Venice Connected

[bellagirl]

Hi-I may be flamed here but just wanted to share my experience with you about this company. I pre-purchased my tickets with them beforehand online. I purchased the museum passes, water boat pass and the toilet pass card-ok? For 2 people, it wasn't cheap-came to E116 or thereabouts.

Upon landing at Marco Polo, i went to the counter and showed them my confirmation and was treated very rudely while being handed only the numerous toilet cards. When I showed her that I had also paid for other services, she said "madam, this is all you need",meaning the toilet cards. Now, I love turnips, but I didn't just fall off the turnip truck yesterday.

As politely as I could (and I am a polite Canadian),I said "I don't think so, because I need a way to get into the museums plus use the water bus service." She practically threw a pass at me and said,this is what you need. THEN she promptly stood up, dialed into her mobile,started talking and shut her kiosk down!!!

I kept saying "excuse me,excuse me" to no avail and then she just walked away. ok.........they wouldn't let me onto the alilaguna line with the ticket she had provided me with saying that it was only good in venice. ok..........so i went to the ticket counter outside and bought a ticket for the alilaguna boat into venice. ok........got into venice. After checking into the lovely Hotel Ala (highly recommend),I thought i would go to the doge's palace which is listed as one of the museums that i could visit. ok..........nobody accepts my ticket and in order to get in, i must pay the admission fee. ok..........find another venice connected office in san marco-this time with nicer people but they tell me this time that yes, all the papers are in order and that at the front of every museum there will be a machine where i punch in my confirmation # and out pops a ticket for me. ok.......makes sense and i'm still being my polite self. ok.........go back to doge's palace and ask where this machine is that will give me my ticket for entrance. they look at me like i have two heads and shake their collective heads at me. it was getting late in the day,so like the good tourist i am, i pay my admission from my pocket and enter this wonderful place.

ok..........next day, i try the accademia which again is listed as being one of the museums i can enter "for free". this time, it is raining like crazy and i am on a mission to find these mysterious machines. ok...........no can do and again, no one can help me because they have never heard of them!!!! now, i am getting angry and can feel my self about to explode. yep, it takes me a long time to blow, but i can feel my blood pressure rising. ok.............i ask one more time and then give up-pay my admission to the accademia from my own pocket.

ok...........i can go on and on but goodness knows, it is a losing battle with these useless cards that only allow me to use the bathroom and ride the waterbus and there's only so much of that one can do.

my question is: has anyone else experienced this? am i just missing something here and the machines were there all along and i just didn't see them? i have since tried contacting them from home but have had no replies. i just felt like i was in the twilight zone and everyone else was in on the joke but me. please help me out here............thanks!!!! Shelly

[Earl Rosebery]

Hi-I may be flamed here but just wanted to share my experience with you about this company. I pre-purchased my tickets with them beforehand online. I purchased the museum passes, water boat pass and the toilet pass card-ok? For 2 people, it wasn't cheap-came to E116 or thereabouts.

Upon landing at Marco Polo, i went to the counter and showed them my confirmation and was treated very rudely while being handed only the numerous toilet cards. When I showed her that I had also paid for other services, she said "madam, this is all you need",meaning the toilet cards. Now, I love turnips, but I didn't just fall off the turnip truck yesterday.

As politely as I could (and I am a polite Canadian),I said "I don't think so, because I need a way to get into the museums plus use the water bus service." She practically threw a pass at me and said,this is what you need. THEN she promptly stood up, dialed into her mobile,started talking and shut her kiosk down!!!

I kept saying "excuse me,excuse me" to no avail and then she just walked away. ok.........they wouldn't let me onto the alilaguna line with the ticket she had provided me with saying that it was only good in venice. ok..........so i went to the ticket counter outside and bought a ticket for the alilaguna boat into venice. ok........got into venice. After checking into the lovely Hotel Ala (highly recommend),I thought i would go to the doge's palace which is listed as one of the museums that i could visit. ok..........nobody accepts my ticket and in order to get in, i must pay the admission fee. ok..........find another venice connected office in san marco-this time with nicer people but they tell me this time that yes, all the papers are in order and that at the front of every museum there will be a machine where i punch in my confirmation # and out pops a ticket for me. ok.......makes sense and i'm still being my polite self. ok.........go back to doge's palace and ask where this machine is that will give me my ticket for entrance. they look at me like i have two heads and shake their collective heads at me. it was getting late in the day,so like the good tourist i am, i pay my admission from my pocket and enter this wonderful place.

ok..........next day, i try the accademia which again is listed as being one of the museums i can enter "for free". this time, it is raining like crazy and i am on a mission to find these mysterious machines. ok...........no can do and again, no one can help me because they have never heard of them!!!! now, i am getting angry and can feel my self about to explode. yep, it takes me a long time to blow, but i can feel my blood pressure rising. ok.............i ask one more time and then give up-pay my admission to the accademia from my own pocket.

ok...........i can go on and on but goodness knows, it is a losing battle with these useless cards that only allow me to use the bathroom and ride the waterbus and there's only so much of that one can do.

my question is: has anyone else experienced this? am i just missing something here and the machines were there all along and i just didn't see them? i have since tried contacting them from home but have had no replies. i just felt like i was in the twilight zone and everyone else was in on the joke but me. please help me out here............thanks!!!! Shelly

It's a shame you were treated so poorly. unfortunately there are rude employees in every business and every town. I would write to them and ask for a refund for the alilaguna and Doge's palace. Also post on trip advisor.

 

We used Venice connected without difficulty. I think you may have misunderstood some of the instructions.. For Alilaguna, the website says to take your voucher to the dock.. For the CIVIC Museums, we took our vouchers to the head of the priority line. They simply initialled the voucher and let us through. I don't think the Accademia is included. It is a private museum. i think the machines are only for the Vaporetto passes. Again it's too bad you had to deal with such a rude employee.

[bellagirl]

o just to understand you correctly, other than at the vaporetto, you didn't have to deal with any machines to validate your museum passes? Plus,you could go to the head of the priority line to enter? Wow, I wish I had understood this from the get-go. Thank you for sharing your experience. Shelly

[Earl Rosebery]

o just to understand you correctly, other than at the vaporetto, you didn't have to deal with any machines to validate your museum passes? Plus,you could go to the head of the priority line to enter? Wow, I wish I had understood this from the get-go. Thank you for sharing your experience. Shelly

 

That is correct. The machines are to buy Vaporetto tickets only. The museums are civic museums and you simply go to the line for pass holders/groups. The Accademia is not a civic museum. I didn't prepurchase alilaguna transfer so can't be sure what the problem was.

[caribbeansun]

While I didn't experience the same issues as the OP I would say that if I return to Venice I'd wouldn't waste my time with Venice Connected.

 

The wait time at the Venice Connected "kiosk" was an exercise in frustration - close to an hour.

 

The wifi coverage was non-existent and didn't cover the areas they claimed on their web-site.

 

If I was doing it again I'd buy the vaporetto pass from one of the many vaporetto ticket booths.

 

The bathrooms are 1.5e to use and give change so there's no need to pre-purchase.

 

Waste of time and money IMO.

[samavarcruiser]

While I didn't experience the same issues as the OP I would say that if I return to Venice I'd wouldn't waste my time with Venice Connected.

 

The wait time at the Venice Connected "kiosk" was an exercise in frustration - close to an hour.

 

The wifi coverage was non-existent and didn't cover the areas they claimed on their web-site.

 

If I was doing it again I'd buy the vaporetto pass from one of the many vaporetto ticket booths.

 

The bathrooms are 1.5e to use and give change so there's no need to pre-purchase.

 

Waste of time and money IMO.

I can't be more agree with you