Paris museum pass not working, July, 2019

Which line won't they let you skip - the ticket purchase line or the security line. Nobody skips the security line.

The Museum Pass has never let people skip the line at Versailles. Not at Ste. Chapelle either. It gives entry but no line priority.

The Louvre thing is new -- we have never seen it closed to walk up ticket purchases before. Apparently they are now overwhelmed with tourists and have to limit entry. Sorry to see that.

The Louvre situation sounds like what was going on a month or so ago, when employees were striking over working conditions. I believe the museum was totally closed at least one day and was admitting only ticket-holders on another.

Additionally, there is a specific line at the Louvre for people with passes or pre-purchased tickets WITHOUT a reserved time slot. Was it possible that you tried to enter in the wrong line? And yes, security queues can be long and no one can skip them; this is particularly true at Versailles, and the pass doesn't cover Musical Fountains Shows or Musical Gardens. It's often recommended to just buy a timed-entry ticket or tour for that one to get around the longest lines.

https://www.louvre.fr/en/hours-admission-directions/safety-advice#tabs

I do see that buying advance tickets through the Louvre website now requires choosing a specific day and time slot, and something appears to be going on with the Museum Pass website, which is almost completely devoid of information at the moment. Hmmmmm.....

FWIW. most museums covered by the Pass have separate security lines for pass holders including the Louvre. Usually no ticket at all is needed to enter at the Carrousel entrance as many people enter there to go to the bookstore or cafeteria without entering the museum so this is quite unusual.

Right now there is a message on the front page of the Louvre website saying that they are extremely busy and access without prebooked tickets is not guaranteed.

I have read more than one report this summer of the Louvre telling both museum pass and walk up guests "too bad" we are full. I am buying a timed ticket to an exhibit this fall and then will get a Museum Pass for the remaining days of my trip and just not use it at the Lourvre if they are still in this mode.

Thanks Philip for searching for a confirmation that backs 5haddad’s post. I think we wanted to be sure there wasn’t a misunderstanding or error. Indeed, he heard right. That’s quite a development.

Wonderful, yes the Museum Pass website seems to be "down". Hopefully this resolves itself soon.

Thank you all for your helpful replies. Wednesday evening we were turned away from both entrances at the Louvre (mall and front of museum) with our Paris Museum pass. Their response was there were too many people inside and only those with online tickets could enter. I am not sure if the online tickets accepted were timed reservations or not. The closing time that evening was 9:45 pm and we were turned away around 7pm. We waited for an hour to see if they might start letting pass holders in but they did not. Many folks were upset. Today we tried the inside mall entrance again and were told we could not enter there with our museum pass. We went above to the front entrance and finally walked in after an hour and a half wait in the museum pass line. We were thankful to get in😊 This was our experience over the past few days.

Oh man, that sucks! Thanks for sharing your experience! It seems the necessity of pre-bought tickets is getting to be more and more of a reality these days!

We had the same experience at the Louvre last night, so we woke our teens up in time to be in line at 8:30 am. It was an excellent choice and we got right in.

Tonight we were at the Pompidou Center for late closing and it was very easy to get in. The museum was not at all crowded. (I had wanted to do Orsay for late closing, but got scared off by our attempt at the Louvre. So we'll get the teens up again tomorrow morning to be at Orsay when it opens.)

We were also "turned away" from the mall entrance back in May, but it was a language barrier and the guard indicated that the pass-holders line upstairs would be shorter to get to the security line. I think the gentleman thought that I was hoping to skip the security line with my pass.

Wow, sorry to hear some holders of what has been a terrific pass are having some difficulties.:O(

I just pulled the Paris Museum Pass website up again and it is STILL showing almost no information. That's very weird and makes me wonder if there could be some changes afoot? Or maybe not. I don't think it's a problem with my browser?

http://en.parismuseumpass.com

Kathy,
When I used your link, to access information I had to click on Buy in upper right corner; then at the bottom of the next page, click on Buy with Paris visitor office. The full description then shows.

What I did notice in the full description is that multiple visits to the same sight are not allowed...many people on the forum have mentioned that repeated visits to the Louvre for example were allowed. Is this something new?

Also further along, there was a longer section on security procedures and how access could be limited for “security reasons”. Perhaps a way to vaguely decline responsibility if a site chooses to give pass holders a lower priority during busy times? Was this language always there?

I wonder if the Paris Museum Pass website is in the process of being migrated to the Parisinfo website.

Thanks to all for the updated information. Planning to visit the Louvre in mid-August - I was originally going to use MP to get in, but I think I've talked myself into getting an online/timed ticket to avoid any challenges!

Multiple visits have always been allowed; it is the pass's most useful feature. So it does appear that changes are in the works which will greatly diminish the usefulness of the pass. Multiple entries on one ticket were also allowed with the Louvre entry ticket e.g. you could come in the morning and then leave for lunch and then return. Entry to the secure area did not require a ticket, which was checked at the wings. So it looks like the Louvre may also be busy making itself less convenient and accessible.

Things change. This one is not for the better for tourists.

An exposé on French TV last year showed how tickets were being transferred up to four times a day by some tour agencies leading groups from one particular well-known country. Example: group 1 enters to see the biggies. Upon leaving, the group 1 guide collects the tixs and passes the tixs to the group 2 guide, which then leads his group into the Louvre two hours after group 1. And so on all day. We saw only one country’s groups on TV, but there are certainly more.

Maybe the tickets are now numbered. After all, timed tickets for general entry is a recent innovation, too.

Interesting about the language restricting to one entry per site. It also means the sites will have to have electronic readers for the museum cards to enforce this. At some museums (I'm thinking Orangerie and occasionally d'Orsay) the door attendant just looks at the pass to see the date and has not scanned anything. Another museum they had a sheet of bar codes they scanned, not the actual Museum Pass.

It will also be interesting to see how they handle this at the Louvre as many of us have found it easier to go from wing to wing by going back thru the main entrance hall so that is a separate entrance for each wing...if that makes sense.

I am going to be so disappointed if it means 1 entry per museum. For myself I've found that several short visits to the Louvre works better than one long one plus I have often popped in to the Orangerie to use their toilet facilities.

And Barbara, thanks for the workaround to get to the major sites list again. The PMP website has been so frustrating.

Bets - very interesting! Yes, that kind of abuse would be very frustrating.

The story of the tour group abuse sounds likely. We have encountered tour groups from a particularly notorious country that violate all the civilized norms including literally crashing en masse into the head of a line boarding the hydrofoil from Peterhof to Petersburg. If there has been systematic abuse of the multiple entries allowed on Louvre tickets then I can see the Louvre shutting that down; this kind of abuse is always 'why we can't have nice things.' Very disappointing. We always make multiple entries to the Louvre during the day when we have tickets to the Louvre -- sad that jerks have upended that.

When I used your link, to access information I had to click on Buy in
upper right corner; then at the bottom of the next page, click on Buy
with Paris visitor office. The full description then shows.

Thanks for that, Barbara. I wonder as well if the pass info will just be migrating to the tourism website or whether they'll do an overhaul of the pass website as well. Additionally, looks like they're really pushing the Paris Passlib': if you click the FAQ link "For more information concerning the use, validity, and function of the Paris Museum Pass", it takes you to a page about Paris Passlib'...which sounds an awful lot like another version of the Paris Pass most of us tell people not to buy.

https://booking.parisinfo.com/il4-offer_i148-paris-museum-pass.aspx

I'm really bummed about the changes to this pass! Being able to hit the Louvre multiple times was a pretty big deal as it's too vast to take in on a single visit. Popping in during late openings was great too. :O(

I understand how maybe tickets maybe could be abused but the passes have your name on them so can't be used by someone else unless entry staff aren't checking.

What this will really hurt are the less popular museums. If people don't have a museum pass they won't pay to drop into those small lessor known places.

'but the passes have your name on them so can't be used by someone else unless entry staff aren't checking."

I've always had them closely check the date but have never been asked for ID to match up name on it.

Pam, that might be the issue. I was trying to recall if anyone checked our IDs but I don't remember.

I believe the only one entry limitation has been there for a little while at least. I noticed it when I started researching for my trip in September - probably back at the beginning of May. Although I get one with my Rick Steves tour, I was trying to figure out if it made sense to get another one for my second week. When I looked at what museums it covered I noticed the one entry notice.