I spent the Easter weekend in London; I had never been to London before and so I was very excited about seeing all of the famous tourist attractions. One of the attractions we went to see was Madame Tussauds.

First of all, as I had previously been to Louis Tussauds in Blackpool, I wasn't that fussed about Madame Tussauds, as my views are, once you've seen it once, you've seen it all. However, as there were 6 members in a group, we decided to go with the majority who did want to see the wax models.

For those of you who don't know, Madame Tussauds is a very famous museum consisting of wax models of famous people. Madame Tussauds is locate on Marylebone Road in London. The nearest train station is approximately a 2 minutes walk away.

~ * Tickets * ~

Madame Tussauds was just a 5 minute walk away from our hotel and so we decided to explore to see where it was. It was around 4.30pm when we arrived at the queue was massive - at the time we weren't sure whether we were going to go in then, or the next day. There was a member of staff (and a mime artist) at the back of the very long queue, and they said that as we didn't have tickets, the wait would be around 1 and a half hours (of queuing). We decided to leave it until the next day (Saturday). The member of staff told us that if we booked pre-booked tickets, we could go straight to the V.I.P area. He also told us the best time to go was 9am.

When we went back to our hotel, we booked our tickets (£28 each for 6 of us) with the concierge.

~ * The Day Had Arrived * ~

The next morning, we arrived at Madame Tussauds at around 9am (there was quite a large queue forming then. As we had already bought our tickets, we got to skip the big queue and head straight to the V.I.P entrance, where we had to queue for around 20-25 minutes. Here, they also carry out security checks, e.g check your bag.

~ * Finding Your Way Around * ~

There is quite a lot of walking to do including up and down stairs, however the route is clearly labelled and so the tour is pretty straight forward as you just keep going. There are plenty of members of staff about if you do get lost though.

~ * Models * ~

The first 'section' consisted of big stars. Here you had; The Beckhams, Helen Mirren, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lopez, Brad Pitt, Kate Winslet, Twilight Stars, Nicole Kidman, etc.

Other sections included music stars; Beyonce, Elvis, Lady Gaga, Robbie Williams, Gary Barlow, Amy Winehouse, Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, Rihanna etc.

There were other models including: members of the Royal Family (Queen& Prince Phillip, Charles & Camilla, William& Kate and Harry) and prime ministers and other famous people from history.

~ * So What Did I Think? *~

Well to be honest, I wasn't overly impressed. Like I said before once you've seen it once, you've seen it all. I know that makes me sound boring, but trust me I am a huge celebrity fan, although I just wasn't that 'bothered' about these wax models. Of course I wanted to see my favourite stars; Kate and William, Rihanna and Beyonce, although to be honest, I didn't think the majority of models actually looked like who they were supposed to be; Lady Gaga looked nothing like her, neither did Jennifer Lopez or Cristiano Ronaldo. There were the add few that were brilliant though; Kate Winslet and Julia Roberts - they looked very real.

I think what didn't help was the fact that the place was heaving with people. I was looking forward to taking pictures of the models; although there were so many people that you couldn't get a nice photo (without someone posing with the model, or someone in the picture). I also would have liked to have had my picture taken with some of my favourite stars (Rihanna, the Royals etc) although there was always someone already there and you had to 'fight' to get to stand and have your picture taken. When I did go to have my picture with Rihanna, I felt that everyone was waiting for me to move so that they could take a picture. It all just seemed a bit of a hassle to be honest.

I also felt that because there were so many people in there and because it was so crowded,, I couldn't 'look' at the wax models properly and so a lot of the time I think I missed a lot of the models - I think I saw a lot of them, but because it was so busy I didn't get a proper chance to look at them.

One thing which I found quite funny was that sometimes I would be looking at models, and then I'd turn to look and realise I would be starting at a 'real person' and then they'd move. Or I would find myself smiling at the models without thinking. (I'm weird haha!!) and thinking 'oh my god!! Hope no one saw me...they're not even real!! Haha'!).

One thing which I did love about Madame Tussauds was part where you had to get in a taxi - this was just like a cart which looked like a black cab (a bit like a fairground ride carriage) - you had to hop on and off (it moved on a conveyor belt) as it was moving. You had to be quite fast doing this. The cart then took you around on a approximately 10 minute journey of various 'London' things. This mini tour wasn't of wax models, but more of a 'trip through the history of London'. I liked this because, 1) you could just sit back and enjoy the ride (with no people in the way, as everyone had to be in a 'cab' in order to go round and 2) I actually learnt a lot in a short space of time. I thought that the whole Madame Tussauds experience would have been better if we could have gone around the whole place in one of these cabs, as you could really enjoy it without having to dodge people and people bumping into you all the time. I also think that you would be able to get better picture of the wax models in this way.

Another part of the journey was a 'cinema experience'. We were sat on seats which leaned back; the screen seemed to be on the roof. The 'film' was 3D and so we needed special glasses to watch it. The film consisted of all the super heroes (Spiderman, Superman etc) trying to save Buckingham Palace. To think that I used to hate 'fictional' things like this when I was a kid, I actually enjoyed watching this film. There were some fantastic effects; such as water squirting out (from the seats in front) and air blasting from behind, and even the seat would move so it felt like the 'enemy' had jabbed you in the back - this was brilliant although at first I did think someone was kicking me from behind. Kids would definitely love this.

There was also a 'scary' part - which wasn't suitable for under 12s or people with high blood pressure and heart conditions. I opted out of this as I hate 'scary' things, especially as they said it would be in the dark and would involve people jumping out at you. It was based on famous murders etc. So if you hate scary things, I wouldn't recommend this to you.

~ * Anything Else? * ~

There are professional photographers ready to take your photo with certain stars (such as The Royals). They weren't at all pushy which I thought was good; you approached them rather than them making you have your photo taken. They also took your photo on the 'tour' in the cab bit. We didn't purchase the photos and so I am unable to comment on prices etc.

It does get very busy and so make sure you hold your children's hand.

Some people are very rude which is annoying. They'll push and shove.

Watch your bag for pick-pocketers.

So all in all, I did enjoy the experience (definitely the 'tour' in the cab and the cinema experience). I just would have preferred if it wasn't so busy so that I could have enjoyed it properly.

Thanks for reading!
April 2012
Xdonzx / xd-o-n-z-x