London Trip

[Rach]

I wanted to do something after I left school and looking at my funds the only way that I could do something would be to go somewhere on the annual pass. I didn't fancy Alton, as I've already done that so much this year, nor did I fancy Thorpe.
Chessington was a possibility, but decided against that and instead found that a day in London was cheaper and so the next day went and brought cheap tickets.

So Saturday, I got up at early o clock again in order to get the bus into the city centre and it was pissing it down with rain. It carried on much until I got to Coventry on the train.
It stopped then, but it was amusing watching the rain on the window move down the window and spread across as the train gathered more speed.

After only 1 hour 20 minutes on the train, I arrived in Euston! After a few minutes walk up to the top of the platform, I met Mushy and so the day began.

First thing to do was to walk to Euston Square to get the circle line to Baker Street for Madame Tussauds. (The H'Smith & City line and the Met line was down between the two for works)
After a bit of ticket machine faff, we made it to the platform and onto the tube.

The rain had followed me from Birmingham and after a hasty walk from Baker Street to Madame Tussauds, we were in and into the first room.

Davina was the first person to get photographed!

I look horrible in this - urgh.

Moving swiftly on from the first room and I move straight to Zac Efron for yet another photo.

Kerbell also got the same treatment.

We moved onto the sports room and played on the reaction test thingymajig. Excuse the darkness.

Kylie and Britney also got the same photo treatment. Amy is looking on in disgust in the far left of this picture. :lol:

A few more photos later of various other wax models and we were in the queue for Scream, we waited about 10 minutes while the actors got ready for the days work. Walking through the maze was fun, specially with the scardey cats in front. :lol:

Onto the ever so boring car ride next and then onto the last few rooms before making a quick exit and heading back to Baker Street to get the Bakerloo line to Waterloo for the Eye and London SeaLife Aquarium. Not before getting a quick drink from the shop next to the tube station.

Madame Tussauds - I'd done MT last year after GF and I weren't impressed with it really. My parents done MT many many years ago and said that it was every so boring.
This time round, I enjoyed it more. Thanks to getting there early in the day, there weren't many people around (only in the first room) and so was much easier to navigate your way around the building.
I can't remember much about Scream from last year, but it seemed better than last year and more jumpy than what I remembered.
MT is so much better when it is quieter, I thought a good way to start the day.

The first port of call once at Waterloo was the Eye. By this time, the heavens had really opened and the rain was coming down thick and fast making awful conditions to take photos from. Looking back now, maybe we should've done the Aquarium first.

But anyway, we were on the eye in about 10 minutes and ready for the next 30 minutes to go by while sheltering from the rain and trying to take photos.

As you can tell by the foggyness of these pictures, the windows were all steamed up.

It didn't stop me trying to take photos though.

I wonder what all these people were looking west for.

Ahh, that's why. It was D-Day yesterday and there were some celebrations going on.

It was truly awful weather to go on the Eye with, but nevermind.

By now, my camera was having trouble focusing on anything other than the rain washed windows.

The Eye - I also done this last year after GF, but in much much better weather. But after going on it in the dreary weather this time, I found that whatever the weather you can still enjoy it.

Just as we got off the eye, it stopped raining, so a few more touristy photos of Big Ben were in order.

The next point of call was:

Flashed our annual passes to the person on the priority gate and we were soon in and on our way down to floor -1 in the lift.

I'd never done the Aquarium before it was refurbished, but I was very impressed with the decor of the place and the clean feel that it had to it.

I've found now, that all Sealife Centres have a lot of the same species of marine life, but in different locations. With this Sealife, I was glad to see a bit of a variety of species ranging from Nemo fishes to the biggest sharks I've ever seen.

Like other Sealife Centres, this one has the typical Ray tank along with a walk through tank.

Rather than having one centre piece tank, this one has two. One smaller one with the walk through tunnel with a number of fish, HUGE Rays and HUGE tortises'
I also think that Corkscrew may have taken up a spot inside this tank. :lol:

Along with this tank, there was another tank that continued around the building where you are able to see it from different levels. This tank includes really HUGE fishes and an assortment of equally large and scary sharks!

Something that I'd not seen before in any Sealife Centres was a walk of faith over the top of the largest tank. This Sealife did, right over the shark tank and they do come up pretty close to the glass while you're on it!

I'm going to leave it there for now. I'll pick up again later, as there is a considerable amount still left to do.
The next part shall include:
- London Sightseeing P1 - Big Ben
- London Dungeons
- London Sightseeing P2 - Tower Bridge/London Bridge
- Visit to St Pancreas
- London Sightseeing P3 - Trafalgar Square
- London Euston
- The journey home

 

[ciallkennett]

Great PTR so far Rach! I'm off for AP whorage tomorrow with Peter and possibly Martyn H. I've never done any of the attractions, so now I know sort of what to expect

 

[Ollie]

The new London Aquarium is good. But it's FAR too busy and all the kids and constant waiting to get near a tank makes it all crap.
Good PTR so far though. Can't wait to see if you got any shots of the Dungeons. How was that new 'Surgery - Blood and Guts' section?

 

[Nicky]

*sniff*

Not my fault MT was really busy when we went.

 

[Rach]

^ I didn't mean it like that. I meant that MT is only slightly fun when it is easy to walk around!

Part deux

I wanted to finish this last night, but my iPod is playing up and I was attempting to find the problem. (It's ****ed)

So after leaving the Aquarium, the next destination would be the Dungeons.
But before the Dungeons, touristy photos were in order outside Big Ben and along Westminster Bridge.

Just in time for Big Ben to strike midday. A bird also got in the way of the photo.

So after the first of three lots of touristy photos we headed for the nearest tube station which was Westminster. The Jubilee line was down most of the route which was an arse!
Down on the platform, we bumped into a group of bananas (literally), I presume they were out on some form of Stag Do.
So we got on the District line over to Embankment, then the Bakerloo down to Elephant and Castle, then the Northern line up to London Bridge.

So many people were wandering around London Bridge Station, it was hard to navigate the paths.
First thing we spot is the London Bridge Experience, which I hope to do some time as it looks awesome. Actors from it were giving people leaflets for it, but we continued down to Dungeons.

I'm going to put a SPOILER warning here incase anyone doesn't want to know what happens in the Dungeons.

I couldn't get any photos in there as cameras are banned and didn't want to risk it. Plus, taking photos of it would've ruined the flow of it for me.

With the annual passes, we entered through the fast track queue, which was about 10 minutes. We get into the main building and end up waiting another 15 minutes to get into the first section of the attraction.

Once in one of the actors describes what is going to happen and starts the history of London.
The actor which gave us the brief intro, then told Mushy to get out the way. :lol: and so we went into the Labyrinth which included a lot of walking into mirrors. That room was awesome, loved it.

Next actor appears and leads us through to the apothecary where everyone looks around at the potions to try and cure many diseases. Following that, another actor comes and takes you into the Surgery: Blood and Guts!
Now this was actually pretty gory, but still ace! The actor chooses one of the first people in the group and sits them in a chair, while everyone else goes to stand around the outside and to watch.
The actor has a corpse and loads of horrible instruments to kill and torture you.
First thing they do is take out the kidney, intestine and heart from the corpse and put them to one side. Next, they go to the victim from the group and put a deep cut in their arm and blood drips onto the floor.
A few more gruesome torture devices later, and the actor gets a huge saw to cut off the hand.

What little light in the room goes out and a spray of water hits everyone in the room, while the curtain is closed around the victim.

Moving onto into the jail/torture room. A person from the group is put in the jail and another person is left sitting in the chair ready for another number of gruesome torture objects. First one is the tongue puller. Next is the castrator (many crude jokes about the size of the bloke in the chairs penis was then made), then there was the be-header.

With our hands on our heads, we move into the court, where yet again more people from the group were taken and put into the chair ready to be sentenced to death. A lady, a bloke and a child were chosen. (The child was scared throughout the whole attraction, felt sorry for him).

We move straight onto the Traitor: Boat Ride to Hell ride, ready for a quick backwards drop in pitch black darkness! At least this ride had more of a point to it than the car ride at MT.

Now into the Sweeney Todd part of the attraction which was the best scene in the Dungeons.
Into the Sweeney room we went and sat down. Having never been in the Dungeons before, I had no idea what was happening when the lights had gone out.
The voice came on, and it sounded very distant as if it was the other side of the room. Before I knew it, said voice was behind me which was creeping the hell out of me. Next I felt hair snippings on my shoulder.
I'm glad to say I wasn't the only person in the room to scream when the chairs moved back. That was awesome!

The Jack the Ripper stuff and the The Great Fire are a bit vague in my head now, but I can remember the flame in one of the Jack the Ripper scenes which was a bit of a shock as I didn't see that coming.

From there to Extremis, it is a bit vague and then onto Extremis we went.
Seeing photos from this just made me want to go on it even more. Soon enough we were on the ride and up the tiny tower.
Small pre show went on for what felt like ages, and in the pitch black dark, we suddenly dropped.
What an incredible little tower, the amount of airtime on it is phenomenal and sure made me wanting more.
However, going around all the attraction again was not something I wanted to do.

Dungeons - Much better than I first anticipated them being. I love stuff that is designed to make you scared and therefore, I loved it! Definitely visit again! Easily a 10/10 if I was rating them.

END SPOILER

With Dungeons now done, the next thing to do was to go do some more touristy things this time involving Tower Bridge and London Bridge.

hmmm, this isn't any of the two bridges mentioned above.

ahh, but this is!

It was very windy on London Bridge!

and we were back where we started!

With it only being about 2, we headed up the Northern line to St Pancreas to have a wonder round and see what this statue is all about. And also for me to make my dad jealous by being near the Eurostars'

We walked around St Pancreas for about half an hour before heading back to the tube and hopping on the Piccadilly line to Leicester Square. We must've gone in the wrong direction to what we wanted as we ended up at Trafalgar Square where we must've spent about half hour wandering around taking photos.

We wandered around that area of London for a while and ended up back at another tube station, this time Charing Cross where we made the journey back to Euston.
We sat down there for about an hour while I waited for my train which was at 18:03.

Soon enough, the train was here and I was back on my way to the delightfulness of Birmingham!
It took no longer than an hour and 20 minutes to get back which was amazing on the Pendolinos.

First thing you see when you enter Birmingham on the train coming from that direction is the delightful sequin building more commonly known as Selfridges!
After a smelly bus ride home (said bus smelt worse than the tubes)

I had a wonderful time exploring London, there was a hell of a lot of walking around and my legs paid the price yesterday! But it was all worth it to abuse my AP a little. :lol:

 

[ciallkennett]

Excellent Rach! Yes, the Dungeons are a definite 10/10 and were by far the greatest thing there.

For those who don't know, I went yesterday with Peter, but I cba to do a full TR so I'll sum up my points here, and Peter my post up some pictures as my computer is ****ed.

The Dungeons:
AWESOME!
Some of the actors really got interactive with the guests, which was great, but some didn't which was disappointing.
We got told off for going around 'the wrong way' into the blood and guts section, when infact it was a shortcut.
I got locked up in the cage for the instruments part for saying the first instrument was used for 'genitals', much to the amusement of the group. Then when the second instrument was introduced as not for the ladies, I said 'I know! I know!' which caused a bit of a laughing fit among some members of the group.
I didn't get the Sweeny Todd bit. Wasn't scary and only the seats tipped back, which made Peter jump, but didn't do anything for me. Slightly disappointing (But the fire effect in the room previous to that was AWESOME!)
Drop Tower = Jizz. OMFG! I had about a foot of space between the lapbars and me, and I got MASSIVE ejector *jizzes*
I think it should have flowed between the years. At one point it was the 17th century, then the 18th, then back to the 17th. It got confusing.

Overall, a 10/10. I would do it again, but it probably won't be as good now that I know everything that happens.

The Eye
Fun for the first 15 mins, then just boring.
The capsules were baking hot. It was only about 15 degrees, so I would never be able to go on them in summer.
Nothing much else to say really

6/10

The Aquarium
HUGE! But me and Peter rushed through and id it in about 30 mins.
I didn't see animal penis at WMSP, but I saw shark penis at The Aquarium, which was epic.
Only busy on the first floor, otherwise empty.
Worth at least 2 hours or so.
Wish I could go back and do it properly

8.5/10

Madame Tussauds
Quite good, though very bsuy.
Got to kick Zac Efron in the bollocks, which was great.
Chatted to BB in the new dairy room for around 15 mins, but we saw him come out of the booth. (He's black with a white beenie ) He made us mime a coaster after we said we met on CF We looked stupid, and EVERYONE saw us on that floor of the attraction, which was a big fail.
Kissed lots of people (men) and groped Britney Spears.
They seemed to take around 7 or 8 photos of you and try to flog them throughout for about a tenner each, which pissed me off.
The car ride sucked and we had it in Japanese, so we had no idea what was happening.
It was too busy, too short, and the scare thing was crap.

6/10

So well worth the trip, and we saved around £100 using AP, though you can buy an all attractions pass for £60.

Other things I want to add

My first ever time on the Underground and only my second time on a train. It was fun, and the underground is sooooo easy
London is fun, though packed and polluted.
Fat people can wake up instantaneously at their stop on trains. It’s incredible!
Went on a Virgin train down there, which was sooo fun. Drifting along the track and tilting was epic.
Would love to do another London trip again

Can’t post pics as camera f00bed, but I’m sure Peter will post the ones he took

 

[furie]

Glad you had a great time Rach, I do love doing tourist's London every 15 years or so

Had to laugh at this photo though:

Never has such an inappropriate sign been placed... :lol:

 

[marc]

Great report, glad you had fun.

That wax work of Zac Efron is one of the worst I have seen, it looks nothing like him.

 

[ciallkennett]

That's because they made it before he had botox

 

[peep]

So after the first of three lots of touristy photos we headed for the nearest tube station which was Westminster. The Jubilee line was down most of the route which was an arse!
Down on the platform, we bumped into a group of bananas (literally), I presume they were out on some form of Stag Do.
So we got on the District line over to Embankment, then the Bakerloo down to Elephant and Castle, then the Northern line up to London Bridge.

Was that from Southbank (Eye etc)? If so that has to be the worst route possible. I assume you both had day travel cards? Should have just walked into Waterloo East station (National Rail station attached to Waterloo). Then you could have taken a 3 min train straight into London bridge. Oh wells.


Looks like you had a good time despite the horrible weather. I love how you can skip most queues with the Annual Pass, must really annoy peeps in the long queues though. Did you have to get a ticket from the London Eye office to get on? On previous trips I found that you have to get a free ticket from the office if you have an AP.

 

[Gazza]

Out of interest, how long does it take to do the Dungeons? Even though I have an AP, I wasn't going to bother, but your review makes it sound much better than I was expecting it to be.

Great photos by the way, I'm quite excited knowing I'm going to be there in a months time

 

[Rach]

Looks like you had a good time despite the horrible weather. I love how you can skip most queues with the Annual Pass, must really annoy peeps in the long queues though. Did you have to get a ticket from the London Eye office to get on?

Nope, we didn't have to get a ticket, we just joined in the queue and the wet staff at the entrance scanned our APs like what they do with the tickets.

On an unrelated note Peep, we never really thought to use that line as there were a lot of tube routes down on Saturday.
But it didn't really matter as we didn't wait longer than 2 minutes for any of the tubes that day.

Out of interest, how long does it take to do the Dungeons? Even though I have an AP, I wasn't going to bother, but your review makes it sound much better than I was expecting it to be.

Takes about 90 minutes, but it can involve half hours worth of queuing to get into the first room.
I would say no more than 2 hours to do the Dungeons.

Hope that helps.

 

[Dave]

Its a 35 minute walk down soutbank from Waterloo to London Bridge! Its a lovely walk as well, with the Tate Mordern, The Globe, HMS Belfast etc.

Cool pics, I need to go to London and whore my pass before it runs out, anyone want to come?

 

[nadroJ]

The Dungeons have improved tenfold in the past few years, I hope Merlin(?) continue improving it, it's turning out to be one of the better London attractions. On a side note has anybody done the London Bridge Experience thing opposite the Dungeons?

Me and Ali went and had a mini-whore of out passes the other day, have to say I do like the aquarium but like someone said, it is just jam packed with annoying little kids who make you feel bad for looking at fish as it always feels like you're blocking their view! I did the walk of faith thing and the proceeded to jump up and down really hard on the biggest glass bit =D

Glad you had a good day, London is much much nicer if you go on a lovely hot day though.

 

[Ollie]

^Yeah that was me saying how the little kids ruined it. I was quite disappointed with the walk of faith. Reading about it in the paper it just seemed like a suspension bridge thing above the shark tank that sounded quite cool. But all it was was a tunnel with a couple of glass panels on the floor.

I've wanted to try the London Bridge Experience out for a while now. May get down there soon but I'm not sure what the prices are and I've heard mixed reviews about it. (All media and people saying it's good while Ben thinks it's crap ).

 

[Ben]

On a side note has anybody done the London Bridge Experience thing opposite the Dungeons?

Yeah.

And a word to the wise - don't :wink:

The actual "educational" part at the start isn't too bad, just very, very, very short, and not THAT interesting (it is, after all... a bridge). The walkthrough is just terrible, though (think Thorpe's worst maze... made worse)

 

[Ian]

Ben is CF's official LBE guru :wink:

Nice whorage there, Rach! If I had know you were doing this, I would have come. Want to do the Dungeon now it's on the anal pass.

 

[ciallkennett]

Sorry for bringing it up again, but my photos are finally up :

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=102275&id=731231904&l=a14717a089