Madame Tussauds

My mum and myself prebooked our fast track tickets for access to both Madame Tussauds and the London Dungeons (during late sept '08) after i'd heard some not too good things about the horrendous queues/waiting time. We ended up deciding on a monday morning slot. Even though the school holidays were over, it wasn't over a weekend or during the peak afternoon time I still didn't want to take any chances.

Needn't have worried though- there was no queue what so ever which was great. Within a few mins after having our ticket payment checked by reception and purchasing a big glossy souvenir book for a keep sake we were in. It was still fairly busy inside though with a mixture of both many British and foreign travellers..but everyone was courteous/patient to eachother whenever somebody wanted to get a decent view for a picture or to have their pic taken with one of the "celebs".

Madame Tussauds is split in so many sections covering big rooms. Lots of celebs from the past and present day covering music, tv, film, royals, cultural heroes, sports and world leaders. Theres also a Big Brother style diary room for you to enter where people can view what you get up to on a screen outside which is also videoing you. For a price you can later purchase a dvd of this. Chamber of horrors showed grusome punishments and famous murderers from British history and as for going through scream..well it wasn't too scary but then I did make my mum go in front and she did shreik once or twice,lol.

As if that wasn't enough there's also a train ride that whizzes you around showing you yet more of London's fascinating history- wax work style of course (theres a chance later on to purchase a pic of you taken on this ride). When you come closer to the end there's a room dedicated to showing you the process of creating all the wax works from start to finish and for a small price you can also have a wax work of your hand done. Lastly there's the gift shop.

As a round up both my mum and I really had a enjoyable time here and took longer than we thought we would (3 hrs) due to me wanting to get pics of everyone. It was great to come home and say to peeps with a big cheesy grin on my face look theres me with Brad pitt and so on. Most of the wax works looked quite realistic/easy to recognise, others were made slightly better looking/taller than the real people..e.g Ant & Dec. For the odd few wax works that maybe wern't so recongnisable to most folk..like political/cultural leaders there was information about who it was beside them so at least you wern't left wondering. It's certainly not that cheap to go here but as a special one off it's a must top day out if your visiting London.

Okay, it is very expensive ( even though I bought the tickets online together with The Eye )but we really did have a good time. Get there early ( half an hour before it opens at least ). Sometimes it is hard to distinguish between the people and the statues it gets so crowded. I think it´s a once in a life time experience because we had a ball and I don´t regret doing it, but I won´t be back.

My girlfriend and I went to Madame Tussauds while we were on holiday in London last week. I know this attraction has its critics but we had a good time. Let's face it - we're all curious about what celebrities really look like up close and Madame Tussauds lets you satisfy your stickybeak curiosity.

The waxworks are really lifelike so I really enjoyed just wandering about and making inane comments like 'Hmm...Arnie's not as big as you'd think, is he?'

But if you want to get a bit more interactive, there are plenty of options. I putted off (badly) against Tiger Woods in the sports hall. You could also dress up and play air guitar on stage with various rock stars if you wanted, or challenge Einstein to a quiz (which I wouldn't recommend unless you want to feel thick!)

The only downside of Madame Tussauds is its popularity, so I would thoroughly recommend going during the week to avoid the crowds. Also, at face value it's the most expensive London attraction we visited but if you have a look online you can find some decent discounts. We found a 'buy one get one free' offer on 365tickets.com and this gave us fast-track entry too, which was fabulous once we saw the queue for tickets!