Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Madame Tussauds in Hong Kong

I visited Madame Tussauds in Hong Kong in late March 2009.
It was located in "The Peak".
I'm not going to introduce about this attraction because I'm in fact still rather annoyed by my experience there.
I would prefer the Madame Tussauds in London, which I visited many years back, it was wonderful.
Back to the Madame Tussauds in Hong Kong, the first thing that got me irritated was... I was standing at the entrance, in front view of the cashier, wanting to buy the Madame Tussauds book, the staff just continue talking to the other staff instead of asking if I needed any assistance. So I said flatly "Excuse me, I would like to get this book!" Then she finally stop chatting and got me the book.
Next was even worse and imagine, I haven't even actually step inside this place, it started to make my blood boils!
President Obama wax figure was outside, guarded by 1 photographer and 1 ticket staff.
They were there to help you take pictures with Obama and would afterwhich passed a photo ticket to you, so you can see if you'll like to buy a picture from them later on at the exit.
I didn't want to buy a photo later and wanted to use my own camera but the staff said I couldn't.
So ok nevermind, I then walked 3 meters away wanting to just photograph Obama only. The staff actually came over and stopped me from photographing.
This time, I'm really boiling!
Photograph from so far also not allowed, then when we are purchasing the admission ticket, the staff should let us know that Obama pictures is only allowed to be taken if you get a photo-ticket and BUY the photo at exit!!
I was with my friend and since we're out in a tour trying to enjoy ourself, I let the matter rest.
Didn't want to spolit my mood.
I just shot a GLARE over and stare at the rude staff and entered the attraction without much anticipation or excitment.
It wasn't crowded inside and I was able to take pictures of the wax figures there at ease.
Only some more popular ones, I would have to wait my turn.
Snap, Snap Snap... I took lots of photographs.
Then I came the a place called - Scream.
Upon entering, me and my friend was asked to stand inside a place like a horror, jail cell to have our pictures taken and get a photo ticket.
I declined to go into the cell to have my picture taken and was thus not allowed to enter - Scream!
See, all this was not known to us when getting our admission ticket.
I asked the staff why and he explained that he have to have something like a head count, how many photo = how many people enter scream!
But at least, he was polite and tried to explain unlike the rude girl outside.
If that's their company policy, I wouldn't want to make things difficult for him.
We just left without entering "SCREAM".
All this pretty much sums up my bad experience at the Madame Tussauds in Hong Kong.
They do have many great wax figures there to see that's worth the ticket price but the service level there would need a lot more hard work to make it a enjoyable place to visit.
It's my first and I would like to say should also my last time visiting this place.
So, I'll stop here for now and hope you all will like the photos I've taken.

Bruce Lee


Jackie Chan


Johnny Depp


Jay Chou


Angelina Jolie


Brad Pitt


Leo Ku


Aaron Kwok


Bae Yong Joon


Lesile Cheung


Princess Diana


Bill Clinton


George Bush


Saddam Hussein


Lee Kwan Yew


Shigeru Yoshida


Mahatma Gandhi


Adolf Hitler


Luciano Pavarotti


William Shakespeare


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart


Pablo Picasso


Mao ZeDong


Jiang Zemin


Pierce Brosnan


Lin ChiLing


Andy Lau


David Beckham


Tiger Woods


Muhammad Ali


Jon Bon Jovi


Louis Koo


Tina Turner


Beatles


Michael Jackson


Teresa Teng


Charlene Choi


Miriam Yeung


Elvis Presley


4 comments:

Lynn said...

I've never been to a wax museum, but the figures are so unbelievably real.

Unfortunately, poor customer service is worldwide, not specific to one country. :D

Your experience reminds me of my shopping in a small department store in St. Thomas -- the sales ladies were so snooty and followed me and my friend around as if we were shoplifters. Puleeze...we were off a cruise ship.

Astro Galaxy said...

hi lynn,
Sometimes, it'll just simply spolit our day to meet these rude sales people! I wonder if they can get any sales working that way!!!

Sam said...

Hmm, sorry to hear about your experience. I'm guessing you had an SLR and they were really strict with not having the Obama pic taken. When I was there, it was the Jackie Chan figure that wasn't allowed to have a pic taken with your own camera.

The service wasn't that bad when I went there, but that was years ago. I had a bad experience there, but it was because I got too scared of the figures. I was afraid they were going to move! Or someone was gonna pull a prank of suddenly moving when you think that they're wax figures, too!

Enjoyed your pictures, they're great. :)

Astro Galaxy said...

Hi Sam,
I see... maybe they like to kick up a big fuss when they have NEW wax figures... When I was there, they had Jackie Chan figure standing near the ticket booth!!
I'm using DSLR but I don't think the camera is the cause of it, right?
Thanks for visiting!
Hope you have a nice day.