10 February 2016 –
Good morning to you all! Today is another very exciting for several members in our family! As you probably know, we're heading to Cardiff this morning.
Any idea why we're heading there??? I mean, Wales is awesome but why Cardiff specifically???
Do you want me to give you a hint? Yes??? It's got to do with the longest running television series.
Have you guessed it yet? (I'll give you another hint – what's the title of this post???)
Now this poster ought to be a give away!
We're in Cardiff to visit the Doctor Who Experience. Mark and the girls….but especially the girls…are avid Doctor Who fans.
This is a map located in the parking garage …hopefully we'll be able to find our way The Experience.
We're still a little early so let's go for a walk around the pier:
Roald Dahl Plass in the Mermaid Quay:
Our tour starts at 11am and we've got an hour to kill. How about a nice latte while we wait?
We're walking over to the Doctor Who Experience in hopes of getting on an earlier tour.
Looky, looky! We're here!!!
The Doctor Who Experience, ready or not – here we come!
Those aliens are called Daleks…and they're the perennial bad guy on the TV show. Oh, not sure if I've mentioned this yet but this show is definitely science fiction. Doctor Who is a "time lord" (an alien) that travels across time and space, usually in the company of a companion, helping (or not) other planets and people in unusual predicaments.
Here's a Dalek made entirely of Lego pieces. Impressive!
Weeping angels:
Look, it's the TARDIS behind the girls. TARDIS is the space ship/time machine that the Doctor uses to travel. TARDIS stands for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. I know Doctor Whovians will know this but the space ship is in the shape of a British police box. I know that Whovians will know the reason why and how it came to look like a British police box but I'm honestly not sure.
Mark with the TARDIS:
Before we continue with the photos I thought I'd pause and share with you about our actual tour. We had no idea what to expect. Thankfully they were able to get us in on an earlier tour so we didn't have to worry about waiting around. Now, getting on to the actual Doctor Who Experience tour….first of all, we weren't allowed to take photos. Bummer! That means you'll just have to take my word – the tour was honest to goodness FUN! I had no idea…no clue it would be this fun. It involved going on a mini mission with the 12th Doctor. It was well done and very interactive. You don't need to be a Doctor Who fan to enjoy this experience!
The tour is now finished and we can enjoy the rest of the museum – filled with props and costumes – at our own leisure. It's self-guided from here on out.
Here's K-9 – he's a robotic dog from several seasons ago:
The girls posing in front of one of the many TARDIS consoles/control panels. Ah, yes. Perhaps I should explain a little further about the television show and the TARDIS – on the outside it looks like a small police box….but yet when you step inside the TARDIS you realize (in the show!) that it's much, much, MUCH bigger on the inside than on the outside. Another explanation – the Doctor regenerates- which is one of the reasons why this television series can still continue even though it first started in 1963. Every few a new Doctor comes along (replacing the previous Doctor…technically they're all the same person but in a new form). Along with the new Doctor comes a new TARDIS console (the control panels for the TARDIS). I hope that makes some sense to those of you that have never watched the show.
Here you can see several TARDIS consoles:
The evil Daleks:
Cybermen! (also a bad guy on the show)
My favorite Doctor's costume (Tom Baker):
This is the current (12th) Doctor's costume:
Costumes from show this past season:
They also offered green screen photos for a small price. And no waiting (compared to the Harry Potter tour).
The museum and the costumes were interesting- especially for the Doctor Who fans in our family. (wink, wink) I was rather thankful it wasn't as intense as the Harry Potter tour. We checked out the oddly small gift shop- I've found more Doctor Who merchandise for sale at malls in the USA than is offered here. Anywhooooo….
We're back at Cadwaladers – this time to eat ice cream! I've got my heart set on trying to the toffee pudding sundae!
Care to join me?????? I sure could use some help eating it!!!!