ABOVE: A Norwegian Cruise Line ship leaves
Venice for the Eastern Mediterranean.
by Durant Imboden
Are
you having trouble choosing between a land vacation and a cruise? Not to
worry: In 2018, more than a dozen cruise lines and ferry companies offer ship voyages that begin and end in Venice. Such
roundtrip cruises offer a great way to combine a Venice holiday with a trip by
ship--allowing you to enjoy back-to-back vacations with only one air or
train fare.
Below are links to cruise and ferry lines that welcome
English-speaking passengers and have regularly-scheduled roundtrip voyages from
Venice in 2018:
Ocean cruises
Norwegian
Cruise Line
NCL's Norwegian Star is
operating several roundtrip six- to eight-night itineraries in the Adriatic and Aegean in 2018, with
frequent departures from Venice between June and October. The 91,740-ton
Norwegian Star has a capacity of 2,348 passengers, and it attracts an
international clientele.
We took a 14-day NCL cruise from Venice in July, 2015.
For details, see our illustrated
Norwegian Jade
cruise review and photo diary.
Compagnie
du Ponant
France's luxury cruise line caters to international travelers (including
Anglophones) and has been on a shipbuilding spree in the past few years. See our
illustrated review of a roundtrip
cruise from Venice on Compagnie du Ponant's 264-passenger "megayacht,"
L'Austral.
In 2018, L'Austral's sister ship, Le
Lyrial, is offering a small number of roundtrip Adriatic cruises from Venice.
Most of the
seven-night voyages have a "Best of Croatia" theme.
MSC
Cruises
Mediterranean Shipping Company, a.k.a. MSC, is one of the world's largest cargo
operators. It entered the cruise business just over 20 years ago, launched the
MSC Crociere brand in the mid-1990s, and now operates a large fleet of
megaships that cater to a multilingual, multinational audience.
MSC operates dozens of roundtrip voyages in the Eastern
Mediterranean from spring through fall, with a choice of three- to
seven-night
itineraries aboard MSC Musica, MSC Poesia, or MSC
Sinfonia. To learn about our own roundtrip cruise from Venice with MSC,
read our illustrated
MSC
Poesia cruise review.
Costa
Cruises
Europe's largest and oldest cruise line has been in business for more than 60
years. From Venice, Costa operates a busy calendar of seven-night roundtrip
cruises to Italy, Croatia, Greece, and Montenegro, with
several different itineraries and departures from April through December. Three ships are on the
Venice-to-Venice circuit in 2017: Costa Deliziosa, Costa Luminosa,
and Costa neoClassica.
We haven't cruised with Costa from Venice, but see our
illustrated
Costa Magica review about a roundtrip cruise from Rome.
Royal
Caribbean International
RCCI is an American value-priced cruise line that has been reaching out to
European travelers in recent years. In 2017, Rhapsody
of the Seas, Legend of the Seas , and Vision of the Seas will
offer seven- to 11-night cruises from Venice, with frequent departures from
April
to November.
Celebrity
Cruises
Royal Caribbean's premium-priced subsidiary has several nine- to 11-night
roundtrip itineraries from Venice on its calendar in 2017. The featured ship is
Celebrity Constellation, which carries 2,170 passengers.
Silversea
Cruises
Silversea, one of the world's top
small-ship luxury lines, has two Venice-to-Venice cruises on its calendar in
2018: a six-day cruise on Silver Whisper (see
review) and
a seven-day cruise on the line's new flagship, Silver Muse.
Cunard
Two 21-night roundtrip cruises from Venice are on
Cunard's 2017 schedule: one in summer, the other in early fall. Both are on
Queen Victoria, a 90,049-ton ship with a capacity of 2,014
passengers. The itinerary includes Italy, Croatia, and the Greek Islands.
Windstar
Cruises
Wind Surf, a large and
comfortable motorsailing vessel, will offer one 10-day Venice roundtrip
cruise in 2018 with an August 7 departure. (We've cruised on Wind Surf;
please see our illustrated
cruise review.)
Holland
America Line
Following a year-long break
from Venetian cruising, HAL will have one Venice-to-Venice roundtrip in
2018: a 24-day "odyssey" to the Greek Islands and Western Mediterranean that
departs on April 30 on the ms Oosterdam.
Princess
After a long hiatus, Princess is offering three roundtrip cruises from
Venice in 2017: two to Croatia, Greece, and Turkey, and the other to the
Western Mediterranean. All are on Pacific Princess, the line's
smallest vessel at 30,277 tons with a capacity of only 672 passengers.
Azamara
Club Cruises
Azamara Quest, a
690-passenger ship, will offer three eight-night cruises in the Adriatic
during 2017. (We sailed on Azamara Quest during that ship's last
voyage as the R7 of Renaissance Cruises, and we enjoyed the
"mid-size" cruising experience.)
Seadream
Yacht Club
SeaDream I, a tiny luxury ship
that carries only 112 passengers, will cruise in the Adriatic from Venice one time in
2017 (July 8-15).
GCT's 50-passenger Arethusa
(which serves American travelers only) will cruise to Slovenia and Croatia
from Venice in January, February, March, November, and December.
Lagoon and river cruises
Uniworld
Boutique River Cruises
In 2018, River Countess offers a 10-day "Gems of
Northern Italy" tour from Milan that includes a roundtrip cruise from Venice
with excursions in the Venetian Lagoon, Padua, Bologna, and Ferrara. A 15-day
"Spendors of Italy" package is also available with the same cruise component.
To
whet your appetite, read our
River Countess cruise
review at Europe for Cruisers.
European
Waterways Ltd.
From the end of March until late
October, European Waterways runs six-night cruises aboard
La Bella Vita, a
20-passenger hotel barge. The itinerary begins in Venice, includes stops at
small ports in the Venetian Lagoon, and heads up the Po River or the adjacent
Bianco Canal toward Mantua,
with return transportation to Venice by bus. (In alternating weeks, the cruise
runs in the opposite direction.) See our
illustrated review at Europeforcruisers.com.
CroisiEurope
River cruising is the specialty of this 35-year-old French line, which operates
trips of five to seven nights from Venice during most of the year. Part of the time is spent cruising, and the rest is used for
excursions by water or land to the Lagoon Islands, Chioggia, Ferrara, and/or
Verona.
Ferries
If you're more adventurous, or if you insist on having
your car as a companion, you can combine back-to-back ferry trips into a
minicruise:
Anek
Lines
This Piraeus-based shipping company operates cargo-and-passenger ferries that
link Venice with Igoumenitsa and Patras. Anek also runs ferries between Greece and the Italian ports of Ancona and
Bari.)
Check the Anek Lines Web site for a journey planner and
current timetables in PDF format.
Minoan Lines
After a hiatus of several years, Greece's Minoan lines--now owned by the
Grimaldi Group--has returned to Venice with
year-round, twice-weekly sailings to (and from) Igoumenitsa and Patras.
Minoan's ship is among the largest cruise ferries in the Mediterranean.
