Are there really 10,000 passengers from cruise ships the last weekend in May in Venice?

I wouldn’t be surprised. The impact of cruise ship tourists can be significant. With limited hours to see the “must-sees”, people swarm to St. Mark’s and the Rialto Bridge. We were in Venice last June, but there was only one ship in port. Walking from St. Marks to R. Bridge felt like riding a tide of people at times. I imagine it would be much worse with multiple ships in port.

If changing dates doesn’t work, you can avoid the top sights at peak times. It’s easy to get off the main streets and away from the crowds. We stayed on Giudecca, just across the canal, specifically because we wanted to get away from the crowds. It was wonderful.

Don't go to major tourist's destinations (New York Venice Paris etc.) on a weekend no matter where if you hate crowds. It is hard to find the best situation when traveling to where everyone goes already.

http://crew-center.com/venice-italy-cruise-ships-schedule-january-june-2020

Date Ship Cruise Line Arrive-Depart Guests Crew

29-May-2020 MSC MAGNIFICA MSC Cruises 09:00-17:00 3,010 987

29-May-2020 MSC LIRICA MSC Cruises 07:30-16:30 2,366 720

30-May-2020 Costa Deliziosa Costa Cruises 09:00 - 17:30 3,570 1,000

30-May-2020 Amera Phoenix 10:00-24:00 835 420

30-May-2020 Rhapsody Of The Seas Royal Caribbean 06:45-17:00 2,435 765

30-May-2020 Seabourn Odyssey Seabourn 07:00 - 17:00 458 330

30-May-2020 Crystal Esprit Crystal Cruises 09:00 - 24:00 71 91

30-May-2020 MSC ORCHESTRA MSC Cruises 08:30-16:30 3,013 987

30-May-2020 MSC SINFONIA MSC Cruises 08:00-16:30 2,679 720

31-May-2020 AIDAblu AIDA Cruises 06:00-24:00 2,174 630

31-May-2020 Costa Luminosa Costa Cruises 08:00 - 17:00 3,570 1,000

31-May-2020 Norwegian Dawn NCL 08:00-17:00 2,800 1,032

31-May-2020 Oceana P&O Cruises 2,272 900

31-May-2020 Amera Phoenix 00:00-17:00 835 420

31-May-2020 MSC Opera MSC Cruises 09:30 - 16:30 2,679 730

31-May-2020 Crystal Esprit Crystal Cruises 71 91

31-May-2020 MSC MUSICA MSC Cruises 08:30-16:30 3,013 987

Actually, I hate to say this, but I think 10,000 sounds low. I would expect many times that number.

Oh, for the good old days when you could enjoy sharing Venice with only 10,000 cruise ships friends...

I discovered a similar number of cruise passengers, 20,000 were going to be in Venice on our arrival weekend in Venice this past July. Fortunately we were there for 5 nights so all but one ship left by Sunday night. They do tend to leave at about 6 PM. Our strategy was to occupy ourselves with things away from St Mark Square during the middle of Saturday and Sunday. Here’s a link to our strategy: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/venice-planning-and-cruise-ship-dates

Venice gets around 30 mliion visitors per year. That's 82 thousand per day. You can look at the number of cruise ships in port, and the number of passengers, on cruisemapper.com. I was in Venice in early May 2019 and it was entirely managable. Cruise ships do tend to cluster on the weekends, because a lot of cruises start or end in Venice. From my recent experience, it's much more day trippers from nearby cities that overwhem city resources. A lot of people here hate cruise ships but to assert that is what is creating overtourism in Venice--the math does not remotely support that. If you do the math it's absurb to assert that cruise ships are what drives Venice crowds.

I wouldn’t be surprised at that number. I remember on one occasion when my husband and I were visiting Venice we counted five large cruise ships, each of which must have had several thousand passengers, and also several river cruise ships which had passengers numbering in the hundreds. It’s just a crazy impossible thing to get around crowds like that.

Don't change your plans. I bet there will be about the same number of tourists on weekends and weekdays. It's not that hard, in fact it's pretty easy, to avoid the crowds and enjoy Venice. As others have said, the two main areas that attract the day-trippers are Rialto Bridge and St Mark's Square. Avoid those two areas from about 10 am to 5 pm. The fish market (there's much more than just fish) is open early in the morning, on one side of the Rialto Bridge. That's a good time to visit (market is closed on Sunday). St Mark's is great in the early morning and in the late evenings. Plan to visit the Doge's Palace when they open and resign yourself to a crowd at the Basilica. Ride the vaporetto up or own the Grand Canal both in the early morning and after dark.

This is a great free walking tour. You must register in advance, but there's no penalty for no-shows.

The number of cruise passengers will depend on which ships are in port at the time. Some of the largest ships carry over 6,700 passengers. Not all passengers will take shore excursions but with two ships in port, the number could exceed 10,000. There are two ships under construction that will have a maximum capacity of 9,000 passengers each, so this situation won't be getting any better. And of course, the day trippers will add to that.

I was thinking that was a low number too!

Are there really 10,000? No, not at all.

Closer to 6,000 tops, based on the figures in the link you provided, and that number only if everyone decides to leave the ship. Two are medium 2,340+2,260+/-, while the other two are small ships, 124 and 701/81.

Ships often leave on their Mediterranean circle routes on Sundays. The Costa and MSC, both Italian, may be doing embarkation and disembarkation on Sunday, so the train station and airport would be busy rather than tourist sites.

Lots of panicking by cruise ship haters, but it’s easy enough to count up the numbers. Before changing your plans, count the numbers of passengers in port the other days based on your own link.

From the numbers above:
Number of passengers on ships in port on 29/5 = 5,376
Number of passengers on ships in port on 30/5 = 13,061
Number of passengers on ships in port on 31/5 = 17,414

Presupposing that all cruises are full. So unless half the passengers can't be bothered with Venice , I'd agree with others that 10K is an underestimate.

Since Venice is often a place for embarkation and disembarkation, it is likely a healthy number of those people won't be walking around Venice. They will be spending the day either making their way to check in on the ship and get settled in, or making their way to the airport or other destinations in Italy or Europe.

I confess I will be arriving in Venice by medium sized cruise ship May 8 (a Friday). Staying 4 days in Dosoduro. You won't be seeing me in St. Mark's or on the Rialto unless it is dawn or dusk.
Having been in Caribbean cruise ports on 5 ship days (so over 20,000) it is surprisingly easy to avoid the crowds. Just don't be a lemming following the person in front of you.
So Beth, plan to hit the districts around San Marco, but not in direct line from train/cruise docks to Rialto then San Marco. Plan on an early morning or late evening for the biggest tourist draw sites and u derstand by end May, you are reaching into high tourist season whether cruise ships or not.

Venice is brilliant . Unfortunately that means lots of people want to visit. Some may come in by cruise ships, others arrive by train or coach only for the day and, of course, lots of us are stopping in hotels. All of us - even the cruise-ship haters - contribute to the crowds and are equally tiresome to everyone else. But, annoying as "the other tourists" certainly are, you can mitigate this by staying away from the blockbuster central sights during the main part of the day - do them earlier or later and visit the other parts in between.

Don't let the numbers bother you more than they need to. Those thousands of people are pretty much invisible before 10 am and after 5 or 5:30 pm. In the mid-afternoon, return to your hotel for a nap, a shower and a change of clothes while those others are crowding the streets. If you see mobs coming towards you from behind or ahead, simply turn left (or right) and explore an amazing part of Venice! The back alleys are far more interesting than the brand-named-lined streets. After they have all gone back to their ships for dinner, Venice will be pretty much yours! Go to San Marco where you can sing and dance with the orchestras. Take a late night vaporetto ride. Stop at some (now) quiet piazza for a cool drink. Don't let anybody take the magic of Venice away from you!

Thanks for all the feedback. I had pretty much decided to switch around my itinerary, if for no other reason than it would seem like the weekends would be more crowded generally as at least one poster suggested. The place I reserved is available during the next week as well. And there are only 2 boats docking on Monday and Tuesday--with only one each day clearly being there for the day (as opposed to leaving or arriving from Venice. However, I do realize now from some of you that the cruise ship passengers are only a drop in the bucket of visitors.

BUT, then I realized that Tuesday June 2 is Republic Day . So it all may not matter.

We are staying in Cannareggio so hopefully a bit away from the crowds. And was already not planning to be in St. Mark's square during the day except to visit the basilica.

“Not planning to be in St Mark’s during the day other than visiting the Basilica”. You and 10,000+ other people! The Basilica the main reason to visit St Mark’s. Hopefully it will be open, as there is talk of structural damage caused by the flooding.

I visited Venice in January and there wasn’t a single cruise ship in port the entire 6 days I was there! No crowds for any of the sights and good weather.

Yup. If you are anti-cruise ship, January and February would be good months to visit Venice.

Date Ship Cruise Line Arrive-Depart Guests Crew

5-Jan-2020 Costa Deliziosa Costa Cruises 08:00 - 17:00 3,570 1,000

1-Feb-2020 Spirit Of Discovery Saga Cruises 08:00-24:00 1,000 530

2-Feb-2020 Spirit Of Discovery Saga Cruises 00:00-18:00 1,000 530

25-Mar-2020 Costa Luminosa Costa Cruises 09:00 - 17:00 3,570 1,000

28-Mar-2020 Costa Victoria Costa Cruises 07:00-17:00 2,200 800

29-Mar-2020 Costa Luminosa Costa Cruises 09:00 - 17:00 3,570 1,000

31-Mar-2020 Costa Victoria Costa Cruises 09:00-17:00 2,200 800