Harry Potter Studio Tour

Both of our kids' birthdays are in August, so last August (see how far behind I am?) we took the kids to the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London.  It was incredible- worth every penny!

When you go, you have a specific tour time, but once you are inside, you can walk about at your leisure.  There is no time- limit.  The only thing is that it is a one-way system, so once you leave one building, you cannot go back in- you must move forward.

While waiting in the queue for our entry time, we were still entertained with plenty of eye candy.

Once inside, our guide gave us a quick introduction and then we were ushered into a theater.  We sat in the seats and watched a ten minute or so clip of "behind the scenes" and interviews with the actors with the last scene being Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint pushing open the doors to The Great Hall.  The film goes off, the lights come on as the screen retracts into the ceiling revealing…..

At this point, our guide asked us if anyone was celebrating a birthday!!  Zoe was NOT leaving my side, so Noah went forward.  The people with birthdays received the honor of opening the doors to The Great Hall and letting us all in!

Half of the dueling table in The Chamber of Secrets

It was surreal to walk around the sets and know that the studio magic happened here!  It also changes you when you watch the movies again.  It is so exciting to watch the movies now and be able to say, "We sat that!!" and "We were standing right there!!"

Yule Ball dresses and robes

The gates to Hogwarts

More wardrobe- I see two of Luna Lovegood's dresses here- the yellow one and the silver one.

 Beauxbatons school uniform

 **giggle** All the educational decrees enacted by Professor Umbridge

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 The portrait of The Fat Lady!

 The Gryffindor Common Room

 The sword of Godric Gryffindor!

 All of Dumbledore's magical gadgets

 Where Dumbledore kept all the tubes of his memories for the pensieve

 Triwizard Cup

 Hagrid's Hut

 The door to the Chamber of Secrets

Inside the Burrow: they actually had the knife chopping, the dish in the sink scrubbing itself and other things on this set moving.  It was really cool!  

 Professor Umbridge's Office

 Professor Umbridge's  outfits

 Ministry of Magic

 The Knight Bus!

When you leave the first building (with all the sets), you walk out into a courtyard with some of the buildings and structures as well as a snack bar and a concessionaire selling BUTTERBEER!  It was DELICIOUS!

 #4 Privet Drive

 The bridge over the gorge to Hogwarts

The house in Godric's Hollow 

The moving chess set pieces- The Philosopher's Stone

After walking around the courtyard, you enter another building that contains Diagon Alley and a lot of the props from the movie.

 Fawkes!

The Monster book of Monsters

 Hedwig!

Dementor

 Dobby!! 

 Mandrake

 Thestral

 Buckbeak!

 The artwork for inspiration before the designs were made

This right here COMPLETELY changes how you watch the movie!  All of those scenes of that beautiful Hogwarts castle??  This model right here with green screen scenes added around it!  This is truly an amazing model but there was a boy next to me looking dejected and he told his mother, "This just ruined it for me!"  Haha!

 Everyone that worked on the movies- actors, writers, directors, etc has a "wand".

Michael Gambon is Dumbledore

 And then, after looking at the wands, you enter into the most fabulous gift shop ever!!

 Crookshanks!

 You can buy supporting gear for any house you like!

 You can even buy items from the Quidditch World Cup!

 And then there is pretty much every sweet and treat mentioned in the movie

There is a place where you can have your picture taken on a broom- as well as buy a video of yourself flying on the broom over different scenes!

 The is also a place to have your picture made in Mr Weasley's flying car- we love this one!

If you ever find yourself in London, I highly recommend a detour out to this studio!  You will have to pre-book, as all tours are scheduled, but it is worth it!