Schönbrunn - Best time to enter palace?

I had a timed entry for 10 am and the crowds were fairly light (August, mid-week), but as I was leaving around 12 it was getting quite hectic. I prefer to go early so as to leave the rest of my day free for other things. I only toured the palace; it was a dreary, rainy day and didn't lend itself to more outdoor exploration.

Looks like the Classic Pass is normally available starting March 15. The website says that online tickets are "currently unavailable due to the prevailing weather conditions." Must be some nasty weather in Vienna at this time.

@Al - yup, i was getting nervous so I emailed them . Good to know they'll be back next week

Angella, I will be on the RS GAS tour in June/July and am interested in the answers to your post. Schönbrunn was HIGHLY recommended to me, and the tour doesn't go there. I just booked an extra day in our Vienna hotel with the express intent of going there after the tour-provided breakfast, then we'll leave for home the next day. The Classic Pass has everything that we want to do, and takes a large part of the day.

@Al - wow, I'm surprised the RS tour does not go to Schonbrunn. I think it's totally worth it!

Some background - I used to go to Vienna every summer as a kid and my family had an apartment in the neighborhood behind Schonbrunn, so I'm super biased. Whenever we had visitors we'd ALWAYS take them to Schonbrunn, so in my mind it's the most important thing in Vienna to see. I'm returning this summer with my husband (his first time in Vienna) and I'm taking him to Schonbrunn, Oper and any favorite restaurants if they're still in business :)

Got my Classic Passes today, for July 2. It's the last day of the RS tour, when they provide breakfast and nothing else. Got an extra night in the last hotel, so we can come home on July 3.

I got my Classic pass on the 27th for 8:00 am. We want to have plenty of time to explore before hopping our train to Prague and the crowds at Schonnbrun should be minimal at that time. Just the way we like it.

We did Schönbrunn on Monday with 11:00am timed tickets. It wasn't terribly crowded, although there were some large tour groups inside the castle at the same time as us. I found that we could step into some of the rooms in between the large tour groups.

We ended up spending the whole day there. Outside the castle, the grounds are so immense that there is no need to worry about crowds.

Thanks Al! We took a different approach and purchase tickets for entry into the palace between 1 and 1:30 pm. We spent the late morning strolling around the gardens, explored the maze, went up to Gloriette before it got too hot, and ate lunch at the neighborhood nearby. By 1 a lot of the large tour bus crowds had gone to lunch :)