I mentioned a while ago in another thread that I had plans to go to Venice this week, so I thought I'd report back on how it went.
As of Sunday evening, the day before our scheduled arrival, the tide forecast was looking not terrible, but a bit too uncertain and worrisome for our tastes. (I hope it doesn't sound too crass to say that we're on vacation to have a good time, not to slog around in dirty water while marvelling at the Venetian resilience.) So we abandoned our (nonrefundable but fortunately not too expensive) hotel reservation in the heart of Venice and booked a new room on the mainland, across from the Mestre train station, and we played each day by ear according to the tide and weather forecasts.
On Monday, we stayed most of the day in Ravenna and got to Mestre late. On Tuesday it was raining and the tide was a bit high, so we day-tripped to Verona. But yesterday and today were both dry, so we took the 12-minute train ride into Venice both days. From what I could see, the city is pretty much up and running - I spotted only a few businesses that were still closed from the flooding.
And from the little I saw of Mestre itself, it's not nearly as awful a place as it's sometimes made out to be. It's no Venice, but it's a pleasant enough Italian community in its own right, I thought.
Was it the ideal Venice vacation? I don't know, maybe not. But we saw a lot of what we wanted to see and had a great time. For everyone posting about wanting to visit Venice during high tide season but worried about flooding, I'd say staying in Mestre is at least an option to consider.