The Alternative Date: Madame Tussauds Dubai

by Natasha Hatherall-Shawe

My husband and I don’t have kids, so we miss out on a lot of the places deemed “family friendly”. Some would say we’re the lucky ones, but we remain curious and so this year as part of a new dating strategy as we edge closer to a decade together, we’re going to attempt a few of them and see how it goes or whether we should just stick to the old favourites, dinner…cinema and a couples massage!

First up, we decided to take a rare afternoon off, and we headed to the recently opened Madame Tussauds on Bluewater Island. We went on a working day so there were not many people around and we walked straight in and had the run of Tussauds to ourselves which in the Covid era was a plus for sure and clearly no screaming kids as an even bigger bonus. We posed for our photo and headed off on the multi-level walk around.

I have so many good memories of Tussauds in London as a child, so I entered in with excitement, memories and couldn't wait. My Iraqi husband was more skeptical as he had no idea what Tussauds was. But give him 10 minutes and he soon warmed up (hence the photo!). For those not in the know, and without giving too much away, it’s an experience with more than 60 lifelike figures of your favourite celebrities made out of wax.

During our tour I had my photo with Anna Wintour. Raf had a photo giving Trump a piece of his mind. He kicked with Jackie Chan, had a buddy shot with Spiderman and kicked a few balls with the famous footballers.

In total we probably spent 30 minutes inside, laughing and fooling around like we haven’t in a long time. It was one of the only times we both had our phones out and neither of us were moaning as we snapped the memories away. Truly, laughter is good for the soul and we had a lot of fun.

Madame Taussuds Dubai has been really well done, mixing a good blend of global and regional celebrities with the likes of Kris Fade making an appearance. It has lots of fun interactive elements, unusual photo opportunities and you do a fair bit of walking too.

We finished off our date with a spot of lunch at the nearby London Project – a truly perfect pairing.

A month on, our branded photo of us posing in a Hollywood car with us laughing out loud sits proudly on our fridge and we still both agree it was a different but lovely afternoon date we’d recommend.

More alternative date adventures coming up soon!

https://www.madametussauds.com/dubai/

Adult prices start from AED 135.