Ceremony of the keys tickets

Interesting, I wonder why.

Interesting. But good for you for your experimentation and your success. I did this in 2016 with a group of kids and their parents - and some said it was one of the highlights of their trip. Got my tickets on a desktop, though….

I have mine too!!! Will be going in about a week. Yippee

I loved the Ceremony of the Keys - I went to it on my last night in England back in 1996. I had been to a London Walks pub tour prior to the ceremony, which involved some major beer drinking, and by the time I got there, I had to REALLY use the WC. I asked one of the guards if there were any public restrooms and he said there were not, but very kindly took me into his quarters to use the loo. I doubt that would happen today but I was so grateful for his kindness.

But outside of the that, the ceremony is wonderful and definitely not to be missed.

When our original trip was planned I was not able to get tickets. At least this time they told you when they are released. I know I’m a little early but I didn’t want to miss out this trip

Enjoyed seeing this over a decade ago. Love the tradition and the history.

Recall our Beefeater guide was a Jimmy Cagney incarnate. An American couple in their 20’s was in our group. The young male was a complete twit. The young woman mortified. Kept trying to shush him.

Finally the Beefeater had enough and without touching the guy maneuvered him away from us and out of the Tower. The companion said “ thank you. “

We applauded the guide.

Following the end of the tour a few of us walked the young woman outside and across the road to the Tower Hill tube. She was grateful.

Barbara, thanks for posting this information!

Thank you for your FYI

I wanted tickets for December and set my alarm for today, November 1, to be ready at 4 am PST “in the first working day of the month for the following month at midday”. At 3:45 am I checked and they were already for sale (10:45 am London). We got our tickets for 12/18. Yeah! I’m glad I checked a little earlier however at 4:10 when I went back to bed they still had tickets.

I got up early today to check too, but I’m not going till April. Just curious, what device did you use.

I used my HP laptop but I was also able to check on my iPhone

Glad this came up, I am also going next April and wanted to test the process but forgot, now I can write myself a reminder to try this Dec 1st, Jan 2nd(?) and Feb 1st, then the real thing on Mar 1st ... just checked the website, all tickets for Dec are gone ... I did see the following: Tickets will be released on 01 November at 09.45 ... so it looks like I'll be starting my test at 2:45am (or 1:45am depending on moving clocks back and forth) ... hope everyone gets (or got) the date/time they want!

Glad you replied cause the website had said they were released midday. Now you’re reporting they start at 9:45 London time. I set a reminder in my phone and on my calendar.

it was one of the highlights of my vacation in London. There were some kids there who really enjoyed watching the Yeoman Warders. Seeing them walking by lantern was pretty atmospheric. But it will be weird to hear them called King Charles' keys.

Oh yeah, forgot about that. We are due to leave May 5, the day prior to the coronation. Should be an interesting week.

I did the Ceremony of the Keys in 2005 and it was really nice (I think I had to send an actual letter or something to get tickets, I got it for my entire group). I'm also going to be there in April so I guess I'll set an alarm for March 1st!

So I meant to do another 'test' on Jan 1st (or 2nd) to see what time (central) tickets actually became available but forgot (again) ... did anyone try it? (and what were your results) ... I have one more test date (Feb 1st) before the real thing on March 1st for my trip in April ... I just looked and saw there were still some tickets available in February on several Mondays and Tuesdays ... thanks.

Oops I did it again ... forgot to check on 2/1 what time tickets went on sale for March ... that was my last chance at testing, so am hoping someone else tried and found out what time they went on sale ... I just checked (2 days after they became available) and there are 8 days with availability left in March so even if I don't hit the time exactly, I should get my date (unless I forget again) ... thanks.

Barbara, did you get tkts? We are going to London as well for 12 days in the fall and I would also like to get tkts for the Keys ceremony.

I did another test this past Wednesday, March 1. I awoke at 5:00 am and tried to logon - nothing. 6:00 am nothing yet. 6:30 I got the box with a queue # then it disappeared. I tried again. Nothing. Then it dawned on me - I was using my iPad mini after I had warned everyone above I had problems. I ran downstairs to my computer and woohoo I was in. I waited about 15 minutes for my number to come up and tickets were available for every day.

I have to purchase my tickets on March 1st. Will set a reminder in my phone again. Will begin at 6:00 New York time.
PS - is this part of the fun of planning, not sure

Thanks Barbara, looks like I'll start banging away on my laptop around 5am central and won't stop until I (hopefully) get them ...

is this part of the fun of planning, not sure

I wouldn't call it fun, but definitely one of the many challenges when planning

It looks like many people have done a lot of "testing" on when tickets become available and what devices they work on.

Would anyone happen to know if Saturday is considered "a working day". I am planning on purchasing tickets for a May 2023 date, which means they would go on sale April 1st, but that is a Saturday. Will tickets become available for sale on Saturday or do I need to wait until Monday, April 3rd to get May tickets?

No, Saturday is not considered a “working day” in the usual UK sense of the phrase.

Monday April 3rd approx 9am London time is when you should check ... don't know where you are so can't provide what time you should check ... figure out the time and start checking about 15 min before just in case they become available before 9am ... good luck.

Ignorant question... how do I check my cookies? Trying to get tickets for May. I was in a que this morning with a count down until could get tickets, but then couldn't click on anything on calendar. Wondering if it is the "cookies" issue.

you wouldn't get anything today - the tickets are released for the general public on the First day of the month. At the moment here in England it is about 10:30 pm. Usually the release is at around 9am.

Has anyone had success on 4/3/23? If so, at what time? It is past 9am London time already and I am still seeing the May dates blocked off.

Same! I have been checking for the past hour and nothing so far.

When you get through to ticketing the note now says

Ticket will be released on the first working day of the month for the following month at midday.

So try again then, in 90 minutes from now. I know it says 0900 elsewhere!!

Tickets for May went on sale at 11:00 London time. I was able to get my tickets around 11:30. There were still tickets available at that time.

Glad you got some! I went back to sleep and am in line waiting again. Fingers crossed there are still some tickets left.

Wow! 5 hours after being posted there are only 2 days in May with tickets available! I was lucky to get some right at 11am (London time). For those looking at this in the future: Saturday and Sunday are not considered “working days” and in the case of 4/3/23, the tickets went up at 11am London time.

So stressful and aggravating when your computer doesn’t cooperate. Hope it is worth all the trouble.

May is now sold out.

Just a small rant. I was ready to go at 0400. Kept an eye on the website while doing my regular stuff. When the tickets were released I went on and got in the queue. 1 hour later, my turn came up. Followed the instructions, but the link would only take me to the monthly calendar showing none of the dates yet available. (Little lines through each number). I kept trying to proceed until my 10 minutes ran out. So, I rejoined the queue, got a new number and was looking at a 30 minute wait. Same thing happened. At that point I just got dressed and got on with the day. Anyone else have a problem this morning, or it yet another example of the billions of negative ions flowing from my fingertips?

Very sorry some of you have had trouble. My go around is May 1, trying for June. I’m on the east coast as well, so I’m going to set my alarm for 0400, too.
I’m gearing myself up for any outcome really!

Am I reading it correctly that this month the online queue didn’t get going until 11:00 London time? What caused that? I had read in other threads it was always a 9:00 am opening.

They changed the wording on the site this month to say that tickets are now released at noon.
As in previous months they were released about 1 hour earlier than the stated time.
So next month it seems likely it will be a noon (for which read 11am) release rather than the previous 9 am release (which regularly seems to have been closer to 8am)

When I went on to get my tickets I experienced the blank calendar. I accidentally hit the back button and the dates showed up. Very frustrating.

@Wanderlust58 I did the same thing!

I woke up at 3:45am to get ready for the 4:00am (9:00am London) release. I entered the queue over and over again, waiting for the tickets to be released but only saw the calendar with the dates crossed out. I finally went back to bed and thankfully got up an hour later and was able to get tickets. They were released at 6:00am EST (11:00am London).

This is great info. So east coast time, I will try at 6am. Thank you!

I logged in at 445 CST and got right in to the queue. Then over the next 2.5 hours I entered the queue another 5 times, followed all of the advice about unblocking pop ups/ clearing the cache, and logged in on 3 different devices (iPhone, iPad and laptop) to no avail. Might have been one of the more frustrating experiences I have had in awhile. Now I am tired and have no tickets.

Might have been one of the more frustrating experiences I have had in awhile. Now I am tired and have no tickets.

Today is Bank Holiday Monday so tomorrow will be the first working day of the week.

(Incidentally when did this become a must-do for US tourists? I know no one in Britain who has ever attended, and the only reason I even know about the Ceremony of the Keys is from this forum… 😀)

Golden Girl, thanks for the verification about the Bank Holiday date. I heard about this from a friend who went and said it was so impressive, so that’s my motivation behind acting like a teenage Taylor Swift fan and getting up crazy early to score tickets! 😊 Good luck to those, should we call ourselves “Keysies”?, who are dedicated enough to seeing this ceremony that we’re pecking away at our keyboards before the birds start their morning songs!

That is good info to have - makes me feel less inept! 😂. And I got a great chuckle over my AM activities. Thank you Golden Girl!

It’s definately worth it to get up early. The Yoeman who explained all to us was a sweetheart and quite funny. After it was over he even stayed behind to answer questions. It’s just something different and fun being there in the evening.

I've been donkeys years ago when it was still quite a small affair. Then you mailed in for tickets and waited months for a reply.
After last month, when there was also uncertainty over the date of release, I decided not to reply, as whatever I wrote would have turned out to be wrong- either false hopes, or losing people tickets. Such is the lack of clarity over the release date.

Guys, what is the CUE?! I have looked at the HRP website for days and I cannot figure out a link / location to find tickets.... Help a girl out!

A queue is a line in which you wait- either physically or in our case, online. I am still only seeing a clickable link for the “ members only ceremony”. That will take me sometimes into a queue (the green bar moving across) but I don’t think that is the link non- members need. I’m thinking they haven’t been released yet.

Clare try tying in the search box on the main page “ceremony of the keys”. It will take you to another specified site. I think that is where the ticket option will be…. I hope!

So the queue will probably pop up directly on the site by the "members only" link? I think that's where I'm most nervous, that I'm looking in the wrong place...

It would make sense if there’s a box below or near where it says “ members only”. I’m not sure either, I hope this is where it is.

Mustlovedogs, good luck getting tickets. I'm still hopeful I'm in the right place, and if anybody else has insight let us know!

Good luck to you, too!

has anyone had any success entering the que. So far no link that I can see.

If you click on the 'members only' link, then on the next page there is a yellow button at bottom right which says 'Buy Tickets Online', that is what you want, then you enter the virtual queue.
Pretty counter-intuitive, but there you are.
Not that bookings seem to have opened yet, at 11.08 am, after you have waited!

Thanks isn31c! At least we know the entrance pathway to what is seeming to be “golden tickets”!

Good morning- anyone have luck yet getting tickets this AM?

no luck yet. Thought I was in a que waited 10 min then it showed only May which is sold out.

Nope, I haven't even seen an option to enter a queue yet... Still not 100% I'm looking in the right place!! It's right on the page that offers "members only" dates, right?

THANK YOU isn31c! Now I know where to be... still no luck! Fingers crossed for everybody!

Okay that is what I’m seeing as well (only May which is sold out) - when I advance the month to June all of the dates are in red with a line through them. I am beginning to think it was easier 20 years ago when I had to write a letter and send it to receive paper tickets 😂

Does anyone else find all of us doing this just a tad hysterical? 😂 maybe it’s my lack of sleep, but I’m having a chuckle rn. My sweet dog is just so confused with his morning routine being totally disrupted. Lol Best of luck everyone!

I am wondering if they actualy go on sale noon London time. I had read 11 but the website does say midday as opposed to a specific time.

Yes - I am totally with you! I feel like I did in college repeat dialing Ticketmaster for concert tickets! My cats are equally confused but happy to have early breakfast!

Mustlovedogs yup, 100% hysterical, but now I'm determined! My dogs are bleary-eyed looking at me too, we've been up since 4 AM :)

OK, I refreshed the page and the ONLY date I can see to book tickets is June 30th?! Is it happening in reverse?!

GOT EM! Go guys go!

just got in and was able to get a ticket. As of 5 min ago most dates are still green.
Good luck everyone.

Tickets became available at 604 Central Standard Time - so 1204 London time. Midday was correct! Hopefully everyone else was successful!

Keep getting oops something went wrong page 😩

Mustlovedogs, clear your cookies/cache under your settings for your browser, then try again!

Mustlovedogs - any luck?

Did the clear, closed everything, opened again. Tried desktop, iPad and phone. Really disappointed

Ugh. I had the same issue as mustlovedogs. 🤬

Been following along here for months. Trying now and getting same “oops” screen over & over. 😕

I just don’t understand this. I’m getting the oops page every time I hit the next button after adding tickets to the basket. Did the donation, hit next and every time on each device I get the “oops” page. Tried choosing different dates, closed down, cache and cookies clear…Maybe its not meant to be.

Mustlovedogs, I am having the same issue. I have seen the Ceremony several times, and it is excellent! I'm returning with a friend who has not been, and I know she will love it. I will shut my computer down, have a cup of tea, and regroup. I will then try again! It is very frustrating! Best of luck :-)

Switched to desktop, waited 30 mins in queue, chose green date, even added a donation…same “oops” page. I give Up. Been up & trying since 3am in California. I’m gonna get some sleep and start over in a couple hours I guess 🤷🏼‍♀️

I’m having a hard time as well. Something I didn’t consider - do you actually need to be a member and be logged in as such?

I was wondering about that as well. If so I’ll have to pass. Don’t see becoming one just for this one visit

Is the problem the Multi Factor Authentication, or some other issue, with your credit card.

No, I can’t even get to the payment page. Husband tried on his phone, as well. I get to the june calendar, select my date, punch the only time, wheel spins, then goes to how many tickets. Drop doen box, choose 3. Cluck on donation ( tried no donation as well). Hit next ( which I assume would be for payment) and every time an “oops this page does not exist “ message comes up.

Although I hate to give up after so much time invested, I’m about done, really. We’ve cleared everything. Shut down, booted up. Oh well. Sorry to have taken up so much thread space with my troubles!

I am getting the OOPS message on every device I try with (2 different cell phones, 2 computers, different browsers..) Allowed cookies, etc. Got up at 3:45am here in California. Been trying for over 2 hours. Super frustrating. Any advice? Thanks!

I am getting the same "oops" message. All days are still green except the 1st (yellow), 29th (black), and 30th (yellow) and the 18th (red dashed). I had three in my basket for 06/13 and could not check out - then the option to check out disappeared and June went back to what it looked like before they opened for tickets (red dashes through all dates).

I am back in the queue on my phone...hopefully that will work.

My husband and I have been trying from separate computers from different locations and have experienced the same as those posters above. I’m in the queue again, but just now I see a red bar with a note saying tickets are temporarily unavailable on this other page:

https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/whats-on/ceremony-of-the-keys/

Maybe they’re having technical issues. I’m going to check back thru the day as I’m able.

I’ve been following this all morning. Have had the same problems as everyone else. Just got in line again and was able to purchase tickets. At this moment there are a few green days left but mostly yellow and a couple of red and black. Try again!

I don't know when ticket sales opened up this morning; stayed up until 1:45 AM waiting. Got up at 6:15, waited over an hour but was able to get June tickets. There were still many slots open in June at this point - the most on the 22nd. Good Luck

After all the issues I just got ‘em! Try again!!

I just got mine too! They are going fast so if this is a must-do, don't wait. So stressful!

Finally 😊 this process about broke me, but we’re set! Can’t wait for our trip and all the experiences- but this one will definitely be memorable- even before we get there! Thanks to all who were in this discussion- I hope everyone can be successful in due time!

I also managed to get tickets around 11:45 AM EST. We had two evenings available in London, and only one of them still had tickets, so i fell lucky that it worked out!

So Happy everyone was able to get their tickets. Even my husband, who kept asking, ‘why are we doing this’ was impressed.

After waking up at 3:45 AM in California and trying for 3 hours, I had to start my day with my kiddos, and by the time they wrote back to me that the tech problems were fixed, June was all sold out. Such a bummer. Glad that some folks were able to get tix! Please let us know how it is! I'll strategize even better for my next trip to London. :0)

Mustlovedogs so glad you got your tickets! I gave up at 4 am Alaska time—hadn’t gone to bed. Can’t decide if I’m frustrated that the technical issue was on their end or relieved that it wasn’t me! Enjoy your visit!

AK Jo, thank you, but I wish I could share! We got very lucky. I had resigned myself to just moving on with the day and had parked at the grocery store when my husband texted me saying he had gotten into line after the fix. He feels like the he should be coronated along with Charles now lol. Scored big points with the kids, especially the history fanatic!

I hope anyone who wants to go, can see it at some point. I’m hoping to write a trip report when we return and share our thoughts of this event.

Thanks for this thread. Anyone else waking up for July tickets?

Is anyone trying to get tickets today for July? I'm having similar issues as above, getting in the queue but then all the July dates have the red line through them. Fingers crossed!

It's currently 1136 in the UK and the front page actually says a 12 noon release, and states "Visitors waiting on the booking page may be returned to the queue at this time."
So getting in to the queue on that page https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/whats-on/member-only-ceremony-of-the-keys/ before 12 noon may or may not be a useful thing to do!

Reading through comments it looks like tickets were released as early as 10 am London time in the past. I had hoped that getting in the queue meant that tickets were available but it appears that they are not yet. I'll wait until noon London time but then need to go back to sleep and keep my fingers crossed for the morning here. It's 3:41 am.

I’m on the site now but they only have dates up to the 11th. I’m looking for the last week of July. Gutted.

Ok it opened up with more. Go go go!

For anyone who comes across this for a later month, tickets for July went on sale exactly at noon London time on 6/1. I had joined the queue a little bit before noon (I don't remember exactly how much time because it's 4 am here and I'm tired). I wasn't sure if this was the way to go but it worked for me! The July dates had the red line through them. When I refreshed exactly at 4 am, the dates started opening up and within a few minutes, the date that I wanted opened.

There are several times that you have to click to a next page and the wait time while the browser was spinning was stressful because the timer on your cart is ticking down but I had plenty of time to input my information and get tickets. Good luck everyone!

FYI, I got in the queue at 6 am NYC time and kept refreshing. At exactly 7 am tickets opened up. First it was only the first week in July and then a few minutes later the entire month. I was able to log on with my Iphone and I Pad. We got tickets for late July! Good luck everyone.

This might be a total newbie question, but can I use the "members-only" link from a few posts up to get in, even if I am not a member? Thank you to any "keysies" who answer :)

I'm afraid that the members only link is only for members (like me). The tickets offered to members are only a few times a year, on members only nights, and members have to log in.

It is, it's just the odd way the Tower does it.

Note that tickets for August are expected to be released at 12 noon on Monday 3 July, as that is the first WORKING day of the month Saturday 1 July does not count as a working day.

Hello! Thank you for this great info. I'll be trying on July 3 for my trip in August.

What is the proper link to buy tickets (please)? I have this page: https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/whats-on/ceremony-of-the-keys/#gs.2ktgjp but there is no link to buy tickets there. However, there is a link on this page to a members only page (I'm not a member) and on that page: https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/whats-on/member-only-ceremony-of-the-keys/#gs.2ktggn there is a link. Is that the one to use, or will a link appear on the first page?

Thank you!
Jason

The link doesn't show when you can't buy - only when you can

Thanks. I got em! I got on the Queue at 7am New York Time, and got in to buy them at 7:35.

Tix still available, as of last queue wait 15 minutes ago.
Thanks all

I got tickets earlier today as well. I used the members-only link: https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/whats-on/member-only-ceremony-of-the-keys/#gs.2ktggn. I used the Chrome browser on my desktop computer. I clicked on the buy tickets online yellow button on the lower right at 6:45 New York time and was notified I was entering the queue and was 40th in line to purchase tickets. The August tickets were not up yet when I got in so I kept refreshing. At exactly 7am New York time, I refreshed and was notified I was 130th in line and had to wait 10 minutes. I actually ended up waiting 22 minutes before getting in. It took forever for the pages to load.

Finally, I got to the calendar, and my date (on a Wednesday) was green, indicating there was good availability. Once I clicked on the date, selected the time and number and my tickets were in the cart, the timer indicating I had 15 minutes to purchase them started counting down. Everything was super slow, and I ended up with only 5 minutes left on the timer before I got all my info in. I pressed the final purchase button, and my confirmation page was not loading. Luckily, I checked my email inbox and the transaction went through and my ticket download was linked in the email. I was doing this simultaneously on my phone using the Safari browser as a backup, and was able to get in about 5 minutes after I got in on my desktop. However, the page timed out on my phone after the tickets were in my cart, and there was no way for me to reload or get back in the queue. I would definitely do this on two or more devices, just in case you time out or have other technical difficulties.

Definitely get up early to get in line at exactly 7am, especially if you have a limited number of nights when you can go (we could only go on one specific night). I just checked at 11:15, and there are only 8 days left with low availability. All the days had 4 or fewer tickets left. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to help. It was a stressful experience, and this is coming from a mom who also waited in a queue to get her kid Taylor Swift tickets.