Expensive for what you get. We had a 2 for 1 voucher for the gondola ride, because we were staying at the Venetian Hotel. I don't know that we would have done it otherwise. We went first thing in the morning and got 3 tickets. We were told by the woman that our time was 12:30. We thought that was a long time since it was 10-something, so we wandered over to the Palazzo to waste some time. When we got to the line at 12:15pm, we gave them our tickets and they said we were late. The tickets said 11:30am. The woman had told me 12:30pm repeatedly. At least the people in line honored our tickets, but I was NOT impressed. We watched the other groups get in their boats (4 people max) and realized that the gondola drivers are drastically different. Some sing, some suck. We were hoping to get a really friendly singing one. Yes, they are all supposed to sing, but some are light years better than others. We were unlucky. Our gondola driver was unfriendly and grumpy. He sang one song poorly.
It's a cool idea. We did our ride inside. If I were you, I'd do the outside one and hope for a better driver.
Maybe just watch from the sidelines and save up for the real thing in Italy?