Last year I visited Madame Tussauds in London.
It was not a planned visit, I was in London and whilst looking for something to do for the afternoon, the decision was reached to come and look at Madame Tussauds.

---What is Madame Tussauds??---

Madame Tussauds basically contains wax models.. (some realistic looking, some not so) of various people and celebrities. Ranging from sports, royalty, pop stars, world leaders, film actors and actresses (both hollywood and bollywood).

At the time of writing the Sport Star wax models at the London Madame Tussauds include: David Beckham, (Wayne Rooney was there when I went not David), Jessica Ennis, Rafael Nadal, Tom Daley, Muhammad Ali and Christiano Ronaldo.

Royalty: The Queen, Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William, Prince Charles, Diana and Prince Harry

Pop Stars: Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Cheryl Cole, Amy Winehouse and Britney Spears

World Leaders: Barack Obama, David Cameron, Tony Blair, Nelson Mandela, Boris Johnson and Martin Luther King

Hollywood Stars include: Colin Firth, Kate Winslet, Taylor Lautner, Bruce Willis, Robert Pattinson and Leonardo DiCaprio

Bollywood Stars include: Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Madhuri Dixit and Hritik Roshan

Cultural Figures include: Albert Einstein, Vincent Van Gogh, Charles Dickens and Pablo Picasso

And finally characters include: Spiderman, Sherlock Holmes, The Hulk, Captain America and Wolverine

---My Experience---

Once we reached Madame Tussauds we saw 2 sets of queues, one was really long and went pretty much around the corner from Madame Tussauds and half way down the street. The other not as long in comparisson but still pretty packed was for VIP's - those who had prebooked their tickets. As we did not plan the days event we went and stood in the longer queue. After standing in line for 15-20minutes and not moving a spot we were soon considering whether it would be worth our time and whether or not to leave. We decided to stick it out as none of us had visited before and it was one of the places we all felt would be nice to check out, as it is seen as a great tourist attraction.

Thankfully it was not raining on the day, as the long queue wait would have gotten even worse. We ended up spending about an hour queued outside. Once we reached to the door of Madame Tussauds we were all feeling pretty happy thinking that finally we will get to go in and not waste any more time. Wrong!!
Getting from the outside queue to the door of Madame Tussauds was just part 1 of queuing. We then found getting from the door to the ticket desk, to the line of people up the stairs waiting to enter the rooms was a whole different part. It then took us half an hour longer to actually get into actually being able to see the wax models!

Tip: make sure you have had some food before going in as otherwise you will get really hungry pretty quickly after the long queues makes the days event go even longer.

Once in, looking at the wax models were nice.. and some were pretty impressive as you could tell it took a lot of work to make them. However at times the experience could be a little awkward as the rooms are so packed!.. So you are either stood waiting for a photo for a while, or when you are trying to take a photo you have to make it so rushed as you can tell there are people around also wanting a photo.

Or once you have taken a photo you find a random person has managed to come right into the middle of the shot. I found the whole photo process wasn't as easy and was more rushed, and the photos that did get to be taken it was impossible not to get others into the shot as the rooms were just too crowded. I ended up giving up on the photographs and just took a wander.

The models are not all in one room but dotted about in different areas/floors. You should note that once you have gone past one area you are not actually allowed back in it again as there is someone stood at the door ensuring that people are all moving in one direction: forwards!. I remember I was going to take a photo with one of the wax models but it was too full and too many people around and so I thought I would pop back when it wasn't as busy. Unfortunatly I was told I couldn't re-enter that area.

After looking at the wax models we went on a black cab tour. Which basically had black cabs on a conveyor belt that you could sit on and it went around various displays telling you about the history of London. There was even a moment where it told you to smile for the cameras and you had a photo taken whilst you were in the black cab which could later be bought. (I didn't purchase one so I can't comment on the prices etc). This was fairly interesting and was a nice ride which would be educational as well. You got your information from the ride playing over some loudspeakers as the cab was moving past and you did not really see anyone apart from people getting you on and off the black cab.

After the black cab we went and saw a really nice Marvel 4D Superhero video. This was a 9 minute film which included characters such as Spiderman, The Hulk, Wolverine and Iron Man. The film had good 4D effects in match with what was occuring on the screen, which included bursts of air being blown at you, jabs at the back of the seat which were meant to be from Wolverine etc. Overall it was pretty impressive and a nice watch. It was a shame it wasn't longer than 9 minutes as we all felt the film, black cab ride and the horror walk (more on that in a minute) were actually more enjoyable than looking at all the wax-models. But children would definitely love this film and it would be one to take the kids to as i'm sure there would be moments when they would get bored of all the wax models!

We also went through to this horror walk which I think was called Scream, I can't really remember. But it basically involved a man telling you that there would be prisoners and generally crazy psychotic people jumping out at you and scaring you. I didn't really want to go to this as i'm not a fan of horror/scary stuff.. but I decided to go along anyway. Once walking into the tunnel walk through.. it is really dark.. you can hardly see a thing and the only way to walk is forwards.. at times you can see people who do look quite scary in their costumes and loud voices screaming away or saying creepy comments and they can come right in your face or attempt to grab you as you are walking past. Though we were told they were not actually allowed to touch us and we shouldn't touch them... but they can still be quite scary!.. This walk lasted a few minutes and wasn't very long, but still was enjoyable.

---Overall---

And that was it, that was Madame Tussauds.
I give it 4/5 stars as it was an enjoyable event at the end.. but i'm a bit torn over whether I would recommend it. I thought the tickets were overpriced... £30 for an adult and £25.80 for a child... I think it cost a bit more to watch the 4D Superhero film too. It's somewhere i've been once and would not go again as I felt i've seen it all. I think the queues were ridiculous and would recommend buying in advance online so that you are not waiting as long. Also booking online would save a few pounds and make the tickets a little cheaper... (not by much though). It would also probably be best to plan your visit so it is not during peak times.. school holidays etc and when you can get hold of 2 for 1 vouchers as they can be found too.

I did enjoy the day, but it did have moments which were annoying and I felt the service could be improved to make it more better. However i'd only recommend you visit there if it is somewhere you've really been meaning to go.. I wouldn't go out your way to visit it, and would say be prepared for a bit of dissapointment in terms of prices, queues and crowded rooms. I personally think the attraction is over-hyped than necessary and could have been made more enjoyable, but i'm also glad I checked it out for the experience.

---Locations---

There is also a Madame Tussauds in Blackpool... as well as in different locations in America, Asia and Australia.
If you want to look at a particular wax model it would be beneficial to look at the website first to see if it will be there, as they do seem to move between different locations.

Thanks for reading :)... this is definitely the longest review i've ever written! lol

(the review can also be found on ciao)