Museum Pass; Paris PassLib or Paris Pass; Should we forgo or buy one . . . dilemma

We always buy the Museum Pass whne we travel to Paris. It isn’t so much about saving money but rather about skipping long lines.

First , the Cathedral of Notre Dame is FREE , it's the Towers of Notre Dame that have a fee . Are you going to climb the towers ?

Secondly I personally don't like the Batobus for getting around at all ! It only goes up and done the river so you still need to take metro or walk to various sites . Just take a Seine cruise , no need to prepurchae tickets for that .

Please note that while the Museum Pass does gain you entry to Versailles it does not allow you to skip the often painfully long security line , so get to Versailles before it opens !!!! Or purchase the Kings Apartment tour on the Versailles website , it's an additional 7-8 euros on top of Museum Pass but it does get you a timed entry in addition to being able to take a small group tour into areas of the chateau the rest of the public does not have access to .

Honestly all you need is a Museum Pass and one carnet of metro tickets for each of you , a carnet is simply 10 one way tickets good for metro or bus , sold at a discount to buying singly , think it's just over 14 euros now .

The museum pass is a great value that will also change your travel experience.

The others, including what looks like a boat pass (?), cost more than they are worth.

The Batobus is slow, and expensive for what you get.
The best bet is a Navigo Decouverte card. Bring sure to bring photos.
No free bus tickets.
The Museum Pass does not come with free bus tickets. You have to decide which museums you want to visit.
http://en.parismuseumpass.com

Yes Museum Pass and carnets of Metro/bus tickets. You can even buy three carnets (30 tickets) at first, sharing them amongst yourselves, and then buy another carnet if your group needs more rides. Buy RER tickets to Versailles separately.
Seine boat is not covered by the pass.

during our 3 days in Paris.

How many nights are you spending in Paris? If your 3 days includes only 2 nights, then you only have 1 full day in the city. You would need to stay 4 nights to have 3 full days in Paris.

These details are very important because if you have only 1 full day in Paris, it´s unlikely you´ll have time to visit all of the locations on your list. Versailles alone takes most of 1 entire day.

Also consider transportation costs. The Paris Visite (metro transportation) included in the very overpriced Paris Pass and the equally overpriced PassLib is only valid for zones 1-3 which excludes the airports and Versailles. How are you arriving and departing from Paris and what days of the week will you stay? This is important information when determining overall costs.

As has already been suggested, avoid the bateau bus. It´s a very inefficient and costly way to travel Paris. Certainly consider a Seine boat cruise. Vedettes du Pont Neuf sells tickets at 12€ if you purchase them on line. It´s a fascinating way to see Paris and get an overview of the city in only an hour.

Notre Dame is free to enter. The 10€ is if you want to climb the bell tower and there is a new admission procedure eliminating the strategic advantage of the museum pass. It´s not clear that you have time to climb the bell tower.

FTE= Fast Track Entry

There really is no such thing as Fast Track Entry. This is a marketing tool to entice you to overly spend for the Paris Pass. The Fast Track Entry portion is the Paris Museum Pass sold as part of the Paris Pass and Parislib. All that this represents is prepaid admission which gets you past the ticket lines. Generally however, it is the security lines which are long and time consuming and you´ll still be waiting there. Yes, the museum pass gets you past the ticket lines, but so does purchasing tickets on a museum´s own website without paying for the museum pass.

Take another look at your itinerary and the time you have available. Reevaluate what you are paying for transportation costs, all transportation costs. You may find that you´ll save a lot of money by not buying these over hyped passes.

There really is no such thing as Fast Track Entry

There is at the Musee d'Orsay, where a pass will allow you to join a shorter security line to the right of the main one (which can get extremely long at busy times). The same arrangement happens at the Orangerie, although the last time I went there the "normal" and "passholder" security lines were much the same length.

I tend to travel like Pat, a museum pass and a metro carnet. That said, it's worth looking at what is included and ask yourself if it's better than just buying a ticket for each place? If you don't get a pass, it's still possible to prepurchase your tickets for the big sights online so you only have to go through security.

There is at the Musee d'Orsay, where a pass will allow you to join a shorter security line to the right of the main one

As an advance ticket holder I have also used the shorter security lines, access is not unique to pass holders.

No one should purchase the Paris Pass but many people who purchase the museum pass probably spend more money than they need spend.

a museum pass and a metro carnet.

When using the English language kiosks to purchase tickets, you´ll never see the word carnet displayed anywhere.

Good catch, Tocard -- no "carnet" listed on the screen, but there is an option to buy 10 t+ tickets at a reduced price. (And younger transit employees may not even recognize the term.)

I'll just add one plus for the Museum Pass that I don't think anyone has mentioned. I'm not sure when you are traveling but if it's a time when there are fewer tourists, museums in general have nice toilets. You can visit the same museum multiple times with the museum pass so ~sometimes~ they are convenient for a quick comfort stop. Not the Louvre or d'Orsay but I've made multiple stops at The Orangerie if there are no lines as well as the Cluny.

**Note the Cluny is closed March to or through July 2018

there is an option to buy 10 t+ tickets at a reduced price.

Yes there is such an option but are you referring to the reduced price which applies only to those under 10 years of age or are you referring to the booklet price of 10 tickets?

If you want to purchase 10 of any type of ticket, the screen will display booklet of and it could be tickets t+ or it could be 10 tickets from Paris to CDG or 10 tickets from Paris to Marne-la-Vallée; all sold at a discounted group price.

Tocard makes an important point. Never buy products for transport listed as 'reduced price' as those are only available to people who are qualified e.g. for tourists it would be children 4-9. The 10 ticket set does include a 20% or so reduction in price but it isn't billed as 'reduction'.

I usually buy my carpets from Tabaccs , they will have a transport symbol in the window if they sell them . Price is same . And they've already known exactly what a carnet means there .

Ps they are not in a booklet , they are simply ten loose tickets , wrapped in plastic .

For just 3 days, I'd buy tickets - "t - tickets" - that anyone can share.
Be sure to keep them when you are on the street level, then toss.

You can easily buy metro tickets including in groups of ten from machines in the metro; they take US chip/sig cards, you just hit continue or wait when they ask for the PIN and it will process for the small amount of money involved in buying a carnet of tickets. (someone has reported that with the weak dollar, the monthly charge for a Navigo is beyond the limit for cards without PINs in the French system). The machine just spits out 10 individual tickets.

If any of you are on the fence about going to Versailles, then those people should probably pass on it. For those of you who are enthusiastic, go. Just know that it will be unpleasantly crowded.

Totally agree with Karen..

Versailles in season is unpleasantly crowded in palace.. and those only going because they think "they should" or because its on a top sights list.. should really skip it..
I love the history so I just put up with the wriggling smelly mass of humanity funneled through the palace.

One good thing is the estate is so huge its never crowded

I've been to Paris three times and still haven't visited Versailles because I can't stand crowds. If you don't have a lot of time in Paris, I would skip it in favor of another attraction.