Venice - getting to the airport

What's with the vaporetto?

Walk up to the square where the buses are and jump on for about ten bucks. Take a taxi for both of you for way less than fifty.

Only my 3rd time to Venice, so please be kind to me! I guess the airport is not far from where cruise liners dock and we can skip the water taxi??

No, the airport is across the causeway and then up the coast. The total distance is about eight or ten miles.

standy0612, the issue is simply that the cruise port, the bus plaza and the airport are all outside the no-car central Venice area served by boats. So, no canals, vaporettos, or water taxis would be involved in getting from a cruise ship to the airport. If you have light baggage and little time pressure, you can walk a ways to the bus plaza, by a bus ticket, wait for a bus that leaves frequently, and go to the airport, cheapest, but somewhat more effort and time. If you have a lot of baggage or a time crunch, you can get a cab directly, which would be somewhat more expensive but certainly quicker. This assumes you just want to go directly from the ship to the airport, without spending any time visiting Venice itself at that time.

$50 pp is way too much. Walk from the cruise ship terminal to the "people mover". It only cost 1 or 2 Euro each and will take you to Piazzale Roma where you can catch the #5 ATV bus to the airport for 7 or 8 Euros each. Or you can get a regular taxi at P. Roma. I do not remember if there were taxies at the exit of the cruise terminal or not. If you have a lot of luggage you might want to consider a private car service that will pick you up at the cruise ship. They appear to be expensive, but with 2 or 3 people splitting the cost it is not too bad. You might want to check veniceforvisitors.com. They have (or had) a video of the people mover and lots of good info. You go to bing.com, click on maps, type in "Venice cruise terminal" and get great aerial and birds eye views of the area. TC

The No 5 bus is actually 6 euros per person and will take you right to the airport (after a few stops along the way. 25 minutes from Piazzale Roma and they go every 15 minutes. The cruise line is marking up the transfer cost about 100%, but that is how they make their money. 6 people in a water taxi would be a generous 120 euro, so say 20 euro per person, adjusting for currency exchange would be $27. Also it is about a quarter mile walk from the airport dock to the actual airport. If it is a charter bus transfer they are using, they're making even more money.
Of course, in the cruise line's mind, they are providing a valuable service. No worries, no getting lost, no getting on the wrong bus, no waiting in line to buy a bus ticket, not having to deal with people who don't speak English, (although you won't have any problems in Venice).

Will you have actually seen Venice by the time the cruise ends in Venice? If not, what's the big rush to get to the airport? Stick around for a while and enjoy Venice.

A taxi will cost about 40 euros between the airport and the port. Then a small tip. The cheaper option is to take an airport shuttle bus from the people mover. The people mover is 1 euro. To reach the people mover from the port you would need to walk to Piazzale Roma from the dock. That option is about 5 euros per person. We describe it in the RS Mediterranean Cruise port book if you need more details. It might come down to how tired you are and how much luggage you have.