We got up early at the Hyatt Centric and took a vaporetto to VCE, checked in, and went to the mediocre Marco Polo Lounge. We were in the air on a United 767-300 at around 10am for the flight back to IAD.
Venice Marco Polo Airport
We woke up early at the Hyatt Centric Murano Venice and finished packing before checking out.
It was still dark when we walked out of the front door at 5:10am, though we could see a bit of light in the sky.
We started walking over to the Murano Colonna vaporetto quays. There are various ways to get the airport. The most direct option is to take the Alilaguna vaporetto from Colonna to the airport. We bought tickets at the Alilaguna ticket office by the Venezia Santa Lucia train station two days ago, though apparently we could have just bought tickets online. It seems it might also be possible to buy tickets onboard, though we’re not sure about that. They definitely don’t have ticket machines though, at least not at Murano.
It was pretty quiet as we walked along the canals. We only saw a few other people. There is a ACTV vaporetto that runs at this time of the day but it does not go to the airport. It seems we actually could have taken it from Murano Museo to Murano Colonna but that seemed unnecessary. Walking was fine, even though our bags were a bit heavy.
It was pretty dark when looking to the south at San Michele.
But, there was some color in the sky to the east.
The Alilaguna is the westernmost of the three quays at Murano Colonna. Here, we can see the other two to our east.
The vaporetto that goes from Colonna to the airport is the Blue Line. It starts at the train station and makes its way here before continuing non-stop to the airport. The scheduled travel time from here to the airport is 30 minutes.
We arrived at Venice Marco Polo Airport (VCE) much earlier than the 6:11am scheduled arrival time. There is a pretty long walk to get to the actual airport terminal, though it is all indoors and includes many long moving walkways.
We passed by this sculpture of what looks like a winged dog, though maybe it is supposed to be a winged lion?
We ended up early enough that United’s check-in counters hadn’t opened yet for the Dulles flight. So, we waited for awhile until it was 3 hours before departure. Soon, we were checked in and passed through security
We walked by this 700th anniversary sign for Marco Polo, probably the most well known Venetian of them all.
The Marco Polo Lounge is a contract lounge and seems to be operated by the airport. Complimentary access requires flying in business class, which is marketed as Polaris on United The lounge is pretty mediocre, and that is being generous. They at least did have some things to eat, but overall, it was worse than United’s domestic United Clubs.
The lounge is in the Schengen area of the airport, which effectively means domestic as far as the airport is concerned. So, getting to the gate for a US departure requires going through passport control after the lounge.
Our aircraft, a 767-300, was at a remote stand. Boarding involved walking downstairs to the bus and then waiting on the bus for it to fill up before it headed over to the airport. It ended up taking a indirect route involving backtracking for unknown reasons.
We were in the air at around 10am. Looking out the window on the right side of the aircraft, we could see that it was probably raining above Murano and Venice beyond it.
United does have preorders for meals in Polaris class. It has been pretty reliable since it was rolled out.
The food is still hit or miss though. During the pandemic, United went to serving the entire meal at once. Now, they’ve partially gone back to the old way of doing meal service. The first round consists of a salad, bread, and a small appetizer.
The main course is served next. Historically, the beef has always been the most reliable. Not necessarily good, but at least not as bad as some of other options.
Ice cream has been reliably good in recent years.
After watching a movie and sleeping, we awoke in US airspace for the pre-arrival meal service. For this daytime flight, it is equivalent to a domestic first class lunch or dinner meal. This always ends up being an exercise in selecting the least worst option. This pasta was OK, though of course nothing compared to a decent real Italian pasta dish!
After landing at Dulles, we entered the country, picked up our checked luggage, and took the economy parking shuttle back to our car. Even though we got back well before rush hour, there was still traffic as we made our way home via Frederick, MD.
Commentary
It was a great trip! The Italian-speaking Ticino canton of Switzerland was nice, though of course expensive. We saw plenty but there was still plenty we didn’t get to see or do. The Hampton by Hilton in Locarno ended up being pretty convenient to all the places we visited for the three nights that we stayed there.
Milan was also nice to visit and again, we only saw a little bit of the city. But that was the plan as Milan is easy to access with non-stop flights to the US. If we do return to Milan, it will probably be to visit some other cities in northern Italy but we’d likely spend a day or two in the city as well. The Excelsior Hotel Gallia was excellent, though we saved a ton of money by using free night certificates for our stay. The breakfast was a bit weak considering this is a high end property.
Our visit to Venice was intended as a once and done. While we didn’t see nearly everything, we did see many of its most important tourist sites and sights during our three night stay. Venice does also have non-stop flights to the US so it is possible we’d return, though if we did, perhaps we’d just visit the city on a day trip. If we did stay overnight, we’d probably stay on the mainland as it is also pretty convenient to get to Venice by train and the room rates tend to be significantly lower.
The Hyatt Centric was an OK place to stay. Nothing about the hotel itself really stood out. It was just another place to sleep, much like the Hampton in Locarno. The location was relatively convenient, even if it wasn’t on the main island of Venice. It was particularly helpful though when we bought Murano glass yesterday as we didn’t have to then carry glassware around the Venetian Lagoon!
Overall, we had great luck with food on this trip. Most of our meals were excellent. And no one bugged us for tips once they realized we speak English!
We did run into one attempted pickpocketing in Venice on a vaporetto but that was thankfully thwarted by our anti-theft bags. The zippers, which can be secured, slowed down the thief until we realized what was going on and moved the bag away. There is nothing much one can do about attempted theft other than to try and make it as difficult as possible.