It was my birthday a couple of weekends ago and my lovely
husband bought me tickets to the Harry Potter studio tour in Watford. To say I
was happy would probably be the understatement of the year!
Tim got the tickets last year, so I have been patiently
(read: annoying Tim every few days by telling him how excited I am) waiting for
the day to arrive, as I was going on my actual birthday. I couldn’t think of anything
better than spending the day looking at awesome Potterstuffs.
We arrived around midday and stopped for a coffee (and a
quick check to see if my hands were the same size as Radders, which they are!) before
joining the queue, although it doesn’t feel much like a queue, they have little
bits and bobs for you to look at while you’re waiting including the cupboard
under the stairs and a few family portraits waiting on the walls for you to
nosey at. They stagger it out quite well so that there aren’t too many people
in the queue at any one time.
You are then shown into a small room with screens on the
walls displaying posters from across the world for all of the films (which was
pretty cool) and they then show you a little film on those screens about the
series of films and how they came about to be make. Then the lady asked if it
was anyone’s birthday….
So I shot it up straight into the air.
“me, me, it’s my birthday!”
“well happy birthday, and what’s your name?”
“Stacey!”
“and how old are you Stacey?”
“32! I am 32 TODAY”!
“…….oh, and is there anyone else?”
“It’s Amy’s birthday today”
Lady looks in Amy’s direction
“Well, I won’t ask how old you are….”
“I’m only 26!”
Sorry to say, that did brighten my day a little!
We were then shown through to a cinema where Daniel
Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint were shown talking about their experiences
of the films, the sets and the studios this ended with the doors of the great
hall being shown on screen, and then the screen went up and the doors to the Great
Hall were right behind them.
At this point another lady said “I believe it’s two
people’s birthdays today”. At which point me and Amy stuck our hands up in the
air. The lady then asked us to join her at the front and said as it was our
birthdays we got to open to doors of the Great Hall for everyone. So up I
strode and took my place, me and Amy exchanged glances, then we gave the doors
a push and were confronted with the Great Hall in all of its glory. We both
looked at each other and said “WOW”. It’s an awesome memory that I don’t think
I’ll ever forget in my life time.
Harry Potter or not, when do you ever get the chance to
go and stand in a spot and push the doors that have been made famous on film the
world over?! It was tremendously cool.
The Great Hall is beautiful inside and we were treated to
a little talk about it, and a wander about. It was really amazing and beautiful
and great to see the costumes alongside the setting.
Then it was off into one of the main studio parts where
they had hundreds of props, various sets and the chance to get your picture
taken on a broom or in the Ford Anglia all via greenscreen, well we queued up
for an hour to get our car photo taken (decided against the broom as I was in a
rather tight skirt and it wouldn’t have been very ladylike getting on or off
and there was no option for side saddle). The queue wasn’t that bad, and only
what you’d expect from an attraction such as this, plus we wee entertained by
seeing everyone else do their bit on the screens. We made sure we gave it our
all when we went up there, face licking, Tim miming being sick in my lap etc
etc.
After this we wandered about the bits we hadn’t had a
chance to look at and wholly admired the Magic is Might statue that they had
in the end section of the room.
We went to the outside section with No. 4 Privet
Drive, the Potter house in Godrick’s Hollow, the Knight Bus and chess pieces
and we settled down for a glass of butterbeer, which is scrummy. It tastes like
cream soda with butterscotch topping, it was extremely sweet and I don’t think
I could have managed more than one but it was just what was needed after our
wait for the green screen stuff and it was nice to have a little rest before
moving onto the second part of the tour.
We then went to the prosthetics and mechanics part of the
tour which shows you all sorts of wonders including a bookcase full of goblin
heads, the animatronics behind the big book of monsters, buckbeak, the dementors, the incredibly
lifelike dummies made for the underwater scenes and more.
Then it was round the corner to Diagon Alley which
thankfully was quite quiet when we got there meaning we could have a proper
look and take a few photos. This was another one of the things I won’t forget
in a long time, that first glimpse of the street and seeing it up close, it’s
just as detailed as you’d imagine. I even fitted in a little time mooning over
Lockheart in the window of Flourish & Blotts.
We then went on to the original art work section which is
completely breathtaking, all of the concept design was awe inspiring and had
come straight from the pages of the books. We then went through a section with
the white card models of which I especially liked the prefects bathroom.
Through the next doors we found the model of Hogwarts.
Imagine the best miniature village you’ve ever seen times that by a million and you’d
be a little close to how impressive it is. The set up means that it turns from
day to night in front of your eyes and the model comes to life with lights in
the windows and doors and there are screens where you can zoom in to see the
detail in the model. It’s completely outstanding and I spent quite a bit of
time in there watching it change through the day.
In the next room were rows upon rows of wand boxes each containing
the name of a cast or crew member of the film, which was completely crazy when
you added up how many boxes there were.
Then it was to the gift shop where I purchased a time
turner necklace and a chocolate frog and some every flavour beans for the following
days’ Potter film watching at our gaff.
The it was the long drive home, which didn’t actually
take us so long. It really was the best birthday I have ever had in my life!
Win your own Qwertee Harry Potter t-shirt
(Women's size M - please see the Qwertee measurement guides on their website)
I have one brand spanking new Harry Potter t-shirt in a
women’s size M matching the one I am wearing above to give away.
- Like my facebook page
- Follow me on Twitter
- Follow this blog
- Then leave a comment below (numbers will be generated
from the comments)
The winner will be picked by a random number generator
when I get back from my hols on
10th July, Good luck!
