The first 10,000 paying visitors to the newly-opened Millennium Dome have given it a ringing endorsement with comments from "huge" and "awesome" to "very enjoyable" and "good value for money".

They included Vera Covell, 89, from Felixstowe, Suffolk.

"The Dome is breathtaking. I feel like Alice in Wonderland," said Mrs Covell, who was accompanied by her son Paul, 60, from Amersham, Bucks and grandson Mark, 32, from Rothwell, Leeds.

Paul said: "It's fantastic. I think the Dome looks great."

Mark's wife, Kirsty, a hotel sales manager, said: "There's so much to see. I don't think you can do everything in just one day."

The new Body Zone is emerging as the Dome's main attraction.

The zone is dominated by a giant sculpture of a male figure and a female figure in a gentle reclining embrace.

Visitors travel through the body, seeing a room which contains a giant model of a beating heart whose beat rate increases when alarming things such as barking dogs occur.

The zone also has a "comedy brain" room in which a brain wearing a fez "tells" Tommy Cooper jokes to other brains, which appear to laugh.

Another popular zone is Home Planet, where visitors are taken on a ride showing them the wonders of the earth, complete with both sound and heat effects.

Clear-up

All 20,000 tickets available for the Dome for the next two days - Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday - have been sold.

The Dome opened to the public at 1200 GMT on Saturday, because of the time needed to clear up after Friday night's opening ceremony attended by the Queen and Tony Blair.

From Sunday doors will open each day at 1000 GMT until 1800 GMT. One single adult ticket to the Dome costs £20 but five-person tickets - for two adults and three children or one adult and four children - cost a total of £57.

There are various concessions, while children under five are admitted free.