Munich residenz museum rules

Mike, I am sorry about your experience. I have an older version of the Rick Steves book. There are no warnings for the Residenz Museum but for the Residenz Treasury the book warns "It's a one-way system -- getting lost is not an option." Lesson learned for any future museum visit is to use the bathroom before you begin to walk through the museum.

I'm don't remember any other museum anywhere that had these specific rules, not in Europe or anywhere. The closest thing was in Mexico city where at least one museum had a few groups of interconnected rooms, each group of rooms with a marked entrance and exit, and you couldn't go backwards but you could re-enter any of the groups of rooms again from the entrance to that section.

The Museum was correct in charging you for re-entry.

I have never done in Europe what you did when entering meant paying for such a ticket. I have been in museums in Germany and France when going back to another room is not permitted, quite normal. You enter after buying the necessary ticket , you stay. You step out, you pay for another ticket to re-enter. No in and out privilege included.

I did not buy another ticket. There are multiple other museums in Munich. The Bavarian national museum occupied me for close to 4 hours after the residenz. Yes the residenz is a good place. Maybe not all of the rooms need to be looked at too closely. €10 for a men's room is too stupid. Yes I used the men's room before I started the audio tour but I have a syndrome that, sometimes, not every time, i empty myself one way, and then a short time later, I realize that I need to empty myself the other way. Schloss Nymphenburg has a "no same day re-entry rule" too, but the biggest section was too small for the rule to cause me a problem. I saw all the little buildings on the combination ticket.

Sorry about your experience, Mike. I would submit feedback so they can maybe add that useful info to the new edition. https://www.ricksteves.com/forms/guidebook-feedback-form

This museum may have been correct in accordance with its own rules, but it was in no way correct from the standpoint of ethical treatment of customers. I won't be visiting this place when we hit Munich. Sorry you had this experience, Mike, but thanks for sharing.

I have pondered this denial to re-enter the museum. I agree with jphbucks. However, as someone who seems to need a restroom more frequently than others, I would be as frustrated and disappointed as Mike if I would be required to purchase another ticket. And if I had a medical condition that required me to quickly find something to eat in my checked backpack it would be even worse. Certainly, the museum could make exceptions for those persons. I will be in Munich in October. Despite having been to Munich many times I have not taken time to tour the Residenz museum. Now, with knowledge of this policy, I won't visit this time. I know my absence won't break the museum but their policy doesn't seem right in circumstances such as Mike describes. My two cents worth. And thanks, Mike, for educating us regarding this policy. Sorry it happened to you.

Traveler Girl

P.S. I just thought, does this museum have timed entry and gets really crowded? I can see that POSSIBLY, this could be a factor in Mike's situation.

I found my way to the entrance. Being near the bag check desk, I decided thatbwould be a good time to get my string backpack back, go outside, eat something I had bought at a grocery store. Then I gave my bag back to the bag check guy, went to the entrance and showed my ticket

I'm sad that people feel a need to boycott this excellent museum because they try to keep tickets from being passed around - after all that's what caused the onerous changes in policy at the Louvre in Paris.

See it from the point of view of the museum. Mike gets his bag from the bag check, and goes out the door of the museum and finds somewhere to eat. He's left. Sometime later he reappears at the door of the museum, makes a deposit at the bag check, and tries to get in with a used ticket.

That's exactly what the offenders did at the Louvre.

How do the ticket takers know that the Mike now in front of them is the same Mike that entered earlier? Did the ticket say it was reusable? Did they offer a hand-stamp or wristband?

I'm sorry Mike had a problem.

Agree to Nigel that it is likely fraud prevention measure.

This can also happen in museums which have limited entry capacities per hour. This is often due to fire protection or insurance conditions.

I'm sad that people feel a need to boycott this excellent museum because they try to keep tickets from being passed around

I'm sad that you're claiming this practice is motivated only by that objective. There are better ways to accomplish that than preventing guests from taking a bathroom break and then rejoining the tour.

What a ridiculous excuse.

Edited to add: I don't generally find the interior spaces of "palaces" to be either interesting or appropriate. I'm the furthest thing from a monarchist. Nothing wrong with enjoying the architecture of the exterior, but looking at the opulent excesses of royals when decorating their personal space rubs me the wrong way. I fully understand other people enjoy these monuments to selfishness and excess, and I don't criticize them for it.

I tend to ask if I can get back in before I leave a museum. They may have a stamp or at least recognize you that you are coming back shortly.
I haven't seen any one-way museums since Covid days.

The Residenz is so big and when you follow the route it feels endless. At one point I felt I was going round in circles into rooms I’d been in before, and I thought I was about to have a panic attack. I had to get a member of staff to show me a place where I could leave, because I really thought I would never find an exit. She warned me I would not be allowed back in on that ticket but to be honest I didn’t care. At that point, I would have paid double just to be allowed to LEAVE.

(I’m sure others have a great time but I was discussing this with a friend and he’d had a similar sense of panicky overwhelm.)

My husband,son and I had the same feeling that after about the first third of the tour of the Residenz that we felt compelled to get out as soon as possible. We didn't feel that we ever wanted to go back and see the rest. It was more than enough. I could never have lived in a place like that. I would have spent my life lost in my own house. I have a real problem with directionality.

Your exit being final is common practice for a whole lot (most?) museums in Europe. It’s due to the fact that tour groups abused the system. They would buy 5 to 10 tickets for the entire group of 50 or more people and then took turns to quickly rush in to see the Mona Lisa for instance.
The no re-entry policy has become so common here, that some places probably think it’s common knowledge and don’t think to mention it on their website.

I’m curious to know if this is different in the US? Can I visit for instance the Gugenheim Museum in the morning, leave the building to get lunch somewhere a couple of streets away and then re-enter the museum on the same ticket?

I saw thr Würzburg Residenz. There was the room with the walkway that goes in a square around the huge stairs with the mural on the ceiling described in the guidebook, another room with a painted ceiling that a t could have been 30 feet high, the other rooms only seemed maybe 20 feet high, there were rooms with mostly white ceilings with some silver and gold curvy designs, rooms with paintings above the doorways and on 2 or 3 of the walls, some English descriptions, a few mirrors, some highly decorative wood closets or chests of drawers, the gallery of paintings (I look most closely at landscapes when I see them - I wasn't raised Christian, christian themed artwork may seem less special to me than you)... maybe if the 2/3 of the Residenz in Munich that i didn't observe were quite similar, I didn't miss so much.

As for technical details: I took the train to Würzburg, arrived at about 12pm, saw that it was too early to check into my apartment I reserved, put most of my stuff in a locker at the train station, walked to the Residenz; the fact that I was entering the place later in the day (1pm or just before versus about 9am at the Residenz), combined with the fact that I used the men's room just before entering + more than once since I woke up, meant that part of me was more completely emptied when I entered; I had no need to skip ahead to a men's room during my tour. The Würzburg Residenz seemed smaller than the one in Munich. I have no clue whether the Würzburg Residenz had the same rules as the one in Münich.

Thanks for the explanation Dutch_traveler. I don't visit too many museums but the information you provided is good to know. I don't seem to have the patience and rush through. However, on the occasions I do visit a museum I will be better prepared knowing the rules. It is very disappointing to hear about the abuse from tour groups. I am pretty dutiful. Just ask my husband :) I always try to follow the rules, if I know what they are. I expect I am not alone in my ignorance of this rule.

Traveler Girl

Bars in college towns had this figured out 50 years ago. Rubber stamp on the back of the hand. And tour groups don't slip in more guests through the bathroom windows.