The Gondola Ride at The Venetian: a review

Part of this review came from my March 2010 trip report.

We had originally intended to take a nighttime gondola ride on Tuesday evening after seeing Phantom of the Opera, but it was pretty late when we left after the show and a late dinner, and we weren't feeling up to waiting in line at the time. We decided to head over to The Venetian on Saturday morning, instead, because we had a few hours to kill before we headed to the airport for our flight home and nothing planned at all on a beautiful Spring day.

There was no line at 11:00 a.m., so we were in the boat and on our way quickly. The cost was $16 per person, and our gondolier’s name was Donatello (or so he said). He sang 3 songs for us during our ride and was very entertaining in general, so he got a nice tip for his efforts. I remember two of the songs: "Volare" and "Santa Lucia", but I can't recall the third song at the moment. The whole ride experience lasts about 12 minutes. It really was a very pretty day, and the company was great, so it made the ride extremely pleasant and relaxing. Hayley had an extra good time because the boat assistant (the guy who held the rope at the dock) was an adorably cute guy who looked like Taylor Lautner (look him up if you don't know who he is).

In the end we purchased a set of photos that cost $29: it included an 8x10, 2 wallets, a key chain photo and a magnet photo. I think that's a pretty standard price for souvenir photos, and we're using all of them in some way, so we're actually putting the entire package to good use and not wasting the money...or so I think.

If you decide to take the gondola ride, remember that there are two separate rides: one outside by the Strip, and one inside that goes through the Canal Shops. The two areas are not connected at all, so you can't ride from one area to the other.

This is a very tourist-y thing to do, and I would say that I probably won't ever do it again unless I was taking someone else to try it for the first time (because I'm nice that way). But, if you're into tourist-y stuff and like doing things like this for the memories, you'll enjoy it.

Ride hours: Sun.-Thurs. 10 a.m.-11 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 10 a.m. - midnight. The last gondola leaves the dock 15 minutes prior to closing. The outdoor ride is operated as weather permits.