Madame Tussaud & Phantom

We had a late breakfast at about 9am so went to level 1 again as we thought we were short on time. Once again it was beautiful, bacon, eggs, sausage, black pudding, hash browns, baked beans, cereal and fruit. We went back upstairs and packed our bags, checked out then checked back in to another room from the extra night we booked, then took our bags to the storage room because our room wasn’t ready yet. We eventually got to the bus stop at about 11:30am and bought tickets for Madame Tussaud’s wax museum from one of the bus company staff. We had a 2 for 1 voucher but were told we could only use it at the box office. He also told us that the wait to buy these voucher tickets was about 2 hours. We thought better of it and just bought the ‘fast pass’ tickets from him instead at full price. The bus was already packed and we had painful thought about how crowded everything would be today. It took about 45 minutes to get to Madame Tussaud’s because the bus had to make stops at each of the tourist locations. In hindsight we should’ve just taken the Underground but we did get 48 hour pass, so we may as well use it.

When we got off the bus we knew we had made the right decision to buy tickets before hand. There were 2 massive lines. The line to buy tickets did indeed look like it would take 2 hours. We thought we could walk straight in with our pass but one of the staff told us to join the other queue, which was about 50 metres long. We had to wait about 10-15 minutes to get inside but at least it wasn’t 2 hours. We finally got in at 12:30pm and once inside we purchased a souvenir booklet and were led to an elevator with a group of people that took us to the lower level. The doors opened and the place was a absolutely jammed packed. When we first walked in we honestly couldn’t tell real from wax model at the A-List Hollywood party set. Only the clothing made the models stand out as they were mostly very well dressed.

The first celebrity we saw was Morgan Freeman, the likeness was amazing. Dan got a photo with ‘him’ after fighting his way through the hordes of onlookers. Ev got a photo with Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise.

Dan with Freeman

Ev & Tom. He's very short

We know it’s the whole point, but the models look amazingly lifelike. Only a couple failed to look exactly like their fleshy counterparts, eg Mel Gibson, Brad Pitt and John Travolta. The rest were bore an uncanny and eerie resemblance. We really had to push our way through to get a photo with each wax celebrity as you literally could not move freely throughout the museum. There were so many people that it got a little uncomfortable toward the end.

The first area was made up of movie and rock stars like the ones we saw earlier but also, Leonardo Di Caprio, Helen Mirren and Christina Aguilera.

The beautiful Audrey

We passed through an Andy Warhol exhibit before we got to the Hollywood area. There were great models of Robert Downey Jr, Robin Williams, Jim Carrey and many more. This area was by far the most crowded and was also the stage where we started to get a little annoyed.

We quickly left the Hollywood area but realised Dan had dropped Ev’s jacket in the crowded room, which had our Phantom of the Opera and bus tickets in. Thanks Baby! Thankfully someone had handed it in to one of the staff. The sporting heroes section was next. The likes of Tiger Woods, Sachin Tendulkar, Lewis Hamilton were on show. Dan got a photo with Shane Warne, Brian Lara and Liverpool champion, Steven Gerrard.

There was also an interactive football game where you had to try and score a penalty goal. Dan had a go and almost threw his knee out. The glory days are over Dan. We passed through an area of famous inventors, scientists, artists and important figures in history like Stephen Hawking and Einstein. Ev had some photos with some of the Royal Family including Princess Di, Prince Harry and William.

The next area had famous musicians like The Beatles, Micheal Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis, Kylie Minogue.

Ev's trophy was better!

It was 1:30pm and we were pretty worn and ready to go. We quickly walked through the famous World Figures area, ie President Obama, Pope John Paul II, Hitler etc and walked through what was a representation of the dungeons and murderous side of London during the 1800’s. It was pretty cool. Following this we boarded a mini Black Taxi rollercoaster ride which took us through the history of London starting from the time of Queen Victoria through to present day. We were about to leave when Dan noticed the Marvel Comics 4D animation show. We paid an extra 5 pounds each to watch it. We grabbed some 3D glasses and walked up a ramp that led to a waiting area that had wax models of Nick Fury, Spiderman, The Hulk and Ironman. Finally the movie was about to start and everyone filed into the cinema. It was like an IMAX theatre dome where the screen took up the entire wall and roof. It was a really cool movie that went for about 20 minutes. The chairs vibrated and wind and a light mist were sprayed from the chairs in front to simulate speed and water splashing. It was good fun. This was an awesome half day activity.

We got back on the tour bus as it passed and spend another 30 minutes getting back to the hotel. It was enjoyable though as we got to see the sights of London once again. We stopped into a pub-like restaurant and had some lovely lunch and had a chance to just sit and talk about our trip so far. We noticed the post office through the window and headed there after lunch to ask when they close. They told us 6:30pm. It was 4:30pm so we went back the hotel and officially checked into our new room. It was the same as the previous room except this one had a double bed instead of 2 singles. *Wink, wink..Nudge, nudge..Say no more, say no more...* We played cards and then took a quick nap but overslept. We quickly got ready but didn’t leave the hotel until 6:20pm. We got to the post office just before 6:30pm but still had to box everything up. We weren’t quick enough and were incredibly pissed off because we were 1 minute late and they wouldn’t help us. Now we will have to carry the bloody thing around to Sam’s place because tomorrow is Sunday and the post office is closed Monday for the Bank Holiday. The parcel is really heavy, about 10kg (yes we’ve bought a lot so far but you can’t travel and not buy things, well not us anyway). We left the parcel with the storage clerk and took a taxi to Her Majesty’s Theatre.



Phantom of the Opera

We thought we were going to be late for our 7:30pm show but the cab driver was surprisingly quick as he took a bunch of back streets and avoided the traffic to get us there at 7pm. Before the show we bought a souvenir book and ordered drinks for intermission. We took our seats near the back and didn’t realise they were so high up. It didn’t really matter as once the music started, we were mesmerised...

Cue The Phantom Music: do Dooooooooooo, Do, do, da, da, da, da, duh duuuuuuh. Dun, duuuuuuun, da daaaaaah. (wow that was fun!)

Ev in the theatre @ Phantom. If you can't see, she's very happy.

A life-long dream came true for Ev tonight. She had chills as the dramatic Introduction played and fell in love all over again when ‘All I Ask of You’ was performed. The show was fantastic and we both really enjoyed ourselves. It was everything Ev hoped it would be. Even Dan enjoyed it (soft as).

We got a cab back to the hotel at around 10:30pm and packed our gear in preparation for our trip to Liverpool tomorrow morning. Sleep is good.

Love me?... That’s all I ask...of you. Such a beautiful song. Night.

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