London Pass

Is there a question in there somewhere?

Nigel, they asked if they can skip the line at Westminster Abbey using the London Pass.

You may want to read this before you consider the London Pass:
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g186338-i17-k7690019-o10-The_London_Pass_Not_a_good_idea-London_England.html

Here's the London Pass's own information on the subject: https://www.londonpass.com/how-it-works/skip-the-lines.html

As you see, you only get skip the line privileges at six attractions:

Tower Bridge Exhibition
St. Paul's Cathedral
Hampton Court Palace
London Zoo
London Bridge Experience
Kew Gardens

So, you can't skip the lines at Westminster Abbey. You also can't skip them at the Churchill War Rooms, which these days have substantial lines.

The London Pass sounds like a better idea than it actually is. Unless you are seeing two or three of the covered attractions every day of its validity, it doesn't pay off. And it's hard to see that many in a day, because many of them take some time to see properly. That's not including the fact that many other top attractions are free.

There are only a few attractions where there's a separate line for LP entry. The rest of them, the line you get to skip is the line to buy tickets. There are still lines for security regardless.

In general, the London Pass is only worth considering for a solo traveler, buying the pass at a discount at one of their frequent sales, and for a longer amount of time. That way, the cost per day is low enough that you'd only need to hit one expensive attraction per day.

Some of the drawbacks is that it includes a lot of sights that many would consider to be second tier, Also, some of the included sights are spread quite far out. For example, it includes Wimbledon, Wembley, as well as a couple of the soccer stadiums, but those are quite far away from the centrally located hotels and really only worth touring if you've got a strong interest.

I'll also add that seeing major attractions such as St. Paul's, Westminster Abbey, and the Tower of London can be quite tiring with the crowds. I've found that mixing things up works best for me. I might combine a day with Westminster Abbey in the morning, a London Walk in the afternoon, and a show at night. That also leaves enough time for a couple of pints of beer at a pub or perhaps a little shopping. I find it exhausting going from one major sight to another, especially doing that in consecutive days.

My experience is that

I have never experienced a line at St. Paul's Cathedral. I strongly recommend the nearly free guided tour of the Cathedral. The bells, other than the clock bell and the Service bell, won't be ringing again until November due to major repairs.

I have never experienced an unreasonable queue at Hampton Court Palace, but it does get very busy during the annual (July) RHS Flower Show.

I haven't been to London Zoo since I was in short trousers so know nothing about queues there.

I haven't been to London Bridge Experience so no knowledge there.

As a regular visitor to Kew Gardens I have only seen short or non-existent queues there, usually the queues at opening time dissipate quickly.

Another point to remember, don't let the pass drive your itinerary. If I was going to San Diego, I'd certainly see the zoo again But, I have had no compelling reason to see London zoo. I'm sure it is fine, but with so much else to see and most of it unique to Europe/the UK/London, I wouldn't be heading there.

I'd read a guidebook or two, plan what you want to see, and then see if the London Pass works.

You can skip the ticket line at Westminster Abbey by purchasing your entrance ticket online from the Abbey's website. Then you can sign up for the Verger Tour or use the audio guide. Westminster Abbey is amazing and not to be missed IMHO.

As with the Paris Pass I think you need to sit down and do the math. If you're going to hit several sites over 3 or more days then the Pass is the way to go. A difference could be that with the Paris Pass it seems we saved a lot of time avoiding ticketing queues.

We definitely saved a lot of money with the Paris Pass.

We did a four day London Pass from Costco- it was a good deal when I bought it (I got it at least 6 months in advance). We had received some Chrismtas money, so that's how we used it. We came out pretty much even, compared to buying tickets separately. We went to The Royal Mews (really just went there because it was part of the pass and I wanted to go to Buckingham Palace), Tower of London, Windsor, Westminster Abbey, the Thames River Cruise. I think that's all we had time for (although I kind of feel we did one more thing that I can't remember right now)--BUT we sacrificed one of the days to go to Highclere Castle (not part of the pass). If we had used all 4 days I would have felt we had gotten a good deal.

The line was an hour wait for Westminster and a good 3 hours for Churchill War Rooms. We ditched the war rooms but I insisted we wait at Westminster (after having to sit through an hour of complaining, in the end they agreed it was worth it).

I was disappointed that we had to still wait in line, but for planning purposes, it was nice not having to book each ticket individually. The London Pass left us flexibility, so we could decide what to do more last minute.