Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel Skip-the-Line Guided Tour

If I could give this tour ZERO stars, I would. Our first reservation was “rescheduled” by the Vatican so we had to rebook. Upon arrival in Rome, our new tour was confirmed several times but 18 hours prior to the start time (the cancellation window had expired), we were notified that the tour would be delayed by one hour. We had an afternoon tour at St Peters and were assured that there would be no problem with the timing. We arrived at the meeting place and were told that the tour start time was delayed again. Between the 90 minute delay and long lines we did not complete the morning tour in time. We had to forfeit our afternoon tickets. The tour guide named Mauricio was the worst we have ever experienced. He basically gave a history lecture, did not stop at many of the areas of interest, and did not acknowledge or answer any of our questions! At the end of the tour he just walked away - no goodbye or thank you. We are demanding a full refund - traveler beware!!

The tour was scheduled for 9:30 AM, but for reasons not explained to us, it was postponed to 5:00 PM. We arrived at the agreed-upon location half an hour earlier than expected, and the lady who greeted us was rather unfriendly. We sat outside until the tour began. The lady who greeted us called us over and then rushed to the museum entrance; she just wanted to get there as quickly as possible and didn't even look back to see if the group was keeping up with her fast pace. There was an older gentleman who had to ask to slow down because she wasn't taking the group into consideration. We arrived at the location and went to the queue, where we cut in front of people because a gentleman was already saving a place for us. We waited 20 minutes and managed to get in. All this without a single word about what was happening, what we were going to do, or why we were in such a hurry. Inside, our guide was already waiting for us, and then everything went smoothly, and he was clear and interessant.

The guide was very knowledgeable and nice, but most of the time I couldn’t understand her because her microphone didn’t work properly. It seems strange that the tour was planned for 5:30 pm when the last entry to the museum is 6. Also we had to cut in line joining another group that was already waiting there for a while. Because we barely made it in before the last entry to, the guide and the tour seemed very rushed.