This is how I describe my recent visit to the Madame Tussauds museum in New York City, as a tour that I started with very high expectations but ended in bitterness, which I will explain to you below:
I was on vacation in the USA, and in my TOP 10 places to visit was precisely Madame Tussauds, with the aim of appreciating it not only as a fun venue where thousands of visitors throughout its history have "shared" with a diversity of renowned figures, but also to learn about museography, that is, its installation, organization, and distribution, in addition to discovering the interaction that visitors have with these characters and the story that each one tells in itself.
Upon arriving and choosing my tour, I did so with immense excitement, and even more so when I realized that I could "see," "talk to," "hug," and "take pictures with" universal figures who have transcended in art, music, culture, literature, and even politics.
Everything was going very well until I was in the superhero room and wanted to go back to the previous one just out of curiosity, but two guides (including the young woman who sold us the tickets) told us we couldn't do that, but that we had to keep "rolling."
Both of them followed us like two guards, insisting that we hurry up and continue the tour, without realizing that it is impossible to rush visitors in a museum or to set the same duration for everyone, because a museum room offers a different experience to each person who enters it, seeking to rediscover, learn, and enjoy what it has to offer, without knowing the serious damage they are doing to their reputation and brand.
I never understood why they almost pushed us to leave, if it was still early in the evening; if there weren't large groups coming in; if it wasn't time to clean it, I don't know. Why force the visitor out when they are enveloped in the magic and connection that comes with its characters, rooms, and scenes? Why push them to leave?
I would like to know that answer, but what I wouldn't like is to visit Madame Tussauds Museum in New York again until they change their policy and hostile treatment of tourists, which in my case, caused an experience that ended in bitterness.