Kensington Palace has been the home to royals for over 300 years, and is known is as the birthplace of Queen Victoria and the residence of Kate Middleton and Prince William. It is one of London’s best-known historic palaces, However, some American tourists have not been as impressed by the royal attraction and expressed their thoughts in some hilarious reviews.
In a one-star review, one upset visitor described Kensington Palace as an “ageing monstrosity.” They left a vivid description of the landmark in their review and wrote: “Few artifacts. Lots of cheap glass bowls stuck in fireplaces. Some unimpressive artwork of English royalty. Poor crowd control (excessive visitors). DO NOT RECOMMEND. “
One person described the tour of Kensington Palace as “pointless” and was not impressed by the historic royal outfits on show. They wrote: “If you really care about dresses go to a market.” The same reviewer also posted a picture of their garden shed and wrote as a final point: “Furthermore my shed looks nicer than the Palace and it is in such a bad location.”
One person went as their mother was a “huge” fan of Princess Diana, as some of her outfits were being displayed at the Palace, but said the whole experience was “disappointing.” They said: “We expected there to be much more dresses there than there were, and all the ones there you can see in pictures. They’re really not at all that impressive.”
Another review was not impressed by the lighting of the historic Palace and left a poor review. The tourist wrote: “The Palace is very dark ..horrible lighting and we were there in the summer.”
In a long descriptive review, the person also criticised the artwork displays at the Palace and wrote they were like “something like a student display you would see at a school presentation.”
The same review also was upset at the Princess Diana exhibit. The same reviewer said: “The Diana dress display was interesting but we felt like the Royal Family was making money off Diana and left us and other people viewing the dressers with a bad taste in our mouths; Give this Palace a miss the whole thing comes off dark..empty and a total ripoff!”
Another tourist was disappointed at not being able to go into the official living quarters of Prince William and Princess Kate. They wrote: “Like many Americans, my family and I love a good castle so naturally we wanted to see as many as possible on our first London trip. This palace was a big disappointment for all of us as there is nothing to see here.
“Most rooms are completely empty or have furniture that isn’t even original to the palace. When walking the grounds you cannot even get a glimpse of where William and Kate live either.”
Somebody else was not amused by any of the royal outfits on display. They wrote: “They touted the display of dresses as a GREAT thing to see. Totally unimpressed.”
Another reviewer said that the Palace cafe was the “best part” of their tour and described Kensington Palace as “Boringggg yawn, yawn yawn.” They were especially upset about not being able to see a particular Princess Diana dress.
The person wrote: “Princess Diana’s dress was not there and that’s what I came for! This place sucks!”
One tourist from Florida claims to have been pickpocketed at the Kensington Palace cafe near a security guard and describe the staff response as “weak” and “disappointing.” They wrote: “The police could not be summoned (talked to them on the phone in the end)…It took half an hour for someone from their the palace’s ‘security’ apparatus to show up.”
They continued: “They should really have signs posted to warn other visitors that pickpockets are a problem here (as well as in the rest of London). Soured the entire experience.”