does them for all the key sites, and also for sites in Rome and Florence. The book was recommended on the cruise critic website, a site I have used a lot in the past for research and which has saved us thousands of pounds over the years enabling us to diy wherever we go. Search the forum under ports of call, Europe, Italy Ports and then use the search forum tab in the right hand corner to narrow your search to Venice, or something more specific such as Doges Palace.

[Boris+]

We've been looking at Venice using whatsinport.com and working out where we may be berthed etc later on this year.

I think that there will be plenty for us to do on our own - and we will download a map to our ereaders before we start the cruise .... job done!

I'm hoping that this port will be worthwhile getting up early to get shots as we sail in, and also when leaving port too - but we're not looking for museums or churches when we are there, just the old everyday working architecture really.

Fingers crossed for good weather then!

It's not my first visit to Venice, hence I don't want to do the 'tourist trail'.

Em

[Susan1]

Excellent ideas thank you all very much, getting excited about this amazing stop now.
Off to check out a cheap guide now!! Thanks again ~ Sue

[Holiday Planner]

We caught the people mover for 1 Euro pp to Piazza Roma. From there we purchased Vaporetto day passes for about 18 euros, which gave unlimmitted travel. We hopped on and off all day and did the whole length of the Grand Canal, as well as the Guidecca Canal from Tronchetto to St Mark's.

If you wish to go to the Basillica in St Mark's, you can pre book timed entrance tickets for 1.50 euro pp at this website http://www.venetoinside.com/en/saint_mark_s_basilica/
we did this and walked past the queue snaking through St Mark's Square, to our own entrance. It has gone up (1 euro last summer), but still worth it, I think.

Be prepared for it to be very hot and crowded, so don't try to do too much. Take water with you, and if you want to buy food, drink, Ice Creams etc get just off the main drags. We bought reasonably priced ice creams in the Academia Area which cost under 2 euros - about the same as at home (although they would have charged us an extra 4 euros per head to sit at their tables - so we walked round the corner and sat on a canal wall!)

[Mr-big-bits-mk2]

Can anyone give any advise for the disabled with regards to Venice. Vicki is a wheelchair user and can also get around on crutches but getting in and out of a small 'bobbing' boat sounds terrifying.

[RB1961]

Have a look in the cruising for the disabled section ...some bits on Venice there.

[Dancing Queen]

From what I remember when we were there about 4 years ago with P&O there was a mini bus used for transporting wheelchair users, I'm almost sure it was Venice but not absolutely as you tend not to take a great deal of notice when it isn't something you yourself are using, hopefully someone will be able to give you a more positive reply.

[david63]

From memory last year there was as DQ says a mini bus but it only takes you over to the main plaza (cannot remember the name) and then you are on your own.

To be honest Venice is one of the least wheelchair friendly places on the planet and you may have some difficulty getting around.

One option to consider is the P&O water shuttle that takes you from the ship to St Marks square (at a price!)

[towny44]

From what I remember when we were there about 4 years ago with P&O there was a mini bus used for transporting wheelchair users, I'm almost sure it was Venice but not absolutely as you tend not to take a great deal of notice when it isn't something you yourself are using, hopefully someone will be able to give you a more positive reply.

My understanding is that the accessible bus takes passengers to Tronchetto where you can either get a waterbus or the people mover to Piazzala Roma. The ships shuttle might be a problem, from memory when we were last there before my wife's stroke we had to go down some steps to the loading platform but I'm not certain. I am hoping to persuade my wife to try the waterbus down the Grand canal on our cruise there in October.
There is quite a lot of info about accessibility on the waterbus on the internet, try this page for starters.
http://www.sagetraveling.com/Venice-Accessibility

[Mr-big-bits-mk2]

Thanks Guys. The link from Towny is realy helpfull. We had visions of small low boats bobbing up and down and rocking side to side making boarding a bit scary but the link from Towny was very helpfull and it looks easier than getting on a bus.