Tower of London Ceremony of the Keys tickets on sale on the first

Hi, I just posted something about this, too! https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/ceremony-of-the-keys-new-updated-process

Yeah I saw your post when I did mine. Yours post is much better then mine.

No, it's not! They both give good info about getting the tickets--and yours had some info that mine did not!

Guess you and I had the same idea at the same time! :) I'm excited about getting my ticket - I was there in 1996 (when you had to mail a request for tickets) and have been looking forward to going there again! Enjoy London!

Today is March first and on the website it doesn't look as if April tickets can be purchased? I checked and it doesn't seem to be a bank holiday?

We are going in May and I will be online at 10am EST April 2nd as April 1st is a bank holiday. I'm curious as to why April tickets seem not to have gone on sale yet?

From the website-

April’s tickets will be released at the beginning of March at 16:00 on the first working day of the month, unless it is a Friday, then it will released be the following Monday.

Thus Monday 4 March is the on sale date

I see the que for tickets is about to open if any wants tickets.

https://hrpuk.queue-it.net/?c=hrpuk&e=cotkmarch&t=https%3A%2F%2Ftickets.hrp.org.uk%2Fhrp_b2c%2Fpalace.html%3Feventcode%3DTKEY&cid=en-GB

Thank you both for your posts! This really helps us out for May. This is our 3rd time to London so we were not going to do the Tower of London but we have never done the Ceremony of the Keys, so that would be fun!

So if I am interpreting this right, May will open up on Tuesday April 2, because Monday, April 1 is Easter Monday?
So glad you both got your tickets, I noticed April is now sold out!

I just noticed more tickets are available this morning for April!

A question to those that have done the Ceremony of the Keys:

Would one want to visit the Tower on a separate visit as well? Or does the Ceremony give one enough of a feel for the Tower?

I've been to the Tower on a few occasions, but my next visit will be with my brother, who's never been to London. Would a first-timer benefit from visiting the Tower during the day as well as the Ceremony? Or is one or the other sufficient?

The tickets for May were just released!
We are so excited we got our first choice. Thanks for all of the advice from both of you!

A question to those that have done the Ceremony of the Keys:

Would one want to visit the Tower on a separate visit as well? Or does the Ceremony give one enough of a feel for the Tower?

Separate visit for sure.

I was on a (members only - we only had 53 on the experience) Ceremony of the Keys a week ago. The lighting is very subdued, phones must be off, no photos. The Chief Yeoman Warder only has the light of a single candle to guide him, and it was easy to pick out the candle light from several dozens of metres away. The whole event only takes half an hour, and the ceremony only half that time. You cannot go walkabout, you are near the Traitors Gate most of the time, and move up the hill towards the Green but only half way. Then home and to bed.

To experience the Tower you need 2 or 3 hours, you need to move around, you need to experience.

Alan--I visit the Tower on every trip, and last September was lucky enough to get a Ceremony of the Keys ticket--due to my itinerary that meant a visit in the morning and then later that night...no such thing as too much time at the Tower for me! You are tightly controlled for the Ceremony, and no pictures are allowed until the very end when the Yeoman Warder says so. I'm crazy about the ravens and got a picture of a mated pair sitting on the wall (they are not supposed to be out at night), which really made the whole experience very special for me.