PERHAPS IT WAS THE FEAR OF BEING trapped in an endless queue or a collective impulse to avoid the flurry of opening day. Then again, it could have been the let-them-eat-cake ticket price of $12. Or perhaps it was a reflection of the fact that Queen Elizabeth and her blood relatives are regarded as a chilly clan whose digs—however magnificent—would be as grandly unrevealing as the monarch herself.

In any case, the Aug. 7 opening of Buckingham Palace, billed as the hottest tourist event of the decade, was a bust. Only 4,314 customers—far short of the 8,000 maximum that had been expected—turned out to tour the palace's 19 state rooms. Although officials had predicted that as many as 5,000 would queue up, only a few hundred souls were in line when the ticket office opened at 9 a.m.

While the Queen—who was attending the funeral of King Baudouin in Brussels—undoubtedly was unruffled, the press immediately began making gloomy predictions about the scheme. In the beginning it had seemed like an inspired notion: Allow visitors to traipse through the palace during the royal family's annual August and September retreat to Balmoral, and by 1998 the take would cover an estimated $20 million of the $60 million needed to restore fire-damaged Windsor Castle.

Instead it was a case of the "Queen Snubbed," as the Today newspaper put it on Aug. 9. Branding the enterprise a "disaster," the paper noted that her subjects "stayed away [by the] thousands."

Palace officials put a more optimistic spin on the situation, claiming that the sales of the $15 mugs and $60 cuff links in the tchotchke shop would make up the shortfall. "We're very pleased, and the response exceeded our expectations," palace spokeswoman Kiloran McGrigor said of the first day's $52,500 take.

For their part, most of the hard-core fans who camped out near the ticket office felt they had got their money's worth. Eager to be the first paying guests in the palace's 291-year history, they displayed a relentless cheer during the 21-hour vigil. Said Emily Langan, a 20-year-old senior at Illinois's Wheaton College: "I want to see every darn painting, every piece of furniture."

First, however, she and other visitors were subjected to a rigorous security check and relieved of their cameras (which were returned at the end of the tour). While 631—yes, 631—of the rooms were off-limits, thank you, the chambers that left a lasting impression were the gilt-trimmed White Drawing Room, where the royals make grand entrances via a door concealed in an elaborately framed mirror, and the 155-foot-long Picture Gallery, hung with masterpieces by Rembrandt, Rubens and Van Dyck. Other hits included the glittering Music Room, where Prince William was christened, and the scarlet Throne Room, with its monogrammed chairs. Although no tour guides were on hand, guidebooks were available and visitors were allowed to linger as long as they wanted.

After strolling through at a leisurely pace, Samantha Bardagy, 22, one of Langan's companions, said the Windsors seemed "even more intriguing now. It's almost like a tease, saying, 'Here's a little bit, but the rest of our lives are still undercover.' I like that."

Others, however, were disappointed by the palace's cryptic quality. Noting that the public saw only "the coldest, oldest, most anonymous of rooms," the Guardian observed, "save for the art collection, it could be any old palace in any old city." The overblown decor also took knocks: TV pundit Loyd Grossman said that the look was "a mixture between a tandoori curry house and an over-the-top Hollywood film set from the 1920s."

And Saturday's disappointment, it seems, was compounded by Sunday's confusion. After being told that tickets would be available until 4:30 p.m., hundreds who had turned up hours earlier at the palace were sent away. The official explanation: Visitors inside the palace were lingering, and tour coordinators didn't want to rush them out. Civilized, certainly, but hardly the sort of policy guaranteed to plump the coffers. As Doris Pople, a 60-year-old resident of North London, told the Daily Mail, "I was very surprised not to get in. I don't think the Queen will like them turning away all this money."

MICHELLE GREEN
LAURA SANDERSON HEALY at Buckingham Palace