I must admit, I had been looking forward to the Harry Potter Studio Tour since it was first announced online back at the very beginning of the year. Alas, you have to book tickets well in advance and it was extremely hard nailing down a date when there was nothing going on. We were finally able to get tickets for the evening of June 16th. Unfortunately we later found out that James and Brian were supposed to go camping that weekend so it looked like John and I might not be able to go. Brian's grad school classes had been wearing him out so he decided to skip the campout and so I was able to go on the tour and ended up taking James with me instead of John.
First and foremost, if you love Harry Potter and you are coming to London, this tour is a MUST. It was just incredible right from the moment you pull into the car park (what they call parking lots here). James and I collected our tickets at the window and headed inside. We then walked into the lobby. Holy cow!! There were photos of the various characters around the room and the flying car hanging from the ceiling. James and I arrived in time to grab some dinner and hit the gift shop before starting our tour. We got our little headsets and made our way into the queue. While we were queueing, we got to see the cupboard under the stairs!!! The first stop was a room showing the various movie posters for all 8 movies. We watched a little film before heading into a larger auditorium to watch another film about what we were going to experience. After that, they raised the screen and we were introduced to the doors leading to the great hall. I was on cloud nine!!! Next stop was the great hall. Only one of the house tables was set up. The rest of the room was filled with costumes of the various houses and teachers. There was another tour guide in this room asking various questions and telling us all sort of interesting facts about the films.
After this we were allowed to wander through the remainder of the tour at our own pace. It was so great to see all of the costumes, props, and sets they used to make these incredible movies. There was so much to see and do while we were there. Once of our favorite things was trying to find 15 hidden golden snitches. There was a little book that the kids got before the tour that had various things to look out for during the tour. James and I had to ask for help on a couple but for the most part, we found them on our own.
The only complaint I had was that I felt a little rushed. We were one of the last tours of the day and as the group progressed past certain points, the staff sort of closed off the area. James wanted to do this broom riding experience that added quite a long time to our tour. When we finally finished with that, they had closed off the Burrow. :-( Thankfully all the workers were incredibly kind and pulled aside the ropes so I could take a closer look and take photos. After that, I was sort of half looking at everything and snapping as many photos as I could. The remainder of the tour was incredible. We got to see 4 Privet Drive, the Knight Bus, the Potter's house in Godric's Hollow and most importantly, Diagon Alley. James had so much fun running up and down the street looking at the various stores. We then breezed through the model section and ended at the most incredible sight of all. The model of Hogwarts Castle. It was just awe inspiring. I was brought to tears, first because it was just the most beautiful thing I've seen in a long time and second because my memory card was out of space.
After seeing the castle, it was a quick walk through Ollivanders and back through the gift shop. We picked up just a couple more things before headed out. It was just a wonderful evening. We got home really late but it was so worth it.
Again, photos (and loads of them) will be coming soon.
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