While purchasing my sagrada familia tickets, I had to choose a time frame first (I chose 9-12), then I had to choose a time for the tower entrance(I chose 9:45) I was hoping to enter basilica at 9, then have 45 minutes of perhaps lighter crowds before entering tower. When I hit continue button-it assigned me a basilica entrance time of 9:30, with tower entrance of 9:45. Every tower time I chose assigned me a basilica entrance time of 15 minutes before the tower entrance. Are there areas that I can access at 9? Seems like everyone else chooses varying tower entrance times but can get in the basilica at 9 when they choose 9-12 timeframe. Or is that specific assigned basilica entrance time of 15 minutes before tower entrance just the time I am suppose to be there in order to make the tower entrance time but I can actually access the basilica at 9? I held off on booking hoping to hear back from someone. Thank you.
You access at the Basilica at the time it is marked, if it is 9, you enter at 9. This is for safety reasons. Once you enter the Basilica, go to the Tower, do the tower, and then continue until you like at the basilica (main church).
The same happened to me.
We will be there Thursday of next week.
From the layout of the screen / software, it seemed that there wasn't 'room' for choices.
Thank you...makes perfect sense. Just can't figure out all these people who are recommending on other sites to choose 9-12 time slot with 10:00 tower entrance and arrive at 9:00 to enter basilica for an hour before tower....just isn't an option.
I think perhaps it used to work that way, and people are reporting experiences that occurred in the past. Always a risk when you're answering a question about a place you didn't visit just last week.
There does seem to have been a change in how times are managed through the ticketing process. This could possibly be to avoid a number of people missing their Tower time by getting ‘lost’ in the awe and wonder of the construction. Hence, they want you to head up the Tower straight away, and then experience the Basilica proper afterwards, at your leisure. Later, as always, exit through the gift shop. Lol