Wait with online reservation for Notre Dame

In early April the staff looked at my 9:15 am ticket and I walked right in.

I was just there with no reservation on a Thursday evening and waited probably 5 mins? Just long enough to walk back and forth through the queue barriers. There was no wait at all in the reservation line.

I was there in early afternoon a couple of weeks ago with a ticket and walked in with no wait at all, just showed the ticket. The line without tickets was about 200 people, but it moved steadily. Once hyou get in it is jammed packed because they don't seem to limit the ticketless line and just let people steadily pour in.

We fell into the walk up group in the early afternoon 2 weeks ago. Initially the lines looked appallingly long, but as previous posters had said they moved well, we took the plunge. I think maybe it took us 15 min.to get inside, but that gave me time to observe the reservation line and people didn’t seem to wait at all in that line. It was nice not to have to be tied to a schedule as so many other venues now need timed entries.

Try to get inside Notre Dame as early as possible to enjoy your visit more. In April there was a notable difference in visitors inside the Cathedral between my 9:15 entry and 10:00.