Between Venice and Cruise advice…

Padua has more than a day's worth of sights; the city takes up more than 30 pages in Rick's guide to Venice. However, Padua is an exceptionally short train ride from Venice (as short as 14 minutes, with many trains each hour), so if you decided to go there twice while sleeping in Venice, the cost in transportation time (and in train fare) would be pretty minor--assuming it doesn't take terribly long for you to get from your Venice hotel to the train station. On the other hand, hotel rates in Venice are (in normal times) comparatively high, and hotels in Padua are a relative bargain. As a general rule, it's my policy not to take a bunch of side-trips to cheap destinations from cities with high hotel rates. You may not have that hang-up.

Ferrara (where I've never been so don't have a sense of whether you might prefer more than a day trip there) is considerably farther from Venice (45 to 90 minutes by train, roughly) and is in the same direction as Ravenna. It would take somewhat longer to day-trip there from Ravenna than from Venice (again, assuming you don't have to take a long vaporetto ride to get between hotel and train station), but I bet your hotel cost in Ravenna will be a lot lower, so...

What time of year is your trip? One other factor I consider when thinking about logistics is that a long stay somewhere with a variety of tentatively-planned destinations and activities gives me more freedom to react to changing weather conditions. Ravenna has at least seven indoor mosaic sites, so it wouldn't be an awful destination on a rainy day.

I'll never say no to as many evenings in Venice that I can get. We were there for 5 days before our cruise and made a day trip to Verona which is about an hour away by train and had plenty of time to see the sites.

Thanks for the feedback! We are going the second week of September, so the weather should be good. Our hotel is right across the canal from the train station (strategically picked). This will allow for quick day trips. The point about hotel cost is a good one. I will take a look to see what there is…..
I am torn on staying in Venice longer since the first time we were there it was at the end of a long trip and we were beat. So, we didn’t explore as much as we really wanted to (hence the ‘must go to Murano/Burano’, we didn’t the first time).

We are traveling with two other couples, so that plays into things…….

Adding an overnight stop between Venice and Ravenna just complicates things unnecessarily. Stay with 5 nights Venice/2 nights Ravenna, or 4 nights/3 nights if you prefer. Acraven makes an excellent case for the latter, so you can visit Ferrara on a daytrip from Ravenna instead of from Venice. This will save you a lot of euros, in 2 ways:

The train ride to Ferrara from either Venice or Ravenna is about the same in terms of time (one hour or a bit more for the direct train with no transfers). But the cost `from Venice for that fast direct train is €23,90, whereas from Ravenna there is a direct regional train that costs €6,65. Multiply that by 2 for the roundtrip and you save almost €70 per couple on the daytrip.

Hotels: I don’t know what you are paying for your Venice hotel, but it is very likely much more than you will pay in Ravenna. I recommend the very nice 4* Palazzo Bezzi, easy walking distance from the train station and to most of the top mosaic locations. A double room (standard) there in September is €149 per night. But you should decide and book soon—-I see they are fully booked over the weekend of September 9/16-9/18—-perhaps because of a cruise ship departure that Saturday.

Stay the entire time in Venice so that you eliminate the time lost moving from one location to another. There are many day trips that can be taken from Venice, and you can still enjoy the evenings there with so many crowds.

But they need to board the cruise ship in Ravenna, so might as well head there beforehand and explore what that city has to offer, like the UNESCO world heritage sites. It is a lovely, low-key place to visit; quite a contrast to Venice.

https://www.turismo.ra.it/en/follow-your-way/unesco-monuments-ravenna/

The photos of the mosaics you see online do not even begin to do them justice. And the restaurants we found were excellent; less expensive than Venice, and we even spoke with the locals at a nearby table, on their initiative. The city overall was very welcoming and friendly to tourists ( although that may eventually change, now that Ravenna is a cruise ship port).

Ferrara is a lovely city - we day tripped there from Bologna in 2019. One route from Venice to Ravenna transfers there (otherwise you transfer in Bologna). If your luggage isn’t too overwhelming, you could visit Ferrara while moving from Venice to Ravenna.

On the other hand, hotel rates in Venice are (in normal times)
comparatively high, and hotels in Padua are a relative bargain. As a
general rule, it's my policy not to take a bunch of side-trips to
cheap destinations from cities with high hotel rates. You may not have
that hang-up.

I agree, if you are staying in Venice it makes sense to focus on Venice. If you want to make a few day trips and explore the area, it makes more sense to stay in e.g. Padua.