TRIESTE (VENICE), ITALY Port Reviews

Very interesting town, has a lot of history

Loved the ports and the tours

It would have been amazing had the ship docked in the actual port of Trieste and not the industrial shipyard port, however Trieste was really nice and the main port was just a quick 10-min walk to the train station.

We were extremely upset that you advertise everywhere that final destination is to TRIESTE (VENICE), ITALY. Trieste is not Venice and is not a suburb of Venice either, it's over 2 hour drive with a shuttle a must which we did not know!!! We felt we were completely mislead by this! We would leave the cruise getting in a taxi asking to drive us 15 minutes to the hotel in Venice and would be alone on the street without any reservations not knowing where to go with no internet! That's such a big mistake of yours! We booked the whole itinerary from 11am on disembarkation day with hotel and tours, assuming we're arriving to Venice. We realized Trieste is very far from Venice the night before looking at the map on TV. Next morning, we ran to reception, asking for help. Your staff at reception was lost having no answers for us. We asked to talk to the manager and she was extremely stubborn and wasn't interested to help. She kept repeating herself "everything is full and deadline to book a bus transfer was yesterday. I'm sorry". She wasn't listening to what we needed and has no problem-solving skills. We kept saying we do not need airport shuttle which is full, only to Venice city, but she had no interest to do anything. After a long fight, we sent her to give us some contacts of local bus companies or affordable taxi (online they wanted $600 or more) and she finally came came back with a solution her colleague gave her for us to squeeze us in the bus shuttle going to Venice downtown. When we got in the bus, we were shocked - it was half empty!!! We ended up spending 300 euro (100 pp) for this last minute shuttle which was an unexpected expense, and we missed our reserved guided tour because of your wrong mention of arrival to Venice on both sites, cheap cruises and Holland America! To be clear, Piraeus (Athens), Souda (Crete), Katakolon (Olympia) but Trieste is not Venice and that sequence was a big confusion because other places were all correct.

Terrible port for disembarkation, 2 hours from Venice airport.

Trieste is not “Venice”! We knew this having visited before, so arrived a day early and stayed in the NCL favoured hotel near the airport for the night, Crowne Plaza. This was fine as right next to the railway station to get across to central Venice etc so spent the day before the cruise exploring. Our transfer to Trieste was a picturesque coach ride and we could have wandered around Trieste but decided to just settle in onboard Dawn.

The way this port is advertised is that it is Venice. This is false advertising. We took a two hour train to get to Venice because that’s what we wanted to see. We got our hotel room and left the Holland America cruise ship one day early so that we could experience a Venice.

Not the best Embarkation port but the city looks beautiful and would not hesitate to stay pre cruise.

went to airport and hour and half drive

Visited: Apr 03, 2022

Read full cruise review

HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE TRYING TO CATCH THE SHIP SINCE NCL PUT "VENICE" ON THE PORT OF EMBARKATION. NCL changed this, per the Italian authorities back in May 2022 and NEVER TOOK "VENICE" OFF THE ITINEARY