Europe 2015- Madame Tussauds

When we booked our tickets for The London Eye, we were given the option to bundle them with discount tickets to Madame Tussauds.

Madame Tussauds is crazy popular and extremely busy. We arrived in the early afternoon and we waited nearly an hour to enter. If I could go back and redo the day, I would have done Madame Tussauds first, before The London Eye, arriving at the museum before opening.

Why? The whole fun in visiting a wax museum is taking pictures with the figures. You're allowed to pose with them and touch them. Colin Firth! I'm grabbing some of that!

When we arrived, the whole museum was jammed. We had to wait to pose with each figure, but worse, it was often difficult to get a clean shot. Trust me, get there early.

I think of Madame Tussauds as a "Classy" wax museum. Oxymoron? Perhaps.

In the late 90's, I visited Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas and had a great time. The figures look very realistic. They are dressed in clothing worn and donated by the celebrities. These figures are approved by the celebrities themselves and they are usually flattering.

We have a Madame Tussauds in Hollywood, but I've never been. Here's the thing about Wax Museums in Hollywood...there is no reason to visit Madame Tussauds, when you can go down the street to visit the Hollywood Wax Museum. The Hollywood Wax Museum houses figures that look nothing like the celebrities. I mean NOTHING like them! They are falling apart, disfigured, and usually unflattering. I don't know how they haven't been sued. It's far more entertaining to play "guess the celebrity" and gawk at the terrible figures, than it is to view the "classy" versions at Madame Tussauds. It's extra fun if you visit a nearby pub first!

Click to read my review of our visit to the Hollywood Wax Museum

That said, we still had a great time running around taking goofy pictures. Here is a small sample of the offerings.

We were surprised to find a dark ride in the middle of the exhibit. The Spirt of London, took us on a journey through the history of the city. Here are some snaps of the ride.

In addition to The Spirit of London ride, Madame Tussauds also has a 4-D Marvel themed movie. We stayed for the entire show, but it was a little loud and intense for the kids. If you've seen a lot of 4-D movies in theme parks, this one doesn't rate. The story was terrible and visually, it was average. If the wait is long, like it was for us, skip it.

More pictures...

I spent many years working ride attractions at Universal Studios Hollywood. This picture was mandatory...

And I chatted with Steven on the set of Jurassic Park. I have some ideas for a ride...

When in England, who else are you going to meet?

But the best moment of the visit was when my seven year old Swedish step-daughter said - "I see President Obama!" and was super excited to have her picture taken with him. Isn't she the cutest presidential aide?

Madame Tussauds is enormous and we could have easily spent 3-4 hours exploring, but due to time constraints, we only visited for a few hours. We skipped the horror chamber, because I was too chicken! For the record, Zoe was very keen to check it out. Given the large amount of Historic buildings and museums in London, I wouldn't consider Madame Tussauds a "must-see", but if you've done it all, it's a fun way to spend a half-day.

Europe 2015- The London Eye

When we asked Zoe and Felix what they would like to do after our cruise, we thought that their first response would be a theme park. Those two kids love Legoland. We were surprised when Zoe wanted to see The London Eye, rather than go on rollercoasters. As much as I love theme parks, a trip to the big city trumps all. I was thrilled.

London was appropriately grey for the kid's first visit. We drove into the city. Traffic was sluggish, so I took some snaps.

Iced tea= I love it. It's not a thing in England and I really miss it when I'm on vacation. I was gleeful to discover a pop-up Lipton event. Besides some free iced tea, I appreciated the splash of yellow to brighten up the day.

We had pizza at Bella Italia, a popular Italian chain. Here are some pictures that I took near the restaurant, which was right in the theatre district.

The kids had their first ride in a London taxi.

We arrived at The London Eye.

The London Eye is an extremely popular attraction. The first time that I visited, we bought "fast-track" tickets, which allowed us to skip a majority of the line with a timed entry. This visit, we went general admission. The wait took about an hour, which wasn't a huge deal, although we wished that we had just spent the money to skip the line. The queue was a bit chaotic, with loud and pushy tour groups.

Eventually, we got on, and it was worth the wait.

Mission accomplished = Happy kid.

UK August-October 2013- The London Eye

There are some tourist trap experiences that you just have to do. It seems like every time I host a first time visitor to Los Angeles, their two must-do's are Hollywood Blvd and Venice Beach. It's useless to try to convince them that those two landmarks are really not the best of what So. Cal has to offer. It's a lesson that every visitor must learn for themselves.

The London Eye is a beautiful tourist trap. Certainly, it's better than Hollywood Blvd and Venice Beach combined, but it's still not something that would be in my top-ten London must-dos.

I feel like we experienced The London Eye the '"right way". We went early on the first morning of our trip, when the city was virtually unexplored. The best thing about The London Eye is the amazing views that it affords of the city. We lucked out and visited on a clear day with blue skies. It was ideal.

The tickets are pricy and not really a good value for the experience. Dan's parents arranged our tickets in advance and they did a smart thing by getting us Fast Track Tickets. The FT Tickets allowed us to skip a majority of the line and walk through a separate entrance. This was a huge time saver on a busy day. Judging by the queue, The London Eye is an attraction that every tourist hits!

Save time, pick Fast Track tickets for The London Eye

Our ticket package also included a viewing guide.

Here's the thing about the Viewing Guide...it's more for a souvenier than it is for practical usage while on The London Eye. It's detailed, but it's also cumbersome when you pull it out and try to use it. The carriages of The London Eye are crowded and it's just not worth fiddling with a giant map. Also, the carriages are all equipped with computers that have the same information as the viewing guide. I felt like this was an extra that they tacked on to the upgraded ticket price, that really didn't add to the value.

What was the ticket price?

Just shy of thirty pounds per adult for the Fast Track Tickets. The tickets also included a 4-D Cinema experience. The term "Cinema Experience" is a debatable one. Like the viewing guide, this was an unnecessary extra thrown in to justify the expensive admission.

The film is a complete gimmick and super cheesy, showing a family visiting The London Eye. About a week after we visited The London Eye, we went to Blackpool and had another "4-D Cinema Experience" that was roughly the same film, but replaced with Blackpool landmarks. It led us to wonder how many other videos the company has made for tourist traps all over the UK.

Even though you paid for it as part of your ticket package, I highly recommend skipping the film. It's not worth your time.

Price aside, there are reasons that you should check out The London Eye. The views are magnificent and it will give you approximately thirty minutes of incredible photo opportunities. The London Eye itself is a marvel. I've never seen anything quite like it and it's hard to imagine that it was originally supposed to be a temporary structure. It's beautiful.

Check out the official attraction website for updated visitors information.

The London Eye- Official Site