Description: We had long been curious about Madame Tussauds in London but never got around to visiting. My husband had been there many years ago when he was a child, but I had never been, so we were quite excited about going. On researching more information about the attraction prior to our trip, I was amazed at the ticket prices - £30.00 for adults and £28.50 for children - mighty expensive! There are slight reductions if you buy the tickets on-line and in advance, so look out for these. We have annual Merlin passes - 1 year's entry to all the Merlin attractions in the UK - ranging from theme parks, to the London Eye to this place, so paid nothing extra.
Madame Tussauds is open between 9am and 7pm. Baker Street is the closest tube stop - literally just a couple of minutes down the street.
This is a wax museum which was founded by Madame Tussaud who arrived here from revolutionary France in the 19th century. She studied the art of wax modelling in France, made death masks for Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI and even brought these with her to London. This formed the basis of the original collection, which, over the years just grew and grew. The concept is exactly the same today. There are waxworks of all sorts of famous people displayed in a variety of different scenes.
We arrived on a snowy, freezing cold Thursday afternoon in April. As we approached, we were amazed to see people queuing literally around the block to get in . There are 5 different doors - all of which had enormous queues, all for different things - be aware, the queue to buy tickets was the longest with an estimated waiting time of 3 hours! Definitely get your tickets in advance! We joined the VIP queue for Merlin pass holders and ended up only standing in line for 15 minutes.
Once inside, it was unbelievable how many people were crammed into this old building. I felt quite claustrophobic at first and tried not to think what would happen in the event of a fire! There were people everywhere, I had to keep a tight grip on our 9 year old and hope for the best.
The first area is called A List Party. There were various wax models around the room in a party setting. We could not even get close to any of them. People were pushing and shoving and it was just impossible.
There are areas called Bollywood Stars, Premiere Nights (with Hollywood film stars) and then the Sports Zone. This is where we started to find it bearable. The crowds seemed to have thinned out slightly by this stage, you could get close to the models and actually take photos without someone jumping in front of you . Our son, though, was totally enthralled by the whole experience. He stood next to Muhammad Ali and weighed in on a boxer's scale. He shook hands with "David Beckham" and took a penalty kick. We also walked right under Tom Daley as he prepared to dive, and posed next to Tiger Woods. There are lots of interactive things in this area which are fun for children.
The good thing about the whole experience is that you can get close to the figures and touch them. Cameras are allowed everywhere too.
We all started to enjoy ourselves at this point, loved the royal section with royals past and present. The scene with the Queen, William and Kate and Price Philip had a professional photographer taking pictures. He was also happy to take photos with people's own cameras, so that was good. The staff were all really friendly and extremely helpful.
We walked through the Culture area with figures of Einstein, Shakespeare, Dickens, Picasso and others. Finally having posed next to David Cameron outside 10 Downing Street and sat at Obama's desk next to him in his office, we were out of the main wax models section.
The Chamber of Horrors is an underground dungeon and is meant to be a highlight. They have waxwork torture figures and Scream - costumed actors try to scare you. They don't recommend this for children under 12 years, so we gave it a miss.
The Spirit of London was next - a musical history ride sitting in a London black taxi. You passed through various scenes of London history, from Tudor London to the Great Plague and then on to the days of Queen Victoria then the Blitz. It was a lot of fun and very good, also I was amazed there was no queue and we hopped straight on.
The last part of the visit involves a 4D movie right at the top of the building - there are a lot of narrow stairs to climb, but you enter a huge theatre and the movie is projected on the famous dome roof. It involves Superheroes saving London, is great fun and the effects are superb.
We spent about 2 hours in Madame Tussauds. It is not for everybody - we all hated it due to the crowds at the beginning, but started to enjoy it a bit more as we progressed. Our son loved it though, and thought it was the highlight of his trip to London.
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