Can we disembark immediately after boarding at the start of our cruise?

Our forthcoming cruise begins and ends at Venice. Our flights from the UK and transfers from the airport to the ship are part of the MSC package, so of course they will take us to the ship check-in point. We have never been to Venice before, so it would be good if we could disembark soon after boarding and perhaps spend an hour or two mooching around and taking in the main sights, along with a few photographs, before returning to the ship in time for sailaway.

Does anyone know if this is a standard request and permissible, or is it not allowed?

Does anyone know Venice well enough to tell me if it would be worth our while, given the limited amount of time we might have. Would it take long to reach the Grande Canal, Rialto Bridge, St Marks Square etc. Any advice would be welcomed, thank you.

It would all depend on what time you actually board the ship and have access to the cabin, you will need to take passports with you if you get off the ship because the Venice port security will not let you back onboard without it even with the seapass card for the cabin.

You would then have to find one of the MSC ship officers to give you a written confirmation that you are a passenger on the ship in order to get past the security officers.

If you have never been to Venice it would be foolhardy to travel as far as San Marco or Rialto bridge as it takes around twenty minutes to walk from the ship to the main bus station, once at that point you could spend a short time near the railway station on the Grand canal.

It would all depend on what time you actually board the ship and have access to the cabin, you will need to take passports with you if you get off the ship because the Venice port security will not let you back onboard without it even with the seapass card for the cabin.

 

You would then have to find one of the MSC ship officers to give you a written confirmation that you are a passenger on the ship in order to get past the security officers.

 

If you have never been to Venice it would be foolhardy to travel as far as San Marco or Rialto bridge as it takes around twenty minutes to walk from the ship to the main bus station, once at that point you could spend a short time near the railway station on the Grand canal.

Wow that seems like a lot of hassle Dave. Is this from personal experience?

Reason I ask is that they board at other ports too, so for those passengers it is a normal port and they presumably just go ashore with cruise cards. How do they distinguish between those passengers like that and those that have just disembarked?

Hi Marie ... Yes we got caught out by not taking passports off the ship with us (our own fault) and it seems they had changed from the year previous when seapass cards were accepted to get back onboard, i have no idea why they changed it but it seems that even transit passengers had to do it as well.

They may have changed back you never know these days, it seems that what is acceptable one day is no longer the same a day or so later, it would be interesting to know if it is still in force.

The answer is yes you can get off right after checkin. What I don't know is how much time you would have since that is dependent on when you arrive and scheduled departure. If you have 2-3 hours you would have enough time to ride the Vaporetto to St Marks Sq and back.

Yes, you can get right back off, and many people do. You will need passports though. Use the people mover to get back to Piazzale Roma and then go right across the square and get water bus tickets. If you just want an overview you can do a circular route by way of Tronchetto and back up the Grand Canal to PR then back on the people mover to the ship. If you want to get off at San Marco get the fast water bus that only has a few stops.

Or you can just walk around the area near the station (the Jewish Ghetto is close to there) and drink in the ambience of the city.

You could get the alliaguna to san Marco then walk to rialto bridge the cost of the alliguna is 8 euro each way takes about 40 minutes you can board close the ship but you would need a morning flight from the UK to do this you would need a good 3 to4 hours the ship leaves Venice at 5 pm