Fewer Paris tourists = no need to buy 'skip the line' passes?

A lot of the sites require scheduled appointment times with or without a Pass so the old "skip the line" I think is going away and everyone still goes through the same security to enter the site. As for the Museum Pass, it used to be a good thing when you could use it multiple times for the same museum. Like visiting the Louvre three different days & times with a week long Pass, but now my understanding is there are no more repeat visits. When I used it in the past I compared the price of it & the price of the sites I was visiting, it did work out better with the Pass. Again, in 2016 I could visit a museum multiple times with it. This Nov/Dec visit I just purchased my timed tickets at the sites I am planning to visit.

Enjoy your trip.

As Brushtim said, the way the Paris Museum pass has done away with multiple visits to the same museum, it's value has decreased. IMO the Paris City Pass was never a good deal. But you do need advance reservations at many places, so the so called "skip the line" tickets are still required in those instances.

I agree with brushtim. I think you have to evaluate which sites you are going to and run the numbers. What museums are you planning to see? What days of the week will you be there? Asking that because big museums are closed one day a week and that is usually either Monday or Tuesday. The City of Paris Museums are all free but are also all closed on Mondays.

The place where there used to be long lines, Musee d'Orsay, had no lines when I was there in October with a timed entry. Even without the timed entry there was no line at the ticket counter which was a complete surprise.

The Louvre, which I visited 3 times, once with a Museum Pass and twice with a regular timed admission ticket had lines one out of the 3 times (a Sunday). With this location I think it's just better to go ahead and buy a timed entry and not have to mess with trying to make the online timed reservation with the Museum Pass.

I was traveling with a friend early in my trip and she had leftover Museum Passes from a previously planned trip which is why we used them. We did not get our money's worth out of them as we visited some non-museum pass sights on days when we were covered by the pass. We did do the Louvre, the Orangerie and the Rodin Museum on the pass.

I was on my own for another 2 weeks and did not get the Museum Pass for any of those days. I knew I wanted to do repeat visits to the Louvre which a first timer probably will not want to do but the Museum Pass now restricts you to one visit to each museum for each pass (or purchased timed entry ticket). That also means you can't leave the museum for lunch and return in the afternoon to finish up your visit.

Just caught up on your other thread and see that you are going to be in Paris Dec 21-25. All museums except the Jacquemart-Andre are closed Christmas Day and it's not covered by the Museum Pass.

Still think it would be a good idea for you to share what museums you think you might visit but even then only a 2-day pass is likely to be of benefit. The 2 day pass is actually good for 48 hours so it is possible that you can use it for parts of 3 days. The time clock starts when you go thru the ticket barrier at your first sight...so if that is, say, noon on Day 1 you could potentially enter another museum at 930 on day 3 and still be within the 48 hours. That pass is 52E.

Thanks everyone!

We definitely plan to spend a good portion of time at the Louvre and would like to see Museum d’Orsay. Other spots would be the Army Museum, the catacombs, perhaps the Musee Carnavalet.

there is no such thing as a 'skip the line ticket' -- some place have always sold tickets ahead and of course you skip the ticket line and use the security line for those with tickets.

Now virtually everything including free sites like the Carnavalet requires a timed reservation so this is a moot point. If you have a Museum Pass you still will need a reservation most places. And we found places like the Louis Vuitton fondation and the Louvre and the Hotel de la Marine sold out a day or two ahead -- so you need to do a bit of advance arranging.

Spending "a good portion of time" at the Louvre will make it less likely you'll come out ahead on a pass. The undiscounted entry fee for the Louvre is 17 euros. The museum pass is 52 euros for 48 hours. Will you get 35 euros' worth of value from it in the time remaining after you've seen the Louvre and any non-covered (or free) sights?

Well, neither the Catacombs nor the Carnavalet is covered by the museum pass (in any event the Carnavalet itself is free, although you pay for certain specific exhibitions, like the Proust exhibition when it opens in mid-December if you want to see that).

Based on acraven's calculation and your statement of what you want to see, you're then basically looking at €35 to go to the Orsay and the Army Museum. You can definitely get to those two for cheaper than €35.

The best way to get tix is still at FNAC, oui?

“The best way to get tix is still at FNAC, oui?”

Do you mean the Museum Pass? Actually when I was buying at least 1 if not 2 every trip I picked them up at the Tabac down the street from my hotel.

Right now, with some museums having fewer visitors it may be just as easy picking it up at your first museum IF it’s one of the smaller ones.

If you mean individual tickets to museums, it’s easiest to purchase online. Make sure you screenshot the ticket so you don’t have to connect to wifi or have data to bring it up.

The best way to get tickets is on line and display them on your phone. I am never an early adopter and was perhaps the last person on the planet to have a cell phone and even I had all my tickets in October on my phone. I have an Iphone and put the tickets in the notes folder and it worked perfectly.

On the Museum Pass -- is the 48 hours a new thing? IN the past it was 2 days and it meant calendar days. So if you used it Thursday evening it was done Friday evening. The Museum Pass used to be convenient if you wanted to revisit museums as it had unlimited entries. Now you get one entry which for me at least makes it useless and overpriced. And it provides no entrance benefits even before COVID that just having a ticket doesn't also provide.

"On the Museum Pass -- is the 48 hours a new thing? IN the past it was 2 days and it meant calendar days."

Well, new-ish. It started in the summer of 2019 (remember that July - Louvre strikes because they were allowing too many in?) when the newest passes came out. Instead of 2/4/6 days, it was changed to 48/96/144 hours. All passes were encoded with a bar code so are scanned at entry to a museum instead of having someone examine it. No need to put your name, first day of use, etc on the back. I'd bought mine at Musee des Arts et Metiers and the sales person patiently explained that it was now a certain # of hours and that yes, on the last day I could go to more museums as long as I entered before noon, which was the time I was going thru the turnstile there.

https://www.parismuseumpass.fr/t-en

Also, having them scanned also keeps track of only one entry per museum.

If you plan on the Museé d'Orsay, there is a combo ticket that includes the Orangerie (Monet waterlilies murals) for only a little more.

that is great that the pass is now hours rather than days. Most of the changes, notably only one visit per museum, have made the pass much less desirable. I would never buy it now if I were a new tourist unless I planned to do a lot of short visits. In the past you could use it for several short visits to an overwhelming museum like the Louvre. Now if you want to see the Louvre you either need to buy tickets over and over or do a death march day at the museum. Neither of those fits the pass. And since you can reserve tickets on line for museums, it will be rare that the pass offers any advantage at all.

it will be rare that the pass offers any advantage at all.

I certainly agree with this sentiment. The phrases skip the line or priority tickets are nothing other than marketing tools attracting those with the hope of a good deal yet those lacking either the time or desire to investigate exactly that for which they are paying.

I don't believe that Paris has the traps that other cities have to draw in tourist dollars, but on the whole, I´d give the museum (and other) passes, the pass.

I disagree with some of the sentiment regarding the Paris Museum Pass. The Orsay, for example, did not require a timed ticket since I had the PMP, I walked right in (Thursday, 630-ish) (and I was in Paris last month, ftr). Same with Rodin and the Pantheon (where I bought the PMP), no timed ticket required.

You have to dig into those museum's websites to find that this is allowable, but they were last month. The others I went to (Louvre, Versailles, St Chapelle, Conciergerie, did still require timed ticket in advance w the PMP).