Madame Tussauds Wax Museum

We could have been in the Taj Mahal or Qutb Minar, and we still wouldn’t have seen so many excited Indians crowded together. I guess you could very well assume that the folks from the Indian sub-continent are the reason that Madame Tussauds is up and running.

Two minutes walk from Baker’s Street tube station that connects almost five lines, the Madame Tussauds wax museum is easy enough to identify. There are combination tickets available at the museum, which helps you get entry to different popular attractions at a combined discounted price. Madame Tussauds + London Eye and Madame Tussauds + London Eye + Aquarium are the popular combos. We purchased the Madame Tussauds + London Eye ticket and entered the museum with only less than an hour left for the closing time.

The museum has many levels containing wax figures in different themes – Party, Bollywood, Film, Sports, Royals, Culture, Music and World Leaders. There is also a horror chamber, behind the scenes at Madame Tussauds level, “Spirit of London” Ride and Marvel Studios with 4D experience.

After clicking away selfies with various A-listers, we moved on to Bollywood. Senior Bachchan and the Bachchan Bahu standing at a vantage point to Salman Khan had me in splits. We were clicking more selfies with random celebrities in the Films section, when we met with a guy who looked like one of the obviously filthy rich lads from somewhere in North India. He kept tagging along with us and was more than willing to click pictures of us, in exchange for us taking his photos, of course. It was a pretty good agreement and now we have photos with Johny Depp, Robin Williams, Brangelina, Audrey Hepburn, Shrek, Sachin Tendulkar, Roger Federer, Steven Spielberg and the like. It gets boring after a point, I admit. But I also understood why Indians crowd this museum – a selfie with Sachin Tendulkar, wax or not, makes a good profile picture on Facebook or Whatsapp.

Thalaivaaa!!

Photographers were stationed next to the British Royal Family and President Obama. You could collect the pictures at the end of the tour for a fee. They also obliged to take pictures of us in our own cameras, which I thought was very decent of them considering that almost always meant we weren’t going to buy the professional photos.

The Spirit of London ride is a cart ride through London’s history. This was fun, like being in an amusement park. I really enjoyed it but we could hardly hear the voice explaining London’s history over the screams of everyone else. I noticed the staff helping a differently abled kid get into the cart earlier and thought that India has a LONG way to go in terms of facilities for the physically challenged.

My Iron Man :P

The highlight of the museum definitely has to be the Marvel 4D show. I remember watching a similar 4D show in one of Mumbai’s malls, but this one was vera level. Very well staged and very well done. I don't want to give it away so you have to go see it for yourself.

The exit to the museum was through the shops, where we decided not to buy anything. At the exit, there was a digital feedback form where you could request for your favourite celebrities to be added to the display and guess what Cheena wrote? Rajinikanth.

The museum is usually open from 9:30 to 17:30 on all days, but the timings might be extended a little on peak hours. The spirit of London ride is closed on some days, so you might want to check the dates online before making a visit.

Update: They have added Katniss Everdeen(Jennifer Lawrence) and Sherlock Holmes(Benedict Cumberbatch) as of Jan 2015.

Expenses:

• Entry tickets for Madame Tussauds and London Eye(combo) - £89.90 for two adults
• Picture Postcards - £0.45
•  Food - £6.00
• Oyster card - £0.00 (Cheena’s cousin and her husband’s cards which were already topped up for our use)