What is the best way to transfer from a ship to the Santa Lucia train station?

It depends on where your ship docks. Assuming it docks at Piazza San Marco (aka Saint Mark's Square) all you have to do is get on a vaporetto which will carry you up the Grand Canal. Vaporettos are the like city buses of Venice and travel up and down the Grand Canal and (to the outer islands, etc.). The train station is at the end of the Grand Canal.

The other way would be to hire a private "taxi" motor boat, but this is much more expensive and, in my opinion, would be more of a hassle than just jumping on a vaporetto. However, you might want to do a taxi if you have a lot of luggage to maneuver. Three is a taxi stand at Piazza San Marco too.

I am not aware of ANY cruise ship that docks at San Marco.

If your ship docks at the more usual place you can actually SEE Santa Lucia station and can take the combination of the so-called "people mover" and your feet to the station.

I have no idea what daria is talking about. Cruise ships do not dock at or anywhere near San Marco. But luckily they DO dock near the station.

After you get off the people mover you will have to cross a bridge--not small and luggage would have to pulled over. However, on our trip a year ago we found porters at the bridge who will help with luggage for a decent price. Our guy even hauled the luggage up the steps of the train station. Look for a porter wearing a yellow vest (or some official looking identification and maybe a badge) and some of them put luggage on a trolley and haul it over.

Agree with others - how would a cruise ship dock AT or near San Marco? Look at a map for goodness'sake! Near the station, yes, from which you take a vaporetto or pay through the nose for a water taxi. For about 5€ on Amazon you can buy a laminated map of Venice showing the vaporetto stops (helpful, because once you land you can easily get on one going the wrong direction if you don't know what you are doing - study it in advance).

You don't need to haul luggage up (or down) the steps of the train station, for goodness' sake. There's a ramp that anyone can easily use - it just requires walking about 10 feet away from the steps. And IMO, those yellow-vested guys are ripping your off big time for not noticing the ramps. They (the ramps) are in very plain sight. Besides, for visiting Italy, in particular Venice, you should have very minimal, light luggage, no matter how long you're staying.

StCirq, nini is recommending a porter to go over the Calatrava bridge, I believe the going up the train station steps was probably included in the price. It may be that the train station officials frown on them going up the handicapped ramp. Its not a rip off. They are immigrants and they work very hard.

If indeed the ship is of the cruise variety and is docked at the big cruise ship port, the people mover plus a porter over the bridge is a good idea.

Sometimes they do have ships docked on the Piazza side of town but they are farther down, around Arsenale and they are not giant cruise ships. More like river cruise ships.

I believe there are still some river cruise-style boats that dock along the Riva in the Castello area just east of San Marco, but the vast majority of ships dock at Porto Marittimo or nearby at San Basilio.

Hi, rialtogirl.

That is a handicapped ramp? We used it because I had a bad foot and it was just so much easier than hauling my (very small and light) suitcase up the steps. Lots of non-handicapped people were using it too. I had no idea it was supposed to be for handicapped people, though obviously it would have been the easiest way for them to get to and from the entrance/exit to the station. I saw no signs indicating it was for use only by handicpped people, and there were people of all ages and abilities using it.

I will concede that the porters look like immigrants and they do work very hard. We sat on the station steps and watched them haul insane amounts of luggage up and down those steps and take off for, presumably, hotels. We couldn't believe the amount of luggage some people bring with them. I do hope those porters are well compensated.

There were no cruise ships anywhere near San Marco when we were there this winter (thank goodness!). We did see a couple of ships that looked like river cruises near Arsenale,

StCirq there are two ramps, one on each side of the station. One is clearly marked as a handicapped ramp, but they are not just for handicapped.. you are right, lots of people use them. I use them. I think the train officials may just not want the porters to make log jams on them. Those carts take up a lot of space.

Ah, we watched the poor porters hauling unbelievable amounts of heavy luggage (what are people thinking?) down the stairs (bump, bump,bump all the way down). It looked like very hard work, but I don't know what they arepaid or whether they get tips (probably do from Americans). I don't have a problem with anyone using a porter in Venezia. We just rolled down the ramp and got onto the vaporetto # 2 to get to our stop to get to our hotel. Seemed pretty easy, even though we arrived at night in darkness. It does help, as I mentioned above, however, to have a map of the vaporetti (and traggheti) stops in Venice. Water taxis, IMO, are very expensive, at least more than we want to spend, though if you're confused (which is easy in Venice) it might be worth it.

rialtogrl and I were typing at the same time . . .

Easiest way to get from cruise boat (or Greece ferry) to train: call a taxi and ride from the boat up to Mestre railway station.