Last week on Halloween all of us and one of Emma’s friends went to the Harry Potter/Warner Bros Studio tour in Watford. I booked it in February as we specifically wanted to be there at Halloween. The last time we went was in 2018 and that was at Christmas so there were lots of new things to see.
We had to drive down in two cars as there was 6 of us and we left at 9.30am. Traffic was heavy and what should have taken us 3 ¼ hours ended up taking just over 4 hours to get to the hotel and then it was another 20 minutes to get to the Studios from there. We literally only had time to grab a McDonalds (not my favourite but unfortunately the quickest option) to eat in the car as we drove there before our booking time.
The start of the tour was the first thing that had changed though not the entrance to the Great Hall which did have the floating pumpkins as in the films. Even though it is the actual size I am always surprised at how small I think it looks and getting the 4 rows of tables in seems to be a squeeze.
The next area hadn’t changed much as it was some of the smaller sets used and lots of the props. Matthew had fun trying to find all the Golden Snitches which are tiny. Clues were given in the activity passport that we all picked up at the beginning of the tour. I gave up trying to find them and just looked for the stamps and the letters for the secret word.
The Burrow kitchen is always my favourite set as it is so homely, I would love to see the living room set but that isn’t there.
The divination classroom was new and the stack of teacups was amazing, they must have taken ages to collect from the charity shops and car boot sales.
The Forbidden forest was the next part of the tour with Buckbeak and Aragog before going onto Platform 9 ¾ with the Hogwarts Express. You got the chance to get a picture of you pushing a trolley through as you can do at the real Kings Cross station (but without the queues).
That marked the end of the first half of the tour and there was the Backlot Café and Butterbeer bar to get a much needed drink. I don’t like Butterbeer but I did try the Butterbeer ice cream which was delicious. There was also a courtyard where you could see Privet Drive, the Night Bus, the wooden bridge and fountain from Hogwarts and the greenhouse where you could pull up Mandrakes (nobody passed out despite not having earmuffs on😊). We also saw the special effects secrets show.
On the previous visit the second part of the tour was more to do with the production side but this time there was Gringotts to see which was amazing to see. That has now become one of my favourite parts. You could also see Bellatrix’s vault and take a photo of trying to retrieve the Horcrux cup.
The next set was Diagon Alley which normally has been very crowded but by the time we got there it was an hour before it closed so it was quieter and I was actually able to get to see the shop fronts which is just as they are in the film, although Ollivanders was after the Death Eaters had blown it up.
The final section was the scale model of Hogwarts and even though I have seen it before I had forgotten how large it was.
You then end the tour by coming out into the gift shop. I didn’t buy anything as nothing appealed to me but Matthew bought Sirius’ wand and Emma bought Hermoine’s wand. The prices there for the wands were much better than in Florida where the prices were ridiculous ($85 compared to £32). The only wand I would have probably wanted would have been Mrs Weasley’s but she didn’t have one there.
I was glad to get back to the hotel but unfortunately there was nowhere apart from McDonalds that was still open to get anything to eat. I wasn’t too bothered but Matthew and Craig weren’t happy and ended up with crisps.
They made up for it next day with a good breakfast though before we headed off on the long drive back home which was another 4 hour stint without a stop as Craig and Matthew needed to be back as they had arranged to go to see an organised firework display with one of Matthew’s friends. I was staying home as poor Penny is terrified of fireworks and spent the whole evening hiding behind the sofa. She wasn’t shaking as much as she dos normally as I had been giving her some calming treats which has been the most effective thing we have tried. I also put the TV on a little louder than normal to try and drown out some of the noise. That is the plan for every night until after the weekend as hopefully everybody will have let their fireworks off. I will just have to make sure that I have some more of the treats in for New Year.
