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How long was your line to see David at the Academia?


CuTiAngel

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I'm reading different advice on the length of time to get into Florence's Academia from a small wait to 4-hour-long, with reserved tickets! What was your experience?

- Reservation by phone? Purchased online?

- Morning? Noon? Afternoon?

- 30min? 1 hr? 2 hr? 3 hr?

 

The original plan is to get ship's transport-only excursion to Florence and hoping to have no wait with phoned-in reservations. I don't know if I should spend tens of Euros extra for a private guide just to minimize the waiting.

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We got RIL to reserve our tickets, the line for the reserve was about 10 people deep and 10' wait, the regular line was at least ~ 50meters/yards long the day we were there.

 

Do you know if the online/phone reserved line is the same line with RIL?

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I thought too that purchasing tickets avoided the line and others have confirmed that but reading the trip report posted on this forum (from 2011) it said that lines for people with prepurchase tickets was still four hours. I'm finding this hard to believe and think that there was confusion between the two lines and perhaps not quite as thought in that report. I wonder if ril perhaps overstated the wait.

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Maximize your sightseeing time and avoid wasting hours in queues by pre-booking all major Italian attractions on line via tickitaly website for Rome, Vatican, Florence, Pisa and Venice . Costs a bit more but saves you hours shuffling in queues .

 

PS: Don't even think of taking a photo of DAVID or you will be out on the street faster than Flash Gordon .

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Yes, that's what we plan to do, is pre buy, but the recent trip report posted on the Italy board said that even the pre purchased ticket holders queued for 4 hours. I think that report is why the OP started this thread and I am confused too. I think the trip report is wrong as this is the first time I have read of pre paid ticket holders queuing for hours.

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I think the information re wait times is only relevant if the timing aligns pretty closely with when you are planning to be there. I've been to the Accademia four or five times and have never waited on line, despite only having advance reservations one of those times. However (and this is a big however), my visits were in December, March and October, not during the height of the tourist season.

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I made a reservation online for the Accademia. We arrived a few minutes early, walked up to the ticket window for reservations, paid for our tickets and walked right in. That was about 10am.

 

I would try to get a morning time slot. If you cannot find a time slot you want online, call them. That is what I did and it worked perfectly. Remember the time difference when you are calling them so I figure early morning for me is afternoon for them.

 

Yes you do pay a little extra to make a reservation but with limited time I think it is well worth it not to wait in line.

 

David is definately worth seeing....

 

We are looking at doing the exact same thing later this year.

 

Have a great time in Florence

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we had no wait whatsoever. Our driver made reservations for us and had the tickets waiting. We arrived at the appointed time and went right in. David is amazing, truly humbling work of art. Definately worth it!

oh and there is a fake outside (smaller) you can take a photo of.

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I made a reservation online for the Accademia. We arrived a few minutes early, walked up to the ticket window for reservations, paid for our tickets and walked right in. That was about 10am.

 

I would try to get a morning time slot. If you cannot find a time slot you want online, call them. That is what I did and it worked perfectly. Remember the time difference when you are calling them so I figure early morning for me is afternoon for them.

 

Yes you do pay a little extra to make a reservation but with limited time I think it is well worth it not to wait in line.

 

David is definately worth seeing....

 

We are looking at doing the exact same thing later this year.

 

Have a great time in Florence

 

I'm planning on calling to make the reservation, cause I heard that if you find the regular line not very long when you get there, just get in the line so that you could save money as phone reservation doesn't require purchase in advance. I wonder if they take credit card at that reserved ticket window?

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Yes, that's what we plan to do, is pre buy, but the recent trip report posted on the Italy board said that even the pre purchased ticket holders queued for 4 hours. I think that report is why the OP started this thread and I am confused too. I think the trip report is wrong as this is the first time I have read of pre paid ticket holders queuing for hours.

 

You are right! I got confused after reading one trip report the other day. Hope the report on the wait time for reserved tix is invalid that Ril "exaggerated".

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I thought too that purchasing tickets avoided the line and others have confirmed that but reading the trip report posted on this forum (from 2011) it said that lines for people with prepurchase tickets was still four hours. I'm finding this hard to believe and think that there was confusion between the two lines and perhaps not quite as thought in that report. I wonder if ril perhaps overstated the wait.

ARe you referring to the stacy thread? If so, I saw that comment as well and isn't it funny how one obscure comment on a PUBLIC message board can reach so many?:D:eek:

 

I have to think she was incorrect when she said that the prepurchased ticket line was 4 hours long. Let's think logically here and she must have just meant the line to get in and maybe did not realize that they hadn't booked tickets yet.

 

That being said, I am rapidly approaching the time when my tix will be available to pre purchase...and am wondering if I should go the route we did last time and reserve with a private guide and pay the extra or if maybe I should just book rather late in the day..maybe 2 hours before closing.

 

I am now leaning toward booking the guided tour which have done before and would only skip this time in order to save money..but I don't know what to do now.

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ARe you referring to the stacy thread? If so, I saw that comment as well and isn't it funny how one obscure comment on a PUBLIC message board can reach so many?:D:eek:

<snip>

I am now leaning toward booking the guided tour which have done before and would only skip this time in order to save money..but I don't know what to do now.

 

I know, one line creates confusion just when I thought I had it all sorted. Stacey did respond saying that it was just very busy in Rome and that a lot more people were booking tickets online before travelling there. Sigh, I'm now thinking RIL myself but my roll call is so dead!

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I know, one line creates confusion just when I thought I had it all sorted. Stacey did respond saying that it was just very busy in Rome and that a lot more people were booking tickets online before travelling there. Sigh, I'm now thinking RIL myself but my roll call is so dead!

so what can we make of it then? That people with 10am pre booked and prepaid tix were waiting until 2pm to get in? I have seen that line too but seriously I didn't ask them if they already had tickets, I would have assumed that they were ticketless and waiting to buy. But who knows now!:confused:

 

I just finished pricing group and individual guided tours as opposed to individual entrance tix (which are rather cheap if you go directly to the vatican site) Thinking that the extra money is worth it just to meet a leader at a specific time. And of course going thru the vatican museums for a tour drops you right off in the Bascilica..no waiting there either.

 

Last time we had Stefano from RomeCabs get our tix for us and arranged for the guide, and this time we are spending 5 days pre cruise in Rome and 2 days in Venice so we won't be doing the same kind of city tour in Rome, but if you are goin thru RIL (Stefano's buddy BTW), then I would say by all means have them arrange to have a guide meet you.

 

My other concern is that during our 5 days in Rome, The Vatican Museum is closed for 2 of those days so I am sure it will be mobbed on the other 3 days. The more I think of it, a guided tour is better than just prepurchasing entry tix because at least with a guided tour we have to meet at a specific time and with a specific group to enter...I doubt that there will be a 4 hour wait in that scenario.

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You are right! I got confused after reading one trip report the other day. Hope the report on the wait time for reserved tix is invalid that Ril "exaggerated".

 

I know, one line creates confusion just when I thought I had it all sorted. Stacey did respond saying that it was just very busy in Rome and that a lot more people were booking tickets online before travelling there. Sigh, I'm now thinking RIL myself but my roll call is so dead!

Hi..may i step in? I red her review and now have concerns so i email the vatican on the address for tix purchasing question..and if you pre purchase timed tix you do not queue up. I specifically asked about arriving for a 10am non guided tour admission and was told that i would not line up. Lets hope that is the case. Imho the stacy thread op was probably looking at the non tix holder line. Not everyone micromanages their vacations like us ccers do! Lol

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Florence in a day will be about compromises. If you are an art and muesum buff than you need to do both. Accademia you can do in 30-40' IMHO. The Uffizie to do any justice to the art there is 2-3 hours at the very minimum which leaves you little for Florence's other wonderful history and sites.

 

Difficult choices and down to what is your must see.

 

Matcodixon,

 

Do you think you will enough time in port to do both Accademia and Uffizi?

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Iin October 2011, we used Danny from Tuscan Heart for a Florence/Pisa tour. We went to Pisa first; arriving in Florence around noon. Danny purchased the tickets for us when we arrived at the Accademia since 4 of the 8 of us wanted to go there. We were able to go on the prepurchased ticket line, and were inside the Academia within 5 minutes. Then he took the rest of the group to city center. He suggested a certain amount of time there ( 1-1 1/2 hrs) and was back to pick us up to drive us to city center. It was a fabulous day. The line for people without pre purchased tickets was huge. Best advice I read on CC was to pre purchase tickets to all the sites in Italy. It was a huge time saver for us.

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Hi..may i step in? I red her review and now have concerns so i email the vatican on the address for tix purchasing question..and if you pre purchase timed tix you do not queue up. I specifically asked about arriving for a 10am non guided tour admission and was told that i would not line up. Lets hope that is the case. Imho the stacy thread op was probably looking at the non tix holder line. Not everyone micromanages their vacations like us ccers do! Lol

 

Thanks for your input. For Rome, I will have to take out the Vatican museum due to limited time but will still want to check out the St peters basilica. From what I remember, there isn't pre-purchased ticket for the basilica, so I'm going to keep my fingers crossed. :-)

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We pre-purchased tickets for 8:15 am (their opening time) on 4/12 and at 8:18 am we were the second couple to see The David. When we left, the line was around the block.

 

And to confirm, is that line around the block the regular line or is it the pre-purchased tickets line? Thanks for your response. :-)

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