In the spirit of the 'early morning departure' question, my wife and I will be arriving in Venice (in July) on a fairly late evening flight -- the easyJet flight from London arriving about 9:15pm. From the current timetable, it looks like the only Alilaguna line that runs in the evening is the Blue Line, and our hotel is a bit of a schlep from either San Marco or Fondamente Nove. But it's close to the San Angelo dock, where the Orange Line terminates.

(1) Does Alilaguna put on extra service in the summer? Does the Orange Line operate in summer evenings?
(2) If not, am I right to assume that the best way of getting into town is to spend $150 (ouch! That's as much as one roundtrip flight from Gatwick!) on a water taxi?

A water taxi is always the "best" way to get into the city. It is 100EU from the airport. I think you are looking for a less expensive way. There are lots:

- land taxi to Piazzale Roma, then take a vaporetto
- Blue bus to Piazzale Roma, then take a vaporetto
- take the Alilaguna blu to San Marco and transfer to a vaporetto

Oh, oh, oh!!!! We wish we were you. I WOULD spend the money for the water taxi so I could see beautiful Venice unfold with all its lights! We took the water taxi during the day in October and being newbies mouth hanging open but.... I have a feeling I'll always greet Venice with wonder no matter how many times I go. One of the things I liked about the water taxi was that we checked in in the terminal and they took us by van to the taxi and loaded our suitcases so we didn't have the schlep. JMHO, Linda