Venice to cruise port questions

Hi. Know a lot about Venice from reading stuff on here. However, I find I've missed a few details:

Anyone want to venture a guess as to how long it takes to get out of Venice airport? I'll be coming after a Schwengen (spelling) connection if that matters, on Lufthansa around 2 PM on a Friday from (initially) the U.S. U.S. citizen. Is it a long walk from where most terminals (if terminals are multiple) to baggage? Has anyone ordered a wheelchair, and if so, does it come fairly quickly? (Had a bad experience in Heathrow last year, hence the question). How's baggage - slow, I assume? How about clearing customs/immigration?

I plan to take one of the airport buses, but if I take a cab, does the cab take me directly to the port? Are cabs able to drop anywhere other than a terminal there? Do you need to walk much once dropped at the port? (I know there are multiple docks, but they look to be fairly close together, so I'm assuming my ship will be in the same general area that most people seem to come into.)

If I take the People Mover, is there a place to check bags right near the end of it, or do you have to take your bags with you to the ship? Do most ships do check in at a port terminal, on the ship, or what? (I'm on a new ship and doubt I can find anyone on the cruise line board to answer these questions, as the ship has only started one cruise out of Venice. I've also checked Tom's Port Guide for Venice -- great, but doesn't answer all my questions.)

Once on board, can I buy tickets for Alilaguna at a kiosk by the Alilaguna stop? If not, can I purchase them onboard? Also, does anyone know of a port website for Venice? I know there are ones like cruisett and cruisecalendar (or something like that) but I'm wondering about the official port website. Sometimes they have dock assignments for ships, so that's more helpful than other sites generated from cruise ship schedules.

Thanks for any help you can give me!

I can only answer a couple of your questions. The Venice airport is very small and it is not a long walk to the baggage claim area. I don't remember any kind of customs/immigration at all, and I was arriving from a Schengen country too, but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. My understanding is that a cab can drop you right at your ship, but if you take the people mover, you will have to wheel your luggage to the check-in area for your particular ship.

You can buy AliLaguna tickets at the kiosk which is right by the boarding area. I'm sure they do not sell them on board. I assume you want to take AliLaguna to get over to the St. Mark's Square area?

I can only answer a couple of your questions. The Venice airport is very small and it is not a long walk to the baggage claim area. I don't remember any kind of customs/immigration at all, and I was arriving from a Schengen country too, but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. My understanding is that a cab can drop you right at your ship, but if you take the people mover, you will have to wheel your luggage to the check-in area for your particular ship.

 

You can buy AliLaguna tickets at the kiosk which is right by the boarding area. I'm sure they do not sell them on board. I assume you want to take AliLaguna to get over to the St. Mark's Square area?

Thank you, that's helpful. I arrive from Frankfurt, so I doubt there will be any passport/customs check for me, but someone else is arriving from London, which is not Schengen. That's why I asked slightly confusing/contradictory questions about going through landing formalities. Of course, now I've confused myself because I'm not sure if passport control is ever required in a city if you're only connecting to another flight. For example, when we connect in Frankfurt, will we go through a passport check?

Yes, the question about Alilaguna was because someone wants to get to Venice from the airport in time to go to the basilica at St. Mark's, which will be tight. If she goes to the ship first, I was assuming the easiest way to get there was by Alilaguna, although many cruisers may be lined up to go, further compounding her need to hurry! However, the People Mover and vaporetto route sounds more confusing and slower than the Alilaguna route....It's good to know there's a kiosk by the port boarding area. People will just need to be careful of timing of the Alilaguna, as I think the last run back to the port is around 6:30 PM. Then it's vaporetto and People Mover time!

Yes, you will go through passport control in the Frankfurt airport when coming from the U.S. Once in the Marco Polo airport, I'd allow about 30 minutes to get your luggage but it may not take that long. I don't know about the wheelchair.

From the airport you can take the ATVO express bus to Piazzale Roma in about 30 minutes. The people mover is an elevated train between the port and Piazzale Roma. If you have taken the ATVO bus between the airport and Piazzale Roma, you can use the people mover to get to the port and it's a fast trip, just a few minutes. You have to manage your own luggage and you will need to be able to walk to reach the terminal. I'm thinking it's roughly two blocks, depending on where the ship is docked.

Or, you can take the Alilaguna water bus from the airport, about an hour to the ship or to St Mark's Square, about 1 1/2 hours.

Or a private water taxi which is the most expensive but direct and maybe a good option if you are in a hurry and may have trouble with walking or luggage.

Google the port of Venice for the official site. Not sure what you are looking for there, but if it's general info about transport, you may be better off with a site like it italylogue.com.

Here's a good general way to think about international airport connections. Ask whether, in order to catch your onward flight, you are going to be in a part of the airport where (1) you could just walk out of the airport without an immigration check, or (2) you are in a part of the airport where flights are leaving to places that will not or cannot check passports upon landing. In either case, you will usually have to be admitted to the country in which the airport is located before you are let into the connecting area.

If, instead, you are connecting to a country that will require immigration when you land, you may be able to simply transit the airport without being admitted. Some countries don't allow visa free transfers ever, though.

In your case, to get your flight from FRA to VCE, they have to let you in the part of the airport where planes (including yours) fly to places that do not check passports of people arriving from your departure airport. So they have to admit you in Germany. In Italy, you walk off the plane with no immigration, essentially as though you had flown in from Rome or Milan, etc.

I guess I'm still a little confused about the immigration check process, and these questions might sound stupid, but I've never really thought much about the issue. I just do what' I'm told and it. So I won't be going through a passport check in Venice when I land because I've just flown from a country in the Schengen area that has already checked it and admitted me? And how do they know that - from my itinerary? knowledge of FRA airport? both?

Do the immigration authorities check anyone's passport in Venice? Surely they have some people flying in from all over the globe, but are all of them on flights where they've connected from another Schengen airport?

Thanks, everyone, for the info on Venice airport. It sounds like a small, decent airport to come into, although Venice will be a bit of a challenge!

I guess I'm still a little confused about the immigration check process, and these questions might sound stupid, but I've never really thought much about the issue. I just do what' I'm told and it. So I won't be going through a passport check in Venice when I land because I've just flown from a country in the Schengen area that has already checked it and admitted me? And how do they know that - from my itinerary? knowledge of FRA airport? both?

 

Do the immigration authorities check anyone's passport in Venice? Surely they have some people flying in from all over the globe, but are all of them on flights where they've connected from another Schengen airport?

 

Thanks, everyone, for the info on Venice airport. It sounds like a small, decent airport to come into, although Venice will be a bit of a challenge!

No, you won't go through passport control in Venice. How do they know? Well, I'm guessing that it's the particular terminal or gate you come in on.

Yes, those entering Italy from countries that are not signatory to the Schengen Agreement (the agreement includes most of Western Europe except for UK and Ireland, I believe) would have to go through immigration/border control.

Enjoy Venice and your cruise!

Right -- flights coming from places where Italian immigration is required will go to gates that keep passengers in a sterile area until they complete immigration admission. Just like in the USA. At LAX or JFK or many other airports there are flights landing all the time for which passengers must clear immigration. They land at special gates or terminals and do not mingle with domestic passengers. Same in Europe, except the Shengen zone is the equivalent of one large domestic no-border formalities area for purposes of transit.

When you arrive in the EU at an airport from outside the EU and you are not an EU citizen, you are typically admitted into the EU at some transit clearance point while you connect flights. You may barely notice it. It's often just a desk with one or two immigration agents in a hallway between some gates and others. They will stamp your passport with a stamp showing you have entered the EU. In the very unlikely event a question were raised in Italy regarding your right to be there, they would see the stamp. I think the cruise line checks for it too, but am not sure. (Non-EU citizens also get a stamp on the way out of the EU, often at or near their gate of departure on a flight to a non-UE destination.). In FRA you will follow the signs and once you have been stamped into the EU, you will be in a portion of the airport only for Schengen cleared passengers. Then you just arrive in VCE as any other Schengen passenger.

We took a TA that ended in Amsterdam. Got off the ship, collected our luggage, and got straight into a taxi. After a few days we took a train to France. There was no passport control any place and no one would've had any record of where we were. Passports were not stamped that we had arrived in the EU. I think we could've stayed for a really long time without anybody ever noticing.

We took a TA that ended in Amsterdam. Got off the ship, collected our luggage, and got straight into a taxi. After a few days we took a train to France. There was no passport control any place and no one would've had any record of where we were. Passports were not stamped that we had arrived in the EU. I think we could've stayed for a really long time without anybody ever noticing.

It's surprising that there wasn't immigration control for a TA cruise. But you probably cleared immigration in Holland, you just didn't know it! It was probably done through the cruise line's manifest, or the cruise line may have transmitted the information upon departure. You theoretically could have been asked when departing the EU why you didn't have an entry stamp, but that's not that common. Sometimes they care, and you would have simply said you arrived by ship (although they likely would see that at their terminal anyway). This happens, sometimes, for people that enter the EU on an EU passport but show the passport of the country they are flying to (the USA).

But, a word of caution -- had you overstayed (90 days) -- you very easily could and likely would have been "caught." Your passport was definitely checked when you left the EU, wherever the last point of departure was. It could have been done by the airline, or more likely it was done at or near the gate of your flight out of the EU, and the computer likely would have tagged you as an overstay based on ship's manifest entry date that would be recorded on you passport. In the countries that are sticklers about the rules (Holland is one) you would have been at risk of a fine and deportation, and travel disruption, if you could not show proof that you had left the EU and come back so that you weren't in violation of the 90 day requirement. In others, you may have just never heard a word, but would only find out something is amiss the next time you tried to enter or travel to the EU.

You really don't want to be in position three years later of making a big trip to Europe that you've spent months planning and paying for, only to have the American Airlines ticket counter agent in your home airport say, "hmmm, something's wrong here."

Last year we arrived in Civitavecchia but departed a couple of weeks later from Venice. We flew Venice to Munich. There, the immi officer was very puzzled because there was no record of our entering the EU. He was disgusted when I explained how we'd arrived, but stamped us out anyway.

This year, we took the Eurostar from Paris to London. The French immi officer didn't notice or care, just stamped us out of the country so we could be stamped in to the UK.

I have no intention of overstaying, it's just been remarkable for its laxness, if that's a word!