Oktoberfest 2024 - Armbrustschützenzelt tent reservations

You posted on multiple travel forums.
Normally it is meaningful to inform people about it with link, so they see existing answers given already.

Follwing this!! Can you not get into a tent if you don't have a restervation? Or is there a non reservation first come first serve area?

You can always "get into a tent", but you must be seated to get a beer. During the day, especially on week days, you will see a lot of reservation placards on the tables, but they usually begin at 5 or 6 pm, so you can sit there at least until the reservation begins.

We went to Oktoberfest last year and enjoyed our day time reservation at a different tent. While it may have not been needed that first Monday of Oktoberfest, we all felt better knowing we definitely had a seat. The tent we went to for a day reservation was for a 12-17:00 time slot and we definitely got food. I would assume that the "shorter" time slot also allows you to order food. The amount you pay for the table goes towards your final bill. We paid a little more at two tents (we drank and ate more than our vouchers) and came out about even at a third tent.

Each tent runs slightly differently. It seems that the Kartenspieler reservation is to play cards.

Update: We had a wonderful time drinking...and eating at the Pauliner Armbrustschützenzelt, or Crossbowman's tent during this year's Oktoberfest.

For anyone reading this in the future looking for similar information, a few details about our experience, on a Tuesday during the day....

While we most likely could have gotten into this tent (we didn't look at any others while there) without a reservation during the day on a Tuesday, we felt more comfortable knowing that we had reserved seating for the 6 of us.

Our reservation was for 1 pm - 4:15 pm, which was plenty of time for us. We actually arrived a bit late, around 1:20 pm, but that was no issue at all. We went to the ticket pick-up location inside the tent, they found our reservation and gave us our tickets which we could use towards any food on their fairly large menu.

We initially thought the food was going to be a 1/2 roasted chicken included with the reservation, and anything else could be purchased additionally. However, they said we could use those vouchers (I believe they were 25 euro each) towards the cost of any food on their menu.
The only hiccup occurred when one of the lady's that serve beer tried to help us find our table in one of the "box" areas, but our name was not found. No problem they said, since you have a reservation, just pick any table without a name (there were a few) and sit there. We wound up having the 10 person table to ourselves during our time there.

Even though we didn't have a specific "Kartenspieler Reservierung", we played a little Schafkopf (German card game, like American Sheepshead) after buying a deck of cards from their gift shop. Lots of fun!

The food was delicious, as was the beer. They had radler's, (beer mixed with some type of fruit soda/juice typically), the alcohol percentage is much lower than a typical beer. A nice option for a few of us towards the end of our reservation. We ordered a giant gurken from one of the lady's walking around selling them, as well as a large pretzel. Both really tasty.

We got our souvenirs (steins, etc) from their little shop near the front, and left to enjoy the rest of the day...and into the early night, walking around the grounds...eating and drinking more along the way.

It was a fantastic experience and would definitely love to go back another time to perhaps experience one of the other tents, or maybe go to the Crossbowman's tent again since we had such a wonderful time there!

Oktoberfest is always a good time. Glad you enjoyed.

thanks for coming back with on the day experience - glad you all had a good time!!!

What kind of food do they serve in these tents?
Is it just the typical German brotwurst??

@mj.globetrekker

We try to have lunch at the Oktoberfest once a year at the Ochsenbraterei (one of the large tents). This was their 2024 menu:

https://www.ochsenbraterei.de/en/food-drink/

Regards
Mignon

Appreciate the update! Sounded incredibly easy and fun.