International Cruises to Venice in October??

The question is not only if European cruises will be operating, but will Venice allow cruise ships to dock. The COVID shutdown is making them think about this again.

While there may be some cruise ships docking in Venice this fall, it's highly unlikely the numbers will be anywhere close to previous years. Some of the mainstream lines are already cancelling some of their Med cruises. But depending on how the European vaccine rollout goes, and the COVID variant situation, you may see some cruise ships with a lowered passenger count still sailing.

If you want to get an idea of how the cruise situation in Venice currently looks for your proposed dates, check the cruise ports calendar of arrivals and departures. Or look at the departure ports section of cruisetimetables.com. I wouldn't be surprised to see some of the current listing cancelled, but only time will tell.

And while cruise ship crowds around the Rialto and Piazza San Marco can be a pain, they aren't there for that many hours, usually, and exploring away from those areas is usually much less crowded. And best of all- there are no ship crowds in he evenings and early mornings.

I would not worry about the cruise ships. They may or may not be operating at a high level in October 2021. I doubt it actually. And even if they are, it should not spoil your experience of Venice. As I said in your other Venice thread, we spent the whole month of October in Venice a few years ago (2013). The cruise ship traffic diminished a bit at mid-month, but there were still 2-3 ships docking or leaving most days. But you can quickly learn to avoid the crowds—-we made a game of it. And each night at 6 pm, we went out on our rooftop terrace (Altana) to enjoy the church bells and watch the cruise ships depart.

We loved out time there in October and would happily do it again . . .and again . . .

Thank you all, that is very helpful once again! Sorry for all the questions, but it is definitely helping us to plan everything in detail. And should I have any concerns with trying to avoid weekends and stick to weekdays instead in terms of crowds? Thank you so much! :)

I would concur with others who mentioned not to be concerned with Cruises docking in Venice. We visited Venice at the end of August in 2018. Ordinarily we would have chosen the fall, but we were going on an Adriatic Tour following our stay. Like others we avoided St. Mark’s when cruise ships docked. We did many walks off the beaten path to avoid crowds. If we went to tourist sites like St. Mark’s Cathedral or Doge’s Palace we opted to arrive upon opening or early evening. We visited Burano, Torcello and Lido. We took early boats to avoid the crowds. Everything worked out well. Enjoy your planning!
Edited to add: Frommer’s 24 Great Walks in Venice is a resource we used for off the beaten path areas. It provided clear route directions and commentary.

I've been to Venice many times and have never noticed any appreciable difference in weekday to weekend.

On the weekend it may be slightly easier to get into bars and shops near the university, but some churches may reduce entry on Sunday. Check closer to the time... these are strange times.

The "Crew Center" website lists docking schedules for cruise ship ports, worldwide. Consulting it made our 2016 & 2019 trips to Malta & Sicily so much better. Here's a link to the 2019 Venice schedule:

http://crew-center.com/venice-italy-cruise-ships-schedule-july-december-2019

http://crew-center.com/stay-touch

Hope that helps. Fingers crossed the number of ships decreases in the future.

At this stage of the pandemic it is a wild guess as to what the cruise line will be able to do or not do. You will need to rely on the cruise line for that information. It can change on a weekly basis. Personally think Oct will be a little early for worry free cruising.