Can you always get a space on the Alilaguna Water Bus service to Marco Polo airport?

With 10 stops before you, that is difficult to say. Depends on the time of day and how many people want to get to the airport tomorrow. Maybe take the boat 1/2 hour before your intended time.

The boat only comes every hour so this would mean leaving at about 6:28 a.m. (it will just be getting light) instead of a comfortable 7:28 (better for light and sleep). From what you say though, it sounds like my safest course is to take the earlier bus, getting there earlier than usual, or being in the front of the line for the 7:28. Thank you for your thoughts. Venice has a lot to offer but ease of travel is not one of them.

You have the choice of blue line or red line, which is still running, although not as often as blue.

A couple of years ago, in August, I caught the blue line at Zattere at about 11 am. Although busy, even when it got to Ospedale/FteNova people were still able to get on.

As previous poster said, to avoid anxiety,, go for a boat earlier than you need. There are plenty of places to sit/cafes in departures.

Thanks for reminding me that the red line is an alternative. You have to keep your wits about you when traveling. The blue line seems more convenient for various reasons, and I will go at the earlier time, but if anything unanticipated happens, it’s good to keep the red line option in mind.

Lauri

have you actually bought your Alilaguna ticket? If not, and if the infrequency of the Alilaguna bothers you, you can get a vaporetto (pass still valid in the morning?) to P.le Roma and a quick frequent and cheap bus to the airport.

I couldn't check which vaporettos would be best for you because the CheBateo? app is on strike today along with all the Block Everything, so I don't know what time things get back to normal tomorrow morning, including the Alilaguna.

Yes, I have bought my Aliaguna ticket. The owner of the AirBnB I am staying at strongly recommended this option. But yes, the infrequency of the boats bothers me. At the point, I’ll go with the earlier, darker option. 🙂😬

Hi Lauri, if you have the timed ticket for the Aliguna, you should be fine. They will pick you up at your stop.

I bought my ticket online and did not see a timed option.
If I was going to worry, I should have started earlier in the day when I happened to pass by an Aliaguna ticket office. I asked the person if there would be any problem because of the September 22 train and ACTV strike. She told me no and that Aliaguna never strikes. Too bad I didn’t ask if there would be a problem with overcrowding.
Now I am here for the 6:28 in the dark by myself. Thank you to the Rick Steves’ community for sharing your thoughts.

hope it went well...

I got on the Aliaguna Water Bus at 6:28 and already, there weren’t many seats left. But I had one so that was nice. Am there is no way of knowing what the 7:28 would have been like.

Getting to the airport so early made everything easy. There were no lines.

Then disaster struck! This is a different topic. I got a confusing email from United Airlines and accidentally cancelled my flight! There was no fixing it. To make a long story short, I was able to schedule a new flight at 14:40 via Frankfurt and I’ll be home today, only three hours later than I had originally planned. I am not an inexperienced traveler, so I have no explanation for how I misread this email so badly (which promptly disappeared from my inbox—the moral of the story is to take screenshots of airline communications). So it’s all okay but I have been supercharged with stress hormones.

Oh dear…welcome home.
Yes, good advice to screenshot every last word from airlines, accommodations and other reservations.
Helps enormously to prove something in the future.