In a move that may foretell others, Royal Caribbean has notified its customers that when cruises resume next year, its ships will call at Ravenna instead of Venice, giving Venetians some hint that the long battle over huge cruise ships and their damage to the city’s foundations—and views—may be coming to an end.
Venice has seen many protests over the huge cruisers, which tower far above the city’s landmarks and roil the waters of the Venetian Lagoon; they became especially last year after one of them crashed into a river cruise ship, causing both of them to damage shore areas. Banning the big ships has long seen sharp differences between different groups, some of which are unwilling to give up income from the visits.
RC’s arriving passengers will still fly in and out of Venice’s Marco Polo Airport, and the cruise line will provide free transfers from the airport to Ravenna as it has to Venice. It also makes private transfers available for an extra fee, and at least for now will only charge the previous airport to Venice rate for private transfers to Ravenna.
Shore excursions to Venice will now include a 90-mile transfer, which may mean that numbers of passengers will give it a pass, perhaps in favor of Ravenna’s World Heritage collection of Byzantine mosaics in a number of churches in the city.
