Skip the Line: Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel Fast Track Admission Ticket

Way too crowded. You walk because everybody else pushes you. I don't want to be there if panic about anything! It has become a money machine.

Vatican museum was great and no we didn’t wait too long in line, but we did sit in there office across the street for about 1:45 before they took us across the street to “skip” the line. (Plus with like no communication) Since our designated tour time was at 2:30 this kind of impinged on the amount of time we could spend in the museum.

Except that you can browse through all the exhibits at the museum at your own leisure. My mom and I explored all areas of the museum and got to visit the Sixtine Chapel on a day with few people.

My wife and I arrived at 10:00 am at the meeting point for this 10:30 am tour and paid another 30 Euros on our credit card for an add on tour of the Vatican gardens. Our group was taken to the starting point of the tour but the meeting point organizer was not aware that our guide was sick, so we waited there for quite a while until they started phoning and found out the the guide was not going to show up. We were taken back to the original meeting point while they tried to find another guide. In the meantime we decided to skip the add-on tour but were only refunded 10 Euros (cash) and were given no explanation. We then waited for an 11:30 start time that turned out to be a 12:00 noon start. We were given the standard earpiece receiver by our guide and yes we finally made it into the Vatican Museum and the The Sistine Chapel. Unfortunately our tour guide was extremely difficult to understand. Her English was very weak and she spoke in monotone that only allowed me to pick up a word here and there. The museum and the chapel are of course fantastic but this is one of the worst tour experiences s that I have ever had.

Worst experience ever! This was my wife's dream...to go see the Vatican. The main reason for booking the entire vacation. We were told by Viator that getting to the meeting place for the tour from our cruise ship would not be a problem. Just a short walk from the ship to the train station, a short train ride, then a short walk from the train station to St. Peters Square. The "short walk" from the ship turned out to be a 7 min shuttle ride, and then a 13 min taxi ride ($10E) through dirty streets, up & down hills, lots of turns...would have been totally lost on foot. The "short" train ride was 1hr 20min. we were told at the train station that it would be a long walk and we should take a hop-on-hop-off bus. The train tickets were $12E each and the hop-on bus vouchers were $34E each. We left the ship at 8am and reached the train station in Rome at 11am. Our tour was scheduled to meet at 10am. We wandered round and round the train station looking for the exit to find the hop-on-hop-off bus. There was a huge shopping mall on one level, lots of restaurants on another, and only ONE restroom that we could find in the entire place. (You have to PAY for the restroom). After more than an hour on our feet looking for the exit to the hop-on bus, we decided we had had enough and wanted to get back to the ship before it sailed. It took another 35 min or so of very fast walking to the other end (literally) of the terminal to catch the train back to Civitavecchia. We finally managed to catch it just before it left. Back at the station in Civitavecchia, my wife tried to find the man who sold us the hop-on bus vouchers, but his office was locked up tight and no one around. She asked the man selling tickets in what appeared to be the main ticketing office for the train (was not open when we were there earlier), and he told her that we had to see the man who sold them to us. Although we managed to avoid the pickpockets in the streets, we certainly feel that our pockets were picked. Another "short" taxi ride ($20E) back to the ship and we were back on board shortly before 2:30pm. Totally exhausted and disappointed over the waste of time and money and nothing we could do about it. We will NEVER use Viator again!

They didn't explain the meeting location to pick up the tickets, took us forever to find. The reception was not very friendly, she should be. If she doesn't like her job then she should find a new one. The tour guide was so so. Everyone just seemed liked they didn't want to be bothered.

I booked what I thought to be an English guided tour of the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel. It cost $233.56 CDN for 2 people. Instead what we received was a "guided entrance" only. What this means is the "guide" escorts you directly through the entrance (skipping the lineup), distributes admission tickets, then dumps you on your own. We then had to rent audio guides for 7 euros each for a self guided tour, in order to get some info about what we were seeing. We felt completely ripped off, and found the reception at the tourist office where we met the "guide" was completely disorganized, with the staff lining us up and counting heads over and over, at least 6 times before we finally set off. I would not recommend this tour at all. It also does not include admission to the Vatican itself. The attraction itself is fabulous but make other arrangements to see it.

We did not have a good experience with this fast track admission and visit to the Vatican museums. The tour office is located close to the museum entrance, however, you wait in a short line outside of their office, just to be walked through the throngs of people to wait in a very long line. The 'fast track' line is shorter than the public entrance line, but it is still a long wait. Once you get inside the museum you are free to roam as you like, but if you go on a very busy day (which I assume most days are busy), it is so packed that you can't move around and you can't see much. The museum really should limit the amount of visitors each day so that guests can have a good visit and experience. Unfortunately, the crowds were so bad that my husband and I left the museum before even reaching the Sistine Chapel. We didn't get to see much of the Vatican at all. Very disappointed in our whole experience!

Excellent working with Viator. System worked perfectly . Well worth the price. I shoulod have used it more frequently for other attractions. I wonder if they do alitalia customs lines "skip the queue"

I thought the museum was beautiful and there is tons to see. But it is SO packed full of tourist it took my husband and I almost 4 hours to walk through the entire museum and we didn’t even do the audio tour.... can’t even imagine how long it would have taken us if we did do the audio. If you decide to do the Vatican definitely get the fast pass!