Disembarking in Chioggia (for Venice Marco Polo airport)

[jms]

Our ship - Azamara Onward - is in port overnight in Venice - July 19/20 2023.

There are only a few transatlantic flights which meet the 11:30AM requirement for the ship's transfer to the airport.

Does anyone know if it's possible to disembark the ship the night before (on July 19) so that we can find an airport hotel near VCE and take an early flight back home.

We need to be back home on the 20th.

Any help will be greatly appreciated concerning this issue. Thank you in advance. 

 

[combine]

In the past we did leave the ship the evening before departure day in Singapore to secure a late night flight home to UK. The only place to get a definitive answer now will be to contact Azamara. 

[jms]

THANK YOU!!

 

[fruitmachine]

20 hours ago, jms said:

THANK YOU!!

 

Don't just ask if you can get off the night before.  Ask if you can get off (perhaps very) early in the morning.  It's an hour to the airport by car.

[journeyazamara]

@jms I emailed them and asked if I could disembark early (the day of disembarkation, not night before) to make an 8am flight at Venice Marco Polo airport and they said yes, but if you want a transfer with Azamara the flight must leave at 11:30am or later. Did they ever get back to you? Not sure I trust the information I received as I had to ask multiple times before the employee understood.

[jms]

journeyazamara - that you so much for this info. I haven't been able to speak with anyone who knows more than how to book a cruise for a few weeks because they're transferring everything over - moving away from Celebrity. Supposedly tomorrow I should be able to get through to someone.

However - the info you provided about early disembarkation (on the actual day) is just what I need. I thought there should be no reason to get a private transfer for the 4 of us since so many flights back to the Florida area leave very early.

I do have another question that I'm hoping you can answer. We're concerned about immigration/customs upon disembarking - if we get off the ship at 7AM!! A few questions actually:

1) Did Azamara retain the passports upon embarkation

2) Did they return the passports without individuals having to present themselves to immigration officers who sometimes board the ship on the 1st day in port (day before disembarking)?

I ask this because we want to do a private tour that will not return us to the ship until 4:30 in the afternoon and I'm concerned about "missing" getting the passport stamped and processed. Last November on Oceania, we had to present ourselves to officers day before disembarking in Southampton - in the show lounge.

Did you take any tours in Livorno or Venice? Interested in how they're handling these as there don't seem to be many in Venice that don't involve all day walking. Age constraints on a few of us dictate not going crazy on walking (especially in the hot sun). Looking forward to Azamara - haven't sailed her in quite some time!

Thank you for your response to my first post - and hopefully you can enlighten me as to procedure with immigration. (On some cruises, the ship hold the passports and you just walk off and pick up your luggage!). On that note - was your luggage in the port for your early fight???

Thanks again!

[journeyazamara]

I am not going to be able to help with most of your questions as I have not sailed yet - we are going in May! Not sure about if they hold passports, although I have never seen that on any cruise. I did a deep dive on these forums and found posts in 2013 and 2017 saying people disembarked early without an issue, and just to notify guest relations when you get on board. We are trying to get off the ship at 5am for an 8am flight. Let me know if they respond to your inquiry about leaving early and I will also let you know how it goes for us in May. 

[jms]

journeyazamara - Have a wonderful cruise!! We're going in July so I'm going to try to get answers this week and then book the flights and tour with the option of changing/cancelling the tour within 15 days of reserved date.

Happy to hear that early disembarking is available - never worried about it before, but we have a commitment 2 days after we get back home so we'd prefer to get back as early as we can. I just hope the luggage has already been shuffled into the terminal building. You're right about talking to guest relations onboard - they're very helpful - but if we can help it, we don't want to drag the bag with us from our stateroom. Some people can travel with carry-on only - but we aren't those people 🙂

Bon Voyage!!

(We're sailing on American Cruise Line's "Constitution" in May - never sailed with them before so looking forward to seeing New England in a different light.

[Grandma Cruising]

Most tours in Venice are walking as there are no vehicles, other than boats, allowed on most of the main island. You can do it yourself with a good map & using Vaporetto’s (public boats) and/or water taxis.

[uktog]

If your previous port was also in the EU it’s highly unlikely Azamara would still be holding your passport 

[beatnix]

10 hours ago, jms said:

...

2) Did they return the passports without individuals having to present themselves to immigration officers who sometimes board the ship on the 1st day in port (day before disembarking)?

I ask this because we want to do a private tour that will not return us to the ship until 4:30 in the afternoon and I'm concerned about "missing" getting the passport stamped and processed. Last November on Oceania, we had to present ourselves to officers day before disembarking in Southampton - in the show lounge.

...

I never had to show up for immigration in Italy. 

This is in my experiance usual for Great Britan. 

[jms]

3 hours ago, beatnix said:

I never had to show up for immigration in Italy. 

This is in my experiance usual for Great Britan. 

beatnix - thank you for this info!!