Schonbrunn Palace for Viking Passenger

I don’t have a recommendation for time. We did the same thing about five years ago. It was very easy. From memory, there is a subway stop a short distance from where the ship docks. There is one change and then a stop about a to minute walk to the palace. All well mapped and easy.

Also convenient to stop in the city center.

We were on the Viking Grand European Tour last September, with our cruise starting in Amsterdam and ending in Budapest. We had two full days in Vienna. Viking's included excursion of Vienna was on the first day. The second day was free and we were in port until 4:30. Viking was offering an extra cost excursion to Schonbrunn Palace that second morning but we had opted to go there on our own. The tickets we bought online in advance of our trip had a palace entry window of 11:30 to 11:45. We opted for that late morning time because we wanted to see the gardens first, and we wanted to do that by entering the palace grounds through the Maria Theresa gate instead of the main gate. I believe most guests use the main gate and see the palace first, followed by the gardens and Gloriette. However, entering the Maria Theresa gate permitted us to start our visit at the Gloriettte. It stands at the highest point on the massive palace grounds, giving you a wonderful view of the grounds and the city, especially if you go up to the panoramic terrace. You can then walk in a downhill direction through the gardens toward the palace.

I kept a journal on the trip so I'm able to comment on exactly how we did this. We left the ship at 9:30, walked 10 minutes to the subway station and got on line U1. We then transferred to line U4, then took bus #63A, which let us off near the Maria Theresa gate. We arrived at 10:15. We only had about an hour to enjoy the Gloriette and the gardens and then had to make our way to the front of the palace for the entry line. Figuring out how to get around to the front was a little confusing, causing me a moment of worry that we might miss our entry window, but we made it. I wish that we'd left the ship an hour earlier because we could have used an extra hour for the gardens. We didn't have a guided tour of the palace but had both audio guides and a printed guide. My husband and I were with friends. Our friends opted to stay in the palace much longer than we. My husband was on palace overload by this point in our trip and while he enjoyed Schonbrunn, he didn't feel the need to listen to every word of the audio guide in each room. When he and were leaving, I checked the website of the Spanish Riding School, on a whim, and saw that we could buy a couple of tickets for an English language Behind the Scenes tour that was starting in an hour. We grabbed the tickets, took the subway system's brown line, made a transfer to the orange line, and then had a five minute walk. After the tour, we got back to our ship in plenty of time before it set sail.

Vickie, you are a wonder!! That's a brilliant idea to do the gardens first. Also, thanks for the subway directions. This was a huge help!

I highly recommend that you use Google Maps or the Wiener Linien App (Wien Mobil) for public transportation directions. The stop described above by the Maria Theresia Gate is called Tivoli Bridge. This journey will take approx 45-50 minutes. If you want to enter the palace from the U4 subway (U-bahn), then the journey will take about 40 minutes. Again, use the website/app mentioned above to get the directions.