I thoroughly enjoyed this! It was $16 per person to share a gondola and our gondolier, Mario, was absolutely the tops: charming, knowledgeable, and a wonderful, wonderful singer. They seem to all be this way. As Mario put it, "they hire actors/singers because it's easier to teach people to steer a gondola than it is to teach them to sing."
Beyond that, of course, the Venetian is simply stunning and a treat to be paddled around in. :-)