As dull as a celebrity shaped lump of wax (Madame Tussaud's)

Member Name: pink_glitter

Product:	Madame Tussaud's
Date:	03/08/09 (82 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: OK for a day out

Disadvantages: A little bit dull really

I don't normally write about places I've visited, but I can't think of anything else to write about at the minute, so thought I'd tell you about a recent visit I made to Madame Tussauds in Amsterdam.

I went to Amsterdam with my boyfriend about six weeks ago for a weekend before my 'proper' holiday. I also went last year with my sister and remembered seeing a Madame Tussauds on the Damrak, the main street in Amsterdam. Since neither me or my boyfriend had been to a Madame Tussauds before, we decided we would pay it a visit.

I booked the tickets in advance online beforehand at http://www.madametussauds.com/Amsterdam/
When you order the tickets online, you have to print them out, and it does say on the ticket not to fold them or they become invalid - all very well but they're A4 sheets, so you will find yourself carrying an A4 folder about with you!

If you're able to buy in advance it also means you can go to the front of the queue, which is a bonus as every time I've been passed there the queue has (like the one in London) been snaking round the outside of the building. Being on the Damrak (or just known as Dam) which is the main shopping street in Amsterdam it is very easy to find. We didn't realise our tickets entitled us to queue jump, so we joined the queue, but an extremely cheerful woman (you know those people who are so cheerful it makes you sick?!) walked down the queue and saw the pre-paid tickets in our hands and pulled us (quite literally) over the barriers and we were allowed to go straight in.

Cheerful woman actually told us that the reason the queue was so long was that their payment system is always slow, which is why they like people to buy in advance. This may or may not be total rubbish, but just in case, I personally would recommend getting your tickets online if you can.

As you enter the building, the first thing you come to is a wax work of Barack Obama standing in front of a backdrop of the white house. Cheerful woman ordered us to stand next to him to have our photos taken. Note the word, ordered. I have a bit of a camera phobia and I was a bit taken aback by this and made my boyfriend have the photo by himself. I don't think he was too happy about this either but probably for different reasons. The reason they insist on taking your photo, is that by the time you get down to the gift shop they will have printed it out, and will try to sell it to you for some over inflated price. Needless to say we didn't buy ours.

We were then left standing in front of some lift doors with no instruction of what to do. It soon became apparent that we just had to wait there for the number above the lift door to count down. The lift eventually shows up after a good few minutes and then takes you (and the group of other people who will have assembled in front of the lift doors by this time) up to the first floor, where the whole waxwork experience begins.

You are taken to a dark room and some huge scary wax model of an (apparently) famous Dutch guy from the 17th century (or was it the 18th? I really should have paid more attention) springs from the floor. A big booming voice then proceeds to give a talk on the history of Amsterdam in three different languages (Dutch, English and German if I remember correctly). To be honest I found this all a little bit boring. They do try to make it more interesting by having things come up on video screens and a little city model thing, but history is all a little bit tedious to me, and I'd heard pretty much all the same stuff on a city boat tour I went on last year. Therefore for me personally I didn't particularly enjoy this part of things. I'm a shallow airhead, I wanted to see the celebrities!

You then walk through a dark, slightly scary little mock-up of a town, full of waxwork figures. I already knew from reading the website that some of the figures were actually real people rather than waxworks, and I was on my guard, as I knew there was a good chance they'd be leaping out on me. I was right, and quite frankly not only was this scary but I felt quite pointless. There was a Scottish woman behind me who couldn't stop screaming! My boyfriend said he actually enjoyed this part of things, but me? Well no, I was not impressed.

So finally we get onto what I had come to see - the celebrities. I was a little concerned before purchasing the tickets that they would all be Dutch celebrities that I had never heard of. Although there are some Dutch stars, the majority are Hollywood movie stars, or others that you will recognise.

There is a good mix of figures - you have your royals and political figures, such as Princess Di and George W Bush - someone really needs to melt him down (and they may as well melt do his waxwork while they're at it!). Then there are pop stars such as Beyonce and Kylie, and all your Hollywood celebs like Brad and Angelina - oh and Oprah! I liked the Oprah waxwork, I thought it was one of the best ones there. You also have sporting people like David Beckham and that Ronaldo guy or whatever his name is - the one with the teeth. Right at the end you get people like Einstein and even Mona Lisa.

The figures are all quite realistic and you're free to go up and touch them. Some of them are even posed in a way so that you can sit next to them to be photographed. For example, David Beckham is doing sit-ups on a workout bench and there's an empty bench next to him so that you can look like you're working out together. George Clooney is at a desk with a spare seat next to him, and Robbie Williams is lying on a bed, so you can hop in and officially start your sentences 'When I was in bed with Robbie the other day...'!

Like I mentioned earlier, there is a gift shop at the end where you can buy your photo, and it sells the usual crap emblazoned with the Madame Tussauds logo, such as mugs, pencils, keyrings, trinkets - oh and some smutty stuff too. Well, it is Amsterdam after all!

The whole experience lasted about 1 hour, but obviously you can stay longer if you really want to.

Opening times are 10am to 5.30pm except school holidays when it's open until 8.30pm. I'd assume this means Dutch school holidays, rather than English ones.

Prices are as follows:

Adults : 21 euros
Children: 16 euros

If you book in advance online and are able to specify the exact date you want to visit you will get a discount of 2 euros, and if you are able to go after 3pm you will get a discount of 3.50 euros. Do bear in mind though, that you're bank will probably charge you for paying in Euros and this is around £1.50, so it kind of negates the saving!

If you want to buy a ticket that also entitles you to visit the Amsterdam dungeons, it will be 37.50 euros for an adult, 30 euros for a child.

Overall, I am glad that I visited, as I've always wanted to go to Madame Tussauds, but I will not be going back. The prices were reasonable, but for me, I just found the whole thing quite boring. My boyfriend said he really enjoyed it, but I think he might have just been saying that so as not to disappoint me.

Once you're actually in there, and you've looked at each celeb, that's pretty much all you can do, other than have your photo taken with them. As I wasn't particularly enthralled by the history bit either, I ended up feeling that the whole thing was a little bit pointless. In a way it wasn't much different to looking at a celebrity in a magazine. On the plus side, it is one of the more family friendly attractions in Amsterdam, if you know what I mean! If you happen to be in Amsterdam on a rainy day, with nothing better to do, it might be worth seeing, but overall I don't think I'd recommend it.

For more info: http://www.madametussauds.com/Amsterdam/

Summary: I'm glad I went but I won't be going back