I feel so disappointed by my experience. The issue is when booking the tickets, I received instructions to go one area to receive my actual tickets however when I got to the venue, the location of this area wasn’t clear so instead of enjoying the Xmas markets at the palace, my friend and I were just running around for 1 hour trying to get our tickets. There wasn’t even any staff around to ask for help. When we eventually found someone, she was incredibly rude but at least she did point us in the right direction. The palace tour was good but by the time the concert started, we were stressed out and tired so we left half way through. I’m still feeling so angry about the whole experience. My advice to anyone else is save your money and time and book a concert/ tour elsewhere instead.
The exclusive tour of the palace was great. It was so cool to get to explore the palace when it wasn't super busy. The classical concert was also fun, but palace tour was definitely the highlight for me. Wish they could include food or snacks in this experience because it's during dinner time.
The concert was fabulous. The quickly rushed tour through the palace, though beautiful, was not enough time. They hurried us and said we’d be late for concert,, then waited an hour to be let in before concert started once there!
Watch out in Vienna. Tours require you to go to another area to get your ticket. There are no Skip the Lines in Vienna even though they are advertised as such. We had trouble locating the one person at a desk where we needed to get our ticket. They were not able to call or reach the tour guide. This is unheard of. Everyone is a phone call away. Also, there was another person who was just standing around not doing anything. She could have looked for the tour guide. We ended up missing the tour of Schonbrunn's Palace for 5 people because of the incompetent people and inefficient processes that you need to go through in order to attend the tours. Do not purchase this tour package. We lost a lot of money and we did not see the palace, which is one of the highlights to visit in Vienna because of the rude and unhelpful people. Obviously, we did not receive a refund as a result of their incompetence.
The evening private tour: It was enjoyable until the end. The two head tour guides refused to let some of us exit until everyone was ready to leave. There were many stragglers who were just sitting in adjacent rooms. After 15 minutes of continuing to wait in an uncomfortably warm room, one of the guides finally allowed us to leave. The concert: The director stormed out of the room when an elderly lady’s phone rang out before the music began. The director yelled at her. She and her husband were very upset. There are numerous diplomatic approaches to this situation. The director chose to be rude. We could not enjoy the rest of the concert.